Feeding the calf

Tinsley and Ace have been taking care of an orphan calf(The rest of us have been assisting a little bit).  It has required bottle feeding twice a day up until this past week.  We are now down to one bottle a day and feed.  Ace doesn't get to go out to often to feed the calf, but Tinsley does normally go out when it is time to feed.  She is funny- she always insists on taking her "puter"(computer) or one of her stuffed animals with her.  Tonight, the weather was nice and Ace went out to assist in feeding the calf.  Tinsley was thrilled to show little brother how it is done.

Tinsley told Ace "put your hand in there, the calf won't hurt you"

Tinsley adores Ace and the feeling is definitely mutual.  

I love seeing them together.

Loving on Eagan

We are in trouble with this one.  She loves animals.  I was just as bad when I was little.  I was constantly volunteering our house for strays.  After Toby and I got married, when he wouldn't let me take in another stray, I would always say that I bet my parents would love to have the stray cat/dog.  Toby was always quick to assure me that he was sure that wasn't the case.  ;-)

This is not Tinsley's first rodeo.  She also cared for Annie when she was around Ace's during the summer of 2011.

http://tobyandkristitalley.blogspot.com/2011/06/annie.html

  http://tobyandkristitalley.blogspot.com/2011/07/annie-update.html

Mother's Day Part 1

We celebrated Mother's Day at our house on Saturday with my mom, Gran and Granny.  It was a great day.

These two were not in the mood for pictures. 

It's not a celebration without cake!  

Whitney and Tinsley were the official cake servers

(Tinsley was also happy to test the first piece)

Me and Ace(Tinsley was outside and did not want to slow down for pictures)

Mom, Ace and I

Mom, me, Ace and Whitney

Ace loves for Tinsley to push him in the swing

Ace and Whitney

This horse has been many a mile.  

The Harvey boys gave it to Tinsley and Ace and it has been a hit.

Mom Mom and Ace

Ace and Granny

Ace and Gran

Everybody in our house loves Dora

Tinsley is a Dora fan.  She has several Dora dolls and loves watching Dora the Explorer.  Ace has even started getting excited when he hears the song come on that Dora is starting.  He will watch it a little bit, but he is hilarious when the song starts.  He will start shaking his hands and bouncing around and smiling.  Tonight after everyone was in bed, I walked by the couch and found that we have another Dora fan.  :-)

More than one place to take a bath

Tinsley LOVES to "help" me give Eagan a bath in the big sink in our utility room.  Tonight after I bathed Eagan, she decided she needed to take a bath in the "big sink".  So, I bleached it and cleaned it up good and in she went.  She had a big time.  

Peek-A-Boo

Ace loves it when I put his exersaucer by the front door so he can see outside.  Tinsley and Toby had gone outside to feed the calf today and I was in the kitchen while Ace was in his exersaucer.  All of a sudden I heard him laughing so hard.  I looked up to see this.  I wish I had gotten a pic of his face, but I thought this was so sweet.  

Such a happy boy!

Ace is such a happy baby.  When he smiles, his whole face lights up.  He has such personality already.  We just can't get enough of this happy little boy.

Happy Ace

Sleepy Girl

Tinsley climbed up into Ace's rock and play tonight and was watching The Cowboys.  The cattle drive apparently wore this little cowgirl out.  She got really quiet all of a sudden and when I walked over there, this is what I found.

Checkup with Dr. McClain

Ace had a checkup with Dr. McClain today.  Toby and I had been kind of concerned that he would want to put a port in and begin infusion chemotherapy.  Ace's rash has improved, but the area on his bottom has not really improved too much.  You can't really see the rash on his head anymore unless we are outside in the sun.  It is also pretty visible if he gets upset, because it gets pretty red.  Dr. McClain agreed to continue on the course of chemo we are currently on for now.  We will follow up again with him in two weeks.  He explained that it is okay that it is taking a while for the medicine to completely clear up the rash, but at some point, pretty quick, we need to see that it is going to be able to completely clear it up.  We are thankful that he is willing to give it a little bit more time.  It is really hard not knowing whether or not the medicine will clear it up.  We want to be able to give him the lowest dosing of the chemotherapy and we want it to work.  We don't want to be giving him something day after day that is not ultimately going to work. We trust Dr. McClain and feel that he truly has Ace's best interest in mind.  Ace still seems to be tolerating the chemotherapy pretty well.  His white blood cell counts are low, so we have to continue to keep him away from places/people where he might get sick, and his liver enzymes are elevated to 121.  The elevated liver enzymes are a normal side effect of the chemo and we just have to watch them to make sure that they don't get too out of control.  So, we will follow up on the 18th.  

Ace has been doing great.  The medicine still upsets his stomach and he has had a persistent cough that doesn't seem to want to go away.  Last Monday, he was coughing and cruddy in general.  Tinsley was up most of the night crying and we were concerned that she might have a urinary tract infection.  So, off to the doctor we went.  Dr. McClain agreed to let Dr. Boecker check Ace and not make us make a trip to Houston since Ace was not running fever.  They RSV'd him and it was negative.  Dr. McClain did want us to take him for bloodwork and a chest x-ray.  The bloodwork showed that his platelet levels are high and there is a bit of crud in his chest.  He does not have pneumonia which he is at high risk of with the chemo.  They think he has a virus.  So, we will continue to treat the symptoms with Tylenol as needed. He can also have benadryl on an as needed basis, but the phenegren he is on for nausea also helps with the congestion.  Tinsley does not have a urinary tract infection.  It looks like she just has a yeast infection related to the antibiotic she was on for tonsillitis.  All in all, we spent about 5 hours at the hospital last Monday.  Fun day!

Thanks again for checking in on us and for continuing to keep Ace in your prayers.  We feel extremely thankful that he is doing so well and are still very hopeful that the oral chemotherapy will do the trick.

Below are a few pictures from the past couple of days.

Tinsley(and her dog) helped me get packed up for our trip to Houston

Loving on Ace before we left.

Getting dressed at the hotel before going to the doctor.

Mom sent me these two pictures while we were gone.  

Tinsley is obviously all about Eagan.  :-)

Mom and Dad kept Tinsley busy while we were gone.  Or, should I say, Tinsley kept them busy.  They are building a storage/changing area/bathroom at their house by the pool.  Tinsley was "assisting" DD with picking up.