I Came all the Way to Italy to Meet my Irish Wife

My wife has gone with her friend from Ireland for the afternoon. Parker has gone down for his nap and I am taking a break from studying for my SCBCD exam.

I have to say that the past 24 hours have given me more excitement than I could possible handle for one day. Although, most of the excitement would be considered unwanted excitement there were also some good that happened as well.

Let me begin with Parker's blood results from yesterday. I had mentioned previously that Parker's neutrophils had dropped last week to once again put him under 1500 neutrophils per unit of blood, that being the threshold for neutropenia. Yesterday, we had hoped for an increase in his cells but we were devastated to hear that they had dropped another 200 to put him below 1000 neutrophils, a total decrease of 700 cells in just two weeks. With Parker having some major tests being performed next week to confirm that the gene therapy is working and so that we can leave for Canada at the end of the month you can image how stressed we were when we found out about Parker's results yesterday.

We spent most of the day waiting for Parker's doctor to call us to see if he was worried or not. It was just after half past seven in the evening our time when he called to let us know that he was not worried and that he expects Parker's neutrophils to increase next week. The major problem about doing so much research on your son's disease and being so involved when it comes to knowing and understanding the results is that a lot of stress comes with it. That said, we remain content knowing that we may still be coming home soon and that our son is clinically and developmentally doing very well.

Now, on to our next bit of negative excitement. For reasons you will learn shortly, Parker was put down for his afternoon nap at four in the afternoon yesterday. We figured that he would fall asleep almost instantaneously and were very surprised to witness all of the energy that he had stored away. So, with my wife and I mentally tired from recently learning Parker's blood results we decided to lie in the bed near Parker's playpen in hopes that that would help him fall asleep.

Instead, he did everything he could to get our attention. First, it way throwing his monkey at us. Then, his blanket on the floor. Then, he shouted at us. “Dada! Dada! Up, up, up!”, he would yell. Then, he did it. The same thing he did every other time he was in his play pen. He tried to climb up the side of his playpen. Normally, his feeble attempt included a couple of steps of the mesh but then he would lose his gripping and slide back down. This time was different. After his second step, he flexed the muscles in his triceps and then straightened his arms so that his elbows locked.

He had done it. The top horizontal bar of his playpen was now situated at his belly button. What a feat. And then it happened, in a fraction of a second he rested his hips on the bar and over he went. It was if I had saw the whole things in slow motion.

First, his face hit the ground, then the rotational motion kicked in from his push off the bar and the top of his head was suddenly the only thing now making contact with the ground Finally, he came to rest lying on his back facing the ceiling.

Can you image the stress we were feeling. I quickly got up from the edge of the bed and picked up my son who lay there on the floor in front of me. “Tickle, tickle, tickle”, he said. Of course, Parker didn't care. Why would he. The little guy had just figured out how to escape from his playpen during nap time.

Of course, I immediately went downstairs to reception to ask for a new crib for Parker. One that was high enough that he could not climb out of. After about an hour they brought us in a brand new crib where Parker to sleep. Surely, the little guy would not be able to climb out of this crib.

I have to say that he slept well in his new bed last night. This afternoon before nap, my wife put him in his crib while she took out the garbage. Me, I was working on tonight's dinner. Meatball and Italian sausage sandwiches. Can you imagine my eyes when I peeked around the corner into the bedroom to see Parker standing there in his crib with the side of the crib down. I ran there as fast as I could to lift the side back to its normal position. Why climb out of the crib when you are smart enough to just lower the side down. That said, Parker is now asleep in his crib that we have positioned and modified in such a way that he is unable to get out. For now.

Okay, I had said that I would explain why Parker was late for his nap yesterday. See, Parker had a date. We, along with our friends from Ireland thought it would be a great idea to set up a portion of the hallway as a movie theater for Parker and the girls to watch a movie together. So, after bringing out some chairs, a table and the laptop we were all ready to watch “Over the Hedge”. The youngest of the two girls had fallen asleep prior to the start of the movie, but Parker and his girlfriend watched the movie from beginning to end. Of course, Parker may not have looked the coolest drinking his bottle of milk in his mommy's lap an forty-five minutes into the movie but he made up for it when he had daddy bring the two of them their own bag of crackers to eat during the movie.

Now, I have to say that it does get better than this. Apparently, after speaking with my wife, I was informed of a conversation between Parker's girlfriend and her mother. Now, I do apologise if I get it wrong but I believe it went something like the following.

“Mommy, I think I am going to marry Parker”, the little girl said to her mother.

“Oh really”, she replied, “and what are you going to where to your wedding?”

Well, the little girl then began to explain to her mother how the dress that she would wear on her special day was going to be very long and pretty.

The mother then asked her, “Well, what shall Parker wear?”

“You know, a pair of trousers and a shirt.”, she replied.

Well, I have to say it is nice that Parker has friends his own age to interact with (in a very controlled environment). How, was today? Well, movie time was a little earlier. Parker found his way to the same place they had met yesterday without a problem. How hard could it have been when all he can hear from down the hall are two little voices saying, “Parker! Parker!”