Firsts.. And lasts...

This week has been a week of "firsts" and "lasts".

Parker licked a sour patch kids candy voluntarily for the first time. His face was priceless, yet he kept going back for more. We all got a good laught out of it. 

He learned to take sips from the bottom of a straw. Now everytime someone has a cup with a straw, he expects, no demands you to share with him. He especially likes Root Beer, which reminds me of my grandpa Louby a lot.

 He climbed stairs- with help, of course- for the first time. We made it a really memorable experience by climbing the infamous Rocky steps from the movie. The steps really are much bigger than it looks in the movie and he made it half way up. He could have kept going, too, but I had been up more than once, so I was pooped. 

This week has been filled with lots of firsts, and lots of lasts. Yesterday was the last "double shot night". Basically, it was the last night for his epogen and nutropin injections. The plan is to discontinue these after surgery. Amen to not using your child as a human pin cushion! I thoroughly hate the shots if you can't tell. 

Tonight was the last time changing the dressing on his dialysis catheter site. As I was changing it, I realized that my baby will not have a tube in his belly anymore. I have never seen my baby without a tube in his belly! 

Tonight was also my last night connecting his dialysis machine. I have done this every night now for over two years. It hasn't quite hit home yet that I won't have to do this again- hopefully ever. 

It's all starting to settle in slowly, but surely. We have to report to the hospital tomorrow at 9:30 a.m to admit. We will spend the night there tomorrow, and surgery is supposed to be set for first case on Thursday. Surgery will last 7-8 hours, so updates will be few and far between. I hope everyone has gone out and gotten their teal to wear for Thursday. We are really looking forward to seeing everyone's pictures to keep us going through the day! I don't think you guys realize how much that keeps our spirits up. It's also really important to us to keep these pictures to show Parker just how many people love and support him. Hopefully, he won't remember any of this, but if he ever gets down about things, I want to be able to show him the outpouring that we have experienced!

Please, please, please keep the prayers coming!

Today we went to the Art Museum and Parker climbed the "Rocky Steps". You know, the infamous steps that Sylvester Stalone climbs in the movie Rocky. Well, today is the first day that Parker has climbed steps. He did it with help, of course, but usually he will not even lift his leg to climb to the next one, so today was a huge milestone!

Bye Bye dialysis catheter!