Sleepover

Bryce had his best friend come over to spend the night last week. They had a good time swimming and going to the space park. Mia tried to keep up with everything they were doing. At one point, she was running after them and fell into the doorjamb. She has another nice knot and bruise on her head. That poor child has hit her head so many times. She always has a bruise or black eye one, it seems! Whoever said boys were rougher? She really is pretty much a girly girl, but she doesn't want to be left out of anything Bryce is doing. Plus, she is a climber. She can climb up and over anything at all.

She was playing dress up the other day and first she had my shoes, a purse and was pushing a stroller. How sweet. Five minutes later she was wearing an army helmet and holding a play sword. Oh, well.

Gardening

Bryce has really wanted to plant a garden, but we obviously don't have the room. So his Mimi decided she would plant one at her house for him. So my brother and Ryan dug it all out this weekend (with Bryce's help) and then Bryce helped plant the fruit and veggies Monday. He is very excited to be growing his own food, especially watermelons! I told him we would go over there a couple times a week to swim and water the garden.

Visiting Grandma

We took the kids out to see Ryan's grandma last weekend. They love playing out there. So much room to run! Bryce showed her all the pictures from the beach and told her all about the Alamo. Mia learned to say "grandma" and kept climbing up in her lap.

Swimming and Water Fun

We had another busy week last week. Monday night was the end of season soccer party at a waterpark. Bryce had a lot of fun playing with some of his soccer friends in the pools. He still won't go on any of the slides, even in the kiddie area, since cutting his chin on a slide two summers ago. When he was 3 he had to go to the ER and was so terrified of stitches they glued it and the dr glued her hand to his face and it got stuck for about 5 minutes. He has been traumatized since and won't go on water slides at all. He still had a great time, though! Then we went to the spray park with our playgroup one day and Bryce loves it. Mia runs to the edge and laughs, but will not get wet :) After about 20 minutes she was done and kept saying she wanted to go to the car and leave!

We went swimming several times at my mom's house. Bryce is getting pretty good at swimming on his own. I think a few more times and he will have it down. Mia has gotten over her fear of the pool and just climbs right in whether there is a step or not. She has to wear floaties the whole time she is outside because she scares me and just tries to get in by herself.

We are thinking about buying a pop up camper so we can take the kids camping more. We really enjoy going, but it is just too hot to tent camp right now and not everywhere has shelters or cabins. If we had a camper we could go anytime and pretty much anywhere so that is our next big purchase :)

Sleeping

They look so sweet and innocent while sleeping. It almost makes me forget when I told him to stop doing something in a restaurant and he shot back with, "you aren't the only one on vacation." He is a little too witty. Or that she literally had me chasing her around the pool for hours. Her favorite thing was to say she wanted Ryan while he was in the water, but if I tried to bring her to him, she got mad. She wanted him and Bryce to get out and play with her. She definitely has a mind of her own and knows what she wants.

San Antonio

We stopped in San Antonio on our way back home. We kept hoping Bryce's early Saturday soccer game would be rained out so we could stay the night, but it wasn't so we headed home late Friday night. We went to the Alamo and Market Center. I got Mia a really cute Mexican-style sundress and Bryce got a not-so-cute, Nacho Libre cape and mask. Oh, and a sombrero, of course!

Ryan on the News!

While we were playing at the beach, a tv station camera crew pulled up and asked if Ryan would give a statement about the seaweed on the beach. There was lot of washed up seaweed on this particular beach and they were trying to get the city to clean it up. They asked him what he thought of the seaweed. Um... we don't like it.

Rockport

We rode the ferry over to Rockport one day to a nice beach and park. Bryce thought the ferry ride was cool, Mia refused to get out of her car seat. She usually refuses to get in so I don't know what her deal was. We saw some dolphins while we were crossing. Then we went to the beach and played at a pirate park. We had a good time until Bryce got stung by the jellyfish and then the beach time was over. We headed back to the pool!

Walking on the Beach

We went walking on the beach and pier several times. We saw some big sea turtles and lots of jellyfish. Mia loved chasing and trying to catch the birds.

Pool

We spent A LOT of time at the pool- no jellyfish! Bryce could have stayed in there the whole time and Mia had a great time making me chase her from one end of the deck to the other. She finally got in the water on the last day there.

Pirates

There was a lot of pirate toys, books, etc in the gift shops and after buying one sword, Bryce convinced Ryan that he really needed a different one that came with an eye patch. Ryan said, sure, it's cheap. He just didn't remember it was at a gift shop 30 minutes away that we had gone to earlier in the week. He had already promised so we headed back there to get the "right" sword and eye patch and compass and telescope and a hat!

Aquarium

The Texas State Aquarium is in Corpus and is very cool. We enjoyed the dolphin show and seeing the sharks the most. There was an area where you could touch the stingrays, but Bryce wanted no part of that. Even watching Ryan and Scott touch them didn't convince him it was safe.

Beach!

We had a great time at the beach. Bryce loved the water and the sand, but Mia didn't enjoy the water until our last day there. She loved playing in the sand, though. Bryce was little nervous after he got stung by a jellyfish, but Scott brought his surfboard and that got Bryce right back in the ocean! Mia went to sleep and took a nap on the beach.

Great News and Relief

Hi, everyone. We saw the oncologist/hematologist today and received very good news. His words, after looking at her blood work, were that "leukemia isn't even on the radar". She is anemic and her white blood cell count is still a little low, but they follow the normal curve and show no indication of a problem. They drew more blood today and he will look at it tonight to make sure size, shape, etc looks okay and also will test her iron stores to make sure iron is definitely not the problem. He basically said that her "normal" is just a little low. Her platelet count is fine and she is completely symptom free for the anemia and neutropenia meaning it is benign. We do go back when she is two to have the tests redone to make sure everything is staying consistent. However, her levels have all been very consistent for the last 9 months so there is no cause for worry. He said the real worry is when two of the counts are significantly low at the same time and that is not happening with her. The pediatrician saw them as being low, but according to his charts that allow for variance she is barely below the averages in each area.

If the levels do drop, we will do more tests and there are injections that could be done to boost the cell count, but at this point it is not necessary. That would be last resort if she starts having problems with recurring infections or low energy (which we all know is not a problem for Mia!)

Thanks for all of the prayers, positive thoughts, etc. We really appreciate it!

Busy Weekend

We had a good, but busy weekend. Friday night was my little sister's confirmation at church. We went to that and dinner with my family. Saturday morning was Bryce's soccer game and the standard Cici's pizza lunch. Anytime you let Bryce pick, it is going to be Cici's! My brother and niece came to watch the game this week which was nice. Mia and I spent all afternoon Saturday trying to find a nice umbrella stroller that wasn't blue. Don't get me wrong, I love blue and want another little boy (and another girl, but Ryan says just one more), but she is a girl and I want to enjoy the pink :) We finally found one that is pretty cute. Bryce went to work with Ryan Saturday afternoon so he could get some paperwork done. Sunday we took the kids to the zoo. Mia loved the penguins and Bryce loved the Sponge Bob ride!

We go to Texas Oncology in the morning for Mia's appointment and I will post what we find out. My friend is picking Bryce up and taking him with her to a reading class she teaches for 5 and 6 year olds. He is very excited. I try not to take him to appointments where they do Mia's bloodwork as I have learned he doesn't handle it well at all when she is hurt and crying. He is a great big brother and just can't stand them hurting her. He was more upset last time than her.

We went to the park today with our playgroup. Bryce made another new friend his age and they played until the rain started and then we headed to lunch with them. Mia enjoys playing at the park and tries to do everything the big kids do.

We leave for vacation Friday and are getting things ready to go.