Loving Spring!

We've been loving spring and taking advantage of the nice weather! On Friday we went to the library. Dawson likes putting the movies in the return. Then he likes handing the card to the librarian. He's been trying to help wherever he can. It's pretty cute, but takes extra time, so I try to leave with plenty of time to let him do things. We went to Aldi's for the first time, that place is great, very good, cheap food. I saw my aunt Nyla there too, who enjoyed seeing me and the boys again. We also went to the More 4 Less thrift store and found a pair of jeans for Dawson, then we went to Once Upon a Child and found a few more pairs. So he's finally good on jeans. They were both pretty sick of shopping by the time we were done with it all, so they got to play outside when we got home. They always enjoy that.

Saturday was Back to the 70s night at the Skatin Place. Dan and I went, the boys were happy to see their babysitter again. There was a good crowd there and we saw many friends, it was a lot of fun.

Sunday we played outside some more. We all went for a walk, the boys played on the playground at the apartment here and had lots of fun. It was a relaxing day.

On Monday we picked up Tyler's 1 year pictures and went to the Lake George park. It was fun, Dawson got to play by some other kids, which he rarely does. I'm trying to get him used to being around other kids since he'll be going to preschool in June. Since being isolated all winter, we haven't gone many places or been around many kids.

Tuesday we went to the DMV for tabs, then to the Boys & Girls Club park. There were more kids there, I forgot about it being after school and there being so many kids, but I decided to let him play there anyway. I guess it was too many kids, because he got up to the slide, waited so patiently but the kids weren't going down, they were just goofing around. He got very upset and ran back down the steps, looking a bit traumatized! I had him go down a different slide a few times, then try the big one again. After that we just left. Way too many kids! We accidentally found a new little playground while driving around the area, so we stopped there. There were 2 teens playing basketball and an empty playground. He wanted to play with the big kids though, so he went right over, grabbed the ball and tossed it up at the regulation height hoop. I was going to get him out of there, but the boys seemed to have fun playing with him. Dawson would retrieve the ball after they made a shot and throw it back to them. Then he'd giggle hysterically everytime one of them made another basket. It was pretty cute seeing him so excited to be playing with them. They left and he had a tantrum, stood there looking like a lost puppy. He did finally decide to play on the playground though. I had a hard time getting him to leave. I had the car started and got in before he realized I was quite serious about leaving. Then he came over and climbed in so I could buckle him up. He's really been listening pretty good lately.

After we got home, I washed up Dawson and while we were doing that, Tyler dumped my cup of water all over himself. Forgot I left that by the door, oops! So had to change his outfit, eat, get ready for skating and nurse Tyler, all within 30 minutes of the babysitter getting there! I was nursing Tyler when she came and Dawson was finishing up his nuggets. They both decided to abandon their food to play with the sitter. Tyler crawled over and said "Hi dada!". At least it's a greeting, she thought it was pretty cute. I had a good time skating. It's nice to get out of the house for a bit. I get to have some decent conversation instead of talking baby and toddler talk all day long! We ended the evening with some popcorn. Dawson had pushed his chair up to the counter and was climbing onto the counter to get the popcorn maker that was on top of the fridge! So he helped me make that and eat it. His bedtime has been getting earlier, thanks to the help of playing outside. He's been so active during the day, he has no complaints about bedtime. I tell him it's time for bed and he jumps up and runs to his room! I'm loving it!

Dawson's Teacher Visit and Summer Plans

Dawson's teacher came today. He did great! He did simple board puzzles, stacking rings, looked at a couple books and put together some shape cookies. They look like oreos and there's a shape that fits inside the other half of the cookie. It's kinda tricky, but he lined them up and got all but 1.

Tyler liked the teacher's toys too. We've been working on Dawson's sharing, so Tyler gets to play with toys after Dawson is done. Tyler loves it and Dawson has been doing great. It used to really bother him, now he usually willingly gives the toy to Tyler when the teacher tells him to and is bringing out the next thing.

His teacher says we need to re-write his ISFP (goals) since he's achieved so many of them and especially since he'll be going to summer school. So she's coming out next week on Thursday with the speech teacher and maybe someone else too, I can't remember.

They only do home visits until they're 3, then they go to school. Since he'll turn 3 in the middle of summer (July) school, he's been approved to just start when the classes start in mid-June. It'll be once a week and they go 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off. So it won't be much, but he'll get a chance to ride the bus and learn how the school stuff works. She said he'll only be gone about 3 hours, with bus time. It's only a couple hour class. Once the regular school year starts, he'll go 3 days per week. It will be weird and kinda scary sending him off on a bus (or van or whatever they send). He's been on a bus before and did great, so I'm really not worried about that part. He's always been with me though, so that part should be interesting, though he seems to take well to others from being at the hospital and getting taken places by volunteers.

The rest of our day was pretty good. We went for a walk, the boys got to play on the playground that's in the middle of our walk. Tyler discovered what sand was, he thought that was neat, though I didn't let him touch it. I still need to call about restrictions. I know there was something about dirt but it hasn't been mentioned since the beginning and I can't remember what it was. Dawson was great about leaving the playground. He was cold, that helped my case. I offered to let him walk, but he has no interest. It's very quiet streets with nice sidewalks, so I thought I'd see how he does walking by the stroller, but he fussed and wanted back in the stroller.

This evening we played on the floor, wrestled a bit. They love that. Dawson is so careful around Tyler, if he sees that Tyler is next to me or on me, he'll change his course to miss him or wait for him to get off. Such a change from before! He was even sharing my lap tonight, though Tyler kept messing with Dawson's hair and he wasn't liking that too much.

Tyler is still doing great. No bleeding from that bone marrow site. The scab still looks like it could easily come off and start bleeding, so I'm leaving the gauze on until there's a harder scab there. He's still on Tylenol for pain management, but I'm starting to back him off of it slowly. I've been going a bit longer between giving it to him and he seems fine. It's hard to tell when he's fussy, if it's because he's hungry or bored, or if he's in pain! I don't want him to be uncomfortable. Another tooth broke the skin today. He had one yesterday also and there's 2 more that are very close, all on the top. The goofy boy gnaws on my jeans to teethe sometimes and even bounces his gums on my leg. At least it seems to be working.

Our Helpful Son

Tuesday went well. Tyler was happy and playful as soon as he ate and got brought out to the living room to play. He was in a great mood all day, you'd never know he had surgery the day before! Everything looks good, not bruised or swollen. His Bone Marrow site had bled a lot though. I took off the gauze and they had 6 layers of gauze and all of them were bled through, covering almost the whole piece of gauze also. It didn't seem to be bleeding anymore, so I left it open. I went skating since he was doing so well. It went great. He was good for the sitter, she was impressed at how nothing had really changed with his mood because of it!

Wednesday I noticed some bleeding, so I covered that spot up with gauze again and called the clinic nurse. She wasn't too concerned, just told me to keep it covered. I took the kids to the park at the Roosevelt Early Childhood building. It was lots of fun. Dawson followed me in and spent about an hour playing. Afterward he followed me to the car without running off or throwing a tantrum! I was very impressed. He pouted a bit, kept looking back, but he followed me. I assured him that we would be back some other time and that seemed ok with him.

Dawson has been trying to say more lately. He'd been saying the same thing and I couldn't figure out what it was. I could make out "oh, hi" and the rest was babble. Then I realized he was copying what I say when he knocks on a door and I answer it. "oh hi, how are you!". Once I said it, he beamed and said it again. We practiced many times and he was excited about it. I said it slower and he was getting a couple more of the right sounds in there. He's definitely trying. He also likes saying "ooh yeah", "yee haw", "owie", "uh oh", "uh huh". He also has been adding "oh" to many things. He'll says "oh owie" and stuff like that, it's really cute.

He's been very helpful lately too. He helps people off with their coat and shoes. If I ask him to get my shoes or his shoes, he'll do it. Same with coats. He often just voluntarily gets them. He'll go so far as to put them on my feet, or at least over my toes. He gets Tyler's shoes too, tries to help zip up his coat and he buckles the chest clip on his carseat. He helped me make popcorn the other day. He helped pour the kernels into the measuring cup and then into the air popper. He picked up the cord and handed it to me, then watched it make the popcorn. He had already brought his chair over to watch. He's very observant to everything I do, seeing what else he can do to help. Of course then he gets his very own bowl of it. The other day he brought me the container of popcorn kernels in the morning, wanting them for breakfast! I told him we'd have them later, that seemed ok with him.

Dawson helps me pick up Tyler too. He'll hold him under the arms and lift him up with me. He doesn't really even bear any weight, but he feels good that he's helping. The other day Dawson was saying "uh oh!" and it was sounding urgent. I went over there and Dawson started trying to lift and shove Tyler at me. Turns out he had a smelly diaper! Dawson gave the funniest face of disgust and relief when I took Tyler away from him, it was hilarious!

Dawson's teacher is coming in the morning. I can't wait to tell her about his new improvements. She said last time that it sounds like we already have to re-write his IFSP (goals) because he's achieved most of them!

Tyler had Surgery! Hickman out, Port in.

Today was the big day! Dawson went to my mom's house, then Dan, Tyler and I all went to Children's. First we went to the clinic for the mandatory pre-op appointment. He passed! He weren't sure what they would think, since he had a cough this week, but it was down to barely anything. His lungs sounded great. They also gave us his chemo. He'll be on Methotrexate once a week, I have to crush 3 pills and put them in water, juice or something. He also gets 6-MP everyday. He'll get his counts checked at his appointment in 2 weeks. Then 2 weeks after that. If his counts have remained stable, they won't see him for a whole month! No counts for that month either. It's shocking! Unbelievable, exciting and very scary all at the same time!

His surgery was on time (shocking, they rarely are!), and everything went fairly smoothly. The Anesthesiologist talked with us, then the nurse, then the Surgeon (same one that did his first Hickman), then the Anesthesiologist came back to get me and Tyler. I went back with him. Got all gowned up, mask, hairnet and all. I held him until he was asleep. He looked around the room a bit and cuddled right into me. It was like he just knew something was going to happen. It was such a big room, that table looked so small and he looked even smaller! He went to sleep quickly, as he usually does.

They came in about an hour later and said the port was in. They were able to use the same path as the Hickman, so it went smoothly. They told me about 15-20 minutes later the Oncologist would have the Bone Marrow Biopsy and Spinal Tap done, then we'd get informed. Well 20 minutes went by, 40, an hour.....we still hadn't heard anything. Of course I kept thinking back to his first surgery. We hadn't heard from them in 2 hours. We made the lady in charge of the waiting room go check on his progress and found out that he hadn't woken up and they were having problems. So I asked the lady about him and she wasn't sure, but assured me that they'd come get him. The screen they have that they update said he'd been in recovery for 40 minutes. Quite a while to wake up! So I went back up there and told her that he'd had trouble with it in the past and I want to know what's going on. So she checked and they said everything is fine and they're coming to get him in 5 minutes. Whew!

They came and got us with him. He was awake but really groggy. I took him, he sighed at me and fell asleep again. He seemed so relieved to be back by me again. It must all be so confusing for him. We were brought to Short Stay, where they said as soon as he's alert and eating, we can go. He slept for an hour or 2, thankfully I had my sister's laptop to keep me partially sane throughout the day and be able to update people and concentrate on something else! He woke up, nursed, went back to sleep, woke up again and was very excited to see us, especially Daddy. He's a big Daddy's boy. :)  We left there around 5pm. It was such a long day. We'd both gotten about an hour of sleep, so we took turns driving to pick up Dawson. Thankfully we got a good night's rest because Tyler slept in!

 Tyler the night before surgery

Tyler's Hickman

After surgery, his face is red from the gas that helped sedate him. He had Propofol also.

Face is clearing up. He was getting fluids through the IV in his hand.

He woke up, nursed, slept, woke up again and was excited to see Daddy!

He was a little groggy, but in a great mood, considering!

After surgery. The top line is the incision they made to put in the port. The port is in the middle. It was accessed at the time, which is the round thing and the almost invisible tiny tube you see. Otherwise it's totally under the skin. All I can currently see is the little poke mark where the needle was. The bottom in the middle there is where the Hickman was. There's steri-strips on that. They should fall off on their own once it's healed. There was a lot of blood, it's just a small hole, not as bad as it looks. :)  The top one is as long as the blood mark, but is just a line of an incision. I noticed his hip bled a lot too. I wonder if his Platelets are down more because of all this. He bled through 6 double gauze pads! I just took that off tonight.

His face got a little flush again. They said it's common for the redness to come and go a bit. He tired himself out pretty quick, playing with Daddy and being excited. There was no calming him down until he got tired!

Once he stopped, he seemed to realize how tired he was. He leaned his head towards me, I held out my hand and he just plopped his tired head in my hand. It was so cute!

Even though he was so tired, he didn't seem to like the idea of laying down. We compromised, I put the bed to the sitting position and he was content laying back a bit but still sitting up enough to see things.

Poor tired little boy!

They had a board under his arm to keep it flat, like a splint. This was so he didn't bend much and kink the IV line. Thankfully they used his Hickman to put him under, then put in the IV while he was sleeping.

Croup, Thrush and Pizza

It's been a crazy few days for us. Been in contact with Tyler's nurses and Drs, both at Children's and Heartland, our town clinic. I took him in today after he got another fever and his cough is still really bad. He wasn't looking like he felt very good.

He has a couple spots of Thrush starting in the back of his throat and the Dr says his cough sounds like Croup. So he said to do a humidifier and also the cool air from outside. Sharp contrasts help he said. So first I turned on the shower on hot and closed the bedrooms to let it steam up the place. Tyler liked watching the water. With his fever gone, he was in a better mood. It was mostly the cough bugging him.

Working hard on those teeth. The top 4 are very close!

The patio door was steamed up! Dawson liked drawing on it.

Afterward we went out to play. Tyler loved the swing! First time to the playground this spring.

Dawson got to get some practice on the big swing. He's really good at balancing!

They played on the swings for at least 30 minutes!

Tuesday night Dawson enjoyed the pizza I brought home from skating. :)

Tyler was looking for hand me downs! I do feed him, I promise!!

He wasn't giving up, he followed me when I was cleaning the dishes too! I did try to give him a piece, it didn't work so well. He was still interested though.

Playing with one of his rubber bracelets.

Thought this shirt was cute

Words and Sharing

Dawson has been trying to imitate more sounds and words lately. He still acts pretty shy about it. If I'm trying to make him say something, it usually doesn't work, which can be frustrating. Often after I give up, or just out of the blue, then he says it. I had soup and crackers for supper. He wanted some crackers and I was trying to get him to say or sign "more". He didn't do it the first few time. Then the last time he came up to me and said "more", while signing it at the same time!

We have this fun routine when I change Tyler's diaper. Dawson runs in behind us, stands on the bottom shelf of the changing table and peeks up at Tyler. He loves it. He giggles at Dawson and then Dawson runs out of the room. Then I say "where is Dawson?" so he can hear me, and he runs back in the room and peeks up at Tyler again and I say "there's Dawson!!". Tonight when he ran back up to Tyler, he clearly said "Dawson". I said it again and he repeated it, but not as clear or whole as he did the first time. The 3rd time he just said the last part, but he seemed pleased with himself.

Tyler has a bit of a cough now but seems a lot better. He still needs his Zofran too, even though it's been a few weeks since he's had any chemo. He's been cruising furniture more lately and if I hold onto 1 arm, he can walk along side of me for a short ways. He still doesn't stand alone or anything though, he's too busy moving all the time to stand still I think! Tyler is getting his 1 year pictures taken on Wednesday, I'm excited to see how he'll do. Dawson was a big ham and smiled for every picture. I hope Tyler makes it pretty easy for us too!

No walk today, it's important to take a break sometimes. I did run some errands and tomorrow I'm going skating, so I didn't want to overdo it. I had a small muscle ache in my leg earlier today so I decided to take it easy today. It's feeling much better now.

 Dawson wanted his picture taken.

 He was smiling until the flash went off! His cheeks look orange because we had spaghetti and it always leaves his cheeks orange for a little while! He looks like he's got a nice tan started or something!

Tyler, looking bigger everyday it seems!

Dawson was playing peacefully with his shape sorter. One of his favorite toys.

Then along came Tyler, who also loves the toy! He was even able to put some of them in the other day!! Dawson saw Tyler and put his hand on the cover, knowing Tyler will take it off.

Tyler got it off anyway, Dawson took it away from him

Tyler took that opportunity to reach in and grab some shapes.

Poor Dawson, his little brother idolizes him and just wants to be involved with whatever he's doing! Tyler likes "helping" him with his mega blocks, his cars, and pretty much anything else he's doing. He even tries to take his food. Dawson is so patient, he never hits, just gently takes the toys back away from Tyler. Sometimes I'll sit down and we'll work on sharing, but if Dawson has had a rough day, or we've already done enough sharing, I'll put him on the couch or somewhere that Tyler can't reach him with his toys. Or I'll try to distract Tyler, which is very difficult! He's so determined! Usually nursing or cuddling works pretty good though. :) 

Long Walk and Spring Cleaning

Didn't get as much done as I wanted today. I did take a big plastic bag and filled it with clothes that don't fit and most of them I wouldn't wear even if I do get into them again! It sure doesn't take long to go through and clean out stuff like that. Probably only took me 10-15 minutes. :)

I also went for a long walk. I returned our Redbox movie, found a park I used to take the kids to and took the longest route through that big neighborhood. I was feeling pretty good after I got home, wasn't even that winded or tired. I took a break in the middle and I walked at a slightly slower pace this time. Towards the end I tried to jog a bit, but the stroller was shimmying. Dan is going to show me how to lock the front wheel for jogging. My total distance was 4.35 miles. Wow! I was thinking it'd be more like 3.5. Feels good to get out though, it was a beautiful day. The kids slept almost the entire walk. Hopefully they'll be awake for the park next time! Since I returned the movie first, it was at least 30 minutes before we got to the park.

We've had some minor injuries today. Dawson was standing on the oven door, and when he saw me coming he leaped off of it, falling and hitting his head on the floor. He got a little bit of a bloody nose from that. Then later he was playing with it again and one of Tyler's fingers got slammed in the oven door. There was a pretty good line and it was purple at first, but it went back to looking normal pretty quick and now he only has a tiny mark. We took down the gate by the kitchen for Tyler's birthday and I really like it like that, but we're thinking of putting it back up again. I'm trying to hold off on it but I hate for there to be too many injuries in the process!!

New Playmates

I had a busy couple of days this week! I watched those 2 kids, they are 6 months (boy) and almost 3 years (girl). The baby is pretty small for a 6 month old I think. Maybe I just have big babies though. Tyler seems huge next to him! He's a bit colicky and very clingy, but he does spend enough time on the floor for me to be able to nurse Tyler. Most of the time. The girl is very talkative and likes to tell Dawson what to do a lot, but Dawson really seems to like having someone to run around and play with. She keeps him busy for most of the day, it's nice! He's been going to bed a bit earlier too. It's nice having something to look forward to and having some playmates. I'm not really sure how regularly they'll be coming. I'm not watching them next week, since Tyler seems to be coming down with Dan's cold, despite him not hardly having any contact with him. She has 1 or 2 other sitters as well, so nobody gets too worn out and so she has backup if something comes up.

I'm getting tired of all this rain we've been having. Haven't been able to go for walks. I did tonight after it quit raining. The other night I worked out on the Wii, but it's not the same. Hopefully we'll have some sunny weather soon.

New Phone and Adorable Little Boys

After our exhausting Saturday night, we slept in Sunday and had a quiet day. We all went for a shorter walk, 1.5 miles. Then we did some shopping. It's always nice to shop with Dan. Much less work and it's nice having someone to talk to (who returns conversation!). We got everything but diapers.

Today (Monday) I had library movies due, plus I had to go get diapers. We stayed in most of the day and left around 7:30. After the library I went to Target. I had that $10 from Dan's parents to spend on him. I really couldn't find much so I ended up with just a toothbrush set so far. It has both the finger brush and regular toothbrush.

While in Target I got a phone call from the Library. She said one of the DVDs I returned was an empty case! I usually check them all, but we hadn't even watched the 2 Mickey Mouse ones much, they just weren't very interested. She said she renewed it for me, so I have 7 days to find and return it. I got home and looked in all the usual places and didn't find anything! I usually keep very good track of my stuff, but Dawson has been pulling things over and standing on them to reach things. I looked in his usual places that he puts things. I finally found it in the locked cabinet in the TV stand. He likes to slide things into cracks. So I'm thankful that I found it. Of course I can't exactly just throw the CD into the outside return, I'll have to go all the way in. We should have some more movies coming in later in the week though. I'm looking forward to that. I found more Word World at the library and ordered that.

I forgot to mention (I have no idea how!!), I got a new phone!! I'd been reading about it online and looking for it for the last few weeks and finally got it activated on March 4th. It's Straight Talk, through Walmart only. It's a branch of Tracfone that uses Verizon service, so it's supposed to be very good service. There's no contract, I just have to buy a Straight Talk card every 30 days to keep the phone active. With my Tracfone, I got 240 minutes for $29.99. Only because I had double minutes on my phone, otherwise the cards were just 120 minutes. There's only 2 cards available for Straight Talk. A $30 or $45 card. I got the $30 card, it's 1,000 minutes, 1,000 texts and 30MB of internet. The $45 card is unlimited calls, texts and internet, but honestly all I'll need is the smaller one I think! So I started small and we'll see how much I use. I can add another card if needed, but I doubt I'll need to. I can even have them automatically update my card if I want, but I don't think I will. We have automatic car insurance payments and it drives me nuts! I like to see it on paper and deal with it myself so I know what's going on.

We decided to splurge and get the nicer phone. I didn't want a flip phone, so this was the only non-flip option. It has a keypad that slides out and everything. I really never thought I'd ever get one like that! Sure would've been nice to have earlier, with ER visits, clinic trips and all that. To be able to update people on Facebook and check my email. It even has a voice command option, I can just say "call Dan" and it will! Crazy what they come up with these days. It has a calendar that lets me put in appointments or whatever I have going on and it'll alert me however many minutes or hours before the event. Has a camera phone, alarm and all that fun stuff. No games though, I guess games on your phone are a thing of the past? I personally found that useful when I'm really bored, but I guess with internet access, I won't be quite as bored. :)  Phone internet is about as slow as dial-up, but it's a lot better than nothing.

The phone was only available at certain Walmarts, so I had to stop in the Elk River Walmart twice to find it. It's the most popular, so it was out of stock the first time. I just did that on clinic days, I headed through the town going home anyway. Thankfully the cards are available anywhere, so I can get them here.

It's hard to get a decent pic of something with lights, but here it is. It looks way more shiny and impressive in person. :)

The keyboard comes in handy, easier to text and type in internet addresses

A pic of Tyler playing in the kitchen. He was being too cute to resist taking another pic. :)

He plays so well by himself, it's quite a treat. He doesn't get into too much yet. Today he found Dawson's uneaten cereal bar and squished it all over the carpet and onto his face, clothes and everything. Couldn't hardly be mad at him though, he came up to me with quite the dilemma. He was covered in sticky food and it just wasn't coming off. He crawled to my chair and showed me his hand. Then he stuck out his tongue, showing me the piece he had in there that he wanted out. It's cute how he sticks out his tongue for me to see sometimes. Though he doesn't always leave it out because it feels weird, he does try.

Tyler also ate something today! I believe 2 pieces of Crispix and a couple little yogurt melts made it past his tongue today. Usually he sticks it in and it comes back out. I'll be feeding him, thinking he's doing great and finally eating. Then I pick him out of his booster to find everything I've given him tucked away at the sides. He either throws it on the floor, or lately he's been putting it between the tray and his tummy. Just now he ate a tiny piece of crackers and cheese that I was eating.

Dawson has been changing some. He climbs into the car by himself. If I let him out of the stroller in the parking lot, he'll climb in the car and not try to run away. The same with going from the apartment to the car and back in again. He used to run towards the playground. Of course that's not an option right now, so we'll see how good he does once we start using the playground again. He also "helps" me pick up Tyler. When Tyler comes up to me at the computer wanting to eat, I'll reach down to pick him up and Dawson will be right there, putting his hands under Tyler's armpits and "helping" me lift him up. It's so cute! He doesn't shove him nearly as much as he used to, he seems more brotherly towards him now (in a good way!). He returns food to Tyler's tray and the little bottle of water I give him too. Now it's their little game, Tyler throws the bottle, Dawson gets it. Also in the mornings I nurse Tyler in bed. Dawson comes in to cuddle behind me until I'm done feeding Tyler. Then I put Tyler down on the floor, Dawson looks at him, gets down on his hands and knees and babbles something to him. Tyler grins and crawls off after Dawson and they play for a while. It's the cutest thing ever! It's nice that they're getting along better now. They still play on their own for the most part, but those few things they do together each day are just too cute. :)

Spontaneous Date Night!

I wasn't much looking forward to today. Dan went to the junkyard for a much needed part for my car, so I was home with the kids and bored. We played for a while and I went online. I'd planned on going for a walk as well. Dawson pushed the stroller over to the door and climbed in, so I took the hint and got them bundled up. It's been nice, but still a bit chilly after a while. Except for me, I get pretty warm from walking. I always try to walk briskly and get a good pace going to burn more calories. I walked around the neighborhood this time. I checked my phone to see how long I'd been walking, it was 30 minutes. When I pulled the phone out, the bug netting that was bunched up in with it fell out. I noticed it when I got closer to home, so I turned around and ended up walking around the block and did find it. Whew! I walked 2.3 miles today. I was a bit winded and tired in general, but not sore. I usually don't plan my routes, I just know the neighborhood and take turns depending on how I'm feeling at the time and how far I think I can walk. Then I go home and mapquest how far it was.

At this rate, the 5k in May will be a breeze! a 5k is 3.1 miles. I plan on walking it with the boys and Dan. We're doing one through a local Moms group online. It started out as fun, then someone decided to make it a fundraiser thing too. So we're raising money for the local food shelf, homeless shelters and those types of places (my ideas). It's still in planning stages yet. Then there's the Relay for Life in June, which is to raise money for Cancer research. I've been in contact with the lady who plans the one in St. Cloud, but now Dan's work is participating in the one in Becker! So I'm not quite sure what we're gonna do. I'd love to do both. One is in June and one in July, but they're 24 hour events! I guess we'll see how the first one goes. Plenty of time to think about it.

Speaking of Cancer, I recently signed up for the Bone Marrow Registry online. They sent me a packet with instructions on swabbing my cheek for a tissue sample. So I sent that in a few days ago. They say being a match for someone is about as likely as winning the lottery, but I wanted to anyway. You just never know if there's someone out there waiting for you to sign up because they have no other match. Bone Marrow donation isn't what it used to be. Instead of digging out Bone Marrow from your hips, they draw blood, separate the stem cells out of it and put the rest of your blood back. Much less painful and definitely worth it, if it means saving a life.

So back to my walk, I had just gotten home and decided to walk around Windsor Oaks (our neighboring apartment, it's a 1/2 mile loop), when my phone rang. It was our friend Brian, asking if we'd be able to go roller skating tonight! Well it was already 5:15pm, the session starts at 7pm! Dan still wasn't home, he'd need a shower and I'd have to find a babysitter in that short of notice. I told him this and said I'd work on it, all while wishing I hadn't taken such a long walk, since I was tired! I called Dan, he said he'd like to go if we could pull it off. So I called my sister since she hasn't seen the boys in a while, figured I'd give her first dibs, but she was busy. So I called the sitter I've been using, apologizing for it being such an insane short notice, but she said it was no problem at all. This girl is awesome! Dan got home, showered, the sitter showed up a bit earlier than I expected, so she played with the boys while we got ready, it worked out pretty well. We got Arby's drive through for supper, I discovered that they have really good $1 chicken sandwiches! I'm never getting a McChicken again, they are way too spicy these days. Anyway, we got to the rink around 7:15, still beating Brian there. It's funny how a boring day can become so hectic. I guess we're pretty used to it! At least this was for something good! We had a good time skating. Lots of kids and people who don't know how to skate well. I'm used to adult night, everyone is a good skater, they don't cut in front of you or form big lines holding hands that you have to get around. No crazy lights or fog machines. Maybe I'm getting old, but these just don't appeal to me! The fog machine has always bothered my asthma, so I requested they not do that anymore. Other than dealing with crazy kids, it was fun getting out and talking to Brian and Jessie again. The music wasn't too bad either, they did quite a bit of teen music, but they did play a variety. Hopefully we can make this a more regular (and planned!) event! Was nice getting out with Dan too, I miss that. I was very tired by the end of the night, but seemed to get a 2nd wind for the last 30 minutes of the session. I sure hope the boys let me sleep decent tonight! They went to bed a bit early, so I'm scared to think about what time they're gonna get up!

A Fun Friday

It was a very full day for us! First Dawson's teacher came. The door buzzer rang and he grinned at me and ran to answer it. I let her in the building and helped Dawson answer the door. He wasn't much into the books, he was still feeling a bit tired and just wanted to play by himself. He played with a small train track set for a while, then played with a ball toy. Once her hour was up, she left and Dawson was very upset. Thankfully about 5 minutes later the door buzzer rang again, it was Dan's package from his parents that I mentioned on his birthday post. Dawson loves getting the mail with me. He's getting quite fast at running down the hallway.

After that we had Maren come over with her 2 kids. She has a 2 1/2 year old girl and a 6 month old boy. It was fun chatting and watching the kids play. They haven't had much interaction with other kids. Tyler never has, so it was interesting! I'm babysitting them this coming Wednesday and Thursday from 2-8:30pm. Should be fun, I hope! I'm hoping to slowly get back into playdates and stuff, but we need to be careful of who we see. For now I'm limiting it to people with kids who aren't in school yet.

It was a very nice day out, so we walked to Vals to get burgers and shakes for supper. It was yummy! Haven't been there since last summer. It was quite a walk! Tyler fell asleep but Dawson stayed awake. He had part of our fish sandwich we got and some fries. Our walk was 1.6 miles! My last (first) walk was only 1/2 mile, so that was quite a difference! I was winded, but not too sore. Skating seems to have conditioned the legs quite a bit. :)  This was my 2nd time out with the jogger stroller and I noticed that the front wheel shakes when I walk fast. Dan looked at it that night and discovered the fork was very loose. It moved an inch or 2! He tightened it up and it's much better now!

By the time we got home they were both sleeping and leaning on each other, it was so cute!

Happy 36th Birthday Dan!!

For Dan's birthday, we made him a cake and a card. We weren't able to shop because Dawson was sick before, and too tired to bring anywhere. My parents gave Dan his presents at Tyler's party. He got a zip-up hooded sweatshirt, just what he wanted! A huge improvement over his old one that's been under many cars! He also got a battery powered lantern. Dan got a box in the mail today from his parents. He got a pull-over hooded sweatshirt and a $25 gift card for gas. He got a few snacks as well. He noticed a little card in with his stuff with Tyler's name on it. He got a card and $10 cash. Will have to find something to get him with that.

Tyler stirring the batter. He wasn't so thrilled about it. He preferred to watch.

Dawson stirring. He loved it!

Tyler loved watching!!

I'm not sure what's with the sudden serious looks! Had enough of the camera perhaps?

Making a cake is tiring work!

Dan's birthday card. I just had to draw the cake "Word World" style!! (for those of you who don't know, most things in the cartoon are made with the actual letters of the word somehow.)

Hand traces! Gotta love the wiggly thumbs and fingers. Dawson helped decorate the card, as you can see. :)

Dawson seemed excited to give Daddy his card and show him the cake we'd made when he came home from work. I wasn't sure if he'd get into it or not, but he seemed to pick up on the excitement. :)

Tyler's 1 Year Appointment

Tyler had his 1 year appointment with the pediatrician today. He lost 1 pound since last week. I'm hoping the scales are off or something, but I know he hasn't been eating quite as much because of that chemo. He weighed 20 pounds, 11 ounces. That's only 3 1/2 pounds up from where he was at his 4 month appointment when he was diagnosed! He looks good and the Dr said that's expected, from all he's been through. He's dropped to the 17th percentile. He started out in the upper 90's!

Dawson on the Bouncy Turtle

Tyler with his Lawn Mower

See the bruise on the side of his forehead? He's got 20-25 of those all over himself! Some are faint, some aren't. Poor baby! I sure hope they all fade soon.

Playing with my mouse. His favorite thing to get into when I'm on the computer. He likes the light inside it.

I got Tyler a new booster seat. He loves sitting at the table with the rest of us. Dawson was a bit jealous, but got over it pretty quickly. I'm leaving the tray on so it looks "babyish". Now Dawson isn't quite as interested.

The boys sitting at the table together. Cute! Tyler has since moved to the other end of the table though, so he's away from the carpet. :)

Dawson and Mommy. He still likes pics of himself and now likes it when I'm in there with him. :)

Tyler was feeling a bit under the weather from his chemo the other day. He loved being in the sling!

Dawson, sleeping on the couch after getting sick. Poor boy got a flu virus, but it was very short lived, thankfully. He only threw up once but took a good day of rest before he attempted being up and around much

Tyler has discovered a new way to travel...with toys!!

They do fall out if he smiles at someone though!