Party On

6am: wake up, snack, and play happily until brother wakes up and comes to see me. Hug brother then go downstairs and play while I wait for breakfast 7: eat eggs and banana bread waffles because it's Saturday! Mom makes pancakes or waffles every Saturday for us 8: nap 9: scavenging for dropped breakfast, getting out some toys, dance party 10: Go for a Target run where my family tests out potential birthday presents; go for a ride in my little red car 11: have lunch at Ricardo's, eat cheesy rice, a tomato, and most of a quesadilla; dance 12-2: nap 2: destroy the house finding the perfect toy, ride my motorcycle and push around some cardboard 3: cry, "help" mom clean out the cabinets 4: play pat a cake & bite mom; fall off my motorcycle and cry- it leaves a big bruise on my face Have a snack that makes me so happy I dance 5: eat dinner (macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, a mighty 4 pouch and a string cheese); go for a walk 6: watc...

Week 48: 11 Months Old I try my darndest to crawl in the tub on any occasion. I like to feed mama even though I'm done with her feeding me. I'm an independent man! I pull on mom's hair to break my fall and I like to putt around on my motorcycle. I turned 11 months old and celebrated by staying up all night long. Eli I say "Question mark, get set, go!" and "There's the cool bus!" instead of school bus. When mom asked me to say yes ma'am, I refuse. I don't know why she wants me to say "man", I keep telling her I'm not a man yet. When mom was laughing at the barista's joke I joined in before saying (between laughs) "I have no idea what you're talking about." I am obsessed with anatomy and literally spent hours having mom read to me about muscles and germs and bones. I ask for a snowman for lunch almost every day and warn Anias not to touch the toilet. I told him, "No Anias! You're going to be...

We found out about 9 weeks ago that my dad has cancer-a very aggressive cancer, the kind that makes your doctors tell you you're "up a creek with half a paddle." I was reluctant to talk about it. It's not my cancer and it feels self centered to talk about how it's affecting me. It's not "mine" to share. It's not burdening me and whatever I feel about it is inconsequential. My dad is a pretty private, conservative person but now the cat's out of the bag, so to speak. I headed to Denver about 2 weeks ago with Anias to help him out post surgery and there's a lot of good that was done! His tumors were completely removed with cancer free margins! He got his catheter out early and is walking almost half marathon distances every day. The cancer was not in his lymph nodes! So much good. In spite of the fact that typically this cancer is super treatable and slow growing and in spite of the fact that he got tested every year-the cancer had spre...