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.

Growth Spurt

This past weekend Charlie had a pretty big growth spurt. Last summer he got a bike, but never did anything with it (very much frustrating his mom and dad). He would climb up and try to pedal for a minute and then promptly declare that he was done. So, the bike went into the attic space for a long winter's nap.

In the middle of last week Charlie declared out of nowhere, "I want to ride my bike." I promptly told him, "Okay, we'll get it out and go for ride." I was really in no hury to climb back into the attic above the garage and get the bike down for a minute's "ride", so the bike stayed put until this weekend when Charlie persisted in his desire.

During this weekend's first effort, Charlie got on his bike and tried to pedal. He did this for longer than just one minute, which I thought was a big step forward just by itself. I started to just push him around so that he could get the hang of steering. He did this for about another minute before declaring that he was done. I was prepared to be content with that, so we started to just goof around. I rode Charlie's bike myself and even let him push me around. There is no video of that (luckily), but our neighbor Dave told me he watched from his living room.

A few hours later, Charlie told me he wanted to go again. This time, out of nowhere, Charlie started pedalling by himself, I was only helping him get started periodically. He wasn't great at steering, but it didn't take long before he could navigate around the cul-de-sac on the sidewalk and make corrections in his trajectory. By Sunday afternoon, he was a pro going around our cul-de-sac and up the block around the next cul-de-sac before heading home. Watch the videos below and see what you think. Dad's thinking it will be a fun summer taking bike rides with Charlie leading the way and Daniel and Ana in the trailer.

Extra Bonus: Daniel was along for the ride and he is getting very vocal, enjoy his side commentary about juice, getting down and saying "Hi!".