My little flower girl...

Kateli is going to be in my brother's wedding in July this year. I've been fervently working on her dress--I know, I get obsessed with projects, despite having about 4months till we really need it!! anyway, you can see her in her splendor here...FLOWER GIRL

Unveiling of a new style

As promised...here is Kateli's new do!! Cute, or what?? sassy is more like it, I guess. I love it. It is so her!!! I think she's going to be a little trend setter, with her cute short do, what do you think?

Before the haircut...

Praise the Lord that Kateli has been doing so well with treatment, and that we have managed to remain healthy through this season!! Katherine had a spinal tap on Wednesday this week, and while it was a bit harder for me, she did magnificent as always. It impresses me when she wakes up from that procedure and acts as if nothing happened. In fact, her procedure was a 10:30am, we got home about 1:00pm, took regular naps and then that afternoon were outside playing like a normal 3 year old and her 18month old brother--what a blessing!!!! The previous time when we went into clinic Katherine's blood count remained high, about 1500, so the nurse told me that if her numbers were high again this last time that they would increase one of her chemo dose by 25%. When her numbers came back on Wednesday, Diane, very excitedly informed us that "she was amazing!" She was at 1197!!!! above 500 and below 1500!! So, guess what?? no chemo increase!! Wooohoo!!! THank you all for your prayers for our little princess. I know that it's not just by chance that she is doing so well, but that she's got quite the protector taking care of her, and she has her prayer warriors shooting up those prayers daily!! So, thank you and please continue!!

This morning Kateli and I went out on a mommy-daughter date (which we need to do more often) to get a haircut. Yes, she needed a haircut!! Another praise!! Her hair has been coming in and was long enough that we needed to style it!! She looks precious! It was so funny! I was so excited that she had finally agreed to get her haircut, that we got in the car immediately and started driving without a clue where I was going to take her. So, I called my hairstylist, only to find out that she was not working today. I called a few other places, but I guess everybody gets their hair cut on Saturday because they were all booked. So, finally we went to JCPenney and had a "master" hairstylist cut her hair. The funniest part was in the parking lot, getting out of the car. Katherine looked at me, as I was unbuckling her from her seat and said "mommy, I take my pepe (paci) for haircut, so I don't cry" and guess what?? she conned me into letting her take in her paci to use while she sat in the chair. It worked. She didn't cry, she didn't squirm, she didn't even complain; and she was super excited afterwards to come home and show daddy her new haircut. I have yet to capture a photo of her with her new do...but I wanted to leave you with a photo of her before her cut. I'll try to take a pic of her tomorrow. Enjoy!

Valentine's Day

Probably not many people can remember vividly what they were doing, thinking, feeling this day last year. For our family, this holiday will forever be etched with memories of things not so sweet. I remember sitting on the couch, taking the call from Dr. K, having him confirm what was at the time our worst nightmare. It's hard to believe that a year has passed, since that day when we were told our daughter had Leukemia. It has been a difficult year for sure, but one that has brought new perspective.

I never would have thought that I would feel fortunate that my daughter 'only has Leukemia', but this year I have. When you are around families that have children with extremely rare conditions with unproven treatments, you feel blessed that treatment for kids Katherine's age with 'ALL' is as good as it is.

I had never thought about the families that frequent the hospital that is less than a mile from our house, or for those who stay at the Ronald McDonald house while their kids have extended treatments in the hospital. But now it's nearly a daily occurance as we drive, run, or bike along 61st street.

I would never have imagined that the new Children's hospital would be such a blessing to our family. We are so fortunate to live in a country that has such amazing medical facilities. I guess I already knew the blessing of living less than a mile from St. Francis Hospital, since that is where Marleny lived for 2 months waiting for our beloved Katherine to arrive. I thank God for the Doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers that make our visits to the clinic and hospital as pleasant as possible.

I've learned that we can't do it alone, and we're really not meant to do it alone. I like to think that I'm extremely self-suffient, but this year I have come to know that I am completely insufficient to battle this alone. We've been blessed by our friends from church, from work, and by countless people all over the country. Thanks to all of our friends, family, and countless prayer warriors that have walked with us over this year.

The Lord has been faithful to sustain us in strength, to draw us near during difficult times, and to show us mercy and peace that passes understanding.

It was all about the shoes

Today was a beautiful day. We saw the sun despite the yucky forecast of clouds and rain this afternoon. In fact, we actually got out both this morning and afternoon. We did storytime at the library, lunch at Mickey D's (we contributed our little bit to support the Ronald McDonald House today), before heading to the grocery store for diapers--I am embarrassed to admit it, but somehow our supply of diapers this morning was down to a mere single one!! Luckily both kids held it until we got home from the store :)--what a relief. Anyway, today was all about the shoes for Kateli. She insisted on wearing her heeled shoes today, this morning AND this afternoon when we headed to the bridge to ride our bikes. She was out there pedaling her bike in Heels--what a girly girl!! It was fun to watch. After a little bit of biking, we hit the swings--at which time I warned Kateli that if she walked in the sand, she would end up with sand in her feet and she wouldn't like it. Guess what happened?? Let's just say, a picture speaks a thousand words :) take a look...



On another note, and as an update to her health. Our last appt we continued with great numbers, so high in fact that the nurse thinks they may have to increase her chemo dose. Kateli's ANC has been lingering well above 1500 lately, in fact last week she was up to 9900 or so....I was a little worried, as that's above the range for her age group and asked if it was some sort of "red" flag--but was very confidently told that it was not, and that it just meant they may have increase her chemo next time around if she was above 1500. So, I'm not sure if this is good news or not, I mean the increase in chemo. It's definitely GREAT news that her numbers have been high, especially during this season when there is lots of sickness going around. Please continue to pray for our little monkey as she continues on this treatment. Thank you for your visit to our page!!

My little helper

I'm sorry for the lack of update on this blog in recent weeks. Just to give you a little update on Kateli's health. She continues to do well with treatment, and her health has been great over the last few months. We've had little colds, here and there but even those have been scarce. She continues to take her medications like a champ and doesn't complain about having to do it at least every night. I think I've mentioned this before but now that she's in maintenance, her clinic visits are every other week unless her counts are low the week of...in which case we are asked to come back a week later to recheck blood. Her numbers have been fantastic the last two months or so, she's remained above 500. In fact the last two times that we've been in, she's been really high but the nurse said they would wait 4 checks before they would increase any dose on her chemo. Kateli is growing, at her 3 year checkup she was 28.4 lbs, and measuring 32 inches (okay, I'm not 100% on the height), but nonetheless, she's grown. She's still petite for her age, as she remains in the 10-15% for height and weight, but she has that in her genes--she takes after her mommy, I guess. She's so grown up, not only physically but emotionally, and her mind blows us away most days. She's super smart, and she LOVES, absolutely loves music and dance. She loves to sing, and she loves to read books. She loves to pretend play, and has quite the imagination. Her favorite word right now?...hm, I have to say, hands-down, "porque?" ("why?")!! Everything is "why, mommÿ?"; I have to admit that I never thought I'd grow tired of answering her "why's?" but there are some days when all I want to say, and actually do a few times, is "because mommy said so" or "because God said so"...Sometimes that suffices, but most of the times she pauses for a second before following up with another...you guessed it, "WHY?" Anyway, she loves her little brother. She loves to play with him, she loves to hug him and she loves to teach him. She's a wonderful big sister. She's also a great helper. She helps do laundry, fold her clothes, puts her shoes away at night, helps pick up toys and messes, gladly runs into the bathroom if anything needs rinsing (she LOVES to run the water and play in the sink), she helps wipe the table after dinner, she helps put Joshua down for naps, and sometimes bedtime. Anytime I need help, she comes through and with a huge grin on her face. She is so proud of her accomplishments, it's great to see her growing up. Okay, so she sounds like a little angel, and she is, but she's also 3! So, I also do get some screaming, frustration and not so happy hearts from her during the day, but usually a calm talk help her work through things--and sometimes, just crying does the trick. I could go on and on and on about my little princess, but it's 12:30am and I should probably get some ZZZ'ss....more later.

A dancer...a ballerina

Over the last few weeks I've been trying to think of something that I could enroll Kateli in, that she would enjoy. Finally, I came up with "she loves to dance....why not a dance class" So, by chance, the first dance studio that I called was taking new kids and classes were starting the week that I called. We were invited to come try out the class in the evening to see if Kateli would enjoy it or not, so we went. Let me just say that once I told Kateli she was going to a "clase de baile" (dance class) it was all that I heard about for the rest of the day. She was really excited about the whole thing. When time came to load up in the car and go to class, she very sweetly informed us "I'm not going to be shy, mommy". So, here are some pictures of our little ballerina. The parents are kept in the dark as far as the on-goings of class, but I was able to peek through the side of blinds. I think this first picture turned out, considering the crack was less than an inch wide. The other ones are of her after class. Can you see the little dancer in her? :)

"Jesus birthday is coming up, mommy"

or "Jesus' birthday today, mommy" are two very common phrases spoken by our 3 year old right now. Kateli is SO excited for the birth of Jesus. Her face lights up as she speaks these words, and even sings happy birthday Jesus at the top of her lungs. What a blessing. How it makes my heart smile to see and to hear her. She is amazing. She shines just like the North Star guiding the magi to the manger where Jesus was born. She is fixated on Jesus' birthday, and has had no curiousity whatsoever to open any of the gifts under the tree. Instead, she says that we are giving Jesus a bike for his birthday!! Okay, let me back up a few days...a week or so ago, we all piled in the van to go to Academy to look at the 10" bikes on the floor. While we were there, Kateli got so excited and said "I want this one mommy" when she saw a cute pink princess bike. Well, in order to get her mind off of it and to redirect her just a bit, I said "not today, but for Jesus' birthday, maybe"...now, to you and I this is a simple statement meaning, "maybe for Christmas"...BUT not to Kateli, after that she said that "Jesus was getting a bike for his birthday" and it has stuck that way. So, this year Jesus is getting a 10" bike with training wheels from us!! :)

Our talks lately have been about Christmas and centered around around baby Jesus, and baby Jesus mommy and daddy. Which by the way, if you ask Kateli who baby Jesus' mommy and daddy are, she tells you "Mary and Jofes" She walks around the house with her pink blankie draped over her head saying, "look mommy, like Mary" I love Christmas, and this year I love it just a bit more, because I see how much Kateli is enjoying the season.

Joshua on the other hand, is yet too small to understand any of it. But he too, has not been real curious about any of the gifts under the tree--except for once or twice when I've had to pick him up off a gift, because he thought it would be fun to walk on top of the box. He's left the Christmas ornaments on the tree, for the most part. Every once in a while, I'll find him next to the tree with the intent of pulling off one of the ornaments. He's been successful in removing them from the tree a couple of times, but I get them out of his hands immediately. Only once has he succeeded in taking an ornament without me noticing until I hear it shatter in the next room--at which time, I panic, drop what I'm doing and run over to get him out of the way before he cuts himself with a chard. I'm sure that as he gets a little older, we'll see him enjoy Christmas as much as his sister.

Strike at First Try

She got a strike on her VERY first bowl tonight!! What a winner!! Back up, back up...

So, we had planned a bowling outing for Kateli's birthday celebration, but because we had just gotten out of the hospital 2 days before, we opted to postpone it. So, tonight we resumed as planned and headed out to dinner with friends, before hitting the bowling alley. Kateli was excited and kept saying to me that she wanted to go play "boliche" after she was done with dinner. I'm not sure that she knew what we were talking about, but she was excited because it involved playing, and well...because it's just a fun spanish word to say!!

After dinner we packed in the car and headed over to the alley...She didn't seem too overly excited at all through the evening, but we think she did have fun! Would you believe that she rolled a STRIKE on her first try!!! It was amazing!! We all got super excited with it, but the funniest part of it all was her expression when she turned and looked at us jumping up and down and screaming out "go Katherine"...she must have thought we were out of our minds. We called it a night after one game--the kids were tired, and well we had to quit while we were ahead. We had a lot of fun out tonight, and Kateli did enjoy celebrating her birthday again!! Joshua was fun to watch at the bowling alley, he kept saying "ball" and walking over to the bowling balls on our lane, and at least once I had to chase him down as he was wandering off towards the back looking for his "ball"...

I got a couple of pics, which I'll owe you but I wanted to share.

Celebrating birthday #3 at home!!

Yeah!!! We came home from the hospital on Friday afternoon and have enjoyed every moment of being out of the hospital. We were able to enjoy our company; Kateli was sad this morning to see everyone leave! :(

So, today we celebrated our princess' 3rd birthday, and AT HOME!! On Thursday morning I was still a bit apprehensive that we would be in the hospital for her birthday, but the Lord blessed us with being at home. WOW!!! Three years old, and let me tell you without missing a bit--she's got the brains, the agility, the compassion and yes, the attitude of a 3 year old--which I've quickly realized is not any easier than a 2 year old...so, but we love her to pieces, and wouldn't have it any other way. I'm going to make this one short for tonight, as we're a bit exhausted, but I will write more later. I'll leave you with some pics from her special day!