Happy Holidays

I just wanted to take a moment and wish all of our friends and followers a very happy holiday season. Thank you for all the thoughts, prayers, and support you have given us over the past few years. This photo was taken recently after decorating this year's Christmas tree and donning our traditional Santa's helpers hats. Max, along with his little sister and new little brother, really enjoyed helping Daddy hanging ornaments on the tree and we are all looking forward to a happy and healthy holiday season. We wish all the best for you and your family as well. Happy Holidays!

Toothless Grin

Max finally lost his first tooth about a week ago and lost a second one last night. He has a very cute (well, I might be biased) gap now. I told him that I wanted to get "a picture of the toothless grin." He asked Josh to take a picture, but somehow, between my telling Max and Max telling Josh, it became "a picture of the tooth coming in." When I walked in on the picture taking, Josh was trying to get Max to show off his gums and getting frustrated that Max kept making funny faces. After I corrected the misunderstanding, he was able to get a very nice picture, but the bug-eyed shots were actually really funny so I wanted to share one of both.

CBC - 07/24/2009

Dr. Ebb called us on Tuesday night to see if it was okay to change Max's appointment, so we went today. Max and James and I headed in this morning, took the T over to the North End for a quick lunch, and then headed to the hospital. It was an uneventful appointment. Dr. Ebb was thrilled with how well Max looked and sounded and said that if his counts were good, we could start going in every 6 months. Well, his counts were great, so we don't have to go back until January. That hardly seems possible. Max is thrilled.

I had to drag him out, though. Max loves playing there, and build stuff with a volunteer. It was a nice visit.

The most noteworthy thing that happened was his height and weight. He grew 6 cm since his last appointment and is now just shy of 46 inches, and gained almost 4 pounds. I was pretty sure he was going to show a weight gain. He has been eating everything in sight. People kept commenting on how big he had gotten and one of the nurses said his face had changed so he didn't look like a little boy anymore. It is very true.

There was a woman in there with her son, who looked to be around Max's age. They boy looked sad and scared. I remember that feeling. I just wanted to hug her. We are so very, very lucky.

WBC: 8.0
HCT: 35.9
HGB: 12.6
PLT: 186
ANC: 4540

He's 6!

Max turned 6 over the weekend. He had his first real "friends" party, and the kids all tie dyed shirts. It was a bit hectic, but a lot of fun, and at least our kids are thrilled with their shirts (and we did a dress for Lauren).

I can't believe that he is 6. Where has the time gone. He seems to be doing so well, though we have an appointment tomorrow and we will know for sure after that. Three years from yesterday, we found out he was sick, so this is always a bit of a difficult time for me, but I am trying hard to just be so thankful that the last three years have gone so amazingly well. I know how lucky we are. I don't always manage to do it, but I try hard to be grateful for every day that we have. We have three happy, healthy children. Who could ask for more.

I will post CBC counts tomorrow.

Kindergarten Graduation

This is going to be another one of those sappy, I can't believe we did actually get to see this day posts. I seem to be having a lot of them these days. That is probably because there is so little news these days that I get to talk about the good stuff. I wonder when I will stop feeling amazed that we got to see them happen, though.

Today, Max graduated from Kindergarten. I am not really one for all of these "graduations" from everything. It seems like there are graduations from everything these days, and I don't remember it being like that when we were children. Heck, my high school barely acknowledged that we graduated, figuring that the "real thing" was going to be when we graduated from college. So, I have kind of been brushing off the significance of the day. However, it really moved me. My little boy graduated from kindergarten today. He was so happy and proud. All the children were. The school did an actual program, with the kids marching in, performing some songs, including one in Spanish, and receiving "diplomas." How I managed to get through it without crying is beyond me, though it helped that Lauren was enjoying things so much so I was focussing on keeping her from running up to hug Max or grabbing her friend Nathan to dance to the music. James slept through it all. :) He is going off to prefirst next year. I know I talked about trying to figure out what to do. I think it is the right thing for him. I remember, before he got sick, hoping that he would be this amazing student. How I have changed. I want him to be successful, but it is so much more important to me that he enjoy learning and enjoy school. He certainly enjoyed it this year. May next year be the same.

Okay, now I am crying. :)

Emotions

Max has his first loose tooth. First and second actually. He hadn't noticed, but the dentist pointed them out. I am not surprised, as many of his classmates have already lost a tooth or two (he is one of the youngest in his class, but a couple of the girls who are his age have lost them, too.) I am surprised at how emotional I am about this, but it made me well up with tears of happiness. It is one of those odd little nothing things that I wasn't sure we would ever get to experience with him. I am always surprised at the things that hit me. It is rarely the big events, usually little things that I remember enjoying as a child. Apparently, loosing a tooth was one of those things.

Max is almost done with Kindergarten. He has two and a half more weeks. The year has really flown. He has gotten so tall and doesn't seem like my little boy most of the time. But, he still likes to snuggle at night and tells me he loves me. He adores James more and more every day. I love my little big boy so much.

2nd Anniversary

Two years ago today, Max stopped taking the cyclosporene. I can't believe it has been two years already. In some ways, it feels like a lifetime ago, yet it also feels like just yesterday. I look at him and can't believe how well he is doing. I still worry, I guess that may never go away, but he is strong and healthy and happy and we are so very, very lucky. Today the three kids and I went to Boston with Grandma and Grampa Rich. Grampa and Max went to the Museum of Science while the rest of us went to the North End for lunch first and then met up with them. Max had a blast and didn't even fall asleep on the ride home. He has so much energy and is so strong. We really need to take a trip on the Duck Boats one of the days. I still remember so clearly us watching them go on the river while in Max's hospital room when we first found out he was sick, and saying if we ever got out of there, I was taking him on the Duck Boats. But then, when we did, his immune system was not strong enough, and it was over a year before we could go, and it just never happened. I am going to make sure it happens this summer. He talks about them every time we are in Boston.

I think almost every day how lucky we are. I still can't believe it. Two years.

CBC-4/22/2009

Can you believe it has been three months? Where does the time go. Max had his checkup today, so of course he started it out with waking at 5:30 with an earache. We had Earth Day plans of taking the train in, but decided to drive in case he wasn't feeling well. However, he was fine the entire time. Dr. Ebb was over at the main hospital, so we saw Dr. Huong for the first time in a very long time. She is always very pleasant. She said he looked good, but took a look at his ear and thinks he has a minor ear infection. This was the fourth earache in the last couple of months, so I knew something was going on and was going to go to the pediatrician after this last one, so it was nice that she could look at it. He did not enjoy having his ear looked at, in fact disliked it as much as the blood draw, but other than that, it was a pleasant visit. The music therapist was there and he got to spend some time with her. She had all her big instruments with her and he even got to play a real harp. James was a sweetie for the whole visit and Josh took Lauren to the Aquarium to look at the seals while they waited (and apparently they also happened onto an Earth Day celebration which she loved). After the appointment, Max and James and I took the T to the aquarium and met up with Josh and Lauren. Then we walked to the North End and had pizza and then canolli. Unfortunately, by that time, our 60 degree and sunny weather had changed to heavy rain, so we went back to the T, took it back to our car, and drove home.

His counts were good. The 30th will be the 2 year anniversary of the last day of cyclosporene. Amazing.

WBC: 8.7
HCT: 36.9
HGB: 13.5
PLT: 198
ANC: 6070

His white count and ANC are a little higher than we usually see, though still in the normal range. This is probably because of the ear infection. His platelets and reds were great, though, which is wonderful given his history of having them drop when he is fighting anything. I couldn't ask for more.

Keeping a Family Tradition Alive

My father was a magician. He used to entertain us with many magic tricks. I always loved it when he did. He taught my brother and me many of the tricks, and my brother got to be very good at it (I wasn't too shabby but he did a lot more). Max has decided he is very interested in magic tricks and Josh's sister got him a book of magic tricks for Christmas. He has been studying the book quite seriously and a couple of nights ago, treated us to a surprisingly good performance of a penny trick. It was a ton of fun for all of us.

Max's Baby Brother

I posted about this on the family blog, but wanted to include something here, too. On February 5th at 10:35PM, we welcomed James Philip Mazgelis. He is a real joy, and after 9 months of me feeling more in shock about expecting another child, I feel so lucky to have him. Max has been thrilled since day one to be getting a new sibling, especially a baby brother, and he has been so great with him. He is proud and happy and can't get enough of him, not even complaining when I have to bring James to snuggle bedtime with me. He is going to be a really great big brother to James, just as he is with Lauren, despite their bickering.

We did successfully bank the cord blood. I used a birthing stool when pushing him out and gravity caused the poor midwife some grief for the collection, but Cord Blood Registry confirmed that they got a large enough amount.

CBC-01/20/2009 and Other Random Stuff

Wow, my last post was mid November. No wonder people are complaining. Sorry, we had a hard December, plus I am very pregnant at this point and just plain tired. Things have been pretty uneventful since my last post. Max has been doing really well, despite a 5 day stomach bug that started Christmas Eve. He managed to enjoy Christmas day despite feeling under the weather, though. His favorite gift - Spiderman Bandaids, though his R2D2 figure and a Lego set were close second. Max continues to love school and is learning tons. The bad news is that his teachers continue to express concern about his lack of focus and attention when things do not interest him. I have a bad feeling this may just be something that we deal with in school. He is obviously bright and creative, but if he isnt' interested in something (like coloring within the lines), he just doesn't do it. I am not sure if this is a result of us coddling him when he was ill or just part of his personality. It seems to worry me more than anyone else, though. But, that is how it works with mothers anyway, right? He and Lauren have been enjoying the snow storms we have been having, and helping their dad clear the drive with their new shovels. He got to go tubing with Dad at the end of the Christmas vacation, and gave it a big thumbs up. He is also very into Harry Potter, after spending many days at my teaching job during the week that school was closed here after the ice storm (they have a Harry Potter game on PS2 there and he has gotten pretty good at playing it). We are currently reading HP1 at night. It is the first time he has had any interest in a chapter book. When we are not reading HP1 to him, he is reading to us, as his reading skills are really taking off.

Okay, that is the wrap up. Now, today. We were supposed to go to MGH last Monday, but somehow I never managed to transfer the appointment from last years calendar to this years, and I just plain forgot about it until Wed. This is probably in a way a good thing, though, as it indicates that I am finally reaching a point where I am not totally stressed out about his counts. I rescheduled for today, and after forcing the kids to listen to inaugural broadcasts for the entire ride (much to Max's great dismay. Lauren just slept through it), we arrived to find that Max had grown two more cms, not gained anything (no big deal, he saves up his weight gain), and had fabulous results from the CBC. Dr. Ebb showed up with the Cord Blood Registry forms which he was supposed to fax when we were in 2 months ago, and faxed them to CBR. CBR has a program called the Designated Transplant Program in which they will store umbillican cord blood for a family member diagnosed with a life-threatning disease that could be treated with a stem cell transplant for free. We only have to pay for the currier's delivery fee. In order to be eligible, Max's doctor had to send in a form. That done, we headed home. Max's results were so good that we do not need to return for three months. I will try not to go three months without posting anything, though. :)

Oh, one cute thing. When Dr. Ebb was off at the fax machine, Max gave Lauren a complete checkup, doing all the same things that Dr. Ebb did to him. It was very methodical (though he told her he had to check her heels until I pointed out that Dr. Ebb checked his shins. But, when he looked, he knew he was looking for bruises) and fun to watch.

Here are the numbers. I got two print outs and can only find one right now and that one has the ANC, so I have to go by memory on that one.

WBC: 8.1

HCT: 35.6

HGB: 13.1

PLT: 221

ANC - around 4100 if memory serves. It was a great number.

While none of these numbers where the highest we have seen, I am pretty sure it as the best combination of numbers. Everything was well into the normal range. Usually at least one or two are on the lower end of normal or below. I am beyond thrilled.