now that the twin ten ton gorillas called calculus and chemistry are off my back, i can focus on more pleasant things like updating our blog!

ryan is doing very well these days. we haven't had any real surprises since december, when his counts were out of whack and they thought he might have relapsed. life has been progressing along much more calmly since then. he has been going to preschool more often, except for the weeks when he's on decadron-- we keep him home that whole week. he has made amazing progress at school-- we are still able to leave him there alone, without a parent, for a few hours; however, we stay somewhat close by and listen for our cell phone to ring, in case there is a call from the school asking us to come back because he's having a meltdown. so far so good, though. he did cry quite a bit last week during nap time, because he did not want to sleep, but miss karen did not call jason, instead, she sat it out with ryan, trying to get him used to napping or at least quietly resting on his cot with a reading book.

ryan also had his second evaluation last week, this time by the local regional center. we do not have any results yet, except that the evaluator said that she doesn't think he is autistic. that has become more and more glaringly apparent in recent weeks. his personality has bloomed even more and he is catching up with his speech and social skills. he even agreed to sit on the potty in exchange for treats, so we are even making some progress with potty training. in the past, he would defiantly say "no!" if we just mentioned the word "potty." so things are going well. he spends his days running around like a maniac, screaming, shouting, smiling and playing, like all 3 1/2 year olds should.

the only noticable difference is that he's lost some of his hair again. we thought that since he was no longer receiving aggresive chemo that his hair was back forever, but apparently,  some kids can still experience hair loss or hair thinning during maintenance therapy. the hair loss seems to have subsided, so it looks like in ryan's case, he just had some serious thinning. jason took him to get his hair trimmed at the beauty salon at coh last week, when he had an appt. he was starting to look like phil spector again, lol. the salon at coh is awesome-- they give  free haircuts to patients, to help them feel better emotionally. coh is just awesome, period. they really go out of their way to treat patients not only physically, but also on a spiritual and emotional level.

anyhow, ryan is doing great and we are enjoying this time with him, watching him feel so happy go lucky and yes, wild.

stay tuned for some upcoming posts regarding the leukemia society's team in training and st baldricks day!!