Some Pics

BEWARE. LOTS OF PICTURES. Grandmas and Aunts will love it.  :-)

Last week was a chemo week. It was also William's sixth birthday which includes a well child check up at the pediatrician. I didn't do a good job scheduling these two doctor visits on the same day as I only had enough time to make it from one appointment to the other. Since I wanted to ask our Pediatrician a question about Olivia's eyes, Livi had to come along too. That meant I would be getting a baby sitter for just Ansley, the seven year old. I wasn't going to do that, so all four kids went to chemo this week. It was quite an adventure. (Typically they discourage siblings coming to chemo. For obvious reasons like germs, crowd control and noise.)

 Since we were at the clinic during lunch time the floor was empty and quiet, except for our gang and a couple nurses. After Brian was accessed (Which was a lot more difficult than normal. We had to restrain him and he screamed and cried.) we went out to the play room and attempted to turn the play station on for the boys.

We couldn't figure it out and there was no one around to help.

The kids were loosing patience.

We moved on to checking out the book shelf.

We ended up watching a VHS of Air Bud in the small examination room. The kids couldn't have cared less about the movie. After the initial "Hey, that looks like Eva!" no one cared about the movie. We are thankful for iPads, Blackberry's and Droid cell phones. I am not sure Brian would be able to make it through a chemo appointment without Angry Birds. Notice his Angry Birds stuffed animal a couple of pictures up. William got a blue one from Aunt Jess and Uncle Matt for his birthday and Brian got a yellow one just because. I also made a trip to Walgreens before William's appointment and let each child pick out candy of their choice. IF they obeyed for W's appointment they got their candy. Some call it bribery, I call it incentive. :) I believe Olivia is on her second or third sucker of the day in this picture.

 Please pray for Brian. He is starting to put together that his 5th birthday is right around the corner and chemo will NOT be ending anytime soon. He's been praying for months that he would have "no more chemo when I am five".

  Brian also has some bumps on his skin that look suspicious. They look very similar to the ones on his scalp that he has had at diagnosis and recurrence. We haven't been able to see Brian's regular doctor the last two visits and will not get to see him in a couple of weeks. SO, in five weeks we are hoping to see his regular oncologist and discuss the possibility of a biopsy to figure out if they are LCH or not. If he is getting these growths while on treatment it is a bad sign. We would have to mix his treatment plan up a bit. Please just be in prayer for little Brian and that the bumps will go away!

Grandma Schreiber sent the boys their birthday presents. Since mommy suspected what they would be there was no way we were going to let William open his and then tell Brian he had to wait six weeks and *smile* maybe you'll get some too. I know some parents would say that kids need to learn that their sibling's birthday is not about them, but that is not what this was about. If you don't have a kid on chemo you can try to imagine, but you can't just understand the emotional ups and downs he goes through. He's not like a regular four year old. The things he thinks about, that he's afraid of, and what he can do are just not the same. In fact, we had William's birthday party at a swim park. We had a three hour session with slides, fountains of water shooting up and three different pools. Our three other kids were loving every fun filled minute and did not want to leave. Brian spent the last hour sitting at the picnic table with Daddy because he was tired and ready to go home. There are some things that we just don't put our sweet Brian through. Making him wait six weeks for sheets that he wanted while watching his brother snuggle up in them was NOT something we were going to do.

William and Brian were SUPER excited about their Star Wars sheets. Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma.

This picture is for Pastor Clif. Brian is listening to your sermons. We went to Panama City last weekend and Brian found a stack of bricks in Bigdaddy's back yard. He started picking them up and moving them over by the fence, stacking them up. When I asked him what he was doing he replied, "rebuilding the wall. Like Nehemiah." I was super proud and ran in to get my phone to take a picture. Brian might be the cutest almost five year old in the world!!!