Oct 31, 2009

Adrian had his regular swimming lesson in the morning of the Halloween. And because it's parents' day today and we're allowed to take pictures and discuss his progress with his instructor.

After the swimming class and lunch at home, we headed out to the mall to go trick or treating.





Oct 28, 2009

Someone from Sickkids finally called us and let us know of Adrian's upcoming appointments. His MIBG Scan & appointment with Dr Baruchel is scheduled on Nov 5th. MIBG Injection, abdomen ultrasound & blood test on the day before i.e. Nov 4th. He'd start taking Lugol's solution for 3 days starting next Tue to protect his thyroid against the radioactive injection.

Oct 25, 2009

Adrian fell in love with the Wiggles dated back in Dec 2007. It all started with getting a Wiggles' DVD as Christmas Present from a friend of ours during his Stem Cell (Cord Blood) Transplant at QMH in Dec 2007. He loves watching the DVD so much that he'd sit still in his crib with Mama having lunch outside the ward or he'd take the nasty medicine in no time. So we bought tickets to see the Wiggles as soon as we know they are in town for concert!

Instead of driving downtown, we took the GO Bus and Adrian absolutely loves the bus ride! The show started at 13:30 and Adrian was so excited to see the guys coming out in the big red car! Though he seemed to only enjoy the songs that he knows/likes and got a bit impatient on the songs that he doesn't know but in all, he behaved very well during the 1.5 hour of the show.









Oct 24, 2009

Adrian dressed up as "Panda" this afternoon trick or treating at the Community Service Village, an event organized by the York Region Police. We were lucky that the weather wasn't as cold as the last few weeks' and Adrian got to experience a sense of how Halloween is like in Canada. We finished up the day by a gathering dinner with friends from our prenatal class.











Oct 23, 2009

We have gotten a few referrals on hand after searching for a good Chinese Doctor who specializes in cancer in Toronto since we came back in July. Today we decided to bring Adrian go and see that one particular doctor, apparently he was referred to us by two different sources. The first consultation lasted an hour with the doctor going through Adrian's medical records, examining his pulse/palm/tongue, explaining the treatments in terms of both "herbal" & "daily dietary intake" thoroughly. He's prescribed three doses of TCM for Adrian to try in the next few days and we'll see him again next week.

Oct 22, 2009

The first Parent-Teacher Interview was held this evening and we got a chance to meet with ALL of Adrian's teachers! Other than his speech delay, the feedback were all very positive like we know he's participating in class, hanging along well and sharing with his classmates and they all say he's a happy little boy who loves smiling all the time! As people always find it hard to believe what he went through in the past. When we told the music teacher about Adrian's hearing problems, she kept asking why.... and she was completely shocked when we told her that it's because of cancer (well, the cisplatin drug he had in chemotherapy to be exact)! We don't intend to tell people or new friends about his story unless they ask (like this case). She found it hard to believe based on how Adrian looks today and the fact that we were so calm as if we were telling someone else story. Well, this IS the reality and has become part of our lives....

Oct 17, 2009

Adrian has been going for swimming class at the community centre since Papa came back to town. At the last class, the instructor already advised us that kids should start attending class by themselves starting next week and this is one of the criteria to "graduate" from class at the end of all the 9 sessions. No matter how much we prepped Adrian beforehand, he cried loud at the pool side as if it's the first day of school. We passed him to the instructor regardless and then left from his eyesight immediately. He fussed for a few minutes while in the water though and later waved to us half way through the class, we can see he enjoyed the class a lot more than just clinging to Papa all the time. Adrian was the ONLY one by himself so far as the other 3 kids in class all came with their Daddys! It's a great milestone for Adrian and we are so very proud of him!

Oct 13, 2009

In less than a month since Adrian had the hearing test at Sick Kids, we received a call from the social worker at the York Region Infant Hearing Program today. A home visit has been scheduled on Nov 2nd where the social worker will come to our place and meet Adrian to see how he's doing, then do a referral on whatever services (e.g. Speech Therapy etc.) she thinks Adrian needs.

Oct 11, 2009

On the Thanksgiving weekend, we went Apple picking, visited a pumpkin farm nearby the area, with all the leaves changing color. What an experience for Adrian, though it was freezing!











Oct 8, 2009

Adrian greeted the teachers "Good Morning" (instead of just "Hello") the FIRST time at school. As one of his teachers put it, he's a happy little guy in class. He just loves going to school these days!

Because of the difficulty in getting quality Chinese Raw Herbs in Toronto, we decided to switch Adrian's routine TCM to the Chinese Herbs Extract few days ago. Adrian threw up half way through drinking the TCM in the first attempt but then he was ok the second, third days and so on. We are really proud of him because the extract tastes worse than the TCM prepared through decoction.

Oct 4, 2009

Adrian loves the Dora show on TV ever since we moved back to Toronto. Knowing that there's going to be a photo opportunity with Dora at Markham Fair, we decided to check it out! Apart from a few drizzles, Adrian had fun at the fair where he got to try out many rides including the elephant ride all by himself!









Oct 2, 2009

Despite the overcast weather, Adrian's class visited the Whittamore's Farm this morning. Mama drove there while Adrian rode on the school bus. Adrian was so excited when we hopped on the wagon and toured around the farm, then he was amazed seeing tonnes of pumpkins on the ground. We spent a good 1.5 hour there "milking" cow, picking a pie pumpkin, having fun in the jumping castle and sand pit.