Natural History Museum!

We spent a day this summer at the Natural History Museum with my Mom, Aunt, and cousin Molly. We enjoyed visiting the new garden, the fantastic new kid's lab, and seeing the LA exhibit. The big thrill of the day was the time we spent in the butterfly tent. I admit that when we first went in it was disappointing because in my head a butterfly tent would have thick clouds of butterflies, but upon further reflection (or rather observation of my most timid child), I realized that too many butterflies would be scary (and messy). Once the kids warmed up to having butterflies land on them they had a really great time. My mom ended up being a butterfly magnet, so we got to see lots and lots of them up close.

Starting School

It seems that everyone is posting pictures of their kids starting school, and I've yet to get my pictures up. Both Tommy and Nic are in school this year. Tommy is in full-day Kindergarten, and Nic is at school district pre-school for a few hours every afternoon. If only I could get Kenny to nap for any length of time I might actually be able to get something done!

Both guys are enjoying themselves. Tommy has been a little worn out, but given his naturally high level of energy I am not worried about him adjusting to the schedule. I don't know how I'll make it though...these early mornings are killing me! The little guys and I walk Tommy to school each morning, and while I enjoy the motivation to be up and ready for the day, I would like that day to start one hour later than it does. The good thing is we should actually be on time to more of our activities this year. So far, Tommy's favorite thing about school is, predictably, recess. He insists that he isn't learning anything at school, but I'm fairly sure he is. Being a social sort of fellow he has already had to have his seat moved, and there may have been an incident involving a dog pile...but Tommy assures me he was on top so I know he didn't start it. From his after-school commentary it appears that his teacher may have been blessed with a rather rambunctious group of little boys this year, so hopefully he will blend right into the pack and I won't get too many notes home.

On the first day of school Nic ran out the door to the bus, hoped on, and yelled "bye mom!" I was floored by his enthusiasm. He had spent the previous day worried that he would miss Kenny (until that point he was under the impression that mom and Kenny would also be attending preschool), and so I was a bit nervous that he would change his mind about preschool. However, his longstanding desire to ride a bus overrode any hesitations he had and he was quite pleased with himself and his situation. This lasted a few days, then we had a heat wave and one day Nic arrived at school half asleep and drenched in sweat and the school nurse took one look at him and decided he could no longer ride the bus because it doesn't have air conditioning, and she doesn't want him to have a sickle crisis because of the bus (and neither do I). Since then the district has been sending a mini-van for Nic, which is really an upgrade, but not in Nic-world. Now that he can no longer ride a big yellow school bus his enthusiasm for school has greatly diminished; there may even have been some kicking and screaming when he first had to be strapped into the mini-van carseat. Poor kid. He was so close to living the dream. We have high hopes that once it gets a little cooler he will be able to ride the bus again. He does like his class, I think. Sometimes it is hard to know with Nic. I have to say that I was blown away by the program on the preview day. The facilities at his school are amazing, the classrooms are beautifully designed. The playgrounds are great, and they even have an indoor playground that Nic will play on with a few friends when the weather is too hot or too cold for him to be outside for recess. They also have a library, areas for various therapies, and therapists that work in the classroom as well. Nic gets his speech therapy in class twice a week. Nic has made great strides in speech, and I think having more time to interact with his peers will be helpful to his speech development as well. The only downside of preschool is that Nic is pretty wiped out by dinner time and that has made eating with him a less than pleasant experience on many nights. He wouldn't nap anyway if he were home, but he doesn't quite have the energy to make it through the day without some downtime. I will probably need to institute an after school quiet time, but it is hard when the weather is still nice and they want to spend some time outside.

Kenny is enjoying getting a little time at home to himself. He enjoys being the center of attention for a short period of time (which may explain his reluctance to nap). We are doing our standard routine of bible studies and MOPS, so he is getting out and about too.

And now, for those promised photos:

Concerts at the Park

When I was little Polliwog Park was a special park because it had a pond with ducks and this really neat (and huge in my memory) wooden ship in the play area. The wooden ship is gone, probably because it didn't have safety rails, but the duck pond is still there and now it also has an army of turtles to compete with the ducks for food. Also, they do free concerts in the park on Sunday nights during the summer, and while the music is not always really fantastic, the kids had a great time rocking out because they aren't always that discerning. They made it to three concerts this summer, but these pictures are from the night the "Beatles" played. You might notice that the kids are jumping all over a guy resembles my dad but is not my dad in one of the shots. That would be my dad's brother, Uncle Jim, who is a great sport. He let them jump all over him until they were all worn out, and that is no small feat.

A Walk on the Beach

This blog has been too quiet lately - I've had limited computer access since we came back to Illinois and a huge huge pile of boxes to attend to...and of course keeping up with three boys, adjusting to cleaning and maintaining a much bigger house and yard (overall yay! but a few bumps along the road), and getting the school year started. However, I am scheduling a few weeks of back-posts from our trip to CA, so I can promise with absolute certainty that there will be pictures and updates this week and next.

Today's offerings are from a walk we took with Mom and Dad in Redondo. It was a beautiful evening and the kids were going crazy running ahead of us, then turning around screaming and running full speed every single time they saw a dog. If you've every walked that stretch of sidewalk you know that it is dog-central. So, basically they spent a great deal of time running back and forth and jumping up on my Dad so he could save them. It was cute, but probably pretty hard on his back...

Update on Mary: No Change

The good news is that Mom's tumor has not gotten bigger or spread. The bad news is that neither the main tumor nor it's smaller offspring have shrunk any since her last CT. Considering that chemo has been hit or miss for her for the last few months, we are very grateful that the cancer is still contained. Her chemo dose is being lowered in the hope that this will allow her to get chemo every single time she is scheduled. Please pray that the chemo will be effective and that her blood counts will be high enough for her to get chemo every week during this next round (which starts a week from Thursday).

Thank you so much for praying with us. Your prayers and support are so valuable to us. We treasure them (and you)!

Update on Mary: Chemo Struggles

Mom wasn't able to get her chemo today, because once again her blood counts were too low. Despite a recent drop in the strength of her chemo, her body continues to struggle to recover every week. This is really discouraging. She would really like to be able to get her chemo every single time. Please pray for her body to rebound more quickly, and that she would be able to take her chemo next week. Also, please pray for wisdom as she discusses her chemo schedule and dosage with her doctor next week.

She has a CT on Friday to check on the spread of the cancer, so please pray that she would get through the procedure and that the results would be positive. We will not hear any results from the test until next Thursday, so pray for peace for all of us as we wait.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers! We appreciate them all so much.

Kenny Eats a Lime