Fun Update!

I'm so happy to report that Stephen is doing amazing and things couldn't be any better for our little Superman right now!!!  Okay, now I'm off to go knock on every single wooden surface in our house because I probably just totally jinxed ourselves.  Ha ha!

Aside from a little cold/cough and allergy thing we all three had a few weeks ago, everything's been so great this past month.  Stephen had a whole round blood work drawn last week here in Virginia, which included all the regular cast of characters plus they checked his cholesterol, vitamin D, and parathyroid hormone (PTH), and everything was great!  The only slight change we had to make was increasing his prograf dose a little.  Now that he's back on his CellCept, I've been waiting for his white blood counts to drop and screw everything up, but his cell counts and hemoglobin were actually better this month than they have been in a very long time.  So we've been able to get away with skipping our March visit to CHOP and will head to Philadelphia at the end of next month for a visit.

Other than that, we've really been enjoying all sorts of fun activities around the DC area; despite the weird Spring weather we've had.  

And most importantly, I can't forget to tell everyone this because it's so HUGE.....Stephen has been doing to daycare for two weeks now without any tears!!!!!!!!!  It's a freakin' miracle!!!  The one thing I've been dying for has finally happened!!!  And I seriously can't even being to describe how it's changes our lives.  The mornings were awful getting ready for work and school and the evenings before school days were also a drag.  And even though I knew he stopped crying after a few minutes once I left, and he liked going to daycare, there was always this doubt in the back of my mind about whether or not I was doing the right thing and whether or not he was having a good time and yada yada yada.  But now it's so awesome!!!  We've come up with a routine each morning when we walk into class, I get a couple of BIG hugs and kisses, and I walk him over to the board where he gets his name each morning and finds out what activity he starts with for the day.  Then a couple more hugs, a good bye and I'm out.  And my whole morning just feels better, regardless of what else is going on.

In full disclose, it took a little bribery with some Matchbox cars, which I tried so many times(!), but this time it actually worked!  We did a couple days of Matchbox cars, and now we've graduated to a sticker chart, so it's 3.5 weeks of no tears before a reward.  And so far, so good! 

He's also added some new foods recently to the regular line-up including jello and ice cream, which are certainly new textures, and he's given yogurt a try and we had pizza for lunch the other day in Old Town, Alexandria, which is also new.  All-in-all, I couldn't be more proud of him!!

And of course, we have to share some pictures of our recent adventures!  We played in the last big snow storm of the year and then promptly enjoyed the sunshine a few days later; took a trip to Frederick, MD to a train museum; been to a local Touch-A-Truck; Stephen and Daddy took a trip on the Metro to the White House; Stephen had a Spring hat parade at school; we did a celebratory breakfast complete with Nutella and waffles after labs last week.  And we're gearing up for the Easter bunny this week!  Happy Spring to everyone!!

Hopefully I've finally figured out how to upload videos (I've only been trying to do this for 3 years).  Here's Stephen's preschool class singing "You Are My Sunshine" at their Spring hat parade last week.  Enjoy!!