Ice Cream Truck

As part of bedroom redo for the girls and also family room makeover (will post on that later when I am finally done) I needed to swap out some plastic drawers in the basement with a different set so Julia could have the basement set.  In these drawers were a bunch of cars and trucks.  I went through them and then through the two other large containers of cars and trucks we have.  Lauren helped me and had fun playing with them which made it easier.  I didn't get rid of any, just redistributed them.  These were all Nathan's, of course.  He LOVED cars and trucks and given that he was "sick" for 4.5 of his 7 years he was given a whole lot of them.    He particularly loved them from about age 2-6.  So, yesterday I was on a quest to find a specific truck; the ice cream truck.

He was diagnosed in April  2003 at 2 years, 9 months.  He and I spent most of the days that summer in the clinic either receiving chemo or blood transfusions.  These were all day events.  It was up to me to keep a 2 / 3 year old happy for 7 hours in a small room.  So, we spent most of these hours on the floor with his cars and trucks.  At this young age he wanted to interact with the vehicles.   Ice Cream Truck would drive around asking all the other vehicles what kind of ice cream they wanted and serving them.  I have such clear memories of playing with the Ice Cream Truck with him and can almost hear his little voice playing.  It is a bittersweet memory but these kinds of memories are becoming more sweet than bitter.  It sucks that these clinic visits were such a part of his life, but on the other hand, they were part of his life experience and remembering him, particularly at that age, means remembering these days.

I found Ice Cream Truck and it now sits on my desk.