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The burn specialist looked at Allyson’s foot today and said we are good to go. She will not have to have surgery, thank God! Once we finished there, we were off to see Dr. Rob. Well, even though Allyson was excited to see Dr. Rob (she was also wanting to see Dr. Jan too), I guess she’d had enough of doctors by then because she was not happy once the nurse got hold of her. Nurse Heather accessed her port, but Allyson did not want to give up her blood. She has an amazing ability to tense herself up so only a little bit of blood will come out of her veins. Her hemoglobin levels were low, so we’re back to the office on Friday for more tests and a possible blood transfusion (which makes for a long day).

Ally Pally has a cough too. Dr. Rob thinks she’s probably got RSV too. (Yes, Monkey Man, it is good to share, but it would have been ok to keep your germs to yourself this one time;-). She coughed alot last night; he predicts tonight will be the worst night for her. I hope not…we all had a hard time sleeping last night. — Brad and I are hyper-sensitive right now to any sort of abnormal breathing on her part.

Ms. Susan, Allyson’s occupational therapist, came by this evening and dropped off a huge package of goodies for Allyson from people at her school. She had fun looking through the stuff as we pulled it out of the basket for her. (It was really cute…later this evening, Allyson was naming all of the things that were in the basket…say thing like, “OOOOh, princess stickers! OOOh, Backyardigans stickers! OOOh, magnets!” She was very excited!) Ms. Susan also had a basket of goodies from Brad and I as well. We were overwhelmed by their generosity…

Another meal (actually, two meals) arrived from people from my work.  They have been so kind and generous to help us with meals on the days Allyson has procedures/chemotherapy. - So many people that work with both Brad and I have taken time out of their busy days to help us…we are humbled and so very appreciative.

Benjamin had a great day at Tita’s today. Tita said he had the “best day” today. When he got home, he played, ate a TON for dinner (he must be having a growth spurt or something), took a bath, and went to bed. - He gets cuter and cuter everyday. His mannerism are so funny and quite adorable. He puts his little head on my shoulder pretending to be shy…I gotta tell you, I love the snuggles.

Here’s hoping for a peaceful night for us all…

Allyson was the most mobile she’s been in weeks.  She is not walking by any means, but she is crawling around a bit now.  You can really tell she can’t put weight on her legs though.  When she tries, she pretty much just collapses.  - She did crawl a bit today…climbed up into little pink chair…asked for me to help her stand up at the lego table…all good signs of progress.  Oh, she didn’t even sit on the couch one time today.  She either sat on the floor or in her pink chair. - She’s still got her cough, and she sounds gunky when she’s not sitting up.  We’re keeping up the breathing treatments though, so hopefully that will help.

Allyson learned to play a new game today (thank God) that Santa brought her for Christmas.  It’s a cute little game that uses cards and a spinner (which is something new for her).  She loved it, so we had to play it over and over again.  That’s okay…it makes her happy to play her games.

Benjamin stayed home with us today because we had another visit from Margie, the social worker from the adoption.  (She was kind enough to bring us dinner for this evening.)  The meeting went well…Benjamin was being his cute little self.  We also wanted to keep him home from the babysitter one more day.  He did not have a fever all day on Sunday and all day today.  The nurse told us once his fever is gone 24 hours, he’s no longer contagious.  We wanted to be on the safe side though.  He’ll go back to Tita’s tomorrow because we’ll be busy with Allyson’s doctor stuff.

Allyson woke up this morning and the first thing she said is, “Daddy, you crack me up!” - something she said all throughout the day which cracked us all up! Where she heard that one, I have no idea. That kind of set the tone for the day…Allyson was in good spirits. She wanted to play lots of baseball on the Wii today. We did several stickers pages with the stickers Ms. Robin (the lead teacher in Allyson’s childcare room at United Services) gave Allyson on Friday. (Oh, I forgot to tell you that the kids in Allyson’s childcare class made her a book. It was really cute…Each child decorated a page and then Ms. Robin wrote a note from them to Allyson on each page. Some of the kids even had their pictures in the book. Allyson got a HUGE smile on her face when she saw it. She listened to each little note and kept saying, “Hey, that’s Jaden! Hey, that’s Lizzie!” each time she saw a picture of one of her friends.)

Benjamin seemed to do better today. He was not wheezing like he had been the last few days. Yes, he was still wheezing, but not nearly as bad. He took another good nap today, and that did him a world of good. His new favorite thing to do is to take toys and toss them through the spindles of the downstairs stairwell. I think there are about ten toys down there right now. - What do you call a boy polly parrot? Well, that is Benjamin…he repeats so many words now. He usually won’t say them if you ask him to, but he’ll repeat them out of the blue and surprise us. Two days ago he stopped, looked at the plant we have sitting on the floor in the kitchen and said, “No, no, no.” You see, he DOES know he’s not supposed to touch it;-).

Tomorrow we have a home visit with our social worker. We had to cancel the last visit because Allyson was in the hospital.

Tuesday it’s back to the doctor…

btw - we have added 5 new movies and several new photos, enjoy!

We are also going to be updating the home page, here is a link for a preview. Please let us know what you think. 

You know the boy doesn’t feel well when he’s not interested in food…Benjamin ate today, but not nearly the amount he has been eating.  He didn’t even get impatient when we weren’t feeding him fast enough.  - Today was actually not  a bad day for him though.  He took two naps and actually did get some sleep.  He’s definitely a different kid when he gets good sleep.

Allyson had a pretty good day today.  She spent most of the day in her pink chair or at the table playing with stickers.  She wanted to go for a ride in the car today, so I took her to my sister’s to return a baking dish (Kay and Craig came to the car and made her smile).  Then, we were off to Starbucks for coffee.  — She has periodic melt-downs now and we can’t figure out why.  She cries and gets herself all worked up…I snuggle her, and then she’s done.  What’s really great is when Benjamin starts crying because Allyson is crying…note the sarcasm?

Uncle Keith and Aunt Cheryl came over to say hello.  Cheryl made dinner for us (delicious by the way) and we were able to sit and enjoy it while Allyson watched a show and Benjamin slept.  (He was in bed and asleep by 7:10.)  After both kids were in bed, the four of us played with our Wii.  We had a great time.

A few people have tried to post comments but have told us they are “lost” before they are posted.  If you try to post a comment, you must follow the directions in the 4th box.  It will tell you to add two numbers together.  You must do this and put the answer in the box, otherwise your comment won’t post.

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