Memorial Day Weekend

Hi everyone!

I hope you had a great week. Mine has been fantastic! It started off with good news on Friday that my count had gone up slightly, to 84. Yea! I was pleasantly surprised to see Daddy come home for a half day, too. How great! We did a lot of yard work outside. I helped Daddy do the raking. It was so hot  that I took a dip in my little pool afterward. Saturday we went to the south side to celebrate my cousin's graduation. Zak will be going into the marines this fall. It was nice to see a lot of my  family at his party. Way to go Zak! Then, Sunday, several of our friends came over to have a barbecue with us. I had plenty of lovely ladies to entertain including Natalie, Cadence, and Allison, and of course I enjoyed hanging out with my buddy Emerson and my little pal Brayden. We had homemade ice cream, too! Yummy!
I'll talk to you soon!

Visit from Grandma!

This week went by fairly quickly, despite all the rain. It was so nice to have Daddy home early in the evenings. He took this video of me bouncing on my horse for you to enjoy. Yo, yo, yo!
I had a blood test on Friday and my count had dropped to 47k. To lift my spirits, Grandma came down to spend the weekend with me. In true Grandma fashion, she arrived with a surprise for me, and boy was it yummy! This is a picture of me eating my first whoopie pie, and I'd say I handled it pretty well.

On Saturday, she and I played indoors while Mommy and Daddy did some much needed work outdoors. Then on Sunday, she and I shared breakfast and story time while Mommy and Daddy went to church together (for the first time in a couple of months, due to my not being able to be in the nursery). I think they really enjoyed it. I know I certainly did. Here are a few other pics from the week:
Bubbles with Grandma

Got Milk?

H

I had to have another blood draw today because of my low count on Friday. Praise God, it was back up a bit to 62k. Thanks for continuing to pray for me!

Cruisin' for a bruisin'...

Keeping me from danger is not an easy job. Mom and Dad certainly have their hands full. We found out this week that my counts had dropped, yet again. I was at 77k on Thursday. So, we'll have another test on Thursday and hopefully it will rebound. In the meantime, I have been trying my hardest to get some sort of bump or bruise. I have climbed up on the table, flipped my horse over and stood up on that (and fallen off), jumped off the couch, tumbled off a chair, and attempted to escape from my crib this week. If you are asking yourself where my parents (who are supposed to be watching me like a hawk) have been, they have been right there each time...I have just been quick as lightning. I have a goose egg the size of a quarter on my noggin from the chair incident. Daddy was able to rescue me from the crib; I had a death grip on the outside of it, dangling dangerously a couple feet off the ground. It hasn't been all bad though. I got to spend a safe evening with my Mimi while Mommy and Daddy had a date night; I also got to see Meghan this weekend. Speaking of weekend, Daddy and I treated Mom to a belated Mother's Day feast. Daddy was studying for his big exam last weekend, so we postponed our celebration of Mom until this weekend. He took his test on Wednesday, and we are so happy to have more time with him, now that the exam is over with! Yea!
Here are some pictures from the week:

New Words

I picked up a few new words this week, as well as a few new teeth (four to be exact that appeared on Saturday morning). Each time we try something new I seem to pick up another piece of vocabulary. This week it was "pizza", "ice cream", "awesome", and "I'll get you"--compliments of playing chase with Daddy. Speaking of playing chase, my platelet count rose to 101 on Friday, which means we can play a little more inside the house. That means two straight tests with a rising count. We were really encouraged by that! Hopefully I will be okay to go outside and play soon. In the mean time, I have taken up hoops (compliments of my buddy Emerson sharing his basketball hoop with me so that I can have a little more fun indoors), lots of puzzles, and baseball from the friendly confines of our family room. Here are a few pictures from the week:

 

Roller Coaster

Hi everyone!
It's been a while since I blogged for myself, so I thought I'd get back in the swing of things today. This week has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride for us, full of ups and downs and even a few twists and turns. After last week's blood test I started showing signs of lower platelet levels. I get these things called petechiae when my levels drop and they basically look like little red dots on my skin. Well, Thursday I had 3 or 4 of them on my collar bone, so Mom called the doctor (It's not a good thing if I have any at all). After another yucky blood draw, the doctor told us that my platelets had dropped to 46k. This was a pretty significant dip from Tuesday's 135k. So, Mom and Dad were tasked with watching me and keeping me in check over the weekend...no climbing, no outside stuff, no rough and tumble, as has become the usual for me over the last couple of weeks, only more high alert than before. As each day went by I developed more and more of the dots. Today I had another blood draw. (This nice tech got it on the first try which was awesome! Despite the not so fun weekly event, I don't mind getting the cool Spiderman stickers when I'm done.) Because my dots had multiplied by the dozens since Thursday, our family had kind of prepared for the worst: another IV treatment. The doctor was thinking the same thing after having a look at my increased petechiae and bruising on my legs and arms. Then, in a most unexpected twist, I was the recipient of a miracle...my levels had almost doubled to 87k! Now, this still isn't a great number, but it is better than Thursday which means I didn't have to have another treatment. The doctor and Mommy were completely shocked. Dr. Escoto told me that she didn't know if my body was having a delay in showing all my symptoms or what but she double checked the numbers and was really surprised to find them higher than my last test. Praise God for hearing all our prayers and for answering them in such an awesome way! As long as I don't get any more dots this week I will not have to go back until Friday for another blood draw. Hopefully it is good news, too!
So many of you have been thinking of and praying for me and I can't say thanks enough! Truthfully, I don't really understand what is going on. I "feel" just fine and I get a little upset that I can't go outside and play or just act normally, and I am not a big fan of getting stuck at least once a week at the blood draws. Things here are fine though. We have come up with all kinds of fun ways to pass the time. Mommy lets me help her clean and vacuum. She's usually not a fan of the chores and does them while I am sleeping, but I really like them so I am helping and it makes it more fun for her, too. We have been playing with my bubbles indoors. My parents have let me start trying to blow them all by myself. It's great! I have been playing tons of ball inside, too. We throw, kick, and hit them. We've been reading a lot, pretending with blocks, and building towers, as well. It has certainly kept us busy.Well, I'm going to hit the sack. All this activity makes a boy tired. Hope to have good news for you all next week. Thanks again for checking in on me!