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Andy is 5

By Margot | January 31, 2008

Andy had a full four days of  birthday celebration.  We had a big party at Pump it Up! on Saturday (same place we had Sam’s -  I swear in my next life I’m going to open a Pump it Up! The place is a goldmine). The kids had a great time and Andy was in his element. Maureen came and took Andy to Toys R Us on Sunday to pick something out and Elizabeth is taking him to today. His haul on loot was fairly ridiculous.  All the boys love the basketball hoop on the back of the closet door and have been shooting hoops in house for five days.  On his actual birthday Andy woke up and said “Am I full five now?”  Then he went around telling everyone, he was a full five.  We brought brownies to basketball practice and then had an ice-cream cake at home after dinner and he got to open his presents from Mom and Dad and Grandma Joan and Nicole.  He has been asking for a Patriots Jersey.  He is a huge Patriots fan (because they are the best) and so when he was opening our present, he said, “Oh please let it be a Patriots Jersey, please let it be a Patriots Jersey.”  He was so proud walking around yesterday in his number 12 Tom Brady Patriots Jersey.  Tom Brady should be happy to know that after literally years of me trying to get Andy to use a napkin instead of his sleeve, last night after Kumon we went to Soup Plantation (I do actually cook, by the way, but Soup Plantation is easy after Kumon (our tutoring place) and some b-ball practice nights) with Grandma Sara and Andy said to me while he was eating, “Mom, do you know why I’m trying not to get my Patriots jersey dirty?  Because it is special.”  Then he actually picked up a napkin and used it on his mouth.”  Amazing!

He started sleeping in the top bunk while Neil was in New York- quite a milestone.  When we got the bunk beds he and Sam fought like crazy over who was going to get to sleep on top and then they both chickened out and shared the double bed on the bottom.  Andy has decided since he’s five now, he’s sleeping on the top bunk.

Sam’s ankles are getting incrementally better.  It is not a night and day difference but each day seems to get a little better so that’s good.  We have the week off from the hospital since we did and an extra blood check last week so I don’t have any numbers news.  Sam seems to be feeling fine and in good spirits so this week I’m going to take the ignorance is bliss theory for a week and enjoy it.  I had an IEP meeting at his school and we are trying to get him an aid in class.  It is mountains of paperwork and a lot of meetings but I think we’ve finally got it so that the aid will start in February   I was talking to his audioligist yesterday and she said that I should start pre-teaching him so that he’s familiar with the new vocabulary before the teacher teaches it.  Chemo hearing loss leaves the hearer not only with less hearing ability but also with less discrimination.  So the hearing that is left is not great.  If Sam’s teacher is teaching about Martin Luther King and civil rights. Sam is probably hearing Marbin Lutor King and Drivel rights.  Even with his hearing aids and a quiet environment he tests at 60% “discrim.” If I’ve taught him about the lesson before, he’s not going to be as lost, if not, the new vocab is going to throw him for a loop. I wish I’d known or thought of this two years ago but at least I can start preteaching now.  Given what he’s up against, Sam continues to amaze me. He’s keeping up with his class and really enjoying learning.  He has a great teacher and wonderful support at school.

We won our basketball game last Friday night.  We’re not supposed to be keeping score but somehow all the kids know the score anyway. I have to post this because we have another game tomorrow night and if we get creamed, I should have it on record that all kids played great last week and we won.  Sammy scored as did Joe and Luke and Matthew.  Sam looked much more comfortable running in the game.  Andy was a great defender. The win was all coaching I tell you ;-).  We have practice today and another game tomorrow night.

Neil said the MagicWater meeting in New York was really good and that the presentations were excellent.  He came home with a lot of hope for research and many plans as per usual for him. I went to a fundraising training called For Impact on Monday and Tuesday.  My good friend Meredith helped set me up with it (Thanks Meredith) and it was great.  I’m all geared up to raise millions for Magic Water.  Time is an issue of course but this was a “bag the elephant” type training so I just need to find some elephants.  There were a lot of people there raising money for schools or programs to get kids off drugs and we had to have practice meetings with “potential donors” and in one of my practice meetings, after I finished, the woman said, “Wow, I want to jump off my bandwagon and on to yours.  You can have all my money.”  and the other woman said, “You had me at hello. How much do you need?”  So now to implement it in a real life scenario…

I was thinking about the wonderful Dr. Sholler yesterday and how much she has done for our kids.   I lived in Barcelona, Spain my junior year in college. I loved it - the people, the food, the culture. However, I was often frustrated because the mentality (as least when I was there) of a lot of the people was not exactly outside-of-the-box thinking.  I would decide to walk somewhere on a Saturday and would often get lost, I’d get to a little shop and ask for directions to wherever I was going and the shopkeeper would say to me, “Andando? (walking) Es imposible (it’s imposible).  I would try to explain that I knew it was a long way but I had all day and wanted to walk and they would shake their head again and say “Es imposible.” And that would be it for the information I was going to get out of them.   That’s just one example but I’d get at the bank or the university or wherever.  By the end of the year, I stopped trying to fight it.  Anyway, before we found Dr. Sholler we got a lot of “Es imposible” and now I feel like someone is pointing the way and saying “Maybe you can try this street or that one.” And we so appreciate it and her and all that she does. 

Sorry for the long post.  I forgot to crop it again.  Doug keeps telling me I can crop it in our new blog but I keep forgetting.  Next up, I’ll upload pictures and if I can figure out video on here I’ll try some of that soon.  We’ve got some great crazy jumping video of Charlie to post.  By the way, he is a maniac.  He was sitting on our kitchen counter as I was cutting fruit for Andy’s birthday party and I had that vague motherly feeling that it was probably not a good idea for him to be up there but I kept my hand on his leg for most of the time.  I turned around quickly for something and he leaned forward and fell off.  I thought he’d broken his leg or arm but he popped up with a big grin and said. I’m Juuuump!  Woah!

Margot 

 

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