Happy 3rd Birthday Alex!!

I can't believe it, but Alex is 3! Most people think he is 4 or 5 when they look at him because he is so big. Interestingly enough, I am often asked if Catherine and Alex are twins because they are so close in size. I have to laugh because quite frankly, I don't even think my kids look related. I took him for his 3 year well visit and he is taller than Catherine was when she turned 4! Needless to say he is off the charts. I have to say, other then some of the crazy physical stuff he tries to do, he is a much more easy going child than Catherine. He has an awesome imagination and can entertain himself for hours, and when he asks for something and I say no, he moves on. He is also much more social than I anticipated him to be. Being the second child and the younger brother of a sister who has cancer, I did not do with him all the little mommy and me activities that I did with Catherine. I thought for sure he would have a tough time socializing with kids his own age. On the contrary, he is so outgoing and making so many new friends. I am so happy for him.
Catherine is doing great too. She loves Kindergarten and is also making a lot of new friends. I feel like her life is non-stop with activities and playdates. She basically has me going down the class list. I picked her up today from a new friend's house and she goes, next playdate is with Wally. I can't keep up. But that's a good thing. That said, I am noticing that she tires much faster than the other kids. She hates gym and can't stand soccer because she says they make her tired. I have to let it go, but it breaks my heart because I know that if not for all the shit pumping through her body, she would be running circles around everyone because that was what she was like before her diagnosis. Dr. Joe said I will see a big difference in her next summer. That's because we will be off treatment then (knock on wood and still in remission). Yes, we have six months to go. I can't believe it. That said, Catherine is really getting all this now. I have finally started getting all the death questions I expected way back when. She asked me how people died and I honestly told her that when people get old, their bodies stop working, or sometimes people get into very bad accidents and die, or sometimes they get very sick and die. The next night she asked me if she almost died the first time she was in the hospital. I was amazed that she is able to differentiate all her hospital stays with the first, her diagnosis, being the worst. I answered honestly, that no she did not almost die. Last week, she asked me if the bad cells will come back when she is done with the medicine. She is a smart cookie. Again, I had to be honest and tell her that I don't know, but I hope they don't.
Rambling on to the next topic...Catherine's counts have been great. A little too great, so for the first time in 20 months, we have raised her dose because of counts. Her 6-MP dose went up by 25%, so she takes 1 1/2 pills every night, but Sunday when she takes one pill. Tomorrow we find out if it is working, hopefully it does.
The kids are here now and Alex is tired so off we go to bed.
As always, thanks for checking in on us!

*******Quick Update*************
Just a quick update. The higher dose of 6-MP has not kicked in yet! Dr. Joe said it usually takes 3 weeks to see anything, but in the meantime her ANC is a whopping 7900! Totally freaked me out. Dr. Joe said it's all good cells so not to worry - she could be fighting something, or maybe she was upset just before the blood was drawn and sometimes that affects your counts. I hope that's all it is. A lot of kids have been sick lately, including mine getting colds so hopefully that is the explanation. After our visit we went to Friendly's with another mother whose daughter is Catherine's age and also being treated for ALL. The girls got along great so we plan to get together soon for a real playdate.
On the Alex front, I forgot to mention that I had the pediatrician to a blood workup on him for my own piece of mind. I probably should have left well enough alone. Catherine's counts are currently better than his! Granted, I don't know anything other than chemo affected blood work, but his white blood count was 9,000 (within the normal range, but probably high from a cold) and his hemoglobin is lower than Catherine's. He needs an iron supplement so I am off to get that. His ANC was all of 3600. The doctor says all these numbers are normal, but for some reason I expected something different. When I mentioned that Alex had bloodwork to Dr. Joe he said everything is fine - if it weren't, he would have gotten a call before me and would have known by the time I got there. So I guess that's good. We all had to laugh though because Alex didn't even flinch while they took a vial of blood from his vein. He even watched! He is so used to seeing blood draws that he probably thinks it's normal! So that's where we stand now.