Winter Baby

Not much for a 5 week old to do in the high country except get bundled up, strapped to Daddy's chest and walk around. Ana snoozed her way around the Village and kept Chad warm.

Ski Trip 2011 - Mountain Adventure

Ah... the Hooper ski trip.... This year we packed everyone up and went to Copper Mountain for a few days with the family. Charlie was finally old enough to really participate in the winter activities. The first day we were there Chad took Charlie out on his strap on skis and did a little bit of sliding around. The next day Charlie actually wanted to go to Ski School! He went for one day and said he had a great time. He was there from 9-3pm. The time was split up between snacks, inside games , and ski time with small groups and a super fun instructor. He made it thru the majority of the day and wanted to go out on the mountain the next. My favorite part was when we were registering him for ski school they asked if he was on any medications. Chad and I just looked at each other and laughed! We then quickly explained that he has Leukemia and the only main issue is if he starts bleeding or gets a cut to call us right away due to infection and trouble clotting. They put a big red sticker on his name tag and went on with the day.
     The picture above is Chad taking Charlie out on the ski lift which he loved! The trip ended with a night of tubing in the East village. Charlie and Chad went on the tandem tub a few times but Charlie did not like it when the guy "spun" the tube on the way down! Mom, Daniel and Ana will have to wait till next year. Maybe we will take a sleigh ride... We will probably add pictures to the picassa site when Mom or Dad gets time to compile.

Christmas Card 2011 & Baby Announcement

Merry Christmas! We just received the baby announcements in the mail today, they would have gone out sooner but the first ones I ordered managed to have the wrong birthdate! So with the timing and all we decided just to send one card out to friends and family this year.

New School for the boys

Monday was a BIG day for both the boys and for Mom and Dad! Daniel and Charlie both started at Primrose of Centennial today. It was sad for Daniel to leave all of our great friends and teachers at Primrose of Bear Creek, but with Chad's new job at Willbros, he now commutes to the Tech center instead of all the way to Lakewood. Taking Daniel across town for school was a 3 hour ordeal! We were lucky enough to get Daniel and Ana spots at Primrose Centennial. Charlie had moved to Most Precious Blood for Pre-K back in August, but after 4 months it was obvious he wasn't adjusting well. We contacted the Director and teachers at Primrose Centennial and talked to them about Charlie, Leukemia and some of his "special" needs. They agreed to make room for him in the Pre-K room with Miss Alicia and Miss Paige. So both boys had their first day of school together! Mom and Dad were a bit nervous about the transition. Miss Wendy, the Assistant director must have know this because she sent this cute email in the middle of the day. If the text is too small to read, here is what it says,

"Hi Mom & Dad!

     Charlie asked me to shoot you a quick e-mail since he was in the middle of a math rotation.  He’s learning about spheres, cubes and cones. Personally, the only kind of cone I care about is the ice-cream kind.  Anyway, he did ask me to let you know that he loves “jumping in the snow”.  While his class hasn’t gone outside yet, that is what he said when he was asked what his favorite thing about school was so far.

   My favorite thing so far is my new friend the frog.  He’s not much of a conversationalist and he won’t tell me his name, but he seems nice enough. While Percy has been my long time Primrose BFF, I figured that since I’m at a new school, it’s time to make some new friends and expand my social network. Which is also why I am going to start my own Facebook page.  Since no one’s caught on that I’m on the computer (you’d think it’d be obvious with me sitting at the front & even answering the phone…once), I might as well! I might even check out stocks on E-Trade or see if there’s any good frog collections on eBay.

Love, Daniel"

 

Ana Day 12

I had a couple of coupons for the Picture People, so Charlie and I took Ana to play 'Super Model.' I love this little picture! Aunt Olivia had this cute knit hat in the boxes of clothes she sent and it looked great with Ana's blanket. They no longer have the ability to buy more prints online, which is a bummer. We got a package of this picture and one other on a black background. Charlie was very helpful during the photo shoot mainly because he didn't have to be in the pictures :) Chad and I are going to try really hard to make sure we have pictures of all of the kids, not just the first one....

Make a Wish Shopping

Every year the Make a wish organization puts on a shopping event for wish kids. The children get to pick out 7 gifts for people on their list. The volunteers help the kids shop and wrap the gifts for their loved ones. It's a really neat event! Last year Charlie was kinda freaked out about going into the "store" with the volunteer and he did NOT like SANTA. This year Charlie had a fantastic time! Our wish granter, Jason Merrihew, was there and took Charlie shopping while Mommy and baby Ana hung out with other cancer parents and friends. Make a Wish had a special surprise just for Charlie. They used his picture and wish experience on a huge sign that they use at all of the Rocky Mountain events. It was our first time to see the banners and yes, Mommy cried when she saw it. Charlie was very excited to see his "bigger than life size Charlie " picture. Thank you to Jake, Jennifer, Jason and all of the other Make a Wish coordinators and volunteers for this very special experience for our family. I guess we can officially call Charlie a Make a wish Poster boy :)

Click on the picture above to see more pictures of the big day.

Ana Arrives

Ana Arrives

I can't believe that Ana is officially one week old! The boys are getting to know their baby sister, mom is recovering albeit slowly, and Dad, by 7:30pm is READY for that glass or two of wine. Take a look at the album from the first few days with baby Ana.

Newest Hooper

Montana "Ana" Bradley Hooper
7lbs 8oz
20.5 inches long
born 11/20/11 at 5:37am

Welcome to the family little punkin!

Our last night as a family of four.

It is our last night as a family of four. I really did not think that Baby Ana would stay put this last week allowing us to make it to the scheduled day/time. I have had pre-term labor symptoms for about two weeks and each night the contractions were closer and closer together for a few hours at a time before stopping. This past Thursday Chad and I got a glimpse Ana during the final ultra sound. Heather, our OB/PA, said she is measuring in the 72nd percentile and the software estimated a 7lb 7oz baby. She said the software is usually about a half pound off one way or the other. I have only gained 17-18lbs, so it should be interesting to see how big she really is tomorrow morning. I managed to do most of the laundry, make sure there is bread and milk in the house, get my nails done and finish the majority of the client work on my list. I guess I am caught up! I am looking forward to three days of just me, Chad and the baby. Nana will bring the boys up to the hospital tomorrow after nap time to meet their new sister, I can't wait to see Charlie's face, he is so excited and seems to understand what is going on. It's bittersweet that Grandmommy and Granddaddy plans were usurped and they couldn't be here, but we definitely want Grandaddy to rest and mend up so we can see him ASAP. With everyone having Ipads and Iphones we plan on many a facetime calls with our remote loved ones to introduce them to Baby Ana.

Daniel Fall School Pictures

Oh that hair! The poor child has double "swirls" on the back of his head causing it all to stand on end. Chad took the clippers to him a week or two before pictures. I have since had it cut back even shorter. That smile is killer.

Daniel Fall School Pictures

A Budding Artist

Daniel Does Art

The picture captions explain it all folks.

Autumn is Here

Saturday was a very blustery, windy day in Denver and it finally shook all of the leaves off of the big Silver Maple tree out front. On Sunday the weather was a bit warmer and the whole family got into the clean up efforts. Ok... well Charlie played in the leaves as Mommy and Daniel sat on the swing. Daddy raked and bagged everything up and had the most impact. The kids had a great time enjoying the Autumn weather and we all enjoyed the last weekend as a family of Four!

Autumn is Here

Hair Cut Hell

Daniel and Charlie both got their hair cut today. Nana snapped one if these pictures above. Can you tell which one was from today and which one was from June 2008 where Charlie was around the same age? Now that D's hair is buzzed short like Charlie's was at 18 months, I notice they REALLY look alike in pictures. I'll have to add to the Two of a Kind album we started awhile back. Chad mentioned that with Daniel wearing Charlie's old clothes it is hard for him to tell the difference sometimes.

Car Seat Envy

It's a little grainy of a photo, but you can tell that Daniel was excited to see the baby car seat again. This time it has been updated with a pink cherry blossom cover for Baby Ana. Daniel took his monkey and climbed right in. Technically he only weighs 2 pounds over the baby seat limit. Can you IMAGINE carting a toddler around in a basket seat like this?! He barely fits on my hip.

Halloween 2011

When asked, "Charlie, what was the best part about Halloween?" his reply.. "Trick or Treating!" Honestly I think the best part for Charlie was the Ironman outfit. I do believe he has developed an unhealthy attachment to the costume. Every waking moment he wants to be Ironman. If anyone has suggestions about how to get him out of this obsession, we'd be happy to hear it... Daniel had a great time as the Hulk. He didn't so much like the puppy costume that Nana found for him at the resale shop. Charlie like the puppy outfit because it looked like a stuffed animal. Check out the pictures below for some super-cute super-heros!

Halloween 2011

Pre-K Pictures

I really have low expectations when it comes to School pictures. I even warned the teachers at Charlie's new school that this is not his cup of tea. But look at how great these turned out! Yes we dropped a load of cash with Lifetouch, but God only knows when he will be this happy in front of a photographer again!

Charlie Fall School Pictures Pre-K

Chemo to the Rescue

When Charlie was first in the hospital we received so much material to help us along the journey. One of those items was the Chemo to the Rescue book as seen above. At the time, I considered the book mature reading to a 3 year old. But a few weeks ago Charlie picked it off the shelf and Chad and I began reading it to him every night. The story talks about a little boy named Kyle and what he goes through to battle Leukemia. It shows the hospital visits, port accesses, and chemo as superhero type things.

Charlie had his monthly chemo on Tuesday this week. His port accesses lately haven't been the best since the traumatic event back in August. But we read the Chemo to the rescue book almost every night for a week prior and when we practiced at home he was excellent. Sally went to access his port in clinic he didn't even cry this time!!! That was a SERIOUS milestone. He whimpered and fussed a bit when it was removed, but this month was the best port access EVER in over a year and a half. Thank you Chemo to the Rescue book. I firmly believe this story helped Charlie to accept what was happening and work through his issues.

We lent the book to his teacher Miss Joanne to read to the class to help his classmates understand why Charlie talks about things like being sick, chemo, tubies and hospital trips. One little girl came up to me as asked me "why does Charlie go to the hospital?" how do you answer a 4 year old to where it makes sense? Hopefully this book and the visit from the Children's Hospital Child Life Specialists this month will educate them and make Charlie feel more at ease in his new school.

Piano Class

Charlie switched schools at the end of August. When he left Primrose he also left his Piano Play time music class that the DaVinci Center sponsored every Thursday morning. Luckily I found a new piano class near his new Pre School. So Every Monday at 4pm Charlie and Mommy we head to the Music Box store and Charlie has his lesson with Miss Trista. He has taken to his own keyboard and even talks to us about high and low notes. So far I am impressed. If you are in Denver check them out. http://www.ginnyarnoldmusic.com/ We will miss our friends at DaVinci who were so wonderful for Charlie! They even had a fundraiser for him and Addison after the diagnosis. Hopefully when Charlie is older we can start up the karate classes with DaVinci. But for now I am looking forward to keeping him excited about music.

Ear Infections

Earlier this month it was Daniel with the ear infections. He spiked a fever and in less than 40 mins we were in and out of the doctor with antibiotics that cleared it up in no time. Is it that easy with a cancer patient... Nooooo!!!!
Two weeks ago during his normal chemo appointment we mentioned that Charlie was waking up in the middle of the night complaining of ear pain. They immediately sent us down to the ENT area of the hospital for the specialist, Dr. Allen, to take a look. Charlie was pretty excited by Dr. Allen's "telescope." As the picture above shows, he sat VERY still while the doctor removed the ear tube that had come out of his left ear and got stuck in the ear canal. Fast forward to this Weds... Charlie's school called me at 3pm letting me know that Charlie was hysterical about the ear pain. I went to get him and the poor kid had a nasty, drippy, red ear. The Right one! The one with a tube in it! What the...? We went to the doctor the next morning to get antibiotics both oral and ear drops. 2 days on meds and his ear still looks bad, but no fever, so that is a good sign. I get a little nervous about Charlie and his ears. He has had 3 sets of tube in his 4.5 years and one of the ear infections in May 2010 landed him in the hospital for about 4 days on IV antibiotics.

Pregnant Pictures

Pregnant Pics

Olivia took some fantastic photos for Tyler and Mary Alice's wedding last month. We all had family shots and then Olivia took a few pictures to capture how HUGE I am getting this time around with Ana. At this point I was only around 29 weeks. We will try to add to this album here towards the end. Luckily people say I still only look pregnant from the front. What gives it away the baby bump or the permanent dark circles under my eyes? (airbrushed out in these pics of course!)

Pictures of Ana

Friday morning we got our last view of Ana via ultrasound. we have profile pics of each of the kids in the womb and I am so surprised how they all look the same. When I saw the 3D image on the screen I immediately thought she looked like Daniel. I guess that is okay for now. D is a cutie :)

Daniel's first Ear infection

Primrose called us on Thursday morning. Its never a good day when day care calls. Daniel was running a 102 fever and was generally cranky, we had to pick him up and take him home. We watched his temp go down with Motrin and spike back up to 103.7 when the meds wore off. So Saturday morning after a sleepless night Daniel got in to see the pediatrician and he has TWO ear infections! The doctor said it looked like his ear drum burst a little over night and released the pressure on the left side. That's normal apparently. Charlie's never popped and he had to have multiple sets of tubes.Two doses of Ammoxicillin later and its like we have a new kid!

Dixon Hooper Wedding

Family Picture from the Dixon Hooper Wedding this past Saturday.

Clinic Day aka Traumatic Tubie Encounter

 

The whole family went with Charlie to Chemotherapy yesterday. Chad and I figured it has been months since we have been together and the nurses might like to see how big and mobile Daniel has become. The appointment was at 8:30am and we rolled into clinic with the kids and necessities in a red Children's hospital wagon. Our first wagon ride with both kiddos I might add.... They have a new procedure in clinic as of 8/15 that they have to have the FULL blood results back including a test for elevated liver enzymes before giving any chemo. This takes our normal hour long visit up to just shy of three hours! I am not complaining, I think it makes perfect sense to check for liver damage before administering more harmful, liver damaging chemicals. In hindsight the 3 hour visit was NOT the one to take the whole family to. I titled this entry Traumatic Tubie Encounter due to the fact that Charlie's port access was about the worst EVER. First it took him about 25 mins to stop crying, spitting, yelling and hitting before he calmed down enough to take his shirt off and prep for the "poke." Then Sally inserted the special needle and nothing happened. Nothing could go in through the need and nothing (blood) was coming out. So Sally had to pull the needle out of our now screaming and crying child and try again.... and again.... and finally she called for another nurse and they got it all working after 4 tries. During this time Chad is basically bear hugging Charlie in his lap trying to keep him still enough for the nurses to go after him with a 22g steel needle. Needless to say it was very loud and very hot in the little exam room with Sally, Kerri (other nurse), Chad and Charlie. Daniel and I took our Que and left the room during the horrible encounter. Daniel tends to feed off of Charlie's emotions and the last thing we needed at that point was 2 wailing kiddos. In the end Charlie got his blood work, received his Chemo and ate pancakes during the visit. The picture above shows a tired Chad comforting two little boys in the exam room after the big ordeal. Next month 9/12 is the start of a new cycle and Charlie will have a lumbar puncture and chemo in his spine like he does every three months. I think we are going to go back to "practice tubies" a few times a week to see if we can diffuse this bad memory and make the next visit a bit smoother.

Birthday Party Blue

Charlie and his friend Tessa had to show us their blue mouths. They both had way too much cake at Liam's birthday party this afternoon. Charlie and Tessa have been in the same class at school since they were 2 years old. This year they have the same Pre-K, Miss Carissa. Charlie says Tessa is his girlfriend. I think he likes her because she was also born in Texas!

Daniel's 1 Year Pictures

We were a little late in having Daniel's official 1 year pictures taken, but we made it to the portrait studio. 2 hours later we ended up with 90$ worth of mediocre shots and two cranky, tired... parents :)

Iron Man Extreme

Last week at chemo Charlie took the round stickers given to him by nurses and put them on his hands and feet and proceeded to play Iron Man. If you look close in the picture above you can see the "rocket" stickers on his shoes.

Summer School Pictures

As Aunt Lisa says, "They capture the moment." I wonder what the moment right before the photo shoot was like for Charlie. Probably not good. The moment for Daniel, hum-drum.

Summer School Pictures

Cancer: A Cost Analysis

So, one of the more enjoyable aspects of Charlie’s treatment (only because all you can do is laugh) are the medical bills. Each one holds a cornucopia of surprises, grimaces, laughs and outright hilarity. The latest coming from Charlie’s first lumbar puncture of the year on January 3rd (yes, we just got the bill for that). This visit included, but was not limited to: accessing Charlie’s port, propofol to put him under, spinal fluid withdrawal, intrathecal methotrexate injection, vincristine injection, plus room occupation and 5 hours of time with a mixture of about 10 different professionals. All of this for the low, low cost of around $3,000 (billed to insurance). “Not too bad!” you might say. And I would whole-heartedly agree, especially considering that they are saving my kid’s life.

The fun comes when you examine some of the line-item costs from this visit:

$17.53 - for one Tegaderm
$18.53 - for the butterfly 22g needle
$552.66 - for Vincristine
$718.43 - for IT Methotrexate
$1200 - for the use of the room



Now, the picture above is a Tegaderm patch. It is, for all intents and purposes a band-aid. We use them to apply a numbing cream to Charlie’s port before he is accessed and the hospital uses them to hold his “butterfly” needle in place after access. Handy little things, tegaderms are. Not so sure they are worth $17.53 though. Let us examine . . .

Charlie’s medications for this visit are worth about 31 and 41 tegaderms for vincristine and methotrexate, respectively. That seems like a bargain to me.

The room rate for Charlie’s visit, a measly 68 tegaderms.

In fact, I know from experience that I can feed a family of four (two adults and two kids, aged 4 and 1) at McDonalds for the price of one tegaderm. Somebody get Sally Struthers on the phone.

And assuming that one tegaderm weighs about 3 grams, I get a commodity price of around $180 per troy ounce of tegaderm. That places it at more than a tenth of the price of gold and about 4.5 times the price of silver. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to put tegaderm in my 401K.

After one of Charlie’s appointments a while back, a nurse handed us a sweaty wad of tegaderms to have at the house so we can numb Charlie’s port before clinic and ER visits. Had I known then what I know now, I would have turned around and sold the tegaderms back to the hospital for $15 a piece (a 15% savings for them) and funded Charlie’s next appointment. Live and learn.

Summer Trip to Tyler

We packed up the family, kids, dogs, tons of bags and medical supplies, and headed down to Tyler for the July 4th week. Despite the 16 hours in the car each way, we had a relaxing and fun-filled vacation. Daniel was finally introduced to many of his cousins on the Hickerson side and spent quality time with "Great." The highlight for the kiddos was probably the afternoons spent at Willowbrook pool. Mom and Dad enjoyed their evening at Julian's with Andy, Courtney, Kim, Peyton, Matt and Martha; and the pups.... let's just say they were happy to be included in the trip and even happier to come home to Denver where it was 20 degrees cooler!

A funny tidbit.. We waited till we were in Tyler to tell everyone about the gender of the new baby. We coached Charlie in the car all of the way to Texas. It was his job to spill the beans when prompted. When we arrived in Tyler Saturday evening, we sat down in the living room with Grandmommy, Granddaddy, and Great. Grandmommy started asking Charlie,
"So are you going to have a little brother or a little sister?"

Charlie completely clammed up. He was NOT going to talk about it! So Grandmommy changed her tactics,
"Is the new baby's name.. David?"

"Noooo!" replied Charlie.
"Is the new baby's name.. Henry?" She tried again.
"Noooo!" replied Charlie.
"Is the new baby's name.. Ann?" Said Grandmommy.
"No---YES!" Charlie replied as he smiled!

Mom and Dad confirmed that the new baby was indeed a girl and we intend on naming her Ana (or Sunshine Daydream, depending on the mood). It was a hysterically funny interchange between Charlie and Grandmommy. One I'm sure we will remember forever!

Click on the photo above to see how much fun we had!

Baby Hooper - It's a girl!

We are very excited to share the news. Charlie and Daniel will welcome a new baby sister later this fall. Baby Ana Hooper should arrive on Nov. 20th.

Offically 1 year old

Happy birthday Daniel. A year ago at 8:04am God blessed us with your presence. This last year was so much fun and I know all of the coming ones will be too. Here are some pictures from your arrival.

Daniel is Born

Daniel's First Birthday

Daniel had a great time at his Birthday party this Saturday. Many of our friends, family and neighbors stopped by for cake. The actual birthday is Wed. June 29th.

This Kid is Amazing

This picture was taken right after Charlie kicked off his fourth Maintenance cycle. For a refresher, Maintenance is 12 cycles long, each cycle being 3 months (really 12 weeks) long. The first day of the cycle Charlie is put under and has lumbar puncture for spinal fluid withdrawal and methotrexate injection. The rest of the cycle consists of monthly Vincristine injections, weekly pills and daily pills.

So yesterday morning Charlie had his puncture and chemo, but you wouldn’t know it by his actions. He spent the rest of the day shopping for Daniel’s birthday presents and playing superheroes with Mom. The kid keeps trudging on with such persistence that it has become a challenge for us. We’ve come to expect that he’ll be able to do whatever we throw at him, but there are sometimes when he just shuts down. We have to take a step back at those times and remember “Oh yeah, he has cancer. He’s pumped full of drugs all the time and probably doesn’t feel the best.” I’ve got to think that he probably doesn’t feel good 90% of the time, but he is almost always in a good mood. He has his bad days when all he wants to do is sit and watch movies, but for the most part he participates in every activity that any other kid does. That is why this kid is amazing and that is why he’ll always be a superhero to me.

Daniel's Second Steps

The video is of Daniel's second steps. Chad witnessed the first steps then quickly recorded the second attempt. He is so happy with himself when he walks! Just listen to that excited scream. Now Daniel needs to practice his balance and decide to walk instead of crawl when he wants to get somewhere fast!

Father's Day 2011

Georgetown Loop

For Father's Day, my gift was a family trip to the Georgetown Loop to take a ride on a genuine steam engine driven train. As you can tell from the album, everyone had a fabulous time riding the rail and I enjoyed a great day with the boys. The morning was finished off with lunch and a beer at Tommyknocker Brewery in Idaho Springs. Except for coming down with a cold, it couldn't have been a better day. Thank you to Mom for the train ride and thank you to Nana for the lunch.

Daniel's First Birthday

Pre-K and Other News

Yesterday Charlie officially started in his new Pre-K classroom. We are excited for him because this room brings about a lot of new experiences. This year Charlie will get to take field trips. They have plans to go to the zoo and visit some parks. Also, after the Summer session is over and the school year begins Charlie will start to wear uniforms.

Charlie was really excited to move up with some of his close friends to a classroom full of new friends. It was all he could talk about last night and this morning was no different. We are looking forward to an exciting Summer for him and a school year full of new things to learn.
Daniel is still in the infant room, but not for long. He will be moving up to the Toddler room in July. He couldn’t really care less about the move, but Mom and Dad are excited because they will be getting a significant pay raise.

Right now Daniel is a superfast crawler. We have to watch out because he can get from his room to the top of the stairs in about 2 seconds. We are back into the Distract & Corral method of parenting for him . . . it’s been a while. He can also stand by himself for about a minute and he loves to cruise behind his walker.

In other news, the weather has been fantastic for the past couple of weeks. We have probably spent more time outside the house on the weekends than we have inside. We have enjoyed several outside dinners and evenings on the front porch swing. Daniel loves to sit in a lap, swing and watch the neighbors. Charlie has had lots of fun helping us and some neighbors dig in their gardens. The boys also enjoyed a bike trailer trip down to the park last weekend at the expense of Dad’s legs. They have plans to do it again and often.

Cancer Update: Routine Visit

Charlie had his monthly chemo visit today. When he goes in on a "routine" day, he sees his doctor, or nurse practitioner for a check up. They ask about how he has been feeling, acting and handling the meds. They are always concerned about any bruising, due to low platelets, rashes, or anything that we may have noticed in the past four weeks. Charlie's primary nurse will then come in and access his medi-port. She will take a blood sample and then hook him up to the iv bag for his vincristine. The process is usually very fast, under 20 mins, the port is deaccessed and he gets to go home. Later the nurse calls us with the results of his full blood work up. He is getting better and better about having his port accessed on routine days. When we go in and he doesn't feel well the port access is borderline torture for him and everyone involved.
Today the nurse informed us that his ANC was over 3000. This is not a good thing. While in maintenance his ANC should be between 750-1500. The higher it is means one of two things: 1. the chemo he takes nightly isn't a therapeutic enough dose (aka, he needs more) or 2. He has an infection. We are betting that Charlie has another viral infection at this point. Daniel has a fever, cough and runny nose that started Sunday, so chances are Charlie will have a fever in the next day or two. That means another trip back up for blood counts. The doctor however is concerned about option 1 because his counts for the last few months have been 1600+, 1800+ and now 3000+. So she has instructed us to increase his 6MP pill from one tablet every night to 1.5 tablets every M/W/F and 1 tablet on T/TH. The first week after his chemo visit the pill box is so confusing! Chad sets alarms on his phone to make sure we remember that it is time to drug him up ;)

Red Rocks Hike with J.P.

Red Rocks Hike with JP

This past Saturday, Charlie, Daniel and Dad met up with Tyler and JP at Red Rocks Park do some hiking. Daniel rode the whole way facing out from his Baby Bjorn and Charlie walked or ran the whole way. . . almost. After Charlie got warmed up, he and JP had a great time running ahead, hiding and jumping out to surprise us. Daniel thought that was good fun. We stopped after a while and had snacks by a water tower(?). It was some metal structure that Charlie thought was a rocket ship. In a cute moment, I was talking to Tyler and JP asked how I knew his dad's name. I said, "I know his name because we're friends". JP replied, "And soon we'll be family."

After snacks, we started up again and Charlie had a bad run in with a bush. He literaly ran right into to it, falling down a little hill in the process. When he cried out, I saw him laying face up in the middle of this huge prickly bush. He was okay, but soon after he began to poop out asking to ride on my shoulders for a bit. So there we were, Dad with Daniel hanging in front and Charlie sitting on top. Needless to say, I got a good workout. Charlie finished up the hike strong and was rewarded with more snacks and drinks back at the car.

When we got home it was nap time and believe it or not, dad joined in that as well.

Planting the Garden

Garden 2011

Charlie and Mom got around to planting the garden yesterday. We went to Nick's Garden center and bought vegetable starts this year instead of trying our hand at seeds. Part of Charlie's Make a Wish day included the volunteer team building a 16' x 11' raised bed garden! Charlie has been very excited about planing vegetables. Hopefully in 70-120 days we will have a nice crop of broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, seedless cucumbers, brussels sprouts, pumpkins, yellow corn, serrano chilies, jalapeno peppers and some other pepper Chad picked out in hopes of salsa making. We will try to post pictures of the garden in progress this summer. Although I am afraid I may need to have a few tree branches trimmed back to allow for more sunlight in the area. We'll see...

Make a wish news coverage

Here are the two short segments that aired on 4/29 about Charlie's Wish

Videos of Daniel on the move

Daniel has reached the age where all he wants to do is move. The videos below show how proficient he has become at crawling. He loves the tunnel we received from friends up in Greeley, CO. Nana brought over a walking toy and Daniel has taken a step or two, but it is not hie preferred mode of movement.

The direct link to the videos are below, or you can click our YouTube channel at the left column in the blog.

Meet the New Baby

Baby Hooper will make an appearance at the end of November. Just in time for the holidays!

Charlie's Make-A-Wish Day

I won't bore you with a lot of words about Charlie's Make-A-Wish Day, I think the pictures do a better job of that than I could. I will say that he had a fantastic day and that we are very appreciative of the the Make-A-Wish Organization, the volunteers from United Healthcare as well as Rainbow Play Systems and Jim (landscape architect) and his crew. Everybody worked their tails off and the results are great.

The day started with a few initial items to get things going: Oversized tools, Charlie's very own tool box, and some construction cones so that Charlie could set up his "Master Plan" for the back yard. Jason, one of Charlie's wish granters, spent the whole morning playing with Charlie in the back yard. They had a great time and I am surprised Jason could even stand up by the end of the day. United Healthcare also gave Charlie a lot of items to get new backyard up and going: new plants, new gardening gloves, a tent and some other fantastic toys. After things kicked into high gear, Charlie got a chance to dig in the dirt a little bit and even construct parts of his new play set. During construction, Charlie and Dad were interviewed for the local tv stations and had a chance to thank all the volunteers and let everybody know how excited he was to get his wish.

The day finished up with some cupcakes, playtime on the new digs and some friends coming over to tell Charlie "Happy Wish Day" and "Happy First Anniversary on Remission".

To those who made it over, thank you for coming and sharing this special day with us. For those who couldn't be here, enjoy the photo album and we have been told that we will get a DVD of the footage that was shot. Our IT department will have to figure out how to get that up on the blog.

Charlie's Make-A-Wish

Make a Wish Update

On Friday, April 29th, in conjunction with his first anniversary of achieving remission, Charlie will receive his wish for a new backyard play-land.The Make-A-Wish organization along with volunteers from United Healthcare are coming Friday morning to setup Charlie’s new play set and transform the Hooper backyard into a fantastic play area.Please join us in celebrating Charlie’s first year of remission. Come and Go, open house from 2-6pm. Light refreshments will be served. No gifts please.

A year out from normal

This is the night before We took Charlie into the doctor's office with what we thought was a broken ankle. I remember laying in bed and doubting myself for insisting on taking him back in after he still refused to walk days after the cast was removed. People kept telling me to give it more time, that he was a stubborn toddler and he would come around and walk again when the attention died down. I just knew it was something... That night I didn't sleep very well, could have been the fact I was huge and pregnant, but I think I was subconsciously preparing for what was about to unfold. When Shelly, the orthopedic doc, broke the news I was upset, but not shocked, more numb and at the same time less uncertain. Now we had a path, a cause to his pain, a real reason. And true enough here we are a year later after that fateful night. Yes, we have alot to deal with, but Charlie is so much better off. He runs, walks, hops and plays. He is surviving Cancer..... and so are we.

Happy 4th Birthday Charlie!

Happy 4th Birthday Big Guy!

Stephen, Gracie, Nana, Mom, Dad and Daniel celebrated Charlie's 4th birthday with hamburgers for dinner, a spider man cake, and TONS of presents to unwrap. So far on the present hit list is the airplane from Mom and dad, the super hear learn to read books from Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dale and the annoying talking spider man from Nana. We are still trying to get the rest of the toys out of their impossible wrapping and we'll post more pictures soon.

Charlie's 4 year pictures

Another Year, another trip to the Picture People at Park Meadows Mall to catalog Charlie's growth and have the annual family picture taken. I was so surprised that we had any good shots at all! Charlie is so disagreeable when it comes to having his picture taken. He was so difficult that the photographer after about 30 mins of coercion said, "I don't know what to do." Awesome. In the end Chad pulled out some smiles urged on by silly behavior. Now we know to schedule DOUBLE session times to avoid the rush and get more quality photos. You can see that his hair is growing back, but still wispy and finer then it was. Maybe the 5 yr old picture everything will look more normal. It's only been a year!

5 Guys kinda Guy

Nana and I treated the boys (and ourselves) to 5 Guys Burger and Fries the other night. D looked too cute in his high chair to not snap a photo. I think Jon and Christie sent us the floppy seat cover when Charlie was born. That thing sure is handy!

Make a Wish update

It's official! Charlie's wish will be granted. More to follow......

Maintenance Month 6

Today was Charlie's 6th maintenance chemo treatment. We went into the hospital about an hour before, had breakfast and then went up to clinic. Chad, Daniel and Charlie all have that lingering cold, congestion and cough so we sat in the "sick" waiting area. They try to separate the children who have bugs so the ones with low ANC's won't be as exposed. These maintenance appointments are usually fairly quick. We talk to Dr. Albano for a bit, voice any questions or concerns, get more scripts if we need them and then wait for the nurse. Sally, the nurse, comes in, preps the chemo called vincristine, and sets up her supplies for the port access. She sticks him, draws blood, pushes in the chemo slowly and then takes the butterfly needle out. If all goes well the procedure part takes all of 10 mins. We cheated a little this time and gave Charlie his prescribed Valium dose about 2 hours before his port was accessed. IT WAS GREAT! He whimpered a bit when we asked him to take off his shirt, but then he sat very still and he did not cry when he received his "tubies." Chad and I were both pleasantly surprised. Usually it takes two of us to calm/hold/distract him enough to be accessed, but this time he simply sat in my lap and Chad and Daniel watched. Charlie was feeling so good after treatment that Chad dropped him off at school for the afternoon so I could get some work done. This evening the weather was so nice out that Charlie wanted to go outside and play. As you can see from the pic below Chemo is a side conversation to his life of play. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Charlie in his football gear playing after Chemo
oh and his ANC was 1240

Daniel 8 Months

We took Daniel to Penny's for his 8 month pictures. You can see the rest of the images by clicking this link I thought the woman did a good job and for $25.00 and 9 sheets of photos, you can't go wrong. I'll pull the images into a picassa album for long term storage sometime soon.

Time to get Charlie a personal shopper

So apparently this outfit was in Charlie's backpack and he insisted on wearing it. I'm guessing its been in there for the better part of a year. He looks ridiculous and we look destitute.