The Neal Family

As expected, the pool was just a big bathtub, with more people. He loved it. I realize I look like the anal, overprotective mom that I am when you see him with his WaterBabies SPF 50, his SPF 50 swim diaper trunks and (matching) hat, and baby shades but hey, no kid of mine is gonna get sun cancer!

So, as much as we are afraid of a crawling baby, all this suspense is killing us, and really frustrating the little man. He has places to go and people to see and he is ticked of that he can't quite get there!

Who can tell me where that cheesy line comes from? Hmmmm? This is Patrick's preferred bathing location at Nana Jensen's house. He loves the sprayer and splashing in her super huge sink. Fun, fun.

This is what Patrick looks like when I feed him and have enough time to "let him help." It involves at least two spoons, a serious bib, and shirt removal beforehand. When Sean feeds him, it is much more pristine. He claims to have trained the baby to put his little hand down and open up, baby bird style. And he has.

Patrick's never really noticed my parent's dog, Snoopy, until our Mother's Day visit. He laughed a lot and roughed the dog up a little until we got a deep growl and decided to give Snoop a break from baby!

Patrick's first outing to the farm and first time seeing the horses. Unfortunately he couldn't ride since Uncle Micah said none of them were broken enough after the winter to be safe. Oh, well. Next time!

That's right, at seven months and 20 pounds, we still plop him in there when he's overtired and can't settle down to sleep. It works like a charm! Rue the day that he will grow out of it...

Sorry for the long absence. I will do better, I promise! It's just that we've been so busy reveling in the no-cancer news... Anyway, I'm trying to survive the last long days of sixth grade along with 35 kids who would rather be pretty much anywhere else. I'm also shedding a few tears over the notion of not being in this classroom anymore. As much as I desperately want to stay home and be the mommy, this has been such a big part of my life for so long now. Teaching is so odd because it's so much more than a job.

Sean just left me a message--he just turned in his capstone paper (it got delayed when he was so sick) so he is really done with BYU now. Good job, babe! He has turned into the ultimate stay at home daddy lately. He takes the baby on walks, has "his shows" follows the nap and feeding schedule. This weekend he made a family schedule spreadsheet to track everyone's commitments and to help him be efficient at home all day. I think I've turned him into me!

Patrick is THISCLOSE to crawling away! He scoots all over and gets up on his knees but has not yet taken that first crawl. Wait for mommy baby! No crawling till 4:30! He is so dang adorable and smiley and happy. The only grief he causes us in in church. We may have to go inactive! Kidding but... Lately we've just been going to sacrament meeting and then one of us takes him home for a nap (our church starts at at 1:00 PM) because with no sleep he melts down and we end up with a screaming baby in the hall anyway. And he won't sleep in out arms. He's too big for his baby carrier and too little for Cheerios and coloring. We figure better to be home reading the Enisgn or scriptures while he sleeps than in the hall with him screaming and us wanting to. Only yesterday the bishop tried to give me grief about taking him home cause most ward members with babies take them home for a nap in the middle. I'm not sure what he expects from a ward with 50 babies that meets from 1-4 PM. Any suggestions for us would be welcome. We love church, want to be there, but also want to take care of our baby's needs.

Anyway, now that that rant is out of the way, I'm off. I'll try to post some pictures soon!

Ya'll will never beleive this. Sean really doesn't have cancer! The oncologist cannot find even a trace of it. He does however have a virus called CMV mononucleosis. This special form of mono causes all the same symptoms as lymphoma and I guess the two are sometimes misdiagnosed, such as in this case. We are still a little bewildered but very grateful. Assuming that this diagnosis is correct and from what the bloodwork shows, he's on the downslope and on his way to recovery, although this type of mono can leave you worn down and tired for a few months. I just wanted to let everyone know--it appears that the crisis has been averted.

So, Sean got a call from his primary care doctor this afternoon. She says that the surgeon was right-no cancerous cells in the tissue they took from his lymph node. However, she still thinks he hass lymphoma because of all the otehr symptoms and such. She says to keep the appointment with the oncologist who will likely reccomend a second biospy, either from a different lymph node or a bone marrow biopsy. We're not totally sure what to make of all this news. We're thinking that maybe it mean that the cancer is not very widespread at least but who knows? We would love to be excited and happy but don't want to get our hopes up because everything still points to bad news according to the doctor. Overall, he feels pretty good and is recovering from the biopsy quickly.
As for the rest of life, I'm still working through each day with the sixth graders. We're in the middle of State Core Testing and may I just say that twelve year olds are not normal. They just get stranger (and mouthier) every single day. But hey, only 18 days left! But who's counting, really? :) Also, Patrick and I have had a nasty head cold since Saturday which hasn't added much to the fun at our house. Who knew our baby could be so whiny? He's just miserable and wants to be held all day and even then he's crying. Hopefully he's on the downslope and will get feeling better soon. I think the hardest part is that we hate to see him be so unhappy and have no way to fix it for him!
I promise another post after the meeting with the oncologist. Thanks again for all the calls, emails, prayers and everything.

Just wanted to let yall know that surgery went well, Sean is home and recovering nicely. He was a bit cranky coming out of anesthesia but is cracking jokes again tonight. We will know more about the sample of tissue they took out this week but strangely enough, the surgeon says the preliminary look at it shows no cancerous cells. We don't know quite what to make of this news but it COULD turn out to be very good news, although it would once again mean not knowing what really is wrong. Hey, maybe everyone's prayer worked Really Really Well! :0 We'll update soon!

Just keeping everyone in the know. Sean is scheduled to have his biopsy surgery at 6:30 tomorrow morning. It is scheduled as an out-patient surgery, provided that all goes well during the day. That tissue sample should tell the doctor's a lot; whether this in Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkins, which sub-type it is, what stage the cancer is at, etc. After the labwork has been done, we have an appointment to meet with his oncologist Thursday of next week. From what we can gather, he's the guy who can give us more of a prognosis, what to expect. course of treatment, etc. So, we're very much looking forward to the visit because we're getting anxious to get started and get Sean well.

We're also looking forward to next week because Sean's little sister, Rhiannon, is going to be able to come visit and stay with us for a week. We're mostly happy to see her, but are also very grateful that she will be here to help with the baby next week while Sean recuperates from the surgery. I'm counting down days till school is out (4 weeks!) because it will mean being home to take care of both Patrick and Sean for the summer.

Anyway, that's where we're at. Thanks for all the comments of support. We'll keep you posted!