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October 1, 2007

By Margot | October 1, 2007


Tony  dropping Sam down the ramp so he could slide down 
As you can see from the photos, Sam had a pretty awesome Friday. The Mikulaks invited us to a skate demo and lunch with Tony Hawk, Shawn White, Bucky Lasek, Jean Postec and a few up and coming young skaters whose names I didn’t get down. The day was auctioned off for The Tony Hawk Foundation which helps to build skate parks around the country. One of the teachers at Max Mikulak’s is married to Sean Mortimer, editor of Skateboarder Magazine and who made possible the invitation for Sam and Max to attend with the family who won the auction. As Melissa Mikulak put it, the boys crashed the party. Thank you Mikulaks and thank you Mr. Mortimer – you sure made two little boys days. Everyone from the foundation, Tony Hawk, Shaun White and all of the skateboarders couldn’t have been more gracious and kind to the kids. We got to see an hour skate demo on this enormous ramp in Tony Hawk’s warehouse. As you can see from the picture of Sam dropping in,it’s completely vertical at the top. The tricks these guys pull off on it are mind-blowing. Then we had lunch with everyone afterwards and the kids got to skate around on the bottom of the ramp and a few of them slid down it on their behinds as Sammy is doing. Then we got everyone to sign skateboards and took pictures. Sam was in heaven. I don’t think he got the smile off his face from the moment I told him where we were going when I picked him up early from school. He usually has to go to the hospital when I pick him up early so it took a few “We really don’t have to go to the hospitals?” for him to get it. When he was four and a half and our awesome wish granters from Make-a-Wish came to find out his wish. They played a little board game with him during the course of which he had to answer where he would like to go, who he would like to meet and what he would like to be. He picked Australia to see his cousins, Tony Hawk and race car driver. He ultimately picked Australia for his Make-a-Wish but it’s so cool that he got to meet Tony Hawk last week. What a nice guy Tony is. Shaun White is very nice too. Because we were crashing the party I could not bring Andrew. It was one adult and Sam. Since Neil was working I went. I have to say that I didn’t sleep much Tuesday and Wednesday night knowing that Andrew, who wore his Tony Hawk shirt every day this summer would not be able to come. I was very afraid it would break his little heart – part of the reason we left it as a surprise to Sam so there wasn’t too much build up. I called Melissa and she nicely called back and said she had an extra Tony Hawk skateboard that we could get signed and bring back for Andy. Sam was such a sweetheart, he was so earnest about getting Andy’s board signed and trying to soften the blow for Andy – he’s getting so grown up. Andy was very very happy with the skateboard and the boys were out all Saturday afternoon “dropping in” (are you impressed with my skateboard lingo?) to our driveway simultaneously. We owe the Mikulaks big time. It was fun hanging out with Melissa too. We get to compare throw up stories, riduculous hospital waits, pill taking, etc.  Neil is currently in Vermont with a group of parents and doctors meeting to try and make our wish come true. I just talked to him and he said the meetings are going very well. He left Saturday night and comes back on Tuesday. Saturday soccer update. We got crushed again on Sam and Dad’s team. The other team looked like monsters compared to our guys. Sam played goalie for a while and it was the first time I was nervous on account of his port. The other team had some serious power and I was envisioning a port explosion but thank goodness all was fine. The past three games and practices we’ve had the help of Lori Emerson coaching. She is just awesome and so good with the kids. She is a very calming factor in contrast to a lovable but excitable coach (whose name shall go unmentioned). We are getting much better though and I know we’ll win a game soon (as soon as we play a team more our size). Andrew is on fire on the soccer field . Last week he scored four goals and this past week he scored two. All he had to do was score one goal andhe completely came alive on the field. He dribbles the ball all the way into the goal – no long range shots for him. It’s so funny because he’s gone from dejectedly telling people that he never scores any goals to now telling everyone that he’s the best guy on the team. Charlie runs around the field trying to get back to the swing set. If I bring him over to the sidelines and put him down thinking he ‘s far enough away from the swings he turns right around and trots as fast as his little legs will carry him back to swings. He’s shakes his head at you every time you try to take him out of the swings. He also loves to run around kicking the ball. The only thing that will stop him in pursuit of the swing is if he spies a ball in his path. He does his best to keep up with his brothers and is still biting them when they take anything away from him. Two funny quotes from Andy: As I was chasing Charlie back to the swing Lori Emerson kept an eye on Andy for me. He walked up to her and she said, “Your mom will be right back she’s just chasing Charlie.” Andy said, “Yeah he is one tricky baby and he’s hard to handle.” Then as I’m driving him to school today a guy made a sharp turn in front of me and I had to hit the brakes. Before I could say anything Andy comes out with, “Hey ya moron, learn how to drive.” He got that from an excitable driver in our family whose name shall go unmentioned. I said Andy, you can’t say that. That’s not a nice thing to say at all- even if you hear it from Mommy and Daddy- we need to stop saying it.” He says, “Yep, that’s where I heard it- just doin’ my job.” Sam is a rock star a school this week because he got to meet Tony Hawk. His ankles have been hurting him after running and soccer which of course terrifies us but it’s on the top of the ankle and the achilles heel area so it might be a cleat issue. His numbers still look good. MIBG scan is on October 11 per the Texas protocol. We’ll of course keep you updated. (Sorry for typos/spelling -Macromedia doesn’t have a spell check that I can figure out and I never have time to edit properly and cut and paste into Word). I usually wake up at three in the morning wondering if I’ve spelled “acutely” or some other such word correctly. Margot

Topics: Progress Reports | Comments Off on October 1, 2007

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