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Happy Birthday Sam!
By Margot | July 14, 2009
It’s Sam’s birthday today. He is officially nine.  We are so proud of our Sam. He had a great laser tag party on Saturday night with all his buddies and played in his basketball game on Saturday morning. There is no quit in our boy. He dribbled well and passed well and was fouled while he was trying to shoot. He missed both free throws not having the strength to get them up to the basket and he was pretty bummed about that. As he was going to sleep on Saturday night he said, “Mom I missed both free throws.” I told him I used to miss free throws all the time. Both Neil and I couldn’t believe how well he did all things considered.   Saturday afternoon we got his bike.  We are in New York today. Sam wanted his birthday in New York City.  The kids did great on the plane. Charlie slept for half of the way and Sam and Andy entertained themselves playing Madlibs.  As you can imagine there was a lot of little boy humor going on as every word they filled in had some sort of bathroom humor. They almost cried laughing everytime they put “weiner” in for body part and then we read it later. Lord knows what the people behind us were thinking. Between that and Charlie saying “What the?” all the time I’m bringing up some real gentlemen.  We flew into Philadelphia – Pensylvania is where Dracula lives according to Andrew- yesterday and drove up to Jersey City to Uncle Matt’s place.    The boys are having a great time with Rosco the dog and generally wreaking havoc on Uncle Matt’s very nice apartment.
Update continued 10;20pmNY time: Sam had a great day today. All the boys did. We went to Ellis Island and The Statue of Liberty where Sam and Andrew had the audio tour for kids and loved it – they were really interested.  Sort of surprised both Neil and me. We took a picture of both boys in front of the statue and a sleeping Charlie on my shoulder.  Will post pics when we get home as I don’t have the converter here. We also took a family pic in front of the sign at Ellis Island because I figured if you put some old time Dungarees on the boys, we could have just gotten off the boat from Cork County ;-).   We came home and went swimming at Uncle Matt’s and then drove to New York to meet John and Catherine and Oliver at their house. The boys had a blast with Oliver – we went to Central Park and played a little and then out to pizza and noodles and then back for a cake that Catherine and John bought for Sam. They also gave him a new camera that he is so excited about. He kept saying all the way home, “Get it ready for tomorrow!” and then when we got back he said, “where’s my camera, can you help me set it up now?” Thank you thank you John and Catherine, you made him so happy.  The boys just went for a late night walk with Uncle Matt and Rosco and I guess then they are going to fall into bed.  Sam said he had a great birthday. We are so happy that we brought everyone for this trip, though there is the usual amount of fighting -lots, they are having a great time together and it’s a vacation for Sam too.
Tomorrow will start the medical part of the trip which I have sort of been ignoring to myself. We meet with Dr. Chang in New York who used to be an oncologist at Sloan Kettering and now does Chinese medicine and some other treatments. He was referred to us by Scott Kenedy whose opinion we value highly. We have no idea what he’ll have to offer but certainly want to turn over as many rocks as possible. We meet with Dr. Maris on Wednesday. We don’t have an official read from San Diego yet on the scan because the radiology team compared it with the March scan instead of the MSKCC scan which we gave them so the read doesn’t tell us anything we don’t already know. Dr. Modak called today though and said he’d look at it by the end of the day – we’d Fed exed it to him. So, since he read the latest one before this one, he’ll be the guy to tell us what’s what. He is and has been so nice to us.
We did get all of eight and we are so so thankful for that. Sam has grown so much this year and learned so much in school. Just watching him in the pool helping Charlie swim just takes my breath away at how much he’s grown.  I’m happy though that he will still crawl on my lap for a hug every now and then.  Nine will be long division and essay papers, it will be growing out of some little boy stuff probably, it will be more travels –  which he loves - and lots of laughter. It will be lots of tennis which he has become so crazy about. It will be Charlie starting preschool and Andy in first grade on the big kid playground with him. It will be lots more cancer treatment but we will do our best to make it fun and do it together. God, please give us all of nine and then we will come back and ask for ten…….
Margot
Topics: Progress Reports | 25 Comments »
July 14th, 2009 at 3:04 am
Happy Birthday Sam! So glad that you had a great day today in New York. Your uncle Paul and cousin Clay had some fun times in Central Park and New York when your Uncle Paul was in college. We love all of you guys and hope to get together with you before long. And remember Sam, it’s actually your birthday week, so keep working it. Love, Clay, Leslie, Julia, Jack and the rest of the New Orleans clan.
July 14th, 2009 at 3:21 am
Congrats on 9 but…..Here’s to ten… plus ten… plus ten… plus ten… etc. Graceland, Civil Rights Museum, Mackinac Island, Fishing in Lakes Erie, Michigan and Little Traverse Lake, sailing tomorrow…. Not NYC… but living none the less… wishing you well…
Peace and Hope!
Ann and crew
July 14th, 2009 at 4:10 am
Glad to hear Sam had a wonderful birthday. I am praying also for every bit of nine for him, and far beyond.
Sandi Queen (Jeremiah’s Mommy)
http://www.caringbridge.org/pa/jeremiah
July 14th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Happy Birthday to Sam!!! and all of you. A truly remarkable milestone. Glad to hear your are enjoying NYC. At Sloan, be sure and look out for Jessica, a Child Life Specialist. Not sure she’d remember Zach- they have such a great volume of kids- but he adored her. Hoping all goes well with your consults-may all of Sam’s birthdays be so memorable.So sorry to read about the problems recently w the GCSF shot- I think every hem/onc parent has an experience like that if you do this scene long enough- so glad they relented & gave you a new shot- you should not have to go through all of that!!! We had the same issue w retinoic acid. Some parental error w getting it out of the gelcaps- & some vomitting (not really unusual events in our realm) and we were short a dose or two… Ridiculous. Sorry you have to deal w crap on top of everything else. We are pulling for you!
Anne & Kent White
July 14th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Ok Margot you did it again….I’m smiling through my tears….you always do that to me. I am soooo happy to hear that Sam had a great bday. It’s great that you are all together in NYC. The best traveling treatments were the ones with everyone. Again I’m humbled by your family. I will also pray for all of nine…..
With Hope
Abra
July 14th, 2009 at 5:15 am
YES–here’s to all of nine, and so VERY much more….
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SAM.
So glad for your happy day!!!
July 14th, 2009 at 8:05 am
Happy Big Nine Sam Glad to hear he is enjoying tennis. Lots of prayer here.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Happy birthday Sam! I’m voting for Michigan for the 10th birthday party!
July 14th, 2009 at 11:50 am
Happy Birthday Sam! Praying that all goes well in New York and that you get answers to help beat this monster. Would love to know what Dr. Chang says.
Hugs,
Lexie
July 14th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Happy happy happy birthday Sam!
July 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
*tears* Yea to TEN! Im proud and smiling with tons of tears! Love you guys. Have a great trip. Natalie learned how to Boogie board this summer – so well have to hit the beach when you get back. Miss you guys!
July 14th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
oops – I meant yea to NINE! its early ~ coffee is weak!
July 14th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Happy Birthday Sam!
With Hope
Michela e sam from Italy
July 14th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Happy Birthday Sam!
July 14th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Happy Birthday Sam. And many more.
July 14th, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Sam deserves a lifetime of happy birthdays. Nothing less. I know you guys want nothing more than to give him that. Much love from afar.
Shirley
NJ
July 14th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Hi Sam! Wishing you a happy birthday from Texas! Thinking of you guys always and hoping to see you all soon.
A nice relaxing vacation in New Mexico sounds nice – hope we can meet up there this year sometime. Wait – relaxing with young boys??? What was I thinking??!!
Sam is just an inspiration and so full of life. Amazing!! As are his parents and brothers.
– Nicole
July 14th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
amazing post, margot: smiling and crying at the same time. happy birthday to your wonderful boy.
mooki
toby’s mom
July 14th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
Happy Birthday Sam!!!! ‘So glad that you guys have been having such a good time in NYC!!!
July 15th, 2009 at 12:19 am
Thinking about you all day and glad you are living in the flow!
Happy BD Sam. Send me your favorite photo you take with your new camera.
VB
July 15th, 2009 at 2:29 am
Happy Birthday Sam!!! Start thinking of where to go for your 10th birthday!
Marco
July 15th, 2009 at 2:38 am
HaPpY BiRthDaY to SAM !!!!!!!!!
NYC with the family after laser tag and basketball in San Diego…
doesn’t get much better than that !!!!!
Praying for strength, hope and good results…
sending love always,
the Kuhn’s
July 15th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Happy Birthday wishes for all of ten and many more. May all the good times shared with friends and family crowd out the bad ones. Your remarkable family wraps every member with love. Jan
p.s. would love to see some of Sam’s new photos posted on the blog, too!
July 16th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I, too, have trouble counting. No excuse – I have enough fingers… All of nine, and all of ten, and all of many more. Jan
July 17th, 2009 at 1:07 am
Happy Belated Birthday Sam!