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.

Samantha Jane DeHerrera

We are so excited to welcome our new neighbor, Samantha! She was born this morning 2/12/11 at 1:23am. Weighing 7 lbs and 1.4 oz 19.5inches long. A new girlfriend for Daniel. I hope to post a picture soon. Congrats to KC and Jarrett!

Copy-Cat Daniel

Chad had Daniel talking earlier today. I have a feeling he is going to be our little Parrot.

Fun in the Springs

Fun in the Springs

The boys and I left a sick mom at home last weekend and spent the day with Grandmommy and cousins (oh, and Aunt Laure too) in the Springs. As you can tell, the kids had a great time playing (that is to say, destroying Aunt Laure's den) together. After all was said and done we had four tired kids, which was the intended result.

Happy Birthday Chubby

The day we brought you home.

still lounging around

It's been 8 great years and you are still my first "baby." You are officially Middle-Aged pup!