Lately

     We had Shad's check-up yesterday.  Luckily it looks like we are going to make it through another round with no blood or platelet transfusions.  The doctor seemed pretty surprised, but our Shad is a fighter so we weren't too surprised.  We know that eventually he will need transfusions. but we will gladly take any round he can get through without them.  Unfortunately, his white blood cells took a bigger hit this time (completely normal), and so we are homebound for the next week.  He has another appointment on Friday, and we are hoping all his counts will be good so that we can enjoy Christmas.  
     The doctor wants Shad to have an MRI and a PET scan next week.  It isn't too big of a deal aside from the fact that he isn't allowed to eat any sugar the day before (it could interfere with the results).  We were hoping that they would be able to schedule it for Thursday or Friday so we wouldn't have to worry about monitoring what he was eating on Christmas day.  Unfortunately it is looking like we are going to have the scans on Wednesday, so Christmas just got a little rougher.
     On the mobility front, he is making so much progress.  Just yesterday he started trying to stand on his own by scooting to the edge of his wheelchair and then pushing himself into a standing position.  At our house he was sitting on a chair near the couch, and he scooted himself off, grabbed onto the couch and walked over to sit down.  All of this was out of the question just a few days ago.  This morning he had physical therapy and he walked from the far edge of our couch, around and to the bottom of the stairs holding onto our hands.  I carried him up to his room, and he sat on the floor and played with the physical therapist, crawled all over in his room and up and down the hallway, he stood at the window and looked out for a little bit.  It was seriously amazing.  I am so proud of him, he is scared to try new things, but he does it anyway.