Dec. 25/05 Well, this year's Xmas was much better than last! Last year, I was laying in a hospital bed stoned on morphine (ok...that wasn't sooo bad)! hehe The whole Santa thing pretty much freaked John out. He saw the big red guy two times and both times refused to have anything to do with him. He did resort to giving him a treat (fruit salad, because the Wiggles said Santa likes fruit salad). I think one of the reasons we had such a rough time getting him to open anything was because of the Santa thing. He finally did get into the opening thing and by the time he was opening his presents at Wade's house, he truly was in the spirit of the ripping open. He got way too many toys and told me that his best toy was his shake and go racetrack. He refused to eat any Xmas dinner and has not been eating much of anything lately. I'm not really sure what he lives on. He likes to copy the silly words that the kids at daycare say, and quite frankly it drives me insane. I think he knows this and uses them just to get to me. I can't wait to see what he'll do when he's a teen! Judy came for Xmas and John finally caved and let her play race track with him. November 28/05 Well, John is finally potty-trained! A couple of weeks, I made up my mind that he was going to become potty trained so we ditched the pull-ups for big boy underwear. It really only took a couple of times wetting himself until he realized he'd better use the potty or else a big mess was going to happen. He is also staying dry through the night which is a big plus! I don't think he would ever have trained with the pull-ups because it's just too easy to go in them and feel comfortable. I took him sliding the other day, however, he was very scared going down the hill. He didn't mind a small hill, but the big one made him nervous. John hasn't been feeling so good the last couple of days. We took him to a restaurant on Friday before the Santa parade and he puked. He was also burned by a little spot light the restaurant had on a fountain. It blistered quite badly! He was upset that Santa Claus didn't give him the Dora van he has been wanting for Christmas. He thought that Santa gave out presents at the parade! He didn't like the noise of the music and horns and sirens at the parade. He could be seen with his hands over his ears! (Happy 37th BDay to Dad!) November 8, 2005 John had a very fun Halloween. He didn't want to dress up as a dinosaur for his daycare party or the toy library one, however, he agreed to wear it for trick or treating. As soon as he realized he would get candy and chocolate, he was up to doing the whole block! He's still a challenge behaviour wise. Last night at tumble bugs, I had to take him home and take away the trampouline because he pushed 2 other little boys who were doing nothing but minding their own business. He had his flu shot last week and that was a huge fuss! I'm starting to look forward to going back to work after Xmas. I think it will be very good for me to devote some time to something other than home stuff for a change. It will take my mind off my recurrence fears and channel some energy. I've begun a regular exercise program to try to work up some stamina. The potty continues to fail! He's soooo stubborn about it. He may be the first kid in university wearing a pull-up. Good thing they make diapers for adults now! :) October 8/05 We took John to Winnipeg a couple of weeks ago. It was a lot of work! Our adventure began in Kenora when John went inside the jungle gym playground and then refused to go down the slide or come back the other way. He began to cry hysterically until he made himself puke. I ran to get the manager, however, the key doesn't open the damn thing! I ended up crawling up the slide and ordering him to come to me. I grabbed a leg and took him down. Don't know how they got the puke out! Don't care! John enjoyed the hotel pool and loved the zoo. He especially liked the pony rides and rode two different kinds of ponies. He also liked going up and down the escalators at the mall. We went to the big toys r us store and he got a dinosaur mountain and some water animals for his birthday present. He was hard to manage in restaurants and liked to cry and fuss! John's birthday was lovely weather wise. We had an outdoor party with Lhea, Holden and Meahghan as guests. I got a brain wave to buy little pumpkins and paint them. The kids loved that as well as a ball pool we made. We got pizza from Pizza Hut along with a Dairy queen Scooby Doo cake which was a big hit! John was much better behaved this year than last for his birthday, however, he still didn't want candles or a happy birthday song. We got John's Halloween costume yesterday - a green dinosaur which he says is a Triceratops. It was funny last night when he was trying to put it on by himself. I was spying on him. He said, "You go and watch the news mom." He wanted to wear it to bed and daycare. He ended up sleeping with it, but not wearing it. Page 2 Go To Start Of Document Go To Top Of Page Sept. 15/05 The weather is definately getting cooler. John likes to get covered up in piles of leaves or pine needles. He's a slave driver, however, and wants me to rake more and more leaves on top of him. He's in the process of trying to give up his afternoon nap. The days he doesn't nap, he's pretty testy by evening. I still prefer the days when he naps! He's doing well in his big boy bed and loves to listen to music before he goes to sleep. He has his bedtime routine of 3 books, songs and then prayers. He loves it when I "write" on his back while he's going to sleep. Heck, I'd love it myself! Last weekend we had one last beach day at Fenez's house. John had a lot of fun in the water and even tried his hand at driving Lhea's jeep. He crashed it into a fence! He's way too impulsive for driving yet I think. He continues to love daycare now! On Wed. when I went to pick him up he wanted to stay! That's a good sign I think. It's hard to believe my baby will be 3 in a few weeks. He says he doesn't want a party! We'll see! Sept. 1/05 All done! Had my last radiation treatment yesterday and am glad to see the end of the tanning booth :) Looking forward to spending some quality time at home before going back to work in January. It's going to take a bit of time to heal up from this year of torture, but I hope things go well. John is now sleeping in his own bed for naps and at nighttime. He seems to be having a pretty good quality sleep as well. We're now working on the potty thing. It's not going to be easy. Last weekend, my mom and I took John to the Fall Fair. He seems to know everybody in town from daycare. He was saying hi too all these kids I didn't know. He loved the cotton candy and the rides. His favourite was the bumpy boats. I'm sure he could have spent all day and all night riding on them. I'm glad I didn't have to ride too, because I'm sure I would've puked. Going to try to register John for a kids' gymnastics program today..called tumblebugs. There's limited space, so we'll see. Aug. 4/05 Things are moving along. I begin radiation treatments next week in Thunder Bay. Of course, Dryden would choose this month to redo the runway, so I'm not sure if the flight situation is going to work out for me or not. John has two new friends, Meahghan and Holden Jesseau. I met Michele (the mom) through Jackie and we've had quite a few play dates. John is not always a gracious guest, however, and is working on sharing and being patient. He's a very enthusiastic friend at least. He gets very excited about new toys and new adventures. Today we went to Egli's sheep farm so John could see the animals. He loved petting the donkeys and the horses and feeding the greedy goats. One goat got stuck in the fence, so I had to run and fetch the farmer to get him unstuck. John continues to love words and always is asking me to spell things for him. He knows how to spell tons of words now. Irene gave him a moving box to play with and you would have though he struck gold! He spent hours decorating and painting the box and wanted mommy to sit inside it with me. Much to his dismay, I'm too big! I can lay in it, however. It was very funny last night. I introduced the word "Person". He said, "Mommy, I'm not a person, I'm a sweetheart." That he is! July 13/05 Well, chemo is finally done! It's on to radiation therapy next, which I hope will be somewhat easier than the chemo. I'm still very tired from the six rounds of chemo, so I imagine it will be a little bit of time until I feel somewhat normal again. John keeps getting bigger and bigger. He went on his first excursion to the beach on the bus with daycare last week. They said he had a good time, although he is in denial that he ever went! He's a busy boy and enjoys all sorts of activities from puzzles to books to of course playing outside and running. You'd never know he had open heart surgery, that's for sure! He continues to be worried about me being happy, but I guess that's the sensitive nature of this child. He is very sensitive and picks up on when there is tension of any sort around. It will be very difficult to be away from him during radiation. Derek is going to take some holidays around the time we think I'll be away so that he can be more present to John. It wouldn't be fair if both his parents took off on him! © 2005 Derek Kennedy

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