Fri Jan 14, 2011

2nd Day in Florida...already on the beach!!

Happy New Year everyone!! So far this year has been great! We started off the New Year with a 24 hour drive to Palm Bay, Florida. Blake was such a trooper in the car. I cant believe that he rode the whole way with very few fussing. lol He is one amazing 3 year old. We stayed with Christian's Aunt and Uncle-who are the sweetest people! They took very good care of us! The weather was fantastic-75 degrees most days! Monday we went to Cocoa Beach, and Ron Jon. Phil was looking for a new hat, somehow Blake and I found hats and Phil had no luck. lol Blake loved the beach, and with sunny weather it was the perfect day! We went to Disney World Tues-Wed. It has been a childhood dream of mine, and I must say it was just as great as Id imagined it would be. Blake had the time of his life! He loved seeing all the characters, even though it was quite the challenge...we stood in line for an hour to see Buzz and Woody. lol He was able to meet Pirate Goofy at Magic Kingdom, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, Buzz, Woody, McQueen, and Mater at Hollywood Studios, and Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Thumper, and King Louie at Animal Kingdom. We were able to see a lot of the other characters, however they were done by the time we saw them. We stayed in the Caribbean Beach Resort, in a pirate room. Blake LOVED sleeping in a pirate ship, the room was totally done in Pirate theme. Very cool! We all had so much fun! We decided to go back to Cocoa Beach on Thurs. The weather was a little chilly, we walked through Old Cocoa Beach-had lunch at a french restaurant on their patio. It was really nice. Then we headed back to the beach-it was chilly but still so nice. Blake played in the sand, we collected a couple sea shells. It was the perfect end to our vacation. We left at 4am our time to come home Friday. Arriving home at 4am on Sat. We did stop in St. Louis to eat a snack with Christians brother and future sis-in-law. We really enjoyed the week.

We leave next Thurs for Houston. I am really anxious to hear what MD Anderson will say when they see how great Blake is doing. I also have a ton of questions for them. I am looking forward to spending time with my Houston family. I have missed them SO much! Blake is getting excited for our trip too! You would think he is sick of long car rides! 2 big ones this month. However, he doesnt seem to mind the long rides!
Our year is starting out great! I pray that it continues. Thank you all for all your support-you guys are amazing! Love to you all!!

Walking into the Magic Kingdom...Blake loved the castle

Dumbo

Pirate Goofy-what a signature!!

A long wait to meet these guys!



Finally meeting McQueen and Mater



Christian and Blake hangin out on the beach on our last
day in Florida. Blake loved Cocoa Beach!

Wed Dec 29, 2010

Blake with his cousins, Gracie and Lauren, and marshmallow
teeth. The Danforth side Christmas!

Happy Holidays everyone! I cant believe in a matter of days 2010 will be over! What a ride it was for us! Blake has come such a long way over the last year and a half. Time sure does fly! This holiday season has been a great one for us! Blake is finally at the age of understanding Santa and the gift of giving. We made a few homemade ornaments this year, and let me just say he LOVED giving his 'surprises' to our family. lol It was so great seeing how much joy he found in giving the gifts-im a pretty proud mama! Dont get me wrong he still LOVES getting gifts, but it was great to see that he loves giving just as much as he does receiving. We celebrated Christmas with 3 families this year. Phil side-Blake had a blast with his cousins.



1st time bowling

He went bowling for the very 1st time and let me just say he kicked my butt! lol He always has a blast with his cousins. Next we spent Christmas Eve with Christian's  family. Blake loves all of her family just like his own. We are so lucky to have them in our lives. Finally we spent Christmas day with my family. Blake had a BLAST!! He is loved by so many, I am so grateful! He was sitting beside me playing with some of his 'new guys' and looked up at me and said "Im a lucky kid". Talk about break my heart. He is such a special kid, he melts my heart all the time. His words so sweet and innocent yet so genuine. We are preparing for our first ever family vacation...to Florida. I am super excited. I think its the perfect way to start 2011. We have been fortunate enough to have Christian's family to stay with while we are down there. So other than the gas, food, and souvenirs we dont have to worry about anything else! I am SUPER excited! We have always talked about going on a vacation, but then the time comes and we need to fix something on the house, or life just happens. I am going to try to plan a family vacation atleast once a year-even if we end up just going a few hours away and camping lol. I feel so blessed that Blake is doing as well as he is, I want to treasure family moments as much as we can. God has given us this amazing little boy who has put up such a fight-I want to live life to the fullest! I want to take advantage of all the time we now get to enjoy...I continue to pray that this tumor continues to die, and that it doesnt come back. He will probably always have the tumor-but as long as it remains stable-I am happy! He is getting so big, I look at him and see this little boy-full of happiness and life. I thank God everyday. He is such a miracle.

Blake, Kirsten and Mason-Blake side
Christmas. Silly faces pic!

I talked to Cheri from Rehab today and she let me know that Blake will continue to go to Rehab 3 days a week until Feb. 11, then they will take him down to 2 days a week. We will get him into a preschool program in Feb. on the days he doesnt have Rehab. So looks like life is beginning to get back to normal...well our new normal. lol If anyone knows of some flexible PT work, I could really use some ideas. I would love to find something I can do from home. But I am def open for some options. It would be for the times that Blake is in school/rehab. There will still be MRI's every 3 months, and trips to Houston periodically, so i need flexibility!!

Speaking of Houston, we go down for our next MRI Jan 24. I am very interested to see if his tumor is in fact off his brainstem or not. I also want to know what the chances are of his tumor coming back. And most of all I am SUPER excited to see my Houston family. We have missed them SO much!!
I hope the new year starts off as great for you as it will for us! I feel so blessed! Thank you for all your love and support, we love you all!! xoxo

Tue Dec 7, 2010

Blake feeding his new kitty

Oh boy oh boy!! I have some amazing news...we met with our Neurologist on Friday. We meet with him every 6 months, to review scans and understand things better. He is a great communicator! So we went in on Friday knowing that Blake's last MRI showed his tumor 'stable'. Dr. Le Pichon was reviewing his scans, he pulled them up one by one since our May scan. As he is showing us, Phil and I are shocked at the great difference since May. Proton therapy is killing Blake's tumor, and I mean its really shrinking it! He then went on to tell us that it 'appears' to be no longer on his brain stem. OMG!! Seriously?! That is the BEST news! I know its not 100% for sure, but the fact is that its dying! His tumor is dying! I am praying that this continues until there is no longer any tumor left to do any kind of damage! I know that this most likely wont happen, but a girl can hope right?! lol We are having such a great holiday season. Blake got a new kitty, im not sure if I mentioned that in my last post. Roxy is her name. She looks like a siamese snowshoe. She is super cute!

Roxy

We rescued her from a foster shelter. She ended up being a pretty sick kitty. She lost a lot of weight and was literally skin and bone. Our vet and the lady I adopted her from said it was unlikely that she would make it through Thanksgiving. Well let me just tell you that I didnt let that happen. I gave that kitty love, and fed her around the clock, she made it through Thanksgiving. I took her to the Vet the following Monday, the vet was shocked that she had gained a little weight. He gave me 2 more medications to give her and special kitten food. Let me proudly say that she is doing very well!! People seem to give up on sick things...but I have learned if you let them fight-they will. And it worked! lol Blake loves her, he is pretty good with her. Such a gentle giant.

My little reindeer!

Blake and an awesome Santa!

We attended the Leukemia and Lymphoma Cancer Society Christmas party at the Westin hotel in Crown Center. It was such a blast. Blake made reindeer antler headband, decorated cookies, took our picture in a photo booth, rocked out with Mr. Stinky Feet, met Santa, and got to pick a present to take home with him. It was such a great afternoon. Blake loved meeting Santa. I thought at first he would be scared of him. However, I was very wrong. lol He ran right up and sat on his lap and had quite a long conversation with him. I have no clue what they talked about...but I guess its between Santa and Blake. :) This is gonna be a great Christmas...I can feel it! We are looking forward to a MERRY Christmas, we have lots to celebrate! I am so thankful for all the continued prayers and support. We live off both! lol Blake is still fighting to use his right side, but we are still going to therapy 3 days a week for 5 hours each day. He is doing great! My hope is that by summer he will have made enough gain on his right side that we can put him in preschool, and maybe I can get a part time job. Wouldnt that be just fantastic. Im not sure what I am going to do yet, but I wanna help other families going through similar situations. Who knows. I know God has a plan for me, and I know he will open the door when the time is right!