Time to Play Catch-up: Part 1 - trip to NY

Tyler, Emmalee, Nate and me with the blankets I made for them.

I'm not sure where to start - which is why I haven't posted about my trip yet. My trip to visit the Gardners was wonderful, and hard, and wonderful, and heartbreaking, and did I mention wonderful? I'll get the "hard" part over with first:

A) the trip there. I don't travel well - and a red-eye flight was everything I thought it would be and more. Of course I didn't sleep much, but I didn't expect the airplane to be so HOT! I was dying. But, I made it! I was truly blessed with the travel part of my trip - I definitely felt the Lord's hand guiding me and guardian angels buoying me up. Also, I had a nice chat with Craig Jessop. He was taking the same red-eye flight to NYC to be a guest conductor.

2) I got the stomach flu! The day Tyler was supposed to come home from the hospital I was so miserable with queaziness. It was not fun. At all. Again, though, I survived, it only lasted 24 hours, and I didn't give it to Tyler. (I'm not sure if I gave it Nate or he gave it to me - we both had a rough week that week!)


Now on to the wonderful:



Tyler after singing his favorite "Fishy" song with Dad. At the end they sing "splash" and Tyler "splashes" his hands.

This was my favorite activity. Every afternoon during the week Tyler was home from the hospital, I got to snuggle with him and take a nap. He is such a snuggle-bug and would just cuddle up into my arms and I'd sing him to sleep.

Tyler spent about five weeks in the hospital immediately following his diagnosis of Leukemia. I got to NY on Friday and on Monday, he came home. We got to have him home for an entire week before he had to go back for his second round of chemo. He was exhausted and very weak, but really started to get his personality back toward the end of his week at home. He loves to be sung to. He had a hard time when it was time to push his meds through his catheter, but he'd calm down if I sat down and sang to him. He also has several "action" songs that he loves. Tyler also loves "Signing Time." I'd never heard of it, but it's a great half-hour show that teaches different signs and has a lot of singing as well. I learned a lot of signs while I was there.

Tyler's second round of chemo started the second Monday I was there and instead of leaving the next day, we decided to extend my trip until Saturday. We were expecting this round to have him in the hospital for about five days, so he could possibly come home on Friday before I left. Unfortunately, Tyler had a rare reaction to the chemo. He spiked a fever of 104 for several days, which in turn caused some seizures. He also developed awful, blistery lesions all over his body, in his mouth, and down his throat. He was so sick. Poor little guy. I ended up spending the night with some of Jodie's friends in Buffalo Friday night so they could take me to the airport early Saturday morning (I had to fly out of Buffalo instead of Rochester) and I spent an hour with Tyler at the hospital before Jodie took me to Buffalo. He was in too much pain to be held, but I sat next to him and sang to him some more and he was able to fall asleep. When it was time for me to leave, I told him goodbye and he waved and blew me kisses. He was too sick to say "goodbye" and I know he was in so much pain, but he waved goodbye and blew me kisses. He is the sweetest little boy. That night, in an attempt to control his pain, the doctors switched his pain meds and his little body just couldn't handle any more. He coded. Fortunately, the doctors were able to resuscitate him and then stabilize him. Poor Jodie, she was driving home from taking me to Buffalo when Brent called her with the news. I felt so bad because I knew she'd want to be at the hospital with him but had no one to take Emma and Nate. Everything turned out okay. Tyler's fever broke on Monday, the lesions started to heal, and he was able to go home from the hospital the next Monday. I just ache that he has had to go through so much in his short little life. Please continue to pray for Tyler (and his family!) - he still has two years of treatment left.



This is Emma in her "Rella" dress that she got for her birthday. She loves everything princess/ballerina/dress-up!


Emma was so excited that we all had Crocs to wear.

The girls going shopping!



Emmalee is a fire-cracker! She has a very strong will and personality. She can drive you crazy! But she can also crack you up. I love her! I spent most of trip watching Emma and Nate while Jodie was at the hospital with Tyler and Brent was at work. Emma is a hoot! She is very independent and wants to do everything by herself. She is so smart! One afternoon, Emma wasn't doing what she should be and Jodie started counting (1, 2, 3...Magic! Great system). She said "one....two...." and Emmalee promptly said, "four....five....!" It was so funny! One morning I was checking my email and blogs. Emma climbed up on my lap and wanted to know who everyone was. I pulled up a picture of my family and told her who everyone was and we sang the "We Are a Happy Family" song. She loved it! She asked to do that every morning after that. Then the next day was my Dad's birthday - Emma was so excited to help me sing "Happy Birthday" to him on the phone. One of the first nights I was there, Jodie asked if I'd give Emma a bath before putting her to bed. Emma was excited - as long as it didn't involve washing her hair. I told her that I had a magic way of washing hair and she was cautiously interested. After letting her play for a bit, I got a big cup and brought it in the bathroom. I told her to look up at the ceiling and I'd use the magic cup to wash her hair and no shampoo or water would get in her eyes. It worked! Every bath after that, she insisted I wash her hair - even if Jodie was home. Jodie could watch, but only Julie could wash her hair! She also loved being Ariel in the tub. So we'd sing the "Ariel" song - basically Aahh, Aahh,....etc. - while she splashed around.



Nate is the sweetest little baby. Emma calls him "Naters", which I love! Nate is a very easy-going baby. He loves to be in his swing, he loves to be held, he loves his family, he just loves life. He is such a snuggle-bug, too! He is also so very patient with his big sister. Emmalee is trying so hard to be independent and that included being "helpful" with Nate. She always wanted to dress him and change him and he was so patient to let her pull him around trying to get clothes on him. There were a couple of days while I was there that he just wasn't feeling very good. He'd start fussing and I'd have to finish what I was doing (the dishes, making lunch, etc.) and just let him cry (although it about broke my heart!) When I'd finally get over to pick him up he'd just have these huge tears running down his cheeks, but he'd immediately grin up at me. I loved just holding him and talking to him - we had many long conversations! Oh, those grins!

I also loved staying up waaaaay too late talking and laughing with Jodie. (Heavy emphasis on the laughing part.) Did I mention that we laughed? A lot? It was great. I absolutely loved visiting the Gardners. The heartbreaking part came when I had to say goodbye. I really, really wish someone would just invent some sort of molecular transfer device already so I could just "pop" in to visit for the day! I miss those precious children so much!