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We’ve had a busy week or so.

Benjamin is talking so much now.  I know, I always say that, but it’s true.  You can sort of converse with him now.  When I ask him questions, he will answer in a few words.  The other day, he was playing ball in the tub.  He tried to make a basket, but missed.  He looked at me and said, “Mommy, I missed!”  — He is feeding himself now.  He sits in his chair and feeds himself with both a fork and a spoon.  Sometimes he gets a little messy with the spoon, but not too messy.  He won’t even let me feed him anymore.  He grabs at the spoon and does it himself.  — He continues to eat, eat, eat!  You can’t imagine how much this boy can eat! — He LOVES to play baseball.  He picks up anything that he can use as a bat, holds up a ball and hits it.  He’s actually pretty good!

Ally is doing well.  She had trouble breathing the other night.  She came in our room around 11:30, gasping for breath.  We ran her into the bathroom to give her a breathing treatment that helped only a bit.  We ran the shower for ten minutes to get some good steam going.  That didn’t help much.  We tried to give her an oral steroid, but she threw it up.  Dr. Rob sent us to the Emergency Room.  Brad and Ally were there for about two hours.  They ended up giving her a steroid and sent us home…diagnosis was croup (she had not other symptoms though).  We both stayed home Tuesday.  (I lost my voice and had a bad cough.  I stayed home Wednesday as well.)

Friends of Kids with Cancer had their annual Halloween party at a farm near our house.  We all went and had a blast!  The kids had so much fun.  There was a petting zoo, so they got to pet a baby camel, a 75 year old tortoise, a miniature pony, goats, and Ally even got to pet a 15 foot python!  There was a cake-walk…Ally won a cake.  Both got to go “fishing”…they would hold a fishing pole and put the line behind a sheet where they’d “fish” for prizes.  Ally caught bubbles, and Ben caught a stuffed animal.  Each of them got to paint a pumpkin, and make sand art.  In the middle of the field, there were several beanbag games…we played there for a while too.  Benjamin had his first snow cone, a blue one.  So did Ally (hers was minus the syrup - no ingredient list so we didn’t know what was in it…she ate ice, but she thought it was a white snow cone).  - Besides camp, this was the first event we got to attend as a family where Ally was feeling well.  We had such a good time!!  We were wiped out when we got home, so we all took a two hour nap!

Happy Birthday to Brad (on Saturday)!

Let’s start with Benjamin…Earlier this week, I went in to get him in the morning, and he had his pajama top off and he’d thrown it out of his crib. The next day, I came in and he’d gotten into the drawer under his crib and taken out the blankets in it and thrown those all over the floor (while still in his crib mind you). — His favorite saying right now is, “I need _____.” Usually, he says I need some sort of food. He’s always telling me to “wait” when he doesn’t get his way.– He can now climb the ramp and the slide on our swingset without any help.

Ally is doing well. She’s just like the old Ally these days, and it is awesome! I talked to her teacher earlier this week, and she’s doing really well. They are working on getting her to talk more in big class settings. If you know Allyson, you may be surprised to know she tends to be a bit quiet at school. She’s such a chatter box outside of school! The teachers are really working with her and developing some positive strategies to help her gain confidence in front of the class. - She’s made some new friends in her new daycare room as well.

Brad and I left both kids with a babysitter for the first time, ever. Sara, a college student that works at Ally’s school, came to watch the kids while we went to dinner for Brad’s birthday. Sara is so good with the kids at school, we were hoping our kids would do well.  They were great! Sarah kept them busy playing all night, and she said they were awesome! We were thrilled!! It was so nice to have a night out (the first since our anniversary back in June).

Sorry it has been so long since the last post.  (I am probably going to go back to posting once a week on Sunday.)

Ally seems to be doing  well at school this year.  She loves her new teacher and talks about what she does in the classroom all the time.  Apparently, she gets to use Backyardigans stickers for something…I hear about that all the time.  She must be learning new songs as well…she sings things I’ve never heard before.  Ally is working on tracing the letters of her name.  She knows how to spell it, but we’re still working on writing it.

Benjamin is doing so well.  I was watching him play with Allyson today.  He just follows her around and mimics what she’s doing…it’s a trip!  He gets so excited in the morning when he sees her.   (Ally can’t wait to go wake him up in the morning.)  — He’s talking up a storm as well.  His favorite line, “I need cracker!”

Ally continues to get chemo once a week.  She’s tolerating it very well.  The doses are less than what she’s used to getting, but she’s getting two different ones each time.  Her hair is growing back.  It is soooo soft!  Brad actually combed her hair when she got out of the tub last night…there’s just enough to get a comb through now.

Camp Sunrise!  A place to shine!

Our family got to go to Camp Sunrise at Trout Lodge for the entire Labor Day weekend.  The American Cancer Society sponsors families of children with cancer and sends them to camp for the weekend.  A doctor and several nurses are there as well, just in case.  The whole purpose of the camp is to let kids with cancer be kids, and let families in similar situations be together.

We had a ball!  We arrived at Trout Lodge late Friday night, and we were on the go the entire time.  While we were there, we did so many different things.  One of the favorites was feeding this fish.  The fish were HUGE!  We would go to the end of the deck and throw food to them.  Ally would throw a handful at a time.  Benjamin would throw just one piece at a time.  We played Blazing Paddles (ping pong to you and me) - I would put Ally on the table and help her hit the ball back to Brad.  Benjamin was content to hold the paddle and sit and watch while lounging in the stroller.  There’s a playgound…lots of swinging and teeter tottering - a huge hit!  The camp has an arts and crafts center.  We spent about a hour and a half there.  The kids both painted a ceramic piece, colored/glittered/painted on paper, and made tie-dye T-shirts (my favorite).  Ally was the first to make her shirt (with some help from daddy).  Benjamin kept saying, “I squeeze!  I squeeze!” - He wanted to squeeze paint onto a T-shirt too, so we let him make one also.  We did LOTS of walking around the grounds…Ally went on a pontoon boat ride.  She liked it until a group of older kids threw water balloons at the boat.  That scared her, so she cried the rest of the ride.  — They both loved the “camp room”.  We all stayed together in the lodge/hotel room.  It actually worked out really well.  Benjamin slept in the pack-n-play, and Ally slept on a mattress on the floor beside our bed.

We all had a great time together as a family!  Ally keeps saying she wants to go to camp again.  Hopefully we get another opportunity!

Benjamin’s adoption is finalized!  Everything went really well.  Benjamin got to sit on my lap while I took the stand during the proceedings.  He played with a bag of Lego blocks the entire time.  It didn’t take him long to discover the microphone…he kept grabbing for it.  He’s finally a legal member of our family and a citizen of the United States!