Saturday, May 26, 2012

Fun in the Sun!

Cameron has almost completed the radiation phase of his therapy, he has two more sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. So far he has tolerated the radiation quite well and soon the 6am drives to Egleston will be over and we will remove all of his radiation markers (he has stickers that his doctors use to target the radiation beams at his primary tumor site). In early to mid June Cameron will have more scans and imaging which we are hoping come back clear so that he can begin anti-body therapy towards the end of the month.

In the meantime we have been making the most of the home time and decided to brave our first family camping trip at Stone Mountain Park.  It was an awesome experience. The boys had an absolute blast and played so hard that they were both fast asleep before sunset leaving Mom and Dad some downtime around the campfire. The next day we were joined by friends for a picnic and a  fun-filled day at the park.
Nothing like an ice cream on a hot day


Dads little helpers get stuck in with pitching the tent















This weekend we visited the Australia Festival at the polo fields in Forsyth, we anticipated hot weather so we headed out early and were able to do most of the stuff that we wanted to before the heat of the day set in. The boys highlight was seeing and touching some of the Aussie wildlife, James has a real passion for animals and didn't want to leave. We really enjoyed just watching them.
Hey James - lets check that out

James and the Wallaby in deep conversation at the Australia festival
Fun in the Sun

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Mothers Day

Things have been busy in our household lately!  With Cameron home for the last 2 weeks, we have been making the most of our time together.  James is starting to relax a little bit and is loving having his brother home for such a long period of time.  We have been to the park to feed the ducks, we went to see the fire engines at the local Public Works event and we have played and played and played.  I have been working on decorating the boys new room with "big boy" beds (photos soon).  Cameron has been doing remarkably well and and we couldn't be happier with his progress.

Tomorrow Cameron will start radiation.  He will be radiated everyday for the next 2 and a half weeks and will have to be put under general anesthetic each time - that means he can't have anything to eat or drink from midnight, every night for the next 12 days.  This is NOT going to go over well!  Cameron, my skinny little boy, has found his appetite - in a BIG way.  His recent acquisition of language has brought with it an easy way to demand every desire and be understood, a major score for a two year old.  Much to our surprise, most of the demands have been for food.  Of course, we are thrilled and I really hope that he gains a bit of weight.

Today we celebrated Mothers Day - to some it's just another day created by Hallmark to sell cards, to me it's a day that I longed to celebrate for many years.  Every year on Mothers Day I cried bitterly that I wasn't a mommy, my heart ached to hold a baby in my arms and feel the love that only a mother can feel for a child - a love so deep that you would die for that person, without a seconds thought.  But for years my arms were empty and my heart was broken.  I hated Mothers Day, I hated my stupid body for not giving me what my heart desired most - the most primitive of things - a child.  After many years of trying and finally my beautiful boys came into my life.  It felt incredible as I celebrated my first Mothers Day, overjoyed that my dream had come true, with not one but two perfect bundles of immense joy.  I'm not going to pretend that every moment of having children has been magical and wondrous - by no means.  It's been tough, I had no idea what hard work being a mother is.  Sleepless nights, screaming tantrums, a house that constantly looks like a tornado ripped through it - and that's just this week.  But it's the moments that make you forget all that, when you look at them while they are sound asleep, or when they laugh uncontrollably at you for playing peek-a-boo with them, or when they play happily together without fighting over a toy - it's those moments that all mothers savour.  So, today as I celebrated Mothers Day with my beautiful boys, I drank in every moment - life is so fragile and sometimes I think I get so wrapped up in the day to day madness of our busy schedule that I forget to stop and appreciate what I have.  I am grateful every second that I have been given with my children, I pray that there are many more Mothers Days in our future and that I enjoy each one as much as I have enjoyed today.


This was taken as we were leaving the Ronald McDonald House - Can you spot Cameron?