Thursday, April 10, 2008

" HE'S TWO"





Well, we can't believe it...but our "baby" turned Two on March 31st! On his actual Birthday we were able to hang out as a family and enjoy the beautiful day outside! Parker LOVES being outside, and he had a great time playing on his new slide from Giggie and Poppy. I posted some pictures above from our backyard adventures that day! We also celebrated by having a Birthday party on March 30th with family and a few of his little friends. I tried not to go as overboard as I did last year, but of course got more carried away than I originally planned...oops! We did an "Elmo theme" since Parker is pretty obsessed with Elmo right now. My sis-in-law, Jessica, made his adorable (and yummy) Elmo cake! I wasn't sure how much Parker was going to understand this year about his Birthday. I kept telling him beforehand about his Birthday and turning 2, and he would look at me like I was crazy. He ended up really enjoying the party though, and I think he liked being the center of attention at times! He opened his first present, and decided he would rather just open that one and play with it and not mess with the rest of them! After convincing him that it would be fun to open the rest, he had a great time tearing into them all. He got some great things, and is officially spoiled rotten :) He really enjoyed everyone singing Happy Birthday, and even helped me blow out the candles at the end! It was such a fun day, and I think Parker enjoyed it as well!

Here is one of the recent things that Parker has learned since turning 2. When you ask him, "Parker, how old are you?" He holds up 3 or 4 fingers and says "TWO." It is the cutest thing ever. I guess he can't quite hold up just 2 fingers, so he just holds up however many he feels like and says he is 2!!

The past two years have gone by SO fast, and I can't imagine what the future years will be like! It has been so amazing to watch him grow and change. It seems like every day now he does or says something new, and he constantly keeps us laughing, smiling, and sometimes yelling...but hey...he's a 2 year old now, what do you expect?!?!?











Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Family matters...


Family is one of the most important things in life to me, and recently my mom got some very unexpected news. For those of you that do not know, my mom was recently diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. She has been suffering from severe headaches for the past year, and went in for an MRI for her headaches, and that is when they found the nodule on her thyroid. They told her they wanted to do a biopsy, but that 90% of the time they came back benign. Unfortunately, my mom fell in that other 10%. Last Friday, April 4th, she had thyroidectomy surgery. The surgery went very well, and they romved her entire thyroid as well as several lymphnodes surrounding it. She is at home recovering from the surgery now, and will meet with the doctor in about a month to discuss the next step in the process. More than likely she will have to have a radioactive iodine treatment sometime in May. This has obviously been a very hard time for my mom, and my entire family. We all love her so much, and we hope and pray every day that she fights this cancer and can get back to living her life again very soon! Here is the good news out of all of this...

1) Every doctor has told her that if you are going to have cancer, that this is the kind you want to have. While in my opinion, there is not a cancer out there that you "want" to have...it is still very encouraging to know that it has such a high cure rate. They are very optimistic about her treatment and full recovery!

2) My mom is one of the most loving and caring people I know. There is not a single doubt in my mind that she is an amazingly strong woman, and I know in my heart that she will get through this! She has a ton of family and friends rallying around her, and we are all here for her 100% of the way!

3) She is an amazing Grammy to Parker. Parker has now started calling her "Nanny" b/c he can't quite say Grammy. I don't think she cares what he calls her, as long as he calls her something :) He has become very attached to his Grammy lately. Whenever she leaves, he screams and cries "No, Nanny, Nanny." (keep in mind that he generally does not even do this for me and Anthony, he just waves to us and says "bye bye") The bottom line is that he loves his Nanny, and she loves him! No matter what is going on, Parker can always put a smile on her face, and that makes me happier than anything in this world!

I am attaching a recent picture of Parker with his Grammy. Please keep my mom in your thoughts and prayers, and I will post updates as we know more!!!