Cancer Diagnosis while Pregnant

Bump and life update:

I know another c word that no one wants to hear that they have from their doctor right now— cancer. 

Yep, I got that phone call from my doctor on a Monday morning over a month ago, right as our state was shutting everything down. 

At one of my first prenatal appointments for my current pregnancy, the nurse felt my neck and noticed I had a lump. She suggested I get an ultrasound on my thyroid to check on it. She explained that pregnancy is often associated with changes in thyroid hormone levels and can increase the size of the thyroid gland. I honestly, wasn’t worried. I assumed it was just all the hormones and I’d be fine. Fast forward to about a month later- I had an ultrasound and they found a good size nodule. They referred me to an endocrinologist (hormone specialist) who performed a biopsy on my lump. A few days later, I got “the call”. I  don’t remember exactly what he said, it’s all a blur,  but it was along these lines- “Kimberly, I’m so sorry to tell you but the biopsy came back as positive- you have cancer.” It was gut-wrenching. With all the craziness of what was going on in the world and being pregnant, I lost it that morning- I was the true definition of a basket case. I allowed myself to be upset and feel all the feels for a while but then I pulled myself together for my toddler, because what else can you do when you have a little one who depends on you? You just have to keep moving forward.  I honestly haven’t allowed myself to think about my cancer diagnosis too much and I haven’t researched it extensively because I just can’t -not yet. I will when the time feels right for me to soak it all in. 

What I do understand is that I was diagnosed with Papillary thyroid cancer. It’s the most common type of thyroid cancer. The treatment is to remove my thyroid and if I wasn’t pregnant they would go ahead with that now, but as long as it isn’t growing and spreading we are holding off until after baby girl arrives. As of now, I wait and take thyroid hormone pills to hopefully stop the spread. My latest scan last week showed no growth since my first ultrasound, so that is great news. If there is any growth my doctor wants to do surgery before I enter the 3rd trimester next month. So please say a little pray with me that my next scan in a few weeks also shows no growth. 

Luckily, many who have this type of cancer do very well after surgery and only need to take thyroid medication for the rest of their lives with no other invasive treatment. I am choosing to stay positive and focus on that outcome and not all the other scary things that can happen with a cancer diagnosis. I am choosing to hold on to hope that I will deliver a healthy baby girl and still beat this cancer. 

I have to stay strong for the little extra heart I have growing inside me and the 3 year old one that walks around on the outside 💓💓.

I’m sharing all this as a way to inspire you to hold your loved ones close. Tomorrow is never promised. 

Reach out to those you haven’t talked to in a while, reconnect, write your loved ones, check in on friends, neighbors, family...be truly present with those around you. 

Don’t take your health or the health of others around you for granted. 

I’m holding on to the wisdom of my 3 year old when she saw me crying, “take a few deep breaths and think happy thoughts”. She may of got this from a Fancy Nancy episode but it’s my new favorite motto. 🙏💙

Cooking Sensory Bin/ If you Give a Cat a Cupcake

If you read her “If You Give a Cat a Cupcake”... she’ll want to make her own cupcakes & play in a cooking cloud dough sensory bin 🧁 🐱🧁🐱•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

2 ingredient cloud dough recipe (toddler/ taste safe): 8 cups plain flour & 1 cup cooking oil (any kind). Place the flour and oil in a container/bin. 

Mix together. Start with a spoon, but you will end up mixing it with your fingers. Creates a fun sand like consistency. Can store and use again. We added lots of cooking items to our bin but you can add any thing your kiddo is interested in. 🧁🧁

ABC Ocean Bin

🐠🐳ABC Ocean Bin🐳🐠I just added blue food coloring to water, shells, ocean figurines, and the alphabet rocks we used in our construction bin a while back. B scooped out the rocks & matched them on an alphabet mat I printed & put in a sheet protector to stay dry. Easy activity that kept her busy on this stormy day 🐟

Fruit Loop Math

🌈 Fruit Loop Math 🌈

Fun, hands on way to practice counting, sorting, patterning, & comparing.

🌈For rainbow ten frame: Kiddos will look at the number on each card and practice counting out the correct number of fruit loops and putting them in the ten frame.
{Printable: https://www.preschoolplayandlearn.com/fruit-loops-ten-frame-counting-cards/}

🌈Graph Activity: simply have kids stack up how many of each color fruit loop they have. Discuss which was color has the most, least? Can use playdough and angel hair pasta or this printable from @prekinders: {https://www.prekinders.com/christmasunit/Fruit-Loops-Graph.pdf}

Flower Shop Dramatic Play at Home

🌸 💐 🌹 Brooke’s little Flower Shop is open for business 🌹💐🌸
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The dramatic play area in my classroom was always the favorite spot so I wanted to make something like that for B at home. I set up this little flower shop using items we had around the house (fake flowers, market stand, cash register). But you could set something like this up in any corner in your home with items you have already. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

For example, if you have a ton of stuffed animals make a zoo or vet office; if you have play food make a grocery store. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

A lot of the printables I had from my preschool days & are buy only now but I did find this “get well” card you could add to your littles shop {https://www.pre-kpages.com/docs/get-well-cards.pdf}
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Switching up items you already have at home can make a big difference in getting your kiddo engaged in play. For instance, already have a play kitchen at home? Turn it into a bakery with a few kitchen items you have on hand already and handmade signs. I was shocked to see how long B played in her flower shop this morning! #momwin #preschooldramaticplay

Color Mixing Tea Party

Color mixing tea party ☕️. I just used a tea set and added colored water to a bin and let B explore. If you don’t have a tea set- you can use cups, bowls, spoons, whatever you have around the house to let them scoop, mix, & pour. This lasted a solid hour in our house- highly recommend!

Dinosaur Day

Simple dinosaur sensory bin (lentils, plastic dinosaurs, and dinosaur Easter eggs)

D is for Dino art project

Counting dinosaurs with a Dino parade

ABC Easter Egg Hunt

🔠Alphabet Easter Egg Hunt 🔠 with hardly any prep- I just grabbed an alphabet  puzzle & some plastic eggs. 

Here’s what you need: alphabet puzzle and Easter eggs. If you don’t have an ABC puzzle you can cut out letters (see below for printable). 

Put the letters inside the plastic  eggs. Hide the eggs around the house. Encourage your child to “hunt” for the hidden eggs, opening them each up to reveal what letter is inside. Have your child match the letter inside the egg to the letter on the puzzle board. Brooke also circled the letters as she found them. 

She loved this game and it kept her busy for a long time. So much you can do with Easter eggs. I will switch it up with numbers, letters, shapes. 

Printable: 

https://www.totschooling.net/2016/03/easter-egg-hunt-alphabet-game-free-printable.html

Teddy Bear Picnic

🐻Teddy bear picnic🐻. Super easy- just have fun with this one. Grab some teddy bears or any stuffed animals, a blanket, and some snacks. Have a tea party, read bear stories, do teddy bear yoga. 

Brooklyn loves the book & song “Going on a Bear Hunt” & song “Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, Turn around”. 

We also did some math activities with teddy bear counters. I’ll link on amazon in my stories if you want to grab some for your kiddos. 🐻🐻 insta @lilmrskimberly

Construction Letters

🚜Construction Letter Hunt🚜.

We first read the book “Mighty, Mighty Construction Site”(there’s a read along on YouTube). We then used kinetic sand, construction vehicles, & rocks to make this fun scoop and find letter hunt activity. I spread the sand out on a tray (cookie sheet will do), then I wrote the alphabet on rocks and then hide them in the sand. Brooke then dug out the letters. After she scooped out a letter she matched it on the alphabet mat 🚜🔠. If you don’t have kinetic sand, any sand, rice, dried beans will do!

{printable ABC mat: https://www.123homeschool4me.com/construction-letter-tracing/}

Preschool Ideas for my 3 year old while being Homebound

Here are just a few of the things I’ve been doing with my 3 year old to keep us both busy. All easy, quick activities that keep her attention. 

🍎Follow along on insta @lilmrskimberly

🐛 🐜 Bugs 🐜 🐛.  We read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and danced to the “Hungry Caterpillar” song by The Learning Station on repeat (google it- so cute, my preschoolers loved it). 

🐛B played in a fun bug inspired sensory bin (black beans, plastic bugs, flowers, digging tools).

🐛We played a fun bug math game. Can do this one with plastic bugs (or print some), a dice, and an ice cube tray. kiddos roll die, identify the numeral (or amount of dots) on the die, and count out that amount of bugs. Each bug is placed in a square in the ice cube tray. Children play until the whole ice cube tray is full. We also used this grid from prekinders 

https://www.prekinders.com/gridgames/bug10.pdf

🐛She then went on a bug hunt. I just put the plastic bugs inside eggs and hide them around the yard. She loved it! 

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🚀 We then went to Outer Space. 

 🚀. We read “Peppa in Space”, watched a space ship take off on YouTube, and danced to “Zoom, zoom, zoom I’m going to the moon” on repeat.                    
                             

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👩‍🚀 B then played with her space themed sensory bin (black beans, alien & astronaut figurines and foam pieces). 

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👩‍🚀We then had some fun with plastic eggs wrapped up in tin foil to make “asteroids”. B played hot potato trying to hold them on a spoon, then had a blast tossing them into a bean bag game we have that I turned into a rocket ship (you could make one out of a cardboard box or just use a laundry basket). Her favorite part was unraveling the asteroids to find little aliens 👽 hidden inside (you could use any little items you have on hand or little snacks).  👩‍🚀👽🚀