New Hat

Tony needed a good SPF sun hat to protect him whenever he goes outside. Because of all the radiation he got, he is at a very high risk of severe sunburn. The Graft vs. Host disease can also act up when he is in the sun too much. We thought Jack looked pretty good in the hat as well. My handsome boys.

Easter Egg Hunt

The Falls Church City Easter Egg Hunt is at the park every year. Jack had a lot of fun waiting for the hunt to begin. They have an awesome playground for toddlers (as well as the regular sized playground), and they had a swing that my little speed demon just loved. 

It's always a gamble when you hand your little toddler to a random bunny rabbit, but Jack took it like a champ. The second he was in Mr. Bunny's arms, he gave him a big hug and said "awww." It took me awhile to convince the Rabbit to give him back.

The hunt begins. Jack was just so excited to be a part of such a big group of kids. He didn't get the whole, fill the basket, thing. He picked up a pencil and an egg and then sat down, happy as a clam. 

Here are a few pictures of the gang. We had a good time this morning. The weather was beautiful.

No More Cancer!

We got the final results from the Bone Marrow Biopsy and they found no evidence of MDS. In other words, no more cancer. We were so excited to receive this news! Thanks so much for all of the support everyone.

However, Tony is still having problems with diarrhea and nausea. He also has a slight skin rash on his face. The doctors are worried that it is Graft vs. Host disease (where the new stem cells attack parts of his body). He is getting a colonoscopy on Monday where they will be biopsy-ing several parts of his GI tract. They are starting at "both ends of the tube." (going up through the bum and down through the throat). Needless to say, he is grateful that he will be put out for this. No one should have to be awake through something like that. On a positive note, they have come out with a new kind of drink for people before a colonoscopy. The doctor just told Tony to pick a flavor of Gatorade and then add the supposedly flavorless powder to it. No more icky drink. 

As always, prayers are appreciated. We have been so grateful for all the love and support we have been shown through this crazy time in our lives. We love you all!

The Spoiling Continues

Jack loves his new jungle gym. I got it from the thrift store today. It took me about 30 min to clean it up (it was obviously an outdoor toy in another life), and then I set it up in Jack's playroom. He wasn't quite tall enough to climb up onto the platform, but he did figure out how to climb up the slide. He can also climb down off of the platform feet first. He had a very fun day full of laughs. I am glad he loves it so much because it does take up quite a bit of room.

http://youtu.be/6XTvlENBugU

Snow and New Hair

This is what it looked like out our window yesterday. I real winter snow. Of course, now there is no trace that it ever snowed yesterday. It is very brown outside.

Tony's hair is finally starting to grow back. He is both excited and annoyed. Excited to have hair, annoyed that now he has to start shaving again. Arduous. 

Positive Preliminary Results

Last Wednesday Tony had a Bone Marrow Biopsy to check for cancer cells. That is protocol after a transplant. Day 100 is Bone Marrow Biopsy. We have results back from the bone marrow and there were no cancer cells. We are still waiting on the results on the actual bone. But so far, so good. Tony is starting to feel quite a bit better. We just need the weather to warm up so we can get him outside and walking more. 

Last week Jack and I were both sick. Wednesday afternoon he started throwing up, and then came the fever, and then the diarrhea. He was sick for 3 days. Poor little guy. I wish I would have taken a picture though, because he just sat in my lap for 2 hours. (New record). He was so sick, he didn't want to move. It broke my heart, but I secretly loved cuddling with him. Luckily, neither Tony or I caught Jack's bug, but I got a horrible cold. It was a mean one. Jack and I ended up avoiding Tony, (so we wouldn't get him sick), so I ended up sleeping in Jack's room. And Friday was the day that I finally broke. We were rushing from Jack's appointment to Tony's appointment, and there was laundry all over the house, and then our costco sized liquid laundry detergent fell off of the top of the dryer and broke open. Green goo everywhere. I ended up calling in reinforcements because there was no way I could get it all done on my own. (Jack had 5 diarrhea diapers in 1 hour). So thank you to my wonderful reinforcements. I could not have done it without you. 

Jack is turning into quite the book worm. As you can see, he is surrounded by his books, and he reads them over and over. He can spend quite a bit of time just flipping through pages. I told him to look up at me for the picture and he was like "mom, stop distracting me." He is such a character. 

We had around 6 inches of snow outside when we woke up this morning. I think that Virginia forgot that it is supposed to be spring. They were originally predicting the peak of the cherry blossoms to be next week......I don't think that's gonna happen. We still look like winter out here, but we have been keeping the bird bath and bird feeder full outside our window, and it is fun to watch the critters. The birds had no idea that they were returning too early. We counted 15 robins out on the lawn yesterday. It was a very cool sight.

Luck O' the Irish

We had a fabulous St. Patrick's day dinner with these awesome folks. Corned Beef, potatoes, carrots, green jello salad, Irish soda bread, and brownies (no cabbage, because none of us like cabbage...). And as you can see, we were very green. These were 2 of my favorite pictures that we took. The top one is especially awesome because of the face JC is pulling. 

Little Stud

Jack was soooo excited to see his dad after church. He came running through the front door saying "dadda."

They don't come much cuter than my little man. Isn't he such a mini stud. 

An "Unexpected Bluray"

We were very excited today to open a package and find "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" on bluray, dvd, and digital copy with a wonderful note attached. After I mailed Peter Jackson a letter telling him about Tony's situation and how he couldn't see the Hobbit in theaters because of his immunosuppression, his 'people' sent a copy of my letter to Warner Bros, who then sent us this! Sometimes it's nice to remember how awesome people are. This was very generous of them, especially since they don't know us personally. Thank you Warner Bros! You rock! I haven't seen Tony this excited in a long time. He has been waiting for it to come out on DVD next week, but now we get to see it a week early. Jack could sense the excitement too as you can tell in this picture. He is not sure what he is holding, but he knows that it is exciting. A J.R.R. Tolkien fan in the making. 

Birthday BBQ (Jack turns 1)

We had a fantastic BBQ for Jack's birthday. We were celebrating Jack's, Channa's, and Autumn's birthdays. March is a good month to be born apparently. Jack and Walden had a good time playing together when Jack decided to hold still for half a minute.

And here is the one year old cake! It was a truck. You can't really tell in the picture, sorry. It has donuts for wheels.

Jack wasn't too thrilled about the cake. He would get a little bit of frosting on his fingers, and then lick them. Then he would cringe. We haven't given him many sweet things, so I think this was just too much for him. He started taking the wheels off and throwing them on the ground. 

This was about as blue as he got. 

Then we took the cake inside. It was so funny because Jack decided to be a duck. He was walking around with his hands tucked behind his back. It was soooo cute.

The girls decided to help Jack with his cake.

This was the end of Jack's truck cake. And you can't tell very well, but I ended up with more blue frosting on me than Jack had on him. He would stick his hands in the frosting and then come give me a hug. Such a silly little guy.

It's a Beautiful Day!

We had beautiful weather today (63 degrees), so we decided to head down to the Tidal Basin for Brad's last day here. (He flies out tomorrow). We had a good time. Tony was pretty tired when we got home, but he loved the weather so much and was in good spirits for the walk. I took a couple of pictures of Jack. He spent quite a bit of time out of the stroller, terrorizing the tourists. He's getting to be a really good walker. 

Blood Brother

Today at the doctor's office we found out Tony is super neutropenic. (His white blood cells are low). He had to get another shot (he got one earlier this week as well) to help boost his blood counts. They are not positive what is causing the counts to drop. But they are hoping that as they fight the bacterial infection in his lungs, the blood counts will come back up. 

We got a nice surprise at the doctor as well. Tony got a letter from his donor. He couldn't put his name or any personal information in the letter, (personal contact is not allowed for 2 years after the donation/transplant. They have had problems in the past, so any contact must be made anonymously through the Be the Match foundation), but it was a really heart-felt letter. He said that he had heard that the cells were working in Tony's body and that he was getting better. He said that he was so happy that his whole body starting shaking. It was one of the sweetest things I have ever read. We have sent a letter in return. We are so grateful that there are people out there that can care so much about a complete stranger. Thank you donor! We could never thank you enough. 

For some more fun news: we broke the record for morning Zumba attendance this morning. I had 18 people come to my class today. It was really fun. I love having such a supportive community. Jack is now walking 90% of the time. It is so fun to watch him toddle around the gym while I teach. He is just barely short enough to fit under the lip of the stage. We have been placing bets on how long it will be before he won't fit anymore and he bonks his head.  

The Ups and Downs

We have had an interesting week. Some great stuff, and some not so great stuff. We have had Brad here visiting (part of the great stuff). The boys have been getting some "serious gaming" in, which is great cause the weather has been pretty bad, so we have been cooped up. Monday night was our "not so great" day. We found out Amanda wouldn't be able to visit, (but can hopefully come later) and then Tony started having some severe pain in his chest. We called his doctor and were told to head to the Emergency room. For those that don't remember, last time we went to the ER it was also on a Monday. They say Monday nights are their busiest, so we were not excited. Gratefully, it was not quite as busy this time. We were able to get in relatively quickly. Based on his symptoms, they thought he had a blood clot in his lung, so we spent about 5 hours in the ER determining the problem. All of the tests came back negative for blood clots, but he does have a bacterial infection in his lung. So now that he is getting over his viral pneumonia, he has bacterial pneumonia....but at least this one is easier to fix. (And it is better than a blot clot). We got home just after 4 in the morning. Needless to say, we all slept during Jack's nap. 

Today was a pretty good day for all. Tony hasn't thrown up and his chest pain isn't as bad. I got to teach Zumba twice today (once at my regular time, and once to the scouts at 7:00). We did get hit pretty hard by the snow storm though. This is the most snow I've seen since we moved out here. I am guessing it is around 6 inches...maybe more. Someone built a sweet snowman at the entrance to our complex. Jack also had a very good day. He loved going to Zumba to play with all his friends and he took a really good nap today. He was so excited to go today. I put his coat on him and then went to get some of my stuff. Then I turned around and he was walking toward me with a shoe and his beanie. So cute. He knew what else he needed before we could go. He is also walking around like crazy. He's getting pretty good at it. 

Jack has been having lots of fun with peek-a-boo lately. Here is a video we took today.

http://youtu.be/-vqBC2ZLdkg

We also were able to play Star Trek Catan tonight after Jack went to bed. Brad creamed us. (Not bad for his first time playing the Star Trek version). Brad was Orange, I was blue, and Tony was red. It still stands as my favorite board game (even though I still haven't ever won).