Can I get a lake monster cake?

Will is doing a lot better on the lower dose of steroids as I had mentioned. What this means is that his mood swings are much less frequent than in the past but they are still present. For example, on Friday night just before bedtime he noticed that his face painting of "Champ" had started to fade and he began sobbing uncontrollably as if someone had killed his dog. He was inconsolable and saying things like "but I love Champ" and "BUT I MISS HIM" and he then began demanding that we go out and buy some more face paint for him. (Note: the latest updated on Will's b-day involves him requesting a VT themed bday with a "Champ" cake. Seriously.)

This could not be LESS like Will and you just need to let it run it's course. He washed off the rest of Champ, got on the couch with his new Champ stuffed animal and promptly fell asleep. He had the same issues last night as bedtime makes him sad. However, overall it is dramatically better quality of life for everyone in the house and that is a great development. When you start questioning if Will might be better off if we switched back to his prior regimen which caused vomiting, weight loss, and a lack of appetite then you know he wasn't himself.

We spent a lot of time outside this weekend and the kids had fun running themselves ragged. Evelyn likes to get up first so yesterday morning she and I were downstairs when I heard Will bellow out 'DAAADDDDYYYYYYYY' over and over until I gave him a response. When he heard my voice he asked if I had gotten the newspaper yet. I said no, I was waiting for him.

As he came downstairs to get the paper he said 'I can't wait to see who won the race! I bet it was Kyle Busch, or his brother, or Denny Hamlin!"

I really can't tell you how funny it is for someone in Massachusetts to have a 4 year old son who loves NASCAR. He knows more drivers names & numbers than I do and since the newspaper did not have the results from the night race we had to go online to get it (this is why newspapers are going out of business).

When I read to him what happened - that Kyle Busch was spun out while in the lead on the last lap - he could not believe it and wanted to watch the video.

Note: If I went back in time 5 years and you told me on July 5th 2009

1. I'd be reading the race recap from a NASCAR event to my son - at his request
2. My soon to be 5 year old would have 4.5 years of chemo under his belt

I would honestly not know which of those two statements I'd have a harder time believing.

In any event, Will was not happy to see that his 'buddy' was bumped out by Tony Stewart. Later in the day while playing in the backyard Will stated - out of left field - that 'someone told me that Tony Stewart rhymes with stupid'.

He still is using 'stupid' although we have gotten 'shut up' off the table. We'll continue working to drop stupid this summer but he has picked up few other new habits speech wise such as:

"Son of a B"
"I want some 't - s - - q - n - x' Candy" or "Can I have a 'a - p - o - f' Cupcake for dessert?

We spend so much time spelling out words in from of him like "chemo, puke bucket, medicine, etc.." that he now likes to toss in random spelling of words he is using. Also, I apparently say "son of a B" a lot. For the record, I actually say the letter B and not the actual word...but still.

Catherine is at Children's Hospital today getting an ultrasound on her hips (all the kids have had this since it was learned I apparently had hip dysplasia) to rule out any issues. Catherine is feeling better since we added the zantac - thankfully - because things were getting very tough around the house. I'm not sure how rough thing would have gotten if we did not see an improvement soon since something had to give. We entered the 'land of 3' terribly sleep deprived as it was and the whole 3 hours sleep a day + roid rages + a screaming baby all day long was quite the strain on everyone’s sanity. We have finally caught our breath for a moment and am hopeful that things to continue to improve for Catherine, Will, Dina, & myself going forward so that we can ENJOY our family instead of just keeping our heads above water.

To that end, it looks like we'll be doing a family trip to VT this week. Will really enjoys Evelyn's company and misses her when we leave. I guess Evelyn walks around holding a picture of Will and calling out his name as she does "Yill-Yam" so we'll give this a try. I have to admit that on Friday before we left I was upset we had to leave because it was nice out and there was lots to do but I really wanted to get home. I did not factor in how difficult being away from the house would be each week...even if for only 36 hours....when planning ahead for this therapy. I thought of the ride, the costs, the need for 4 wheel drive, etc.. but not how it would impact everyone. We'll try and come up with a plan to address this going forward.