Day +346: Getting ready for our big trip

We're starting to get pretty excited around here. Yesterday I was telling Mina about our big trip coming up, and it took me about five minutes to list off all the people she was going to see and all the things we were going to do. She listened with rapt attention, and when I finished she said "Again?" wanting me to tell her all about it again. We fly out for Seattle Thursday at about 2 PM, returning Saturday, 4/22. We will stay at Teri and Brent's new house in Lake Stevens, which they've owned for nearly a year and which we haven't seen yet. Besides grandparents and aunts and uncles, Teri and Brent have an Easter get-together every year where we'll see lots of others who have been praying for Mina Brigitta over the last year. We're planning a daytrip to Guemas Island on Monday to see Zeedie, and of course we'll have a little birthday party for Mina on Wednesday. Thursday we'll visit my old colleagues in Olympia. Lots and lots of excitement. I hope the kids will tolerate the break in their routine.

We got some great news today just in time for the trip: Mina Brigitta's B-cell function has recovered to normal! This was the last test they were waiting for to pronounce her immune system fully recovered! So now, at least in theory, she has a normally functioning immune system. I suspect this means some vaccinations are in store pretty soon, but we'll see what kind of schedule the doctors lay out for her. They will now discontinue the IV immune globulin she's been receiving monthly, which is nice because the infusion takes a few hours so it means a lot less time in the clinic. This will mean the only medicine she is still getting is aspirin, of all things, for the stenosis. We were chuckling about that with Amber tonight, that the only thing she's still getting for her BMT is aspirin.

There will be a whole bunch of tests scheduled once we get back with her one-year anniversary approaching on April 29. They'll want a whole battery to compare to her baseline tests from last year. Hard to believe that date is approaching. Keri gave the BMT team the permission sheet to allow the donor to contact us, if he wishes. After the beautiful letter he sent, we're eager to meet him and also very hopeful that he'll want to do that.

The kids have had some stomach issues over the last week or so, with some vomiting and diahrrea, though no fevers and their spirits are still pretty good. These things are always worrisome with Mina, so Keri is planning to call Dr. Loh tomorrow and maybe take her up to Tuesday clinic. Then again, with her B-cell result maybe Dr. Loh will say to take two aspirin and call her in the morning.

An interesting story about Isaac this week. He's been talking a lot, and he can repeat things you say to him very clearly. But you're never sure how much of the meaning he's getting. Anyway, the other day I was reading the "Baby Beluga" to him, and when we came to the picture of the puffin, he said "ka-koh!" I told him it was a "puffin", but he kept saying "ka-koh!" I finally figured out he was saying "cracker", which is the word he uses to refer to breakfast cereal. His favorite kind is the "Puffins" brand from Barbera's. I found it interesting because it shows that he's making connections in his mind, and not just learning the words we teach by rote. He still likes to sing "Uppa bova wowo eye!" and he especially likes it when we sing it together. So we've been singing a lot of duets of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star together. Or sometimes trios, with Mina joining in.

Mina is doing really well with her poddy training. She still sometimes has accidents when she naps, but did just great today even when she had diahrrea. No more diapers now except at night, and even those are usually pretty dry in the morning.