PART I: At the Chinese restaurant, Simon said:

Out came a few stray noodles (Simon's favorite is Pan Fried Noodles with Shrimp--called "Crunchy Noodles").

[After swallowing, Simon roared again. Anyone familiar with the yoga Lion's Pose will have a picture of his roar.]

PART II: Around midnight, after Simon woke up for a coughing spell, Mary was easing him back to sleep by naming all the wonderful people (like the people reading this Web site!) who are thinking of him. Simon commented that he was too sleepy to remember (pronounced "bemember") all these names, and he said:

Continuing on an earlier theme and doing just as he was singing:

Simon ventured out to the playroom at the hospital on Thursday afternoon. After perking up a bit, he suddenly said:

We arranged with Simon's nurse to have something brought up from the hospital Wendy's and got back to the business of playing (Simon was building with Lego, and Mary was coloring). Simon, who is learning to be nutrition conscious and often comments on the merits of various foods (like milk, which is good for his bones), said:

Mary: Hmmm. Yes, ham is good because it has protein (not mentioning all the salt and nitrates...).

A little later, Simon's nurse came in to take his order. A fun meal with a hamburger, fries and fruit punch. She asked if he'd like a pickle, and he declined, saying there's already a pickle on the hamburger. She asked if he'd like cheese on his burger. He said (politely and earnestly):

After cycle #1 of chemo, Simon had severe stomach pain, which we learned to control somewhat with medications. While hospitalized for fever and infection control, he went down to the playroom to see Theresa (one of the fun Child Life specialists). They played a Winne the Pooh computer game and had a dialogue that went something like this:

Theresa: Simon, you're really good at this. I think you need to try a harder one!

After finally getting started on chemo drugs at 2:00 am, Simon had a pretty crummy time on Tuesday. He had a lot of nausea and spent the afternoon in a benedril (sp?) haze, trying to get over the nausea, but pretty out of it from the medication. Between bouts of sleep, he awoke, crying and/or needing to urinate. Is anyone surprised that this is what he said?

Simon punctuated Mary's "Simon and Miriam" bedtime story with original songs about things like chocolate cake. When I complimented him on the new songs and asked him if he had written them himself he said,

The next "Simon and Miriam" story, full of repetition, was intended to be more sleep-inducing than the first, and it included "driving, driving, driving, driving...for a very long time." I thought I might have them nodding off when Simon chirped up with:

I had to take us all the way to Simon and Miriam's cousins' house in Indianapolis before I finally got Miriam to nod off...

Mary: "How does your tummy feel?"

Mary: "How do your bones feel?"

Mary: "That's great! Can you feel if the medicines are working inside you to make the confused cells stop being confused?"

Mary: "Can you really feel it?"

(After waking in the night, feeling discomfort in his legs and abdomen. *Balls: a term used by the nurse to describe Simon's tumor cells that need to be shrunk by the chemotherapy medicines.)

(After receiving his first subcutaneous injection of Neupogen, an agent that helps restore white blood cells after chemotherapy.)

[By the way, Simon plans to be a doctor, and plans for Miriam to be the nurse!]

Before Simon went to bed in the hospital Mary explained to him that the chemo medicine is hard on his bladder and that the doctors and nurses had a plan to wake him up every 2 hours to get him to pee. He didn't like the idea. When asked about what different plan he has for taking care of this serious need he said:

When Mary tucked Simon in in his hospital bed she told him that she was sorry to disturb him. He responded:

Enough people have wondered about this one, that I thought you might like to hear the context! During Simon's chemo, we need to wear gloves when we help him use the toilet because the drugs are pretty toxic in his urine. One time (when Simon was feeling pretty sick of the whole deal), he decided to wear gloves, too, thereby increasing his ability to cooperate with the project. That was when he said,

Playing with his hair: