A little slower.. Day 336 14OCT09

Joshua took life a little slower today. The last few days have worn him down and he was feeling kind of run down. He spent the day playing and taking it easy.

I understand I missed a rousing game of Monopoly and a scrumptious home made lasagna dinner courtesy of Alyssa who was also the Monopoly champ for the night. I did manage to get a little lasagna when I got home and man was it tasty. Tomorrow is our last day with everyone here. They unfortunately are leaving for their own corners of the world tomorrow afternoon.

Tuckered out.. Day 335 13OCT09

Joshua had a full day today starting with school at 8 this morning. He took his assessment test today for school and seemed to do pretty good. The chemo fog decided not to visit this time.
After lunch we all headed over to the pool for a little swimming and sliding action. The boys played and played and if they are half as tired as I am it is a miracle that they kept going. As it turned out they went off to bed rather early tonight after I left for work. Renee said Josh had a major meltdown over some simple argument with his brother. Hope that it is not signaling the fact that he is getting sick or his counts are going down. It usually does.

We are really enjoying hanging out with the family!

Dream delivered!... Day 334 12OCT09

Joshua got his dream delivered today. Kristin his Dream co-ordinator from the Children's Dream Fund came by at 11 to give Joshua all the details about his dream trip to Lego Land in California. The trip she put together is nothing short of amazing. She has taken care of every detail and Joshua was very excited. He can't wait until he gets to go, we are all counting the days until we leave. I am sure it will be an experience that he will never forget.

The rest of the day was a huge celebration of family. Jamie, Christian, Allie, and Bella were here. My mom is here. Renee's mom and dad were over. My brother Eric and his wife Alyssa and son Dylan are here for a few days. It was definitely a gathering! This is the first time we have seen Dylan in person and he is a charmer. We all had a great dinner and sat around catching up on life.

Bisnonna got to hold her great grand daughter for the first time today! How cool is that.

Joshua went to the clinic this morning before all the fun started and his counts have stayed good. His ANC is 1272 which is an reasonable number. Hopefully he is leveling out and will stay relatively constant from now on. Only time will tell. For now he is feeling great and has lots of energy and we love it.

Nonna's back in town.. Day 333 11OCT09

Oh yeah Nonna's back in town! I picked her up at the airport around lunchtime and whisked her back to the house where Joshua and Jarrod were waiting. They both had tons of things that they had been waiting to do with her. Joshua was waiting to build a robot. He managed to get it assembled and half painted. The rest will be finished tomorrow. Pictures to follow.

Jarrod put on his bakers hat and whipped up a delicious batch of oatmeal scothchies.

Evil cookies.

Impossible to eat just one.

Willpower fading fast.

Must resist...

Well, maybe just one more.

We had our usual Sunday dinner. Joshua took this picture to share this week.

The rest of the evening was spent playing games and mostly letting the boys show off all the skills they have developed since the last time she was here. It is great to have her back, she lives much too far away.

Dinosaurs and Hockey.. Day 332 10OCT09

If dinosaurs played hockey we would need bigger ice rinks.

Joshua had a busy day. He started off with a birthday party at Dinosaur World for his friend Preston. It was a lot of fun but man was it hot. We walked around after the party and looked at all the dinosaurs and it flat wore us all out. All of the kids were beet red and soaked by the time they finished playing. We retreated to the coolness of home for the afternoon to get a little rest and a lot of hydration.

After dinner we were off for the hockey game. We had been given tickets for tonight's game by the Children's Cancer Center and it included a meeting with #91 Steven Stamkos after the game. The Lighting played awesome and won 5-2. They scored two goals in under 30 seconds! it was a pretty exciting game and broke the curse I have brought to the previous games. Afterwards we went down under the stadium to meet Steven. He was a great guy and is only 19 years old yet is playing in the NHL. He played in Sarnia, Canada before he came down to Tampa which is right across the river from where Renee was born and where her family is from. He is a supporter of children's cancer and a good player to boot. He signed Joshua's jersey and the puck he got at the last game he went to.

Tomorrow is an auspicious day as Nonna is coming to town to visit! She will arrive right about lunchtime and we are all excited that she will be with us for a little while.

IVIG Round two.. Day 331 09OCT09

The nurse was here at 8:30 this morning to give Joshua his IVIG transfusion. He was pre-medicated with Atarax and it seemed to do the trick. At no time during the six hour transfusion did he have any problems or complaints. He was a little tired afterwards but otherwise unscathed.

I sat next to him this morning on the couch and graded midterm exams from school while he got his transfusion. It struck me how totally normal it felt to be sitting next to a child with a plastic tube coming out of his chest listening to the soft whirr and click of an IV pump. How casually you glance down every once in a while and quickly scan the tubing for air bubbles. How totally wrong it is that we consider this normal in the first place.

I had to leave for work soon after but the rest of the family got the treat of baby sitting for Allie this evening while Jamie and Christian got a night out. She was sleeping when I got home so I didn't get any Grand dad time in this time. I will just have to save it up for next time.

Full day.. Day 330 08OCT09

Joshua had a full dance card today. He started with a visit from a nurse to get him ready for his IVIG transfusion that will take place tomorrow here at home.

Not long after she left Chrsitian, Jamie, Allie, and of course Bella came over to spend the afternoon with us. Allie is doing great and Jamie looks wonderful. Christian and Bella still look pretty much the same as always. Allie is of course our cutest grand child and is a welcome addition to our family. Renee and I are really starting to enjoy the whole grand parenting thing. It is a lot of fun and did I mention it involves having cookies on hand at all times. Yeah!

Joshua surprised us all by riding Jarrod's bike up and down the street. It is so much bigger than his bike but he rode it like a champ. That child has no fear.

At five we all packed into the car to head out for dinner at the Children's Cancer Center. The kids had a lot of fun eating cupcakes (after dinner of course) and learning how to master, or at least attempt to master, the time honored tradition of the Hula-hoop which has been around since 1957 (just a quick shout out to all you trivia nerds ;). It was a fun evening for all. Tomorrow will be a long day for Josh but I am sure he will rip through it with his usual tenacity.