Happy 1st Birthday AUSTIN

From THIS in his 1st month of life...

(click to enlarge)

To THIS...

I can't believe my teenie, tiny, little guy is 1! When did this happen? Suddenly I hear a fiddle and Tevye singing, "Sunrise, Sunset".

I can not tell you how much we all love Austin. It's hard to imagine that we waited 4 years for him to join our family, but I know it was a blessing that he came when he did.

I love you Austin and I am so grateful for your life.

About My Little Man:

• He is CRAZY!
• He makes the funniest faces
• He loves to be chased
• He won't eat baby food at all - he wants what we're eating and he let's us know it
• He can say dad (when he's happy), mom (when he's upset), kitty, baabaa (for bottle), Hi!
• Austin always wants to be where Millie is
• He gets really excited when he gets something he's not suppose to have
• It's impossible to get him dressed or change his diaper
• He's the happiest when he's doing something he's not suppose to do
• If you turn your back on him to leave the room he freaks out!
• He crawls really fast!
• Still has his tongue out constantly
• He let us help him take a few steps the other day (PROGRESS)
• He loves to play ball and peekaboo
• He is DANG CUTE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!

EAT DIRT!

Don't mind if I do...

You want some?

Millie's August 2010 Update

It's time for clinic AGAIN, I feel like the past couple months have flown by! Millie actually had clinic on Thursday, but since we were posting about Disney World I decided to hold off a couple days.

Everything went pretty well. We met a new little girl that has the same cancer has Millie (HI OLIVIA!) and Millie did her crafting as usual. We had her blood counts drawn and thankfully they are high enough that I'm not in panic mode everywhere we go. She also got her Vincristine and started steroids. YUCK! Can I tell you how much I seriously HATE steroids. The doctors and nurses always told us that we wouldn't really notice a difference in her behavior since she's only on them for 5 days out of the month. WHAT A JOKE! Maybe I would be handling it better if I'd been prepared, but by the time they've been in her system for 24 hours I have completely lost my daughter. Don't get me wrong she has her good moments and she does well with other people, but this is what I hear all day, "I HATE YOU, DON'T TOUCH ME, DON'T TALK TO ME, I SAID DON'T TALK TO ME", followed by a lot of crying, stomping around, and sometimes throwing things.

Don't be fooled by her darling smile...

It was either SMILE or sit in TIME-OUT for 10 minutes...While I was 1st taking her picture she said, "Hurry, Hurry, I have to go potty RIGHT NOW," I said okay, but come right back out when you're done. I waited for a bit and when I came back in she was sitting on the couch watching t.v. I said, "Honey, I've been waiting outside for you, didn't you hear me say to come back out"? The response, "Ya, I heard you, I just didn't care and I didn't have to go potty either".

Clinic Stats:

Height: 103 cm

(I do think she was standing on her toes a bit, she loves to trick)

Weight: 16 kg (about 35lbs)

ANC: 1.9

(still a little low for Maintenance, so they are keeping her at 1/2 does chemo for 2 more weeks)

Day 7 Time To Go Home

Our flight home was Monday at 5 PM, so we wanted to have a little more fun before we headed to the airport. It turned out to be a fabulous day.

We started the day with ice cream for breakfast! Millie and I had eaten it for breakfast the day before but she wanted it again, and since Amanda and Sherry had been left out, we all went! I don' t see why we don't do this at home...

Of course Millie wouldn't do much else until she had a chance to go to the carousel to ride "her" unicorn, Rosabella.

I took Millie to the playground at the village while Amanda and Sherry packed. It was huge and we had it all to ourselves. Millie thought it was great that I was going on all the slides with her. I enjoyed having some one on one time with my cute little princess.

She thought it would be best to send her hat down first. She always knows exactly how she wants everything done.

Millie loves to swim, so Amanda and I went swimming with her while Sherry took care of Austin. Millie, Amanda, and I got squirt guns and chased each other around. Millie was laughing hysterically - it was great!

She likes it when we both put on our goggles and race, although she isn't so happy when I win...

Once we checked out of the Give Kids the World Village (which we were very sad to do), we were off to Sea World. We got there just in time to run through the park and sit down before the killer whale show started. Millie was sad there wasn't any more room in the "splash zone." Amanda and I weren't complaining, especially after nearly everyone in front of us was covered in salt water.

It was breathtaking to see these beautiful animals. We all loved it, and Amanda got tears in her eyes (which seemed to be one of the themes of our trip).

Kids. No matter how much you throw them in the air, they always want more.

One of Millie's wishes was to swim with dolphins. Although she was too young to swim with them at Sea World, they did let us skip the line and go right in to feed them. I gave Millie all my fish, and she couldn't get enough of them. She thought it was so fun that they swam right up to us, and loved the way they felt.

After another perfect day, we headed to the airport for the flight home. It was everything we all hoped for and more. Millie had the time of her life and was so happy. Yesterday she said to me, "Dad, I'm saving all my monies so that we can go back to Disney World."

Thanks again to Make-A-Wish, Give Kids the World, Disney, Universal, Sea World, our WishGranters, and everyone else that made this possible.

With all Millie has been through this year, it was great to see her feel like she's the luckiest kid in the world.

THANK YOU

Day 6 Hollywood Studios and Epcot

We got a small break from the heat today, it randomly POURED rain. It was fun though and Millie couldn't have been happier to have matching rain ponchos. Hollywood Studios ROCKED! We first went on the Toy Story ride and it was great! We also took a little time to hit some of the Big Kid rides. Sherry and I went on the Aerosmith Roller Coaster (not sure what it's called), while Millie ate and Austin slept. It was awesome! I've never been on a ride where you just shoot off from the beginning and I loved the music playing right in our ears. We also hit the Tower Of Terror and Millie came too! She said she hated it after, but she didn't scream or cry during it. Personally I think she had fun. ;)

We went to see Beauty and The Beast, it was a great play and a nice way to get out of the rain.

I loved it and so did Millie but she was a little sleepy.
Austin was being a stink so he and Brady had to sit by themselves near the exit.

We also took Millie to see The Voyage of The Little Mermaid. I completely missed it, because Austin had had enough and he wasn't shy about telling us!

After trying to keep it short at Hollywood Studios we decided to stop by Epcot. We took the ferry and it turned into a little bit of a nightmare. The Rain came POURING down and since there was thunder and lightning they had to pull to the side and wait the storm out.

Epcot was neat, but it took longer to do the things we wanted and we were all pretty dang exhausted by the end of the day.

Since we were trying to keep it short we only went into Germany and China. Germany so we could get a pretzel..YUM and China so Millie could meet Mulan.

Mulan Love

Millie dancing while she waits for Daffy's autograph.

When Austin wears his striped shirt Millie always calls him Nemo so I had to take his picture while Brady, Sherry, and Millie went on Soarin'

Because of the rain I didn't get many pictures this day. I wish I'd taken a lot more!

This was our last night staying in GKTW village and I cried all night. We had such and amazing week and I didn't want it to end. I really could have used one more day to soak everything in. I am grateful our flight wasn't until the afternoon because the next day we were able to go to SeaWorld...

Day 5 and THE MAGIC KINGDOM

(This post may be a bit confusing - Amanda wrote the start and I wrote the end.)

When we walked into the Magic Kingdom and she saw the castle she literally was in awe. I couldn't wait to get her inside to see Cinderella. Millie was so excited and I felt incredibly lucky to experience it with her. My baby deserved this!

This was an amazing day, truly amazing. We surprised Amelia with breakfast at The Royal Table at Cinderella's Castle with the princesses. I can't even begin to explain how emotional this was for me and how spectacular it was for Amelia. One of her 3 wishes as Brady mentioned before was to eat with the princesses and they were all incredibly sweet to her. She told every single one of them that her wish was coming true and they all made sure to spend some extra 1 on 1 time with her. Cinderella wasn't there while we ate, but we went and met up with her later and they danced while all the other kids waited to get their pictures taken. Cinderella was lovely and couldn't have been more sweet to grant yet another wish, dancing with the princesses.

She couldn't believe she was seeing Cinderella's castle. It was adorable.

She was so excited, that she had to show us a "princess dance."

Before her breakfast, she met Cinderella's fairy godmother, and told her that she was going to eat breakfast in the castle.

A princess doesn't walk, she gets carried.

The princesses were so nice to her. Snow White had her come up and help with Amelia's magic wand.

Millie and sleeping beauty.

And of course, Cinderella!

Dancing with Cinderella.

We are so grateful for the many wonderful things that the fine people at Disney World did for us.

Now the Rides!

(This portion written by Brady)

It was so hot and humid, we had to get her out of her princess dress. We started with a classic - Dumbo! She loved getting to control the up and down movement!

Checking to see if Austin is the king. Turns out he's not, but he is pretty dang cute!

Meeting Peter Pan and Wendy!

Millie right before going on Splash Mountain. She said she didn't like it, but then insisted on going a second time. She likes the thrill rides just like her mom!

Aladdin and Jasmine were so much fun with her. Millie had colored a picture for each princess. Jasmine asked her to autograph the picture, and told her it would hang in the palace, and that Millie can come see it anytime she wants.

Austin taking a nap in the stroller. He didn't sleep well as we hustled him around the park, but he certainly had fun, and got to go on a lot of rides.

We happened to be walking by when a show was going on in front of the castle. The Disney characters were all there (Mickey, Donald, Goofy, etc.), and suddenly out came the princesses and princes to dance. Millie LOVED it!

They have a special room for wish kids, so we were able to cool down, let Millie rest, let Austin out of the stroller to crawl around, and watch some cartoons. This was yet another amazing thing that Disney World did for us. We needed the rest (we were at Magic Kingdom for over 14 hours that day).

Another Disney classic - the teacups! She giggled the whole time and always wanted to go faster!

Millie got to meet Tinkerbell and her friends. She had gold pixie dust her hair for days.

Austin got his first kiss - from Tinkerbell. Thataboy Austin!

Naveen and Tiana (from the Princess and the Frog) were done and about to leave, but when the saw the magic button showing that she's a wish kid, they stuck around to talk to her. She gave Naveen a kiss, and was so happy to talk to them. She smiled and giggled the whole time.

Is she loving this or what?!

Who doesn't love a parade? The light parade was a lot of fun, and both Millie and Austin loved it!

We capped off one of the most perfect days ever by watching the fireworks. We were all exhausted by the end, but it's a day we'll never forget. We are so very grateful for all those that made this possible for our little princess.

To thank Millie for coming to breakfast, Cinderella sent her a Cinderella Barbie (Amanda bought it and left it for her with a cute note signed by Cinderella). What a great mom she has!