It's Been 1 Year Since Diagnosis!!

It sure has been a really long year, but we made it. Halfway done with treatment! We have 1 year to go, or 52 weeks or 363 days, whichever sounds better, I haven't decided yet (see sidebar). ;)  He just got put back on chemo because his counts came back great! Yay for good counts! Now I don't have to worry so much during our trip. It was nice only bringing Tyler into the clinic for once. I didn't even have to use the stroller! It's been a while since that's happened. He weighed 21 pounds 15 ounces. 1 ounce up from a couple weeks ago. Hopefully he'll continue to gain!

Here's Tyler with Dr. Brew, his pediatrician who found the Leukemia and sent us to Children's. Tyler wasn't so thrilled, we had just poked his finger for labs and did an exam. Perhaps I should have thought to break out the camera before we tortured him.

Dawson went to school again today. He cried when I put him on the bus, but when I got him off the bus he grinned and said "bus, happy". So maybe that was him reassuring me that he had a good day? I checked his communication notebook and sure enough, his teacher said he had a good day. He still loves to count, he can do 2-6 now. He skips 1 for some reason and pauses after 6 to have me say the rest. Just last week he was just doing 2-3, then 2-4. He counts everything. Boxes on shelves in the store, people, whatever he finds he can count.
He also tries to recognize letters. While unloading groceries tonight, I had put in a Blues Clues movie for the boys so I can get things done. Dawson met me at the door saying J-O-E! Joe! Wow. He's definitely very interested in learning lately and it's been a lot of fun. We point out letters and words in the store, as well as colors and shapes. I pretty much let him decide when he wants to. I'll point things out sometimes, but it's rarely necessary. He's usually busy saying HI! to everyone in the store or counting things. In Target he wanted to walk, so I let him. That went well at first, but slowly he started defying his limits and ended up back in the stroller. He pushed it for a while and was listening well for longer than I expected, so I was happy with his progress. :)

Dawson has been fulfilling his duty as the troublesome toddler. Yesterday he brought me 5 squished bananas, because he'd tried to open them. I had to clean up pop that he'd gotten out of the fridge and spilled under the fridge. He kept stopping the music I was playing, it's a rare treat for a reason. It's hardly worth the battle to try to listen to it! He also tried to help me with supper while I changed Tyler. He's very good about knowing that the stove is hot, but still thinks it's his job to stir whatever I have cooking. He slopped the stuff all over the stove, so I had that to clean up when I got back.

I cleaned out the diaper bag and reorganized using a smaller bag since I don't need to carry the central line kit with me anymore and they're using less diapers on an outing now. By smaller I mean I was using a really huge one and now I'm using a regular diaper bag sized one. I went out of the room, for either a Tyler diaper or to use the bathroom and came back out to find the contents of my nicely arranged diaper bag all over the floor and Dawson was eating a sucker he found hidden in there!

Dan found out how 'fun' he is this morning when he was watching him while I napped. I hadn't gotten much sleep last night, so Tyler and I took a nap. Dawson squished a banana into the mini trampoline, found the kitchen garbage bag roll and ran with it from our room to the living room, thus unraveling it the entire way. While Dan was fixing that, he hid my hairbrush and then ran off with the 2nd roll of garbage bags. All this was within about 10 minutes. I think Dan looked happy to be heading to work!

Jenny and I got out on a much needed sanity date on Monday. We went to Olive Garden, Munsinger Gardens and Target. Us moms can't get out of the house without taking advantage of the peaceful shopping. ;)  It was relaxing to get out again.

Tyler without a shirt. He was getting really hot. You can see the bump from his port and I hate how his ribs stick out these days! He needs some more meat on his bones.

Tyler's scar is still pretty dark but it seems shorter now for some reason

Dawson put on a big smile for the camera

It's tough choosing pics to post here when my subject is so darn cute! So here's a bunch of my youngest cute boy. :) 

I'm loving the zoom on my camera. Here's the moon tonight. If you click to make it bigger you can see the little craters around the edges on the left. Those darker spots are lower spots on the moon. The view was clearer on the camera, I was having a hard time holding still enough to focus good with Tyler bouncing around next to me.

Happy 14 months Tyler!

 Tyler is 14 months today! On one hand, I can't believe he's already 14 months, seems like he just turned 1! On the other hand, each month that passes is a month closer to being done with chemo, so that's exciting. Though really, it seems like such a ways off that the "sad that he's growing" part of things seems stronger for now. He's looking so much older too, everyone who sees him lately has been commenting on how much he's changed. His face looks older and him getting hair helps the older look too.

Today was fun. We went to a MOMS Club playdate at Nicole's house and met some new kids. We stayed there for 2 hours. Dawson was unsure of the new place at first, but when it came time to go he was running away from me, saying "happy". I guess he was happy there and didn't want to leave! We played outside for a while after we got home and went for a small walk. The lawn mowing company came after that, so they spent the next hour watching the lawn mowers!

Things are going a little better with Tyler's meds. He seems to be swallowing more than he was before. He still fights me and often holds a grudge for a little while afterward though. Here he is, sitting on daddy's lap, glaring at me for giving him his meds.

While getting some cleaning done in their room, I put a movie on. I came out to check on them since they were being pretty quiet and here's what I found! Dawson has been allowing Tyler to be closer to him these days, it's so cute! I love seeing them play together and get along. I even found them wrestling on the floor today. I heard some grunting and small cries from Tyler today. Looked over to see Dawson had pinned his head to the floor and wasn't letting up. Then when I told him to let go, he did, but then proceeded to roll onto Tyler, pinning him down again! Then when he got up and crawled away again, Dawson head-butted him, trying to knock him over. Tyler giggled at that one, so it's nice to know that he actually does enjoy Dawson's attempts to play with him. He is fairly gentle about it too, I've seen much worse. Dawson does seem to be pretty careful but like any kid, he gets to playing and sometimes goes overboard and gets a bit rough.

Dawson even decided to share the last half of his cereal bar with Tyler tonight! He won't eat food yet, but he sure loves playing with it. He was putting some in his mouth, but I think most got spit out. He mostly licks things yet. He was a big mess but having lots of fun. Thank goodness for throw blankets on the couch, I just shook it out and it was back to being clean again. Doesn't he look so much older these days?!

While I was shaking the blanket outside, Dawson got to my camera and added some of his own photography

That last one is off center because I had walked back in the room and he moved the camera in hopes that I don't see it! He was all giggles when I looked and saw his pictures on there. I can't say I mind him taking pics either, it's so cute to find these kinds of surprises!

Dawson has been doing great lately. He listens to directions more, he's pointing to things, which is one of his objectives. He's picking up more new words lately, 1-2 each week it seems. He recently said "shoes" and "juice". Today I think he said "milk" also. His teacher is always excited to hear about new words and especially things that are on his list of goals. I even found him driving 2 little cars around and talking to them the other day. He hasn't done any imaginative play or anything like that yet, so it was cute to see. It seems to help when I show Tyler how to do something, then Dawson is interested in it too and imitates. If I show Dawson, he's not quite as interested! Funny how that works.

I also turned Dawson's carseat forward facing today. He didn't like it at all, but I think once he gets used to it, he should be fine though. He has ridden that way before, I just think he was tired at the time. He really likes sleeping in the car and being more relaxed and he really can't while sitting up that far, so it'll be a big change for him. He's usually asleep before Tyler is these days! Tyler is still in his infant carrier and will probably be there for quite some time unless he has a sudden big growth spurt!

Making Progress

We've been very busy here lately. Lots going on and no time at the end of the day to make a post! Unfortunately we have some cold/allergy thing here now. I've been stuffed up. I thought it was allergies, but today I was extremely tired and achy, so I'm thinking it's a cold. Dawson seems to have the same thing tonight, he went to bed early, but woke up later, moaning. Tyler has been sneezing some and sleeping a lot, but seems ok.

I've been getting some spring cleaning done. We found a set of bunk beds by the dumpster, we have some people moving out and throwing a lot of things away. So I had to clean out to make room for that until we get hardware and stuff to set it up with. I got a bookshelf cleaned off and all the boy's books on it. I got the winter stuff out of their dressers and put some summer clothes in it. I still need to find the rest of Dawson's summer clothes. I know where they are, just have to sort through the bag. I found summer stuff for Tyler and a few new outfits for Dawson at a couple of sales recently, so I think we're set for a while, unless someone has  major growth spurt.

Dawson has been doing great. He has new words coming more frequently now. He loves helping me cook and make things. He goes into the kitchen and says "eat", then happily pushes his chair over to the counter to help me out. Today I asked him to give Tyler a yogurt melt and tell him to eat it and that it's yummy. I wasn't expecting him to actually say it! He said "baby, num num" and tried to put it right in Tyler's mouth. Tyler then took it and actually considered eating it. He also said "banana" today, while I was making banana bread. He babbles at people just like he thinks he's carrying on a conversation with them, it's really cute.

Tyler has been doing good too. He had an infection in his diaper area, but after using some Bactroban on it, it seems to be better. I still made an appointment with the pediatrician like they suggested. That will double as his pre-op appointment, so now we won't have to get to the hospital quite so early this time. Now we have to be there at 11:30am, instead of  10am. Unfortunately now that road construction has started, we have to leave more time for delays and stuff. I'm just glad we don't have to go back and forth as much as we did last summer, that was horrible dealing with all that road construction on the freeway.

I got a call from the county, they added up Tyler's 1 year questionnaire results and it showed that he's behind on Communication and Problem Solving. She went over my answers to see if he's doing any of those things now and he's no longer behind in the Problem Solving. He started doing some of those things shortly after I sent it off, so I wasn't too surprised at that. He seems to figure out things pretty quick. They are sending a request into the school district to have a teacher come out for Tyler, like they do for Dawson. They are impressed that he's doing so well on chemo. It usually messes with their Neurological development, but he seems to be doing ok so far. They still want to keep on top of things though, which is good.

Tyler on Easter at my Grandma's house. He really needed a good nap.

Dawson after his haircut. I wasn't too impressed, they left a lot of long hair I thought, so I cut it shorter. Maybe I'll just do it myself from now on.

Tyler in his infant carrier. He has so much growing room at the top yet! I have a feeling he'll be in that for quite some time. I'm very happy about that, I'm hoping to at least make it through the summer so he can have the sun protection. I just have to find the sunshade I bought for it last summer. It seems to have gotten lost in the crazy shuffle of all our inpatient stuff last summer. I didn't need it anymore, I know I brought it home, but who knows where I tossed it to deal with it later!

Tyler crawling around. He really gets around everywhere now. He prefers cruising furniture and things if possible. I'm sure he'll be walking before we know it.

Dawson trying on the baby sunglasses. They don't quite fit him because they just wrap around his head and the band is small, so it falls and pushes on his ears. At least he's interested in them now. I think I'll get him his own pair for this summer. I also need to find Tyler a hat for his little bald head! He'll be very prone to sunburn with his very pale skin.

Tyler's chest x-ray showing his flipped port. Thankfully it flipped back on it's own.

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!