It's a BOY

"Baby Hooper" has been further designated as "Baby Boy Hooper!" We had the big ultrasound on Monday and are thrilled to see a healthy baby boy ready to make his appearance in early December. We are still debating names but will most likely settle on one and let it be known before the big day.

The normal ultrasound lady, Paula, is no longer at my OB's Office (tear...) so the pictures we received leave much to the imagination. One is a "boy" shot and the others are hands and fingers or something..

Quiznos Light the Night Kickoff

Today Charlie and Dad took a trip downtown to help Quiznos kickoff their corporate LLS Light the Night Team.  Dad got to present Charlie's story as Charlie stood there looking cute.  Afterwards, "Mr. Stuart" (as Charlie calls the Quiznos CEO) made Charlie Quiznos' very first Honorary Junior Chef and presented Charlie with his very own chef's jacket.

After the presentation, we walked back to Quiznos' corporate office for a tour of their test kitchen and to attend a meet & greet with the corporate staff, most of whom were at the kickoff earlier.  Charlie worked the crowd as only Charlie can.  I was talking to some folks and realized Charlie had wandered off.  When I found him, this was the scene:

No doubt, talking about super-heroes or Transformers.  It was a great event and afternoon.  I thank all the LLS and Quiznos staff that made us feel so welcome and had such nice things to say about Charlie.  We look forward to a continued relationship with the Quiznos Family.

Family photo shoot

We took the opportunity at Charlie's chemo party to have a photographer come and snap some family photos. Thank you Lisa Hodnet for the beautiful pictures. we can't wait to get our digital CD! Take a look at the pictures at the link below.

Family Photo Shoot - Proofs

Daniel's Day at the Zoo

Charlie's summer activities at Primrose included a field trip almost every week. Daniel kept asking, "When do I get to go on a field trip?!" Poor thing, he just doesn't comprehend that age plays into these sort of things. To Give D a little TLC, Mom and Dad decided to take him to the zoo for a very special Friday afternoon "field trip." It was really nice spending time with just Daniel. He has such a quirky and fun-loving sense of humor that is even more apparent when he is removed from his siblings. Take a look at the few pictures below.

Daniel's Day at the Zoo

Ana moves up at Primrose

To commemorate Ana's transition into the 'Older Toddlers' Room, we received this funny gram from Primrose today the text reads:

Hi Mom and Dad,

     I was feeling nostalgic recently, as I started to think about where I’ve been and where I’m going. So I took a literal & figurative journey. I (literally) went next door on a (figurative) trip down memory lane. It was, of course, a short trip, considering the baby room is 7 feet away &  being so young, my “lifetime” of memories is pretty limited thus far.

     Anyway,  The reason for my trip was two-fold.

1)      I wanted to go back to a simpler time. A time when all you had to do was decide when to sleep & when to eat There was no stress about making it to your ONE nap a day or worrying about your neighbor trying to swipe your lunch at the community table.

2)      I felt it was important to let the babies know they should relish the time & freedom to can kick back in a bouncy seat (or play some b-ball)…all day if you want, because you’re a baby & you can. Because before you know it, you will have to fit Circle Time, Art and Thumb’s Up! in all before lunch. As a toddler there are more scheduling demands & no more bouncy seats!

However, they say  you can’t live in the past. All you can do is move forward. So that’s what I must do! I’ve been a baby, a Young Todd & now I must forge ahead to the next phase (the older Todds Room)!

Love, Ana

A close up of Ana invading the Infant room.

Light the Night Speech for Vistar

I wanted to share one of our LLS speeches on the blog. I delivered this speech on a web conference  fundraising kick off for Vistar, one of the National corporate Light The Night sponsors. This is basically the transcript from the YouTube video.

It was 2010 and Charlie had just celebrated his 3^rd birthday and was limping and complaining of foot pain. Being new parents, we took him to the podiatrist, to the pediatrician, and ultimately to the orthopedic.  I think we were on our fifth visit to the hospital, third visit to the orthopedics, maybe our tenth x-ray, but only our first complete blood workup, when the results came back.

We heard: “We found blast cells in Charlie’s blood. He has cancer.” Specifically Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We had come to treat a broken leg, but were admitted to oncology and by the end of the evening; Charlie was receiving his first doses of chemo.  

Over the course of treatment, Charlie’s little body was pummeled by a barrage of surgeries, drugs, and  side-effect after side-effect. We watched our happy-go-lucky three year boy fade away into a moody, sickly looking figure that hardly resembled his former self.  What I call our Treatment Transformation. 

Learning to be parent a Child with a terminal cancer was difficult. Yes, Charlie’s cancer is considered terminal even though his cure rate is over 85% for his risk factor. We decided to keep things as normal as possible in his little life. Charlie stayed in preschool through the majority of treatment. When he was too sick or tired or had no immunity left he would stay home with Mom. But other than that we tried to do fun things such as hikes, gardening and playing outdoors. We developed a ‘New Normal’ as we like to call it. And that included trips to the hospital for simple things like the flu or scarier things like pneumonia which could have killed him. 

These trips to the hospital became bonding times for Mom and Dad and Charlie and introduced us to an amazing community, one that nobody ever expects that they will be a part of.  Since being a part of the LLS community, Charlie has been given the opportunity to participate in a St. Patrick’s Day Parade, received tickets for Broncos football and Avalanche hockey games.  In the life and mind of a five year old, these are not trivial events, especially when he was too sick to get off the couch some weekends. 

For two years of Charlie’s Leukemia journey, we were on the receiving end of all the good things LLS does for families like ours.  The educational materials, the exciting events and of course, the treatment that Charlie was undergoing are all the product of vast amounts of donations, research ,and hard work by individuals associated with LLS.  

Last year we decided it was time to start giving back and we formed our Light the Night Team, Charlie’s Cancer Crushers.  Knowing that we were doing something good for other people with experiences like our own, challenged us to do more.  This year LLS gave us another great opportunity when they asked us if Charlie could be the LLS Honored Hero for this year’s Light the Night event. 

His representation is the perfect culmination to the 3 ½ year therapy that as you can see ended this past June! Charlie received his last injection of chemo and his last pill. We were thrilled.

We are here today not only to share Charlie’s story, but to let you know there is still a lot of work yet to be done.  Midway through Charlie’s treatment, my favorite uncle battled (AML) another form of Leukemia, only to succumb to the disease after 5 months. Attending his funeral and returning home to my cancer patient was one of the hardest things I’ve had to endure.

That is why it is so important for companies like yours to get involved with Light The Night this year. We are still losing battles! To combat this, in 2012 alone, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society invested 100 million dollars in blood cancer research, and over 10 million dollars to Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, the specific type of cancer that Charlie had.  This is one of the many reasons why we decided to get involved and to do everything we can to educate others about the importance of raising funds for this organization.  We hope that like us, you too decide to join in the fight to create a world free of blood cancer. Thank you.   

Light the Night Honored Hero 2013 Story

I created this video to help with the LTN 2013 campaigns. Charlie is this year's LTN honored hero and we are very excited to be part of this important event. The slides and speech are a little less than 5 mins in length.




A direct link to the YouTube video can be found here for sharing : http://youtu.be/VqvvAQkjnHo