HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY JOHNNY!!!! (A photographic retrospective or: Johnny Romano: The Early Years)

Johnny is TEN! WOO HOO!

Clinic was Friday and his counts were strong -- an office visit with a vincristine IV push. In two weeks: labs, and on 5/16 an office visit, labs, LP, VCR, & PEN. I'm not exactly sure how this will work, but according to my calculations he will only have TWO more LP's -- EVER! 'Worst' case will be three LP's, but that would mean he would get one in May, August and the final one in September -- 3 weeks after the one in August. Only T E N visits to go!!!!!!

In honor of Johnny's tenth birthday, I have prepared a photographic retrospective of "The Early Years". That's a fancy way of saying, "Do you want to see Johnny's baby pictures?!" -- HEY WAIT! WHERE DO YOU THINK YOUR GOING? YOU CAN'T WALK AWAY...

well, that's just rude.

Joey, when we told him he was going to be a big brother:



Mike thinks all newborns look like Buddy Hackett or a sausage.



APRIL 23, 1998:





4 MONTHS OLD -- This is why everyone called him Bubbles (you can still do that if you really want to make him mad):



Joey used go nose to nose with Johnny in his 'exer-saucer' and merrily say, "Hi little brother!", Johnny's response was the same every time -- a swift whack to the head. Joey would take it too -- how little things have changed!





The beginning of our summer vacations to see PoPo in HB!



First day of Second grade for Joey, and Kindergarten for Johnny.



This was cute...

NINE YEARS AGO! Now I scream: "SHUT THE DAMN FRIDGE!"



Awww... shhh, don't wake the boys...


Fast forward to today: "COME ON PEOPLE, GET UP! TAKE THE TRASH OUT, MOW THE LAWN, HOW 'BOUT DOING A LOAD OF WASH..."


TURN-ON'S:
SKATEBOARDING






SURFING


CHICKS




PARTIES




TURN-OFF'S

PONY'S


COSTUMES



HOLIDAY ICONS IN COSTUMES




FINDING OUT THAT YOU ARE A BIG BROTHER:

TWO CLINIC VISITS

Since my last post, Johnny has had two clinic visits -- one was vincristine during Spring break and the other was today. Both visits went very well -- Johnny's counts are still strong and "the count down has started".

ONLY ELEVEN MORE VISITS TO GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woo Hoo! When I counted how many visits are left, I got excited, I mean really excited! All the stuff about being cautiously optimistic, not having a celebration when this is over is behind me! Even the doctor's and nurses are excited! Now all I have to do is convince Mike. Actually, it will be like I always do, no convincing the poor guy, I just tell him the way it is.

My dad took the boys out to the bay -- and a pod of dolphins (5-6) stayed with them and 'played' for about 30 minutes. They couldn't stop talking about how cool it was to see the dolphins up close and personal. So close that when the dolphins would open their blow hole my dad could feel the spray on his face.


This was one of the dolphins that followed the boat.



Dad took the boys fishing -- Joey caught his first fish!




Spring break/Easter was fun! The weather was great so we got to play outside the entire time. I bought soccer goals, but the only person that seemed remotely interested in soccer was me.

Except on Easter Sunday -- we had a CROWD! The older kids had an egg hunt for the little ones, we did fire pit, LOTS of food, and played ultimate Frisbee (I think that's what they called it) for the first time. The rules were shouted at me as I broke them, but from what I could gather it's similar to football, only with a Frisbee and you don't tackle people.

WE HAD SO MUCH FUN!

I TOTALLY snaked Barry -- a surprise attack -- my moment of glory! The rest of the time I was screaming "OVER HERE! I'M OPEN!" but everyone ignored me.






The three little cousins at the neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt...


ON YOUR MARK! GET SET! GO!


Mike said when the kids started running for the eggs it scared him -- like he was going to be next -- he said they 'had that look in their eyes'. These kids weren't going to stop for nuthin'. Mike compared the 'Hunt' to a very large vacuum cleaner as the kids took over the lawn.


I don't know if I've mentioned this before but MY FIRE PIT ROCKS!...




Last weekend the boys(Mike included) had a surfing contest, Sophie and I stayed home to hold down the fort. From what they say, they had a great time, played with friends and didn't place in one event. Not even Johnny. We had high hopes for him too. Every contest this year was right after chemo and he was usually first or second place. So we thought, "Wow, if he surfs that good after chemo, just think what he will be like with NO CHEMO." Not so good. But the boys took everything in stride and had fun!

Johnny going out for his heat



Joey paddling out



Next clinic visit is 4/18 -- PEN, VCR and office visit -- aka: an all day affair.