Round 3 ABT underway...

Elle, at the Japanese Gardens

Lara, Kevin, Hans, and Elle at the Game

Hans and Elle and Grandma Stephanie at the Astros Game

Marshmallow fun?

Hans and Grandma Stephanie on Roller Coaster Simulator

Artists at work!

Oh gosh, I never meant to go over a week without a post. We were having a second Spring Break with my mom and I never sat down to update. We've been going about a mile a minute...

We packed in the Zoo, we got to see Houston's new Red Panda, Toby, and did a little shopping and the important spring chore of cleaning out the sandbox and refreshing it with new sand. We did a b'day party park date for Michael who is now 10! We went to Chuck E Cheese actually twice, Happy Birthday to Donovan tomorrow! We got to check out a little bit of Old Town Spring (as much as Hans could bear), and we saw the Friday night Astros Exhibition game against the Indians, and it was the first time Hans wanted to stay for the whole Fireworks show Marathon puts on afterwards. He loved it!

On Thursday we went into the clinic for counts and Office Visit and an Echo cardiogram (required by being on ABT751). Pretty much everything was normal. HGB just a bit low for Hans at 10.2, but Dr. R. attributed that to a cold. We started him on Friday - and he's been okay. He had a crazy night last night. He was up from about 12 am - 4am! But, he wasn't cranky - just as happy as a clam! The ABT can cause insomnia. I'm hoping it's just like Round 2, though, when he only had insomnia on the Saturday night of the cycle.

Yesterday was a full day of soccer and a girl scout field trip. We dropped off over 200 boxes of cookies at the Houston Ronald McDonald House (thank you thank you kind donors!) Thanks to Ms. Niemeyer's troop who also donated more than a case of cookies. Was it Troop 11645?? We also dropped off 3 large cannisters of pop tabs that our friend Michael had collected.Then, we tacked on a tour of the Japanese Gardens in Hermann Park with our sketch books, followed by a dinner picnic. It was very sweet to me to see all of our girls sketching away. Luckily, irises were in bloom so perfect for sketching, and we all tried to do some of Monet's garden bridges (harder than it looks!)
My mom flew out early this morning, so hopefully she'll be ready to greet the day with her 37 middle schoolers tomorrow.

Hans continues to have an incredible amount of energy. We just keep saying he's doing better than he ever has since he started treatment. We continue to think of this as our miracle. And, we thank you all for the prayers you say for Hans, and for all of his special pals in Houston, and across the US and all over the world with this terrible disease.

Lara