A Proud Daddy

Last Monday was a proud day for Jeff--his two boys learned to ski all by themselves! I think he was more excited about it than they were... (beware there are a ton of photos. I could not help myself and you will see why as you scroll down!) Jake was not thrilled that Coletrain beat him out and got to go first... Jeff held the rope and pa held them steady in the water.

Getting instructions on what to do from Pa...

Not a care in the world. He doesn't even think about what he is doing--in fact I am not even sure he paid attention to the instructions he was given

Second try he was up and at 'em. And mighty proud of himself at that!

Brrrr! Awfully cold and awfully proud. Can you tell by that little smirk?

And now on to Jake.

Of course he received the same instructions as Cole. The difference is that he paid attention. Too much attention. He thinks about what he has to do way too hard. "Are my arms straight?, When do I stand up?, Where do I put my little pinky finger so that I can get into the perfect position?" That thinking too hard caused this.

And this.

And again.

Etc. Etc. Etc. I lost count how many times he tried. He wanted to get up so badly. And of course he started to get mad. I will spare you the details and pictures of that temper tantrum of how "Cole is better than I am because he got up the second try and I can't get up at all." Apparently the competition begins at a young age. Why was I never told this?

So after a small pep talk that we never give up and keep trying. We got this the first try.

Is that not the greatest smile? He could not have been more excited.

The only reason that he stopped is because we ran out of lake. He even contemplated going over the wake and zigzagged back and forth behind that boat. He was awfully proud and wanted to go again and again. In fact we still have not stopped hearing about "the next time I go skiing!"

Can two boys be more different? One is a perfectionist and has to have everything done perfect the first time and the other just wants to have fun and be crazy 24 hours a day. Life is never dull with the two of them around!

(I forgot... for those of you who NEED to know--Jake's counts have gone up to 1400! Yeah! We were shocked that they had raised so much and are keeping our fingers crossed that they will stay high. He has started on 25% of his normal dose of chemo and we will see where that takes us. It is so nice to not have crappy news.)

fun random stuff

I have been putting off writing this post because it seems like the only thing I ever put up here is our sick children.  How depressing and annoying can we get?!  Anyways, 2 words: ANC 200.  Yes, I typed it right.  It has fallen even more.  Although, we did find out the reason why this week.  Remember about the enzyme test that they were sending back to New York?  Of course it came back positive.  We are talking about Jake here.  The child who does not follow any of the protocol given to him.  The nice thing is we know what is going on--we will keep him off all chemo until his counts raise.  Then they will slowly put him back on the 6mp and find a good balance that his body can handle.  Chances are, he will never be up to a full dose of chemo again, which worries me slightly.  The fact that there was no improvement in his ANC over the past two weeks also worries me a little bit considering he was off all meds for those two weeks.  We were told if it had not gone up next tuesday at his appointment, there is a chance they will do a bone marrow aspirate to make sure everything is okay.  But, I am sure it is just those darn meds.  Luckily, with Jeff getting sick and with Crew as sick as he has been, Jake has pulled through with no illness, surprisingly enough!  He is a tough little guy and thinks he needs to be playing with friends or riding his bike 24 hours a day!

Crew is doing GREAT!  We had tubes put in on wednesday and it has been so fun to see our fun, sweet little boy back.  I almost forgot how much energy and trouble that kid gets into.  We are hoping that the tubes solve the problem for good!  

And now onto Coletrain.  I just wanted to share with you the prayer that he is saying every single day.  It is all me and Jeff can do to keep from laughing like crazy at the kid.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, help me to be good.  thank you for my brother that starts with a J and a K and an E and his name is Jake the sssnnn (he is getting ready to say snake, which Jake cannot stand).....crocodile!  Help us to be nice to each other and not fight and bless pa and the lakes. Thank you for my mom and dad and my brother and my other brother and for bear and for me... 

and on and on and on.  I know it is bad, but sometimes I will have Jake pray instead because they are so long!  He tries to be silly and is a little tease... oh how I love him.

And because we can't post without a picture:

Dejavu

Dejavu is an interesting thing.  Why is it that it only happens when you don't want to relive a specific day... it is not ever the good days!  April 19th 2008 is not a day that I would ever want to repeat, but it sure felt that way yesterday.  The only difference was that it was a different child we were dealing with this time.  Crew has not been doing very well lately.  He has had numerous ear infections and is constantly sick.  This last ear infection has lasted about three weeks he just cannot seem to kick the darn thing.  He began having high fevers last tuesday and took him into the doctor where they put him on another antibiotic.  He continued to get worse.  Yesterday, his skin started to get marbely (is that a word?)  and he looked flat out awful!  He just wanted to be held and constantly cried, high fevers, yucky eyes and nose--you know all the fun stuff.  My favorite friend who is a nurse came over to look at him and said he needed to be seen.  Lovely.  We took him to insta-care and they sent us immediately up to Primary's.  Now, the scary part.  When Jake was diagnosed with leukemia, the way he presented was with a rash called petekei (I have no idea how to spell it) and high fevers.  The doctor found petekei on Crew's neck.  Plus the high fevers.  He had an eye infection, ear infection and throat infection.   Then they started telling us they needed to test his blood and get fluids and some antibiotics into him because his heart was going too fast.  They put an iv in.  He got his boogers sucked out with a nose tube which is always fun stuff and chest xrays done.  It was like reliving your worst nightmare.  I did not do too well.  Thankfully Jeff was there this time and the best part is things have turned out much better this time around.  Everything so far has come back negative.  His CBC was good and there was no pneumonia in the xray.  We are just waiting to hear on the bacteria tests they did.  We are hoping it is just some nasty virus he caught.  They talked about keeping him overnight, but we were able to go home since his heart rate and fever went down to normal.  Needless to say, it was a surreal evening.  We are so grateful that he is okay.  I am not sure how well I would handle one of my other kids getting sick like Jakers.  One is enough!  

Feeling really crappy after getting an iv stuck in his arm and his boogers sucked out...

Finally konked out after screaming ruthlessly for a couple of hours telling those darn doctors and nurses to just go away!!

(He is not sunburned... his fever was so high he was bright red all day. The doctors kept asking if he had been in the sun.) I love his yummy lips and just want to kiss on them all day. Love this sweet baby boy. They really don't come any more precious than this!