No throw-ups!!! Hunter is an amazing brother!

Well, it's Friday night and I have to say this week has been a lot easier then I anticipated!
We have been Throw-Up FREE all week long!!! YAY!!
I don't know if it is because he only had the 1 dose of radiation, or if it's because this weeks chemo was just the Vincristine drug and not the other one too, or just a whole lot of prayers......but whatever it was, we have been so grateful for it!!! Riley's energy level is slowly declining, in fact for the past 2 days he hasn't moved off the couch, except when I make him. I just want to make sure he's not depressed or in a rut, so I have been encouraging him to go outside for just a minute ever so often. He does get a little bit more active when Hunter comes home from school, but slowly makes his way back to the couch! His favorite movies right now are: Ice Age 3 Dinosaurs and Madagascar 3. And his diet consists of CEREAL, Gatorade and Apple Juice. With the occasional Vanilla Ice Cream!!  He munches on other things every now and then but I think his belly tolerates the cereal really well.

Ri got in trouble yesterday when I gave him his VERY IMPORTANT 2 day a week antibiotic called Septra. (This helps him so he doesn't get a dangerous form of pneumonia. He actually has to take this all through chemo and up to 3 months afterwards too.) He told me to "go away" while he took it. So I walked around the corner and peaked on him..... The little stink ran to the garbage can and dumped it out....!!!! WHAT??? I told him how important it is to take and gave him another dose, that he did take this time! and I thought, that was that.........
NOT SO MUCH.......
An hour later I was vacuuming the living room and moved the couch back so I could vacuum under it..... to find...... Riley's anti- nausea tablets, half sucked on.......
WHAT????
Oh man, who is this kid?!!!

How do you get to mad at that cute smile?!!

 On Thursday I finally decided it was time to tell him that he was going to loose his hair. I was so dang nervous. Chris had stopped and got each of the boys a hat that they had been wanting since last fall, we thought it would help the transition! So I sat him down and started to explain that the chemo was killing the bad AND the good cells and some of those are what makes his hair grow, so I said your hair is going to be shorter...(I couldn't bring myself to say bald) and he said "I know, I'm going to be bald", I said how do you know that, and he said "I just do". (I knew he was paying attention all those times he looked like he was ignoring all of us!)
Since then, he has brought it up to me 2 times and got tears in his eyes and said "mommy, I don't want to loose my hair." What do you say to that??? Because I don't want him to either. I said, don't worry, Hunter and Daddy will shave their hair too, so it will look just like yours!

Hunter has been such a good brother and super understanding of everything. He did have a breakdown on Thursday morning, so I kept him home from school for a couple of hours until he calmed down. Then he had a MAJOR breakdown that night. I can't imagine what that poor kid is thinking and going through, He won't talk about anything, he just cries and screams and hits the wall. You know what buddy, I cry and scream and want to hit the wall too!! You can have as many breakdowns as you want, if that's what get's you through the day!

skip'n school for a little brother time!!

We have been very mindful of him and have been making extra time for him, one on one. We even made a "CODE" word!! Safari! So whenever he needs a break or needs just mom or dad, he can say, let's go on Safari!! Or we say it to him sometimes too!!

What a good big brother!! He loves you so much Ri!