Encore, Encore

I remembered that our digital camera takes video as well, so here is a video of Tessa singing "Follow the Prophet".

I know that they sing other verses of this song in Primary but this is the only one that she knows. And it drives William absolutely berserk when she sings it, because it gets "stuck in my head". So of course she follows him around the house, singing at the top of her little lungs.

You can also see a handwriting sample below:

Why do kids make a million lines when they are writing E? If you want to get technical, this looks more like TEZZQ, but it's just such a novelty to have a child who shows any interest in writing at this age. Henry and William could write their names by the time they were 4 1/2 or 5, but I can't even remember them doing more than write a single letter at 3 (or even almost 4).

So - singing, writing. Must be a girl thing.

Same Old, Same Old

Nothing exciting is going on with the Wrights of Hyde Park. Which is kind of a relief. It's nice to be in a good place regarding Henry's health. Spring has sprung. The kids are doing well in school and sports. Life is good. But I thought I should blog something for those family members and friends who check in on us. So:

*Henry's soccer team is undefeated. It's his first year in the U10 age group and he's the youngest on the team. He enjoys playing and we think it's good for him to be on a team with older kids - he learns alot from them.

*William's soccer team is doing well also. They have won two games and lost one, but they don't really keep track of the score; actually they don't even have referees this year. The coaches run around and help the kids on the field and there is no goalie. William has scored a few goals and is much more engaged with the whole thing than he was last year.

*Tessa can write her name. I should take a picture and post it - it's pretty cute. She also has learned a song in Primary called "Follow the Prophet" and loves to sing it. The only verse she knows is about Adam and she sings that he lived "in a place called Even". I would make a video to share but our video camera is not working right for some reason.

*Jay is busy at work. He's been to New York and Seattle in recent weeks and is heading out again next week. We don't like it when he's gone but we're grateful that he has a good job so we grin and bear it.

*I'm busy with the kids and at home. I'm trying to figure out the scheduling of summer activities this year. Henry and William will have baseball in June and Henry has a Cub Scout camp to attend as well. I want all the kids to take swimming but they are balking. I will for sure sign William and Tessa up but Henry insists that he isn't going to take swim lessons. I even told him that if he wanted to participate in a sports camp that he enjoys that he had to agree to do swim lessons and he said no. Sigh. He's definitely his father's son.

*Jay and I are disappointed that the Sting concert that was scheduled for June 10th and for which we had tickets has been cancelled. Well, I'm disappointed. Because I heart Sting. Yes I realize how much that ages me but I don't care. Anyway, it's probably for the best. Jay was going along just to humor me and we still have the U2 concert on June 3rd.

*We are all celebrating the purchase of our new dishwasher. The one we have been using was fine - it cleaned OK but it was loud. Recently we've been noticing that it has been much, much louder and making these weird grinding noises so we decided to pull the trigger on a new one. Jay had enough American Express points saved up to trade for a Home Depot gift card and we used it for a new dishwasher. It's wonderful! It's so much bigger inside and quieter and the dishes even feel cleaner when they come out.

So yeah, not much going on. It's been awhile since we've been this normal. Isn't it great?

Oh, and did I mentioned that Henry's thyroglobulin was 0.1? :)

0.1

We took Henry down to Salt Lake City yesterday for an appointment with his pediatric endocrinologist. We needed to discuss monitoring and possible plans for future treatment and get some more bloodwork done. Since we weren't sure if his lung mets were going to respond to the radioactive iodine treatment, we were anxious. It all boils down to the thyroglobulin level in his blood.

Thyroglobulin is an indicator of the amount of thyroid tissue in your body. Since Henry's thyroid gland has been removed and he has had radioactive iodine treatment to kill the rest of his thyroid tissue (both normal thyroid tissue leftover from the surgery and cancer), the ultimate goal is for his Tg to be 0. After his surgery his level was pretty high, somewhere in the 17 range. Two weeks after his RAI it was down to 3.3. Anything under that level would have been acceptable to us, but the closer to zero the better.

It was 0.1. 1/10. Thissssss close to 0. We are thrilled. This indicates that the lung mets are responding to the treatment, which wasn't a sure thing at all. Lung mets can be resistant to RAI and we were warned that they might not go away and that the best result we might get would be for them not to get bigger. So honestly any number that wasn't higher than 3.3 would have been OK with us. But 0.1 is great!

We'll repeat bloodwork in the summer and we have another appointment in August with the endocrinologist. If his bloodwork stays good we'll probably cancel the neck ultrasound that we have scheduled for that appointment and the CT scan that we were planning to repeat in the fall. Then we'll be able to do periodic bloodwork to check his TSH level (and adjust his thyroid meds as needed) and Tg (close to zero is good; any rise in his level could indicate a recurrence). He'll need that monitoring for the rest of his life. And every time I'm sure I'll hold my breath until we get the results back.

But tonight we're relieved. And grateful. And happy. Things are looking good for now and that's just about all we can ask.

A Day at the Zoo

We decided to take a day trip down to Salt Lake City on Saturday and go to the Hogle Zoo. Henry kept complaining that he "had nothing to write about at school" regarding his spring break activities. Poor Henry. He was particularly hard on William, since his brief illness forced a cancellation of our trip to the zoo on Thursday. After ironically explaining to him that it wasn't fair to be mad at his brother for being sick (hello, Cancer Boy - I don't remember anyone blaming you for anything illness-related over the past few months), he agreed that a Saturday trip would be acceptable; an additional bonus was that way Jay could come with us. The weather cooperated and off we went. It was a beautiful day and we had fun.

William really enjoyed the primates:

I would have more pictures to post, but any of them with Jay in them look something like this:
We got to see the new baby elephant:
Everyone rode the carousel:
We won't be taking any day trips for the next few Saturdays. Soccer starts this week which means we'll have two games each Saturday until mid-May. And we have a garden to plant. Well, Jay has a garden to plant. At any rate, we'll be busy.

Spring Break...Thwarted

We had high hopes for our spring break this year. The kids had a whole week off and were anticipating a week filled with fun and outside play. Instead they got this:

Monday - No snow as was predicted, but cold and windy all day. They valiantly tried to play outside a few times, but retreated quickly into the warmth of our house. They spent most of the day playing on the Wii.

Tuesday - It snowed quite a bit Monday night and Tuesday was even colder (highs in the 30's) so we just hunkered down and stayed inside. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned while they played on the Wii. Again.

Wednesday - Sunshine! Yay! We got out and played outside and ran errands and had a pretty good day. The forecast for Thursday was delightful so we decided to take a trip to Salt Lake City to the Hogle Zoo. Alas, William ended up with a fever of 101 before bedtime so we had to postpone our trip.

Today looks like a great day weather-wise (Sunshine! No Wind! 50 Degrees!), but William is still running a fever when he isn't drugged with Jr. Strength Tylenol so we're staying home again. If William's fever is gone tomorrow I think we'll attempt the zoo; otherwise we'll have to postpone it for a bit. The good news is that Jay is returning home from a trip to the City That Never Sleeps, which works well for him since he's been stressed with a work project and seems to be going on about 4 or 5 hours of sleep a night for the last few weeks. The kids will be happy to see him and he can be appropriately sympathetic to their complaints of a boring spring break. I ran out of my weekly allottment of sympathy in the midst of their "we're stir crazy and bored and not going to take it anymore" induced fighting late Tuesday afternoon, so I'm all out for a while.

The Thrill of the Hunt

Today we spent the day in Ogden with the extended Wright family for a day-before-Easter celebration. Nana Bunny fed us well - ham, potatoes, asparagus, and rolls with strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was fun to see everyone - I don't think we have gotten together since our nephew Colin's birthday in January. Winter in Utah isn't always conducive for family get togethers when you are as spread out as we are, with us in Cache Valley and the Wrights of Lehi in, well, Lehi. Anyway, the kids had a good time playing together and got along really well.

Part of our annual Easter tradition is a Nana-sponsored Easter Egg Hunt. She's done one for the past several years and the kids just love it. She picks out fun treats and toys for them and this year upped the ante with eggs filled with quarters. All the kids got the same amount (she used stickers to designate eggs for different kids) and had a great time looking around the yard for their treasures. William said he was "loaded". If he thinks he's loaded with a few bucks worth of quarters, who am I to tell him otherwise?

I really like this tradition for a few reasons. First, I'm not in charge of it. Second, I'd much rather take the kids to a family Egg Hunt than a community one. I've heard horror stories about kids crying and getting run over and jockeying for a pack of jelly beans. Between this and the treats that the Easter Bunny brings, the kids get plenty of stuff. I'm sure that there are lots of fun community egg hunts out there and if you take your kids to one I'm certainly not saying that your kids are running around stealing eggs and candy from random toddlers in the park, but it's just not something that I want to deal with in respect to our kids. So I rejoice in the Annual Wright Family Egg Hunt, as it saves me the trouble of doing one myself!

A few pictures from our day:

Tessa, clutching two of her "money eggs":


William and Henry on the prowl:


All the Utah cousins, minus baby Cameron who stayed in from the cold:


The kids are hoping that the Easter Bunny visits them tonight. Or if you are Henry, the "Easter Bunny", complete with air quotes. Now that he is Santa-aware, the connections are starting to be made. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

April Fool's?

I wish.