Blowing his mind

Before I start with my main story let me just say Logan had a TERRIFIC game today - almost scored a goal and had an assist. His team killed it today and Logan really had a great time (partly due to the win of course). Our reward was checking out a nearby frozen yogurt shop, for lunch today. :)

Anyway.....

We've been quickly learning how "small" this new community is that we're moving to. And it's blowing Logan's mind.

We were hanging out at the local Starbucks earlier this week, killing some time before Callum's soccer practice, when in walks our next door neighbors (and the boys' new friend). Logan turned to me and was like Mom!! Tyler is here at the coffee shop!! Isn't that crazy?!?

Mind blown.

Later, at Callum's soccer practice, Logan headed to the playground to hang out and ran into a girl that is in his class (sits across from him). He ran up to me and said Mom!! Sofia is here at the playground!! She's in my same class!! Isn't that crazy?!?

Again. Mind blown.

As we were waiting for the bus the other morning, we discovered that Tyler's teacher is the sister of Logan's teacher. What!!

Mind blown.

One of Logan's soccer teammates, who he has now friended, is Gus. Turns out, Gus lives around the corner from our new home. (And his mom is so nice, already offering to take Logan to soccer practice for me if I need the hand!). Crazy right?

Blowing his mind again. ;-)

I wonder what else we'll discover in these next weeks. It's been quite fun to see the boys' reactions (practically every kid on Callum's soccer team is a neighbor kid as well which is great). And validation for me on why I've signed them up in all of these activities, to get to know the kids around here. I couldn't be more happy and love seeing how much the boys like it too. :)

Friday Kinder Play date!

Yesterday was our first Friday Kinder play date! It was also Callum's first time riding the bus home from school! So fun. :)

Just another example of how awesome our new neighborhood is. The moms have organized a play date for the neighborhood Kinders every Friday after school. If you're interested, you just send a note with your kid on Friday morning giving permission to the teacher/bus driver to allow your child to stop at a different bus stop.

Three moms volunteer each week (we all sign up for a couple of slots so it rotates) to meet the kids at the designated bus stop, collect them all, and walk to the nearby neighborhood playground. They eat lunch at the picnic tables together and then play for an hour or so before it's time to be picked up.

It's a wonderful idea and a great way to get to know the neighbors (and kids). It will also give me (and other moms) an extra couple of hours before I have to pick him up, which is sooooo appreciated!!

First day of soccer practice!

It's been a whirlwind week for me. Back and forth trucking the kids all over the place. Soccer started this week too - here's a pic of Callum's first practice Wednesday night. He was really grumpy and complaining with me beforehand about how he "didn't like soccer" and "didn't want to play".

Then he saw one of his school buddies on his team (and a few other neighborhood kids who are also on his team) and totally lit up with a big smile. The rest of the practice went fantastic - he had a blast and told me several times afterward that he really liked his soccer team. ;-)

Neighbors

I forgot to share this pic last night too! But this is one that our neighbor, Mike, took of his son, and Logan, when walking them to the bus stop yesterday morning.

So cute!! :)

All grown up!

Today I thought I'd have Logan try taking the bus to school (it saves me a little bit of back and forth drive time but I also didn't want to push him into something he felt uncomfortable about). Lucky for me he was game! The bus stop is a few houses down from our new house and the kid in front of him is our next door neighbor (who the boys are already friends with so that definitely helped!). :)

It went fantastic!! He went straight to the bus and jumped on without even looking back to wave goodbye (sniff). Our kids are growing up so damn fast!

Logan's Dragon

Here's the one Logan had done. :)

Face Painting!

We went to a friend's birthday party today. It was such a nice day at the park complete with a taco truck, piñata and face painter - woo! :)

Fresh Danish Kringle

Jon just got home from a quick work trip to Seattle. He brought home this amazingly huge (it's the size of my lap!) and tasty Danish pastry. Yum! :)

Kinder Boys

I took this pic of Callum today as we were walking to school, and it reminded me of a similar one I took of Logan's first day to Kindergarten (almost exactly 2 years ago to the day!).

Feels like a big milestone we've hit - to now have two boys in school. :)

We're in the same class!

Callum and his summer school buddy, excitedly telling each other they're in the same (ladybug) class. It was super cute. :)

First day of school!

We successfully kicked off another year of school today - phew!! Today Callum started Kindergarten and Logan started 2nd grade.

The boys were NOT at all interested in cooperating with me on pics (goofing off, running away, etc), so these are some of the "best". But they were very excited and in a great mood so I'll take that over grumps any day of the week.

Drop off went surprisingly well. Callum was a little nervous but quickly slipped into his classroom without issue (I think it helped that he was familiar with the classroom from summer school and even had a summer school friend in the same class as him!). Logan didn't want to have anything to do with me - a total big kid, hooked up with a buddy on the playground and hardly looked up to say "Bye Mom". ;-)

Callum seemed extra happy and giddy when I picked him up after school. And crashed for a quick nap in the car shortly after. ;-) Logan let me know that he likes his new school "waaaaaaay more" than his old school which is great to hear.

School Schedule

Just entered the boys' school bus and class schedules into my calendar, since school starts tomorrow.

This shit just got real!  ;-)

Pulmonologist Follow up

Logan's getting a glimpse into mine and Callum's regular ritual with some of these dr visits lately! (And for the record, he whines the entire time, bored as all hell). Here he is, showing Callum and I that he's too tall for the height measuring tool :)

We had our pulmonologist follow up today (I can't remember if I blogged about it last but since Callum had been dealing with a lingering cough for a long time we were referred here to see if he's dealing with something more than a cold, like allergies or asthma).

While it's hard to say for sure what's helped (they decided the best course of action was to start treating everything to give him, and us, some immediate relief), we're pretty sure he may have a mild case of asthma (allergy tests came back negative which helps back this up). Or, at the very least, we think the asthma meds he's on are helping to keep his lungs less inflamed and agitated, if/when he gets sick.

So, we're going to continue on those meds through the winter/flu season (stop the allergy ones for now), at the very least as a defensive measure, and then re-evaluate in the Spring.

All in all, a pretty quick and painless visit compared to most!! (Though again, Logan would give you another story on that!) ;-)

Another chemo day

This last week has been a steroid induced emotional roller coaster with several breaking points, usually surrounding food. :)

I told him after our visit with the doctors (and his chemo), he could have a cheeseburger for lunch (he liked the ones at the hospital). So, he was dreaming about it all morning.

Of course, we were late *and* the clinic was super slow to see him for his vincristine push. So the minute we were admitted to a room he begged me to go get a cheeseburger for him (and since I knew we still had a while to wait, I thought that would work out).

The first pic is of him putting the cheeseburger together - but he quickly started crying because the lettuce kept falling off (it didn't help that he had torn it all into little pieces!).

The next pic is of him INHALING the monstrous cheeseburger in just a few minutes flat (this is also a problem during steroid week - since the food calms him down and he's in heaven - but he eats so fast that his stomach usually hurts and he has to deal with a lot of gas after). *sigh*

Thankfully, last night was his last dose for this cycle. So we should be back to normal in a couple of days (just in time for school to start!). :)

(All went well with his chemo and numbers look fantastic too!)

Sutro Bath Ruins

My parents took the day off to take the boys on a "field trip" today. :)

So, we're sharing a childhood favorite of mine, with them. Had a yummy lunch at Louis', overlooking the ocean, followed by a walk down to the Sutro Baths (my parents took them all the way down to the beach, but I've stayed back since I'm actually a bit disabled at the moment, threw out my back a couple of days ago).

Added bonus: today is gorgeous!

Squigglyhead

Callum's latest masterpiece!

(With only a tiny bit of help from Mommy) :)

Perler Beads

Our dining table has been overtaken with perler beads. Thanks Summer Camp, for getting the boys hooked. ;-)

Day 1 of our next cycle

Today is Day 1 of our next cycle, which means it's a big (and long) day of procedures and chemo.

We started off with Callum's LP procedure bright and early this morning. The first pic is an adorable action shot I captured (not posed!!) of one of our favorite nurses, who is always so energetic and expressive, as you can see here! She's excited because Callum is telling her about our recent trip to Hawaii. :)

When Callum went under for his procedure, the anesthesia, apparently, caught him off guard so he started choking and had a hard time breathing. They quickly put some tubes in his nose and a mask over his face to help him breathe. Watching him go under is never easy for me but I've gotten used to it. However I wasn't prepared for that reaction - it was quite scary - and I had to take a few minutes afterward to compose myself before joining Logan back in the waiting room. :(

Thankfully, all went well with his procedure and they called us back pretty quickly. Callum, as always, enjoyed his snooze and took awhile to wake. :) Once he started to stir and they felt good that he was doing ok, they went ahead and ordered his vincristine, and administered that via IV. He was also seen by his main NP for his regular monthly exam.

It's been really nice having Logan with me for company and distraction. And he's been SO HELPFUL as you can see in the second pic, pushing Callum all over the hospital. :)

Callum has his pentamidine appointment this afternoon, so we're taking a break and grabbing some lunch in the cafeteria while we wait. Because this starts another cycle, I also took the chance to start his meds - which is a 7 day round of steroids. Wheee!!! ;-)

Another family pic

While, for the most part, we truly had a blast in Hawaii - there were a couple lowlights of our trip. The big MOM FAIL was picking a luau which was located right along a grotto in the dead heat of summer.  Which meant that while we sat sweating our balls off watching the luau dancers perform on stage (which was surrounded by a very still stagnant lagoon), we were also getting chewed up by the local mosquitoes.

UGH.

Callum was sitting in my lap to see better but was really tired and cranky and wiggly and losing patience by the minute.  So, about half way through the performance, he and I ducked out early and walked around the gardens for a bit, waiting for Jon and Logan to finish seeing the end of the show (Logan remembered seeing a luau before and was waiting for the fire dancing routine).

I was telling a friend recently that I get really frustrated with not having many family photos to showcase.... and while I know I could hire a photographer and have a session or two done, I just never get around to it.  And, let's face it, my boys get sick of me snapping pics with my phone in a span of 30 seconds, so I know they REALLY won't put up with a 45 minute professional photo shoot.

So, over the past year or two, I've decided to LOWER my standards.

Like REALLY lower them.

And suck it up and pay the RIDICULOUS tourist fees that events charge you, for a posed family photo that never EVER comes out the way you'd like it to come out (because, it's usually taken without any preparation whatsoever, as you're standing in line, being herded from one point to another, right??).

So, after hearing my story above, you might think that this lovely gem was taken AFTER the mosquito biting fest in the blazing sun.  But noooooo, it was actually taken a few hours BEFORE.

Hindsight being 20/20, I guess I should've known the night might quickly spiral downhill from there.  ;-)

Twitch Summer Party

It was a gorgeous day up in the city today - perfect for the Twitch Summer Party. I made us sit in the photo booth on our way out - it's one of the only ways I can get a family pic these days! ;-)