It's Zack's third birthday today, and he is happy! We had some presents for him right away in the morning, and more for tonight. We're doing a low-key family dinner (with cake, of course!) this evening.
 

• Here are some photos so far.

We're actually combining the parties for Emily and Zack into one at the end of the month. They really like going to 3-2-1 Bounce, and so it makes the most sense ($$$) to combine. Emily has more friends since she's in school. Zack likes playing with her friends too.

Zack just finished his Dex medication which gives him mood swings. He's been a handful the past few days. That will wear off soon and he'll be back to balanced Zack.

In the footage from the other night, we also shot a bit of Zachary hosting his own little show. For the most part, we just set the camera rolling. Emily had been filming a series of likes for part of her video, so he just built off that. This is mainly the ramblings of a two year old. If you don't speak two year old, it may be hard to understand. Sorry, there are no subtitles.

• Zack's first show (1:58)

Luckily, we shot this a few days ago. He started back up on his Dex today for five days.. so he'll be a bit grouchy the rest of the week.

P.S. I think I finally got the aspect ratio right on the video encoder.

• Emily came down with the flu and started <spoiler>vomiting</spoiler> from 11:30pm to 5am. Lots of fun there. (And lots of laundry to do.)
• Zack came off the IV today, and they discharged him from the hospital at 3pm.
• Tina has come down with the flu and the aforementioned spoiler.
• I've been queezy and dizzy all day, but have held off any spoilers. (Knock on wood.)
• Emily is staying home from school tomorrow (again) and Zack needs to go into the hospital in the morning again for additional therapy. I'll be off work again tomorrow.
• I stocked up on Target brand pedialyte, chicken soup, malt-o-meal and hot wheels cars.

Here's hoping for the best! :)

P.S. I hear Tina running down the hallway.. I guess it's not the best for all of us. :(

• Photos here.

It looks like Tina and Zack may be in for a bit longer. Basically, he's not eating. He's still sore in the stomach and he has some of the big D. The docs want to see him eating and passing it normally before they send him home. He ate some chips while I was there, which was better than I guess he had been doing. Hopefully he'll eat some more, because Emily and I want he and Tina home!

Here's a little contrast: The photo to the left here is of Zack back in June before most of his chemotherapy to compare to the photo now on the right. What a difference 6 months makes.. maybe you can't see it, but his face was a lot thinner back then.

After leaving the hospital, we stopped by the XNA party for a little while. Most of the "party" had died down and people were talking to the development team 1 on 1. It was great to see people in the community connecting with the team. I ran into Mike, so that was cool too.

Zack was on the IV all day yesterday at the hospital. He needed some meds to counteract other meds he's been on. He's back home today. He'll have daily checkups in the morning for a while as he finishes his last month of heavy treatment before he goes into maintenance for three years. He's doing fine. Tina's doing fine. Emily received a trophy in the mail this week from Super Sibs that she's really proud of.

Someone please educate me. What's all the hype about how miserable it is to live in Seattle? It's December. The temperature is in the mid-40's. (As opposed to the 20's back in Minneapolis.) There's blue skies. Sun. The trees are green. No complaints here.

We've had some inquiries asking how Zack is doing now that he's back home. He is doing just fine. I think the biggest issue after surgery yesterday was that he knew he didn't want to stay at the hospital. He knows that being at the hospital means being away from the rest of the family and confined to a room.

He's obviously irritated at his wound. He kicked back on the couch and watched a kids movie about elephants in the evening. He was just fine. Before bed he was feeling irritable again. We gave him some pain killer. He was in very good spirits and went to bed just fine. There was only one "wake up" last night and this morning both kids were in bed with Tina and I. I'm just about to run off to take Emily to school and myself to work. Tina's staying home with Zack today. There's no need to check on the house today.

Zack is recovering from surgery at home. He had been throwing such a fit at the hospital, that as he screamed he started leaking blood from his wound. (That's not grape juice in the photo.) When I got the the hospital he was somewhat calm, but had thrown up. He was really hungry and ate food so fast he couldn't keep it down. Tina and Florence were tending to him. He was on Tina's shoulder when I arrived. He came to my shoulder and I asked him if he'd sleep. He was really cold, so Tina had a nice warm blanket for him. He started to sleep, and when I put him in the carseat, he fell completely under. I took Tina, Florence and Zack home before running back to work.

I met with the contractors at the house over lunch. The sheetrock guy and the painter. The sheetrock guy still has some fix up stuff he needs to finish. We've been on him to get everything done, and it looks like Thursday is the day the painters will let him in. Then they'll start in on the walls Thursday evening. Today the trim is still drying up. It's nice to see the new trim all painted. I left them a floor plan of the house and a spreadsheet with all the paint colors matched to the appropriate rooms.

We (Florence, Emily and I) just came back from the hospital after 10pm. Zack is a strong guy, and very energetic this evening. Despite that, he'll need to stay at the hospital a few more days. Tina is there with him. The doctors transferred him back up to SCCA (cancer ward) and that is a good thing. He gets better care there than in the general ward, where the nurses are not trained to deal with cancer patients.

Zack still has his splint on his leg for the IV. He had a yoga class earlier today and he moved around quite a bit with the splint on. This evening, he wanted to ride bikes. With his IV, he isn't allowed. It could get tangled up, since it's a foot IV. Instead, we roade around a bit on his lilypad. (The platform below his IV that he can sit on.) He also wanted to walk. He was amazing at walking with this splint on his leg. Even though it forced him on his tip-toe, that didn't slow him down. As he passed the nurses he'd say "hello. goodbye. see you later aligator!" They were all so amazed at how verbal he is. Little did they know his Dad talks ALL THE TIME and his Mom is always reading books.

Emily is sad this evening. She wants her Mommy to come home. Zack wants to come home too. Earlier today on the phone he said to me, "Daddy, I don't want to be at the hospital. I want to go home." Both kids are miserable with the situation. It can't be helped.

The infection he has involves a bug that needs an antibiotic that can only be administered via IV. That's why they need to keep him there. They said it may take a few days before he can come home. He has a wick in his chest where they removed the port. They slowly remove this string of gauze and with it the bacteria. Between that and the antibiotic, this should clear up. Zack appears to be strong, even with all this stuff happening. We don't know now if they'll put the port back in next week. If so, it means more sugery and hopefully this time more observation so he doesn't get infected again.

It's hard to see him back in that ward. It was hard to go back to the ward and see some kids we had seen last time we were there. It was harder still to know that Blake wasn't there as he had passed on. Zack's nurse knew Blake, and we traded some stories tonight and had some laughs about how great Blake was. That helped us a bit, laughing. These kids have to deal with so much at such a young age. It's hard to believe. I never could have imagined going through this as a parent myself. I know as hard as it is seeing Zack go through this, right now we're doing much better than some kids. They and their families are all in our prayers.

I'm dropping Florence and Emily off at a mall for the day tomorrow. It's so hard for them to be couped up in this small corporate apartment. As nice as it is for my work to fund this, it's not home. It's like living in a hotel with a kitchen. We'd love to be out of here soon. It's hard to get the work done on the house quickly because we're having to piece meal out the projects with various contractors. Sometimes one is delayed which delays the others, etc. Resources are in short supply around here, so we have to make due. We weren't planning on spending a bunch of money up front after buying the house. Due to Zack's condition, we want to get the work done before we move in so there's less disruption once he's there. Although his counts had been good lately, they can go up and down. Different things can cause reactions, so it's always best to be safe.

This morning my delivery of baseboards and trim came from Home Depot before I could get over there. I had them drop it on the driveway. Then I had to get over there and move the 100+ planks into the garage in case of rain. I was on a conference call for work while moving them. I was asked to give a status update on my projects while moving planks. That was a bit weird. While I was there, I also found the grout samples laying on the floor from the tile guy. I guessed what he needed and picked out the colors. I called him later and his guy was able to come by the house later and finish the grout in the laundry.

I called the plumber and he had some problem with his phone and then had a hurt kid back home, so he didn't get any work done today. He said he'd come tomorrow. We need him to change the tub out so the tile guys can finish placing tile in the upstairs bathroom. Our flooring guy's man is going to start in on the trim tomorrow. Once the trim is done, we're ready for painting. We're having some trouble securing a painter. The guys we want can't work until fall. We need the painting done to move into the house. There's another guy that has given us a bid, but we aren't sure about his work. We may have to go with him, because he's able to start soon.

Tina spoke this weekend to the people that had bid on taking care of our foliage issues in the yard. We have so much plant growth that it's allowing rodents to get into the attic. They aren't in the living space, but they gnaw at the insulation, etc. and so obviously it's good to prevent that. It was recommended we get rid of a couple trees close to the house. The bid from this team was $1000. It was only this weekend that Tina found that didn't include permanently removing the trees. They'd just cut them off and leave the roots.. and not even fill in the space with wood chips. So, we have to now find what it would take to have the trees removed. My trimmer is in storage. I'd hate to buy another one, but with all the work we have to do, that may be what has to happen. $1000 was mostly to trim plants, which is outrageous. I could pick up a trimmer for much less and do it myself. I'll save the money to spend on a tree removal service. That isn't cheap either.. but I can justify it more.

Life is so much more complicated being in this apartment in Issaquah and not having our stuff. Oh to get out of here.

For instance, I received a letter from the IRS a couple weeks ago saying we missed $20k of taxes back in 2004. All of my tax records are in storage, so I can't debate it until we move in. I can't move in until everything is done. We've had little delays that are going to make us miss our move target. The IRS says we have to pay or start payments by August 30th which is next week. Since we aren't ready to move in, I'll have to start payments. Of course that means I may give up my right to protest it. I don't have time to see a tax consultant right now. I'll just have to make due. I'm sure we payed all our taxes, but I have no way to confirm the paperwork they sent me against my own records. Argh.

I just received a letter from the Minnesota driver and vehicle services for Tina. It states that her drivers license has been withdrawn in Minnesota. They say that it's because she familed to submit a satisfactory physical exam report to them. Tina has epilepsy and hasn't had any activity since she started taking medication over a year ago. She had notes from her doctors, etc. and had gone through all the paperwork. Now, for one reason or another they've rejected her submissions and canceled her license effective 8/21. They sent this 8/15, but we only received the notice on 8/21 due to re-routed mail. She hasn't gotten her Washington license because she's been just a little busy. (understatement) Even once she gets her WA license, the letter states she will still not be able to drive in Minnesota until she completes the reinstatement requirements and receives a notice of reinstatement. Then she can pay her reinstatement fees and drive again in Minnesota. Nice.

Work is difficult. If I were able to devote my whole mental space to it, I would probably be much better off. I'm having to learn a new company and start projects with teams that I've never worked with before. I've had to deal with those kind of odds before and could handle it. I guess it's the fact that Zack's back in the hospital and I've been dealing with this stuff that makes it more difficult. Sometimes I have trouble just concentrating. Other times I just am tired of driving around from store to store and picking out vanity cabinets, paint colors, trim patterns, etc.

Anything else coming our way??? Heads up.

I'd better get to bed. It's 11pm and I have to work in the morning. (..shuttle Emily and Florence to a mall, stop in at the house, and THEN go to work.) It's helped to push some of this crap out of my head. Not that it needs to be on the internet either.. but that's what blogging has done to the world. ;)

Eric