11 months

A long over due picture... but Liam won't stay put anymore. Here is one of Liam's favorite things to do, Look outside.

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Practicing what we preach

Brian and I both gave blood today. I would still like to encourage you to do the same. To find a blood drive visit the red cross website.

In honor of giving blood, let me tell you about our little vampire. Brian and I like to call Liam a vampire when he gets blood. We now have a new reason- Liam is cutting another tooth; the lateral incisor, or as I like to call it THE FANG. Looks like I am pulling out the pain meds.

So Cute!!!

We have met lots of wonderful people in the past few month; so cute is the only way I can describe this little girl.

Last week when Liam was getting blood we met Jordan Jemsek. Jordan is another patient at the clinic, she has recently became famous. Jordan is in need of a bone marrow transplant. Today I am going to ask you to go to http://www.getswabbed.org/ or http://www.dkmsamericas.org/ to become a bone marrow donor. The process will take about 20 minutes; you fill out a medical history and in about 5 days you receive your kit in the mail. Swab your cheek and send it back. Bone marrow won't help Liam, but it will help someone. To learn more about Jordan go to www.caringbridge.org/visit/jordanjemsek or http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/31/2024128/jordans-last-chance.html

My next PSA today is please do to the next blood drive you see. Liam has had blood infusions 8 times in the past 3 months. I didn't know my own blood type until I was 18 and I can already tell you my 11 month old son is A positive. Please give blood.

Liam and Jordan 2/18/11

LCF Threadz

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Did I mention I love birthdays?

Happy Birthday to Alaina and Emerie. They both turn 1 this week. Liam is so sorry to miss out on the parties, but hopefully he can play with his besties again soon!

Alaina, Emmett, Liam and Emerie November 2010

POOP!

Yes, this post is really about poop.

As I was changing Liam's diaper this morning, I starting thinking about this guy that lived on the floor in college. One day he decided to talk about poop. Specifically about corn and poop. He went on and on about how corn looks the same coming out and it does going in. And wouldn't you believe it, There is a website devoted to this. I'll let you search for that on your own.

Why? you might be asking yourself was I reminded of this conversation. Well because apparently carrots look the same coming out as they do going in also. And yes if you actually read through all this poop talk, you read right- Liam ate carrots.

Thank you to my good friend Karen who gave me the idea for carrots. We all know Liam won't take anything with a spoon, so these are not pureed carrots. We also know they aren't whole carrots. I got a big carrot and boiled it in some water to soften it, but kept it firm enough that Liam would try it. It was a big hit. He is choosing carrots over the sugary cereal bar.

I guess mommy just needs to get used to orange chunks in the diaper :)

Hair today...gone tomorrow

Yup, this was a post I wasn't hoping to write. Liam had hung on to his locks so well, and his beautiful eyelashes... Remember my baby who was born with a head full of hair?

Here he is at 1 week old, with all that hair that caused me so much heartburn.

It has taken 3 months and 4 cycles of chemo, but Liam is starting to lose his hair. He still has a lot on top, but the back of his head is bald and thinning rapidly around the sides. Yesterday when Daddy tried to clean the sandman's dust from his eyes, Liam lost a few eyelashes. Please take a moment to mourn the loss of Liam's lovely locks.

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Because I love birthdays so much...

and I am still not over celebrating mine! Lets make this post interactive. Name one thing I need to do before I turn 30. And..... GO!

Happy Valentine's Day

Ya'll know I am not sappy, so forgive me.
I wanted say Happy Valentine's Day to my amazing Husband. I wouldn't have made it through the past few months without you!

Speaking of Birthdays...

I wanted to say a special thank you to Molly Egan. In lieu of gifts for her first birthday Molly asked for donations toward Liam's medical bills. Thank you Molly, Bill and Libby!

Your birthday is a special time to celebrate the gift of "you" to the world

and we all know what a special gift I am!

I have always loved birthdays. When else can you claim a day to be all about yourself? (I know Mom, I think everyday revolves around me)
But seriously, now that I run a distant second to Liam, let me have my 5 minutes.

For my birthday, Brian took us out to dinner. Cheesecake Factory. If you live in Charlotte you know what a disaster this can be. Experience at CF has told us go early and prepare to wait. So we planned for an early dinner-4pm. Liam had other plans. After his late nap we did not get to CF until 5:20. Brian put our name on the list then we went to walk the mall for the next hour.

We got back to CF at 6:30, received our pager and was told it would be about 30 minutes. Our little champ was getting restless. He wanted to get down and crawl around. On a dirty restaurant floor-I THINK NOT! So he settled for sitting on the dirty floor digging through his diaper bag. Brian joked about us being bad parents letting our cancer stricken son sit on a dirty floor; but hey, he wasn't licking it and he was happy.
After waiting about 45 minutes Liam was hungry so we pulled out the crackers and passed him back and forth while feeding him.

We were finally seated at 7:45. For those who know me Liam goes to bed between 7-8 and I am anal about keeping him on a schedule. As often as we are in the hospital, I feel keeping him on a schedule keeps some normalcy in life.

Anyway the food came out fast. Liam munched of bread and snacks the whole time. He was laughing and really enjoying being out. I wish I had brought a camera with us. Brian commented on how he had never seen Liam so happy; he truly made my birthday!

As Promised.... PICTURES

Snow Day 2011

Eating cereal bars are fun

Get me out of baby jail

Why is crawling on the dirty floor always funner?

Precious sleepy baby

Haha

Can I get out of here?

Mr. Inquisitive

Hi Mommy

Does this gown make my butt look big?

Mmmm crackers

Want some?

First picture in black shows the size (width and height) of his tumor in November. The solid line shows the depth in November. The blue shows the size of it today.

Hi Mommy, I'm awake

Stop taking pictures and get me out!

Junie with Liam while he gets his antibiotics.

Eating is EXHAUSTING!

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More Waiting

While in the hospital today I saw the surgeon. After Liam's CT scan last month they sent the scans to Duke for a second opinion. Yesterday the transplant team at Duke met about Liam. They do not believe the tumor is respectable. Meaning he will need a transplant.

While in the hospital today Liam had another CT scan. His surgeon was hoping to get a better picture than they did in January. His surgeon is still hopeful they will be able to remove the tumor. So now we wait for more news.

Right now his surgery has been rescheduled for March 9th. Date sound familiar to anyone? Yup; Liam is having surgery on his birthday. I guess the best birthday gift anyone could give him is being cancer free...