Little Briana Corinne!!!

Briana's arms crossed by her face

Briana's cute little face

Another pretty good picture of her face!!!

We are 23 weeks and 4 days along!!!!  We finally found out that we are having a girl!!!!!  We are so excited for Blake and Alexia to have a sister!!!  Briana measures 1 week and 3 days larger than average for her gestational age. 

Big brother Blake

Blake is proud to announce that he will be the big brother of another little girl!!!!  He is excited for his little sister Briana Corinne Parrack to arrive sometime around her due date of December 11th 2011!!!!!

Big Sister Alexia

Alexia is proud to announce that she is going to be the big sister of a little girl!!! 

Alexia's little sister's name is Briana Corinne Parrack!!!  She should arrive sometime around her due date December 11th, 2011!!!!

Summer is almost over

Lex with Mater teeth sucker

Lex swimming

Daddy giving a piggy back ride

Lex and her cousin!

Lex and her cousin again

At the pool

Swimming with Mommy and Daddy

Alexia has grown up so quickly.  She seems so much older and is doing so many more things than she was doing even just a few months ago.  She has a really fun personality and loves to hang out with her friends and family.  She is already a very social girl (although she does take a few minutes to warm up to any new people or new situations).  She amazes us daily with how smart she is.  I think it really helps that her big brother really enjoys teaching her things and she has quite a few adults in her life who take time to work with her on things like puzzles and counting and playing board games.  Sometimes it is easy to forget that she is only 2 1/2 because she seems more mature than a lot of kids her age.  I'm sure she will have her moments though to remind us how young she is. 

Summer is almost over!!

Blake with his Mater teeth sucker

Blake and Lex putting the rope up at the pool

Swimming

The whole family swimming

Well the end of summer is fast approaching and we are all VERY excited for fall!  We love apple orchard season, pumpkin patch season and of course getting dressed up for Harvest Festivals and Trunk or Treat!!! 

We have enjoyed the summer.  The pool has been fun the times we have all been able to go and both kids have learned a lot as far as swimming goes!  Blake swims under water now and Alexia is very close to swimming as well.  It is crazy how fast the kids are growing up.

Blake is enjoying being one of the oldest kids in preschool this year!  He will start Kindergarten Fall of 2012 since he will not be 5 until August 30th and he deserves an extra year to play and have fun before he starts all the seriousness of school.  Once the kids start school they have at least 12 years of school, so it doesn't hurt to wait a while for them to start.

Alexia's Day at the Hospital with Blake and Mommy

Alexia did really well at the hospital.  Becky, Blake's nurse, did her weight and height along with Blake's so she would not feel left out.  Alexia weighs 35 lbs and is 3 feet 1 1/2 inches tall!!!!  She is such a tall girl!!!! 

She missed Blake while he was in the OR and recovery, but she certainly charmed all of the nurses and other hospital staff.  She held Blake's hand to help him feel better when they accessed his port and when they took the tape off the port at the end of the day.  She is such a loving little sister.  She cares very much about people and it is so sweet to watch her interact with others!!!! 

At some point we will find our camera charger and post pictures again! 

Hospital Day= Spinal Tap and Chemo

We can't find our camera charger, so there are no pictures to accompany this update, but I wanted to give an update on how Blake's treatment is going!  Blake had a spinal tap with routine chemo and pentamidine treatment (the pentamidine helps to prevent Pneumocystis pneumonia).  He weighed in at 54 lbs and is 3 ft 8 1/2 inches tall!  Even with the chemo (which can cause growth to be stunted) he is still taller than most kids his age!!! 

Blake made it through his spinal tap with no issues, did great with his breating treatment (they give that to him in recovery since Alexia and mommy can not be in the room with him when he gets the treatment) and recovered well.  He was happy to eat his meal, then we (Blake, Alexia and Mommy) headed to the new infusion center.  We were in and out of there pretty quickly and with a little upset over having the tape removed (he has never liked that tape) we got to head home after only 6 hours at the hospital.  That is a pretty quick and uneventful day for us at the hospital. 

Blake's ANC is at 1550, which is lower than his usually is (usually in the 2500-3000 range), but is still really good for a kid who is taking chemo every day.  He started his week of steroids and took a nice long nap when we got home.