More than a Tumor: April 2015

We're slowly getting there to get everyone caught up to real time. We're hoping to consolidate some "boring" (ha!) months to get to where we are today. If this is your first time visiting us, please take some time to start from the beginning to see what we're all about! :)

July continued what June started. We were able to squeeze in many good times with our friends and family. We kicked off the month with Nate's speech and language evaluation which was part of his early intervention services. He scored in the above average range for language skills for his age and the therapist was impressed that he was putting 4-5 words together. Happy news! We'll take it whenever we can!

We were able to go to Tanglewood a few times and enjoy some beautiful music outside. We held our annual 4th of July party at our house. We love this time of year! We begin our day watching our town's parade from inside Stephen's office. He has a prime location to see everything and we don't have to deal with the crowds. Plus, if the boys want to just run around, they can! Once the parade is complete, we head home to prepare for our family and friends to join us for our picnic. It's always a wonderful day regardless of the weather outside! As an added bonus, we are now able to celebrate our niece's birthday on the same day. How exciting! Lucky girl gets to have fireworks on her birthday every year!

Most mornings in July were spent on our playset or in the pool; even at 6:30 in the morning. Nate's sleep woes were still an issue; he was still waking up several times a night, finally up for the day most mornings around 5:00. Not fun. We attempted to re-institute the "green light" system (which works like a charm for Ben) for Nate and failed miserably. We keep trying though!

We decided to re-decorate Benjamin's room. He's been through a lot on this journey that we're on and we let him choose the "theme" to his new room. Big surprise...he chose Lego's! His favorite color is red and wanted his walls red, but we weren't about to go down that road. So, we decided on a soft gray for the walls with all red accents: red curtains, red area rug, red/white comforter, red sheets, red "Lego" decals on the walls. To say he was happy was an understatement! It's the least we can do for such a loving and compassionate big brother.

By late July, we had to book the hotel for Boston for our next set of appointments. Ugh...that's never fun. It always makes things a little more real and allows the scanxiety to really set in. We were only a few weeks away from the scan that could decide our near future. But, before we let that control the "in between" time, we had lots of visits from so many of our loved ones to keep our minds occupied. My (Amy) best friend flew up from Baltimore to visit for a few days. The boys love her and always look forward to her visits. My (Amy) family came up from CT to see her while she was here too. Another best friend visited that weekend as well. How lucky are we?? These times don't happen as often as we'd like so we cherish them and hold the memories close.