Charlie’s Exceptional, Terrific, Very Good Day

Tuesday was another trip to the Hospital for chemo and I thought I would relay a couple of stories.

Charlie gave me a laugh when I picked him up from school to head over to the hospital. Since we have to put Charlie’s numbing cream on his port at least 30 minutes before his access, I usually pause in the school parking lot, have him take his shirt off (or at least one arm out) to put the cream on. On this particular occasion, Charlie climbed up into the Tahoe and proceeded to take his right arm out of his shirt. His port is on the left side of his chest. So I told him, “You took the wrong arm out, Charlie. I need you to take out this one”, pointing to his left arm. To which he replied, “Put the cream on my bump.” I told him that his bump was on the left side and I pointed to where his port is located. But he insisted, “No, this bump”, while lifting up the right side of his shirt. “But your bump is over here”, I said pointing again to his left side. Finally, he points to his right nipple and says, “No, I want the cream on this bump.” That had me cracking up. It took a couple more tries to persuade him that he did not get his “butterfly” on that bump, but rather the one with his port underneath.

If you remember, Charlie had a great visit last time and I was pretty optimistic that he would have another good access this month as well. But even those expectations were surpassed. Not only did Charlie have a good access, he and I both actually had a fun time at the hospital for this visit. Usually, I think Charlie and I both are too nervous about the situation to even come close to enjoying ourselves at clinic. However, after last month, it seemed like both of us were a little more relaxed.

After having lunch in the cafeteria we headed upstairs to clinic and settled into the normal routine. Charlie did fantastic for Mrs. Sally, letting her do the access without so much as a whimper. Then came the curveball. Dr. Albano was on the in-patient side and we would be seeing a new PA instead to conduct Charlie’s examination. I prepared myself for Charlie to completely shut-down and not let this new person do anything. Well, just the opposite happened. Mrs. Layne walked into the exam room and Charlie was instantly smitten. She asked Charlie to hop up on the exam table (something he never does for Dr. Albano) and he wasted no time scrambling up. She had Charlie wrapped around her little finger. There was absolutely no hesitation from Charlie on anything she asked him to do. It was hilarious to watch.
After his exam Charlie and I went to play with some volunteers that had set up some toys across the hall while we waited on blood counts and chemo. Apparently these folks had very few takers throughout the day and they were extremely happy to have a talkative little 5-year old come in and shoot Nerf guns and bowl. Charlie had a great time meeting his new friends and the only difficulty I had all day was getting him back to the room for his chemo. Mrs. Sally was so impressed with Charlie’s day that he got to pick a toy out of the treasure chest before we made our way home.

Inaugural Patio Dinner

Tonight we had our first dinner out the new patio. It was a fabulous evening, 75 and just a slight breeze. The meal was perfect and the boys had cupcakes to celebrate.

Afterwards, it was straight to bath . . . without touching anything.

Inaugural Patio Dinner

Wildlife Experience

For the kids birthday's this year, Grand-Dan and Garney gave the kids a membership to a new attraction that Mom and Dad had just learned about here in town. It's called the WIldlife Experience and it's a hands-on museum and learning experience, complete with Imax Theater. This weekend, we packed up the kids and picnic lunch and headed off for our first visit.

The kids had a blast crawling through all kinds of exhibits and looking at all the animals. The animatronic ones kind of creeped them out a little bit, but that's understandable. The animatronic people kinda weirded out Dad, too. Afterwards Charlie found a shady spot for us to picnic on before we headed home.

Overall, the place was a hit and we didn't even visit all of the facilities. We will be coming back all year long so we didn't want to show them everything right off the bat. We didn't get to many pictures inside the museum, but Dad managed to get the boys to pose for a couple of good "Thank You" shots for Grand-Dan and Garney.

Wildlife Experience

Easter 2012

For Easter this year we braved the 9:00 Mass, with the nursery closed!! Big points for Mom and Dad. Luckily we had Nana with us to help out. Mass was really crowded, but the kids did absolutely fantastic and actually impressed some of the people sitting next to us.

We had planned to have our big Easter meal at dinner, so after Mass rather than trying to fight crowds, we made a McDonald's run. Yeah, sounds kind of strange, but it was a combination reward for the kids being so good and quick appetite suppressant. The more hotcakes a kid has in their belly, the less candy (lesser of two evils, I guess). It actually worked out well and may become an Easter tradition.

After packing in the calories, the kiddoes were ready for the big hunt. Some quick pictures with Nana on the front porch allowed the Easter bunny to bid a hasty retreat from the back yard. Charlie was the big winner in the hunt (surprise, surprise). The competition was a little light due to the age level of the other participants and the fact that after Daniel found out what was in the eggs, he had to open and empty each one he found before moving on to the next. We're going to have work on strategy with this kid. Ana wasn't very interested in eggs, or baskets this year...

In the end, it was a great day and we have enough candy to last until Halloween.

Easter 2012

Ana's Baptism

Ana's Baptism

Highlights from Ana's baptism on Saturday, March 24th in Tyler Texas. Thank you Grandmommy,Granddaddy, Deacon Bill, Aunt Lisa and Uncle Bob for your support! Mommy thinks Ana looks like a little angel in her dress.