Cool dudes

My nephew and his friends getting ready for prom. Take a guess which one is related to me.
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My mascot

He stands guard on top of my monitor while I do important police work...like write up dog bite reports.
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Easter 2009

After going to Florida and meeting Mickey, Minnie, Winnie and Goofy, meeting the Easter Bunny is no big deal!

Life Goes On, with as much fun as possible

Regrouping. This coming Saturday will be Emma's 3rd birthday. She loves "The Wizard of Oz" and carries around a little stuffed dog named Toto in a basket, so guess what the theme will be? They've put out an open invitation to their friends and are going to do a toy exchange instead of gifts. Punch and cake for the kids, adults bring their own beverage, and everybody welcome. I think that's a fabulous idea! Stay tuned for photos of the big event!

Emma was never able to swim or even take a bath because of her chest port, but that was removed in December, so Mom & Dad took her to a water park last weekend. First she said no thank you, she'd just watch from the side, but naturally it didn't take long before she was having a ball! She still thinks her baby brother is her own personal baby doll and loves to take care of him.
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Not what we wanted to hear

Two weeks ago routine tests showed that Emma's leukemia is back. Two days ago we had the official meeting with the doctors. They estimate she has six months. She is feeling fine, and probably will continue to feel relatively well for quite a while, getting most of her chemo treatments at home. The chemo will only slow the leukemia down, though.

In two weeks she'll be 3 years old. What can you say? We're not handling it well right now. Her parents and grandparents are planning as much fun for her as they reasonably can for the spring and summer. First on the list is a trip to Lexington, Kentucky, to see the thoroughbreds. She adores horses.

Don't sweat the small stuff

Emma has had three Christmases so far. The first one she spent in the hospital, newly released from the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, wearing a Santa hat while getting chemo in her hospital baby bed. Her second Christmas she got to be home, with her leukemia in remission (we thought), and she had a great time. Now, a year later, she spent her third Christmas in a hospital room. It wasn't the Christmas we had planned, but nobody's complaining. She is more than 100 days post-transplant, and her new bone marrow is chugging right along, with all her test results showing only the donor cells and no leukemia lurking in her spinal fluid. She can go out in public as long as she wears a surgical mask, which she doesn't mind doing. The only problem she's been having are intermittent mysterious fevers, which require intravenous antibiotics through her chest port.

Her oncologist suspected the culprit might be bacteria hiding in her chest port, which was implanted more than a year ago, but removing it would mean every time she needed an IV they'd have to stick her, and nobody wants to stick a 2-1/2-year-old if they don't have to. However, a sudden fever spike (and pneumonia) just before Christmas settled the question, and on Christmas Eve the port was removed. Sure enough, the surgeon told Emma's mom that they found "a lump of gunk" growing on the end of the port (she made them bring it out so she could see for herself). Emma bounced right back and came home the day after Christmas with a PICC line in her arm, so she can still get IV meds without having to be stuck. She is still surprised when she pulls up her shirt, saying "My lines are gone!" because she had those IV lines coming out of her chest for as long as she could remember. Now she just has one line in her arm, and she helps her mom and dad put her medicine in three times a day for 30 minutes, carrying the pump around by herself when she wants to go somewhere while she's getting her medicine.

Christmas Day might have been spent in the hospital, but it wasn't a bad day. The nurses spoil her rotten, and she's known some of them her whole life. She spent the morning opening presents with Mom & Dad like any other kid, and she got to show everything to her new baby brother. She didn't care that the nurses were there too. The next day she came home and opened more presents, and the only thing she was unhappy about was the fact that she wasn't allowed to turn somersaults while her medicine pump was hooked up. She's eating well and filling out, and while her hair is still pretty short, there's plenty of it now!

Nope, no complaints.

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Emma & Cameron meet Santa

Emma's met Santa before, and in her head she knows that underneath that beard is PawPaw Tim, but it's still just weird when you're 2! She was happy to talk to Santa and tell him she would like to have a new baby doll, but she absolutely refused to sit on his lap. When Grandma Chris asked her where Pawpaw Tim was, Emma pointed to Santa and whispered, "He's right there." She knew that was her grandpa...but at the same time it wasn't.
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