Sweet Sophie

During our long stay at the hospital we were blessed to have met so many amazing children. These children had cancer and yet you only could see their strength and their bravery. You also knew their life was in the fine balance between life and death. So incredibly sad and yet we all had such great hope for each of them.

During our stay I was lucky to have met Sophia and her parents. She was diagnosed 3 months before Cole, at the young age of 9 months. Sophie also had Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), however, her cancer was rated as a M-7. This meant she had the worst case possible on the scale of 1-7. To put this in perspective, Cole was diagnosed with M-5 and we were told we didnt have much of a chance.

The wonderful thing about Sophie was that every hurdle thrown at her.. she won! Sophie bravely fought her cancer, dealt with the chemo and was sent home to live a normal life. Although for the parents our lives are never the same, these children seem to manage what they went through and move on. Now Sophie is 7 and going strong! I always viewed her as the miracle baby.. and rightfully so. Im so incredibly happy to say she is a survivor.

Not only do I adore Sophie and her brother and sister, but I truly adore her Parents. Sean and Nikki have been wonderful friends throughout this entire process. We spent time together in the hospital, they visited us when we took Cole home and we have kept in touch ever since.

And a very proud moment was last year, when both Nikki and I ran the Nike Marathon for our children. I was so incredibly proud to run miles 14-17 with Nikki! And then, while I was running, I saw Sophie and Sean on the sideline cheering us on! It was beyond a miracle. She is nearly the same age as Cole would have been... and there she was.. a survivor. I was very proud of her.

Yesterday I received a picture of Sophie at the "Light the Night" event. This event benefits the Leukemia society and I proudly attended the event when Cole was alive. This sweet picture is of Sophie with a memory sticker for Cole. Honestly, the most beautiful picture to me. Yes, Cole should have been standing next to her... but Im incredibly happy to see this blooming young girl living her life and happy.

Below is a picture of Sophie visiting us at home and now 6 years later at light the night.

b-

Moving to Marin

Hello,

When it rains it pours. Such a common phrase, however, I feel that's the best way I can describe things.

After being on the market for 4 months, my house will finally sale. This time I hope its for real. We were given a closing date before and it fell through at the last minute. So paperwork has been signed and we are set to close on October 10th. Once again I will frantically pack and find a rental within 2 weeks. Almost seems impossible! Thankfully there is a very large amount of rental properties in the right price range. So on Sunday we have 7 different appointments to find a place. Im actually excited about it. Im finally going back to Marin County (love it!) to be back with my friends, very close commute to SF and wonderful weather. So happy about it. Sam and I will also be living together which will be nice for us to have our own place chosen together.

Kids are doing great!! Andrew pee'd on the potty for the first time on Wednesday. He was very proud (as was I) and he wanted all of us to view it. Emma also slept for the first night without peeing in a diaper or in her bed. Its been quite the transition of getting her to pee in the toilet at night. During the day.. no problem. Night time is tough. So I believe we are making progress and that makes me happy.

Kids are very excited for Halloween and Christmas. Of course Im talking about it constantly which gets them excited. Emma is amazed that she may get more My Little Ponies (the girl has about 30 ponies.. never enough!) since she feels Santa will buy them for her. She also has clearly stated what Andrew will want and has made demands on behalf of him.

Our weekends have been full of fun stuff and we are busy constantly. Kids are doing well in social scenes and are finally minding me. Its been a long road to get them to do that. I realize Im truly the single parent so Im doing my best to train them and create good little human beings. :)

As for my ex.. Kids dont see him much and I feel for them. After going through the loss of a child, I would only except him to be even more loving and want to see them all the time. Unfortunately that is not the case.

Hope everyone is well.

b

Mom of the year

As days go by I realize I should blog as much as possible. Why you ask? Because half of what Emma says should be documented. The girl is so funny and Im sure I will forget most of it by tomorrow morning. And what kind of mom would I be if I didnt have some blackmail later in life? This is why I nominate myself for Mother of the Year. :)

Since Im trying my best to save money (no child support!) I am using my firm's daycare back up system. We can use them 4 weeks out of the year and so I decided it was time to switch the children. So every morning we drive to San Francisco. No doubt you can imagine the traffic, two kids locked in car seats and a mom who is no doubt very late for work. Emma rambles on about friends, hating friends, eating chocolate and relaying her birthday/christmas list..over and over. So the conversation ensued and we ended up on the subject of "what do you want to be when you grow up". Emma's answer was precise and quick. Her reply: "Im going to sneak around mom". I was in shock and said "where did that come from?". Her reply: "because I can". See what I mean about writing it down?

Andrew.. my little love.. is so incredibly cute. He is now talking (a bit late.. i think) but will say he loves you and will request kisses. He loves to be cuddled especially from Emma. They both like to hold hands and make silly faces at each other. He copies Emma as well.. even all the bad stuff she does.

As Christmas fast approaches we decided it was time to buy our flights to England. So we now have our flights purchased and looking forward to a nice visit. Im more excited about taking the kids to famous monuments and taking their pictures. Especially a few royal castles I have in mind. Emma says she is clearly visiting England becuase this is where Peter Pan lives and she knows Santa will be visiting there because its cold. Smart girl.

We are still living at my house since my mortgage company is still screwing around. Odds are Im going to loose my buyer and my house will probably end in foreclosure. Not sure how else this will end.. but I want it to end soon. I hate living in Valejo and want to get away from there.

A few good things... my friend Claudia finished her Triatholon and had her own personal record!! Also my friend Jeanette received good news in regards to her knee surgery! My run mentor (and friend!) Brian will be running his 20 miler in preparation for the Nike Marathon. Big kudos to him in advance for his marathon. No doubt he was key for my marathon last year. My cousin Hava's twins (Derby and Loen) will be turning 1 next month! Cant believe it. LIttle loves born way too early and doing so well. So happy to see. Also a big thank you to Lea, Sandrine and Kim for hanging out with me last week. Fun having no kids and being able to share a drink with you.

Take care,
b

Sabatini

I want to write very mean things about my ex.. but I will not. Im sure you can imagine with that statement alone things are not going well with him. I am truly the single parent with zero financial help from him and he states that is my problem.

Thankfully my mother took the children this week so that I can pack my house and get things in order. For what you say? Well Im still clueless as to when this house will close escrow, still no place found as of yet and we are living out boxes. Very frustrating and we want to move on. I know Im going to Marin County, but where is the question... and of course when.

I did however do something quite fun. I changed my name back to my maiden name. So from now on Im **Brandy Sabatini**. Thank goodness.. my identity back and no link.. well accept for the children when it comes to the ex.

he bugs me... which in turn created a very boring blog.

b

There are no sharks in the Bay Area

Do you recall the song from the movie "American Tale" where they sang: There are no cats in America? Well, someone had the nerve to tell me it was safe in the Bay and you can swim anytime. Singing... "there are noooo sharks in the Bay Area". People are crazy. Stinson Beach shut down once again for that lovely Great White that keeps bobbing his head and Fin out of the water trying to eat all humans. Then I find out that the yacht club we hang out in Tiburon had a 4 foot Leopard Shark show up this weekend. Oh yes, exactly at the dock where I like to kick my feet in the water. Two sightings this weekend of the scary breed. For the sake of my cousin Hava I will not post a picture of a Great White. She is quite afraid of sharks and my site was banned and she would not visit me for over a week. I need all the readers I can get :)

Ok, so moving on from the bay filled with sharks. At the club where my feet dangle in the water (shark bait) there were also about 50 huge Jelly Fish floating around the Sailboats. I dont get it.

Thankfully this weekend Keith took the kids to his parents and we got some time off. So needed.. im tired. Andrew turns 2 next month and I am truly amazed how fast that went by. Although at times he likes to wear my high heels, jewelry and make-up he still manages to be a boy and will try to eat snails, loves any type of bug and talks alot about frogs. That makes me happy. I was starting to miss shoes when he would hide them under his bed for his late night outings perhaps?

Emma is sasssy. Thats all I have to say.

My move is becoming a nightmare. Escrow was to close last Thursday.. and it did not. So all that frantic rental shopping was for nothing as I am still living in my home. House is partially packed and we are moving around the boxes. annoying.

Guess thats about it. Hope you all had a great three day weekend.

b