Birthday Flight

Nana took Charlie on the flight with her down to Texas on his birthday. At the end of the flight to Dallas the pilot announced Happy Birthday to Charlie and everyone on the place clapped and cheered. The look on his face was great then after everyone departed, the pilot took Charlie into the cockpit and showed him all of the buttons and lights and showed him how the plane flys. Best 15 mins spent in a longtime!

Family Pictures 2012

We have had some horrific family picture experiences, but this time we lowered our expectations and had a pretty good time. The photographer, Jessica, was really patient and out of 1000+ pictures we managed to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling... twice.....

Take a look at the favorites by clicking the albumn at the right or click here

Finger poke Pro

I was very proud of Charlie on Tuesday. Last trip to the hospital his counts were so low that they stopped all forms of chemo for two weeks. Well Tuesday we returned to clinic for counts, or just a "finger poke." Daddy was out of town so it was just Charlie and Mom. We got there right at 8am, he went into the phlebotomist's room, sat down and started talking about how much he liked finger pokes. No screaming, no crying, no fuss. He sat there on the chair like a big boy and let Miss Irene poke him and capture a small vial of blood. he didn't even flinch! It's really cute, Irene wears gloves during the draw and has a smiley face on one of the fingers. When she is all done, Charlie gets a bandaid with a smiley on it and the fingers touch to "kiss bye-bye." You can see the finger in the picture above. Of course afterwards we went down to the cafeteria for snacks before heading back to school and work.

His blood counts came back at 1250, up from the 300 from two weeks ago. Dr. Albano put him back on the chemo, but this time at only a 50% dosage. He was up to 150% before the plummeting counts. I was secretly hoping they would continue to hold the chemo. Charlie has been so much happier these two weeks without all of the chemicals. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but the thought of another weekend, his birthday party weekend, without Methotrexate would have been swell.... We head back at the end of the month  for counts and another chemo push. It should be interesting.

No Argument Here

Charlie likes to argue. And by “likes”, I mean that he has it down to an art form. We will ask him to do X, and most days we are confronted with an aggravating yet pleasant “How about I do, Y!” or a simple, more aggravating “No!” In accordance with some parenting techniques we’ve read, we try to cut off these arguments with the phrase “I love you too much to argue. Please do X.” and most of the time it works.

With that as background, my story continues:

The other day I was getting Daniel dressed and Charlie was sitting next to me holding a toy. Daniel wanted the toy Charlie had and was asking him for it. Daniel’s asking turned to whining after Charlie did not comply. After more whining and crying, Charlie looks at Daniel and says, “Daniel, I love you sooo much . . .” Charlie paused and just as I was about to praise him for being sweet to his brother, he added “ . . . to argue with you.”

Cracked me up, Charlie trying to use “Love and Logic” on Daniel.

Daniel's Party Trick

Oh that smile!
Daniel has been caught on camera again at school. I think Miss Wendy has taken a liking to this little monster.

The text reads:

Hi Mom and Dad,
Recently one of my classmates older sibling’s asked…”So, can YOU recognize all of the letters in the alphabet?” To which I responded…”Huh?”
Then he asked, “Can you recite the months of the year in English AND Spanish?” To which I responded “No hablo Español!”
Before he was able to ask me another question in a feeble attempt to show me up, I said “Look, Dude, you’re 5 and you obviously think you are incredibly intelligent, but there is one thing I can do that you can’t…” I took a sip of my Cheerios and just as I planned, one stuck to my forehead!”
Classmate’s big brother was speechless for a second as he waited for the Cheerio to fall. When it didn’t, he said “Forget 2 + 2 = 4, That was sheer genius! Show me how it’s done!”
For some reason he called me “Yoda” and I don’t know why. I was just pleased that I could show off my party trick and that I schooled a Kindergartener.

Love, Daniel

Baptism Gown Pictures

Ana's baptism invitations have shipped from the printer and I hope to get them out next week. Here is a sneek peek.

Chad took her picture in my christening gown from 1979. It was hard choosing just one of these great photos for the invitation. click the link here or click the slide show area on the right.

Party Planning

We are really excited about Charlie's birthday this year. We are going to have his party at the Home Depot in Lonetree. They hold kid's workshops where they help them build projects with REAL tools. Charlie and his friends are going to build this helicopter during a "private lesson." Perfect for a bunch of 5 year old boys don't you think?

Two Week Delay

In the last post about Charlie’s chemo, I mentioned that his meds had been increased to accommodate for his elevated ANC levels and his increased Body Surface Area (BSA). Since then, we have had another visit to start Cycle 7 of Maintenance. This past Tuesday Angela and I both took off work to take Charlie in for his lumbar puncture and it turns out that the increased medications have been doing their job. If you remember he is supposed to stay between 750-1500 with an ANC below 500 being neutropenic and a cause for concern. Well, we’re there, Charlie’s ANC was 380.

Nothing changed for Tuesday’s visit, Charlie still got his methotrexate and vincristine injections. He will still be taking his steroid this week to boost his numbers, but we will be taking two weeks off on all his other medications that we administer daily and weekly. This is a new situation for us. Since his diagnosis, Charlie has never had an ANC level this low (to our memory) and had only one week off of treatments which was between Phase 2 and 3 (I think). In two weeks we will go back to the hospital so they can check his counts and let us know if he can start talking his meds again.

We were not too surprised to find out that Charlie’s numbers were so low. He has been really grumpy lately. It is usually hard to remember that he doesn’t feel well most of the time, but the last couple of weeks that has not been the case. We have been experiencing wild mood swings and decreased appetite. We are hoping that after a few days of steroids and no other chemo, Charlie’s numbers will rebound and he will begin to feel a lot better. For now, we are on increased personal hygiene duty making sure Charlie doesn’t get sick while he is vulnerable.

This is Charlie patiently waiting for Chili-cheese Fritos after today's procedure. The cafeteria is closed during change over to lunch, but it's a ritual and we can't do without.