Dance Marathon and more

On Saturday night we made a quick trip to the U of O Dance Marathon which benefits Children's Miracle Network to share our story. The students dance for 12 hours and raise money for CMN - it is quite the party! They showed our video and Linda spoke for a few minutes to the students there. Ava was just fine in the spotlight with 500 plus of students cheering for her! She had some students that were assigned to her - they made her a couple cool posters (one of the "AVA" posters was visible on the news that night for a bit!). Ava has reached a level of notoriety in CMN circles, and it was fun to walk around the event with the students saying "That's Ava!" as we walked by. CMN has been posting our story in many forums and sharing the You Tube CMN video of our family.

Ava posing with her Kappa Delta sorority friends:


Ava is doing great, expanding her vocabulary by a word or two every week. I keep thinking she will be walking any day now (she walks while we hold one of her hands) but won't go beyond a couple steps. This can be seen as a good thing as when she is walking nothing will be safe!

Linda had her quarterly checkup with the oncologist and all continues to be clear which is great news. Her tumor markers (blood test that can be linked with tumor activity) are nice and low. She does have various pains and aches in the area that was treated but that is expected.

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Here's a video of Ava "walking" on our neighborhood sidewalk with Linda:

Rob.

Thoughts for Mason

Our thoughts tonight are with Ava's cousin Mason as he is in the hospital in "critically stable" condition. He goes into surgery tomorrow for tracheostomy surgery (he's currently getting help with his breathing from a ventilator, but tomorrow they will connect it via a trach instead of through his mouth). We're thinking of Mason and his family and praying all goes smooth with the surgery! If you would like to visit his blog to catch up on the latest and leave a positive comment, you can view it at http://mason-ryder.blogspot.com/

We remember our 70+ days in the hospital with Ava, and remember the roller coaster ride of it all. Mason's and his parents Christi and Bill have been there, done that, and more. They are outstanding advocates for Mason through all the ups and downs. I've witnessed first-hand what a huge difference that makes (but also how exhausting it can be). Positive thoughts to them all!

We're all doing well except Ava is getting over another ear infection that has made her a bit cranky the last few days. We did make a quick trip to Seattle for a night to visit some friends celebrating their birthdays last weekend which was fun. My friend Tim snapped some nice photos while we enjoyed the view from his parent's house on the water on Lake Union!

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We had a nice holiday break. I had a couple weeks off so got to spend some valuable time with the family. Linda has been feeling pretty good but still tired. Of course, I'm tired too from a little friend that likes to wake us up in the middle of the night at times.

Linda's port surgery recovery went well although now she has to get pokes through a normal IV which she does not enjoy! They can only do IV pokes in her right arm now, since the removal of so many lymph nodes in her left arm leaves her susceptible to infection (many of the little filters we all have were removed and many of the remaining ones radiated). So, she is not supposed to get scratched, have blood pressure taken, blood draws, etc from that arm for life. It's not a major issue but is an annoyance. Linda had her 6 month Zometa (bone strengthener that has shown to be beneficial for prevention of some types of recurrance) yesterday. So we went to the infusion center (it's been awhile!) for that. It is much easier than the chemo and takes only about an hour total. She'll continue to get the Zometa every six months for another 1.5 yrs or so. We're lucky to have a team that is on top of new treatments like this for recurrance prevention.

Ava is doing great at almost 16 months and ~22 pounds. She is making the transition from baby to toddler! She is close to walking - can take a couple steps on her own so probably not long now. The baby stage has been wonderful in so many ways but the toddler stage will have its own levels of enjoyment I'm sure! She can say some words but the one I love hearing the most is "Austin" (her brother) in her sweet baby girl voice. Ava loves playing with Austin (although 15 yrs old he still loves playing with her and is a great big brother).

We're still not settled into restful sleep as often as we'd like. Just when we get into a rhythm Ava will produce another tooth and be up several times a night for many nights in a row. Oh well... so much for our sleep. I'm sure it will return soon (stop laughing please).

It has been nice having Ava out of daycare while Linda is on leave. We did all get our H1N1 shots so were lucky to avoid that!

We continue to help out when possible. Linda volunteered at a booth for breast cancer prevention and Linda and Ava have been helping with Children's Miracle Network as well. They will be speaking to high school seniors who help raise money for CMN on Monday.

Here are a couple photos and I'll try to post a video of Ava soon!

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Working on her walking - she loves pushing this truck around the house:

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Getting a laugh with Austin:

Rob.