Happy Halloween!!

Thank you Kim and Kayci for putting together this jibjab clip. Everyone will love it. Its hilarious!!

http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/ic9OheSpaxh6BGqU

My babies!

Lots of updates this week so I apologize if this entry is a little long. Shaun had his second chemo treatment this afternoon. So only 5 more months! They tweeked his dosage so hopefully his mouth won't hurt so much this time around. I also had a good day. I started doing lab work in my new lab last Friday and already have little embyoid bodies growing (see pictures above). Most of you reading this will have no idea what an embryoid body is so here is a quick description. Embyonic stem cells (from mice not humans) which can become any cell in the body were transfered into an environment that makes the stem cells differentiate (become cells such as skin, brain, heart, etc.). Today I harvested the cells that had become whats called "embryoid bodies". So embryoid bodies are just a ball of differntiated cells. They are no longer stem cells, they are just a ball of progenitors. Eventually, when they turn into heart cells, they will beat in the dish! I will show movies when I get that far. Until then, I just have cute balls of cells. (If you would like a more detailed description, please leave a comment and I can email you).

This weekend was super busy, but lots of fun with friends and family. Shaun's friend Jeremiah, aka The Rock, came up to visit from Bloomington, IN. So the boys played Madden on the wii, watched Notre Dame football and went to the Ram to watch some ultimate fighting whatnot. you'll have to ask Shaun for details on that one. All I heard was ultimate fighting and the rest went out the other ear. We went on our weekend adventure to the Shedd Aquarium. Shaun and I both love going there and it seemed like Bryce enjoyed it as well. Although most of the time Bryce was people watching instead of looking at the fish. He did take interest in the penguins. They would swim right up to the glass near him and he kept a keen eye on them.

Lastly, Bryce has been practicing his crawling by following everyone around. He's gotten pretty good at it! here is an updated video from earlier this week of his improvement.

Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm

Well, one treatment down, 11 to go. Shaun successfully handled his first chemo treatment. He did end up having most of the usual side-effects, but handled them without complaint. Now he knows he will just have to set aside a few days afterwards to sleep. The regiment he is on is called FOLFOX and is the standard of care. The drugs shouldn't affect his hair, not that he had much to fall out! So mainly he has to deal with the fatigue. His next treatment will be one week from Monday. It would be nice if Shaun could enjoy his week off in peace, but he has to go in tomorrow for a PET scan. I think the doctors just like to see his smiling face so they bring him in often.
Our weekend adventures continued with visits from Bryce's Nana and Poppa (aka Shaun's parents), Aunt Amy and WOODY! Shaun and I were very excited to get to see Woody, even if it was only for a short while. He's been staying with Shaun's parents for the last several months so we could sell the house and now so we have one less responsibility. As soon as chemo is over, or the weather gets warm again (which ever come first) Shaun will insist on Woody coming home for good.
We also visited Goebbert's Pumpkin Farm today with Nana and Poppa. Similar to the apple fest, there were A LOT of people, but thankfully the farm was adequately prepared for such crowds. They had lots of photo opts with pumpkins, gords, wood cutouts of tv characters and whatnot. When Bryce is older, we will have to go back so he can enjoy the pony rides, camel rides, petting zoo and haunted house. We still had a great time and the weather was brisk but beautiful. The leaves are starting to change so maybe next weekend we will go hiking and take pictures of the trees.

On the move

sorry the video is kinda long and probably should have been edited, but you can see Bryce on the move.

Botanic Gardens

Yesterday, we went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens which amazingly is only about 15 minutes from our place. We went with the Dunn family, including Jenny's parents, Rich and Lydia. It was a cold, windy day (high of 50) so hats were in order. Luckily, Rich and Lydia knew their way around and took us to a lot of indoor places. We even got a nice family picture taken in one of the green houses.

Bryce is getting back into his schedule since the move. For all the mommies back in Birmingham, the crying out method has been very successful. He only cries for 10 minutes max, before falling asleep on his own. He is also working hard on crawling. He isn't quite there yet, but really, really wants to be on the move. (update: Bryce crawled 6 feet on his own this afternoon!)

I've been at my new job for a week now and still really like it. The people are very friendly and my boss is exceptionally laid back. I'm working on designing my own project, but it will probably be something dealing with the differentiation of cardiomyocytes (heart cells). I'll post more as it develops.

Shaun has his first chem treatment tomorrow afternoon. Beforehand, the doctor wanted a baseline CT-scan to compare to later and it looks clear. So no major out growth since his surgery 6 weeks ago, whew! So lets hope the chemo does its job and kills all the cancerous cells!

Apple Fest

One of our goals is to spend every weekend doing something fun. We would like to travel a little but mainly we would like to take advantage of all that the Chicago-land area has to offer. Last weekend we went to Apple Fest in Long Grove. I remember when I was younger going and eating apple donuts, drinking apple cider and taste testing various home made goodies from the area. So I was looking forward to a similar experience this time to share with Shaun, Bryce and the Dunns. Unfortunately, Long Grove has gotten a little too popular. So the crowds prevailed and we tried not to get trampled. It wasn't all bad. We did get some fresh apples and drank some apple cider. It was a beautiful day and we got to spend it outside with good friends and family. Overall, it was a very nice day. On the schedule this weekend, the Botanical Gardens! I'll try to remember to bring my camera this time. Since we don't have pictures or video from apple fest, I will include a funny one taken by Shaun. With the new working arrangement, Shaun gets to spend a lot more time with Bryce and it leads to fun times like the one in the video.

First Week in Chicago

We moved into our new place in Chicago on Monday. It's a little smaller and not as nice as our home in Alabama, but it almost feels like home already. The day after we moved in, Bryce was introduced to basketball, learning the basic dribbling motion in no time at all (see video!). Melissa likes her new job at Northwestern, though the commute is a bit lengthy. Shaun was happy to get through an entire week without a surgery or single visit to a doctor. Everybody's looking forward to having Woody back in the household soon!