If you've ever heard of pregnancy brain - I am living proof it is real and sometimes doesn't go away so quickly! With a rambunctious 21/2 year old I often get side tracked when I sit down to post a new blog! So, just a quick recap of the past 6 months: Camden's birthday party was awesome even though it was super HOT - he stayed on the Barbie 4-wheeler until we detached him to eat and open presents! Our family and friends came out to help Camden celebrate his 2nd birthday with a Curious George cake, which was his favorite at the time; it's amazing how quickly they move on!! We decided to put Camden in preschool at The Net where his girlfriend Ava goes & would have been in his class. Every Friday for a month we spent the afternoon in his class so he could get used to it, he went 1 full day and then Strep went around for the next 3 weeks so we decided to pull him out. We know he needs to be around other kids but not at the cost of his health. I am now working part-time so I can stay home with him & I am loving every minute of it. In September, my granny (aka OG-Camden's name for her) passed away, we got to spend her last 3 days by her side - she was so precious. In October we went on one really long vacation-we started out in Destin with PaPa Dean, Mimi and the boys and then headed over to Orange Beach to be with the Rieves clan. He had too much fun; absolutely loved the ocean!! He didn't know what to do when we got back home and didn't have a house full of people to play with or keep him entertained.

August marks Camden's 2nd birthday! We had our last chemo treatment on August 9...just 3 days before Camden's birthday! Camden acted like he did the first time around - he was clingy and took a really long nap during his treatment. We didn't do that much walking or playing but we did take cupcakes for the nurses & other kids...of course, everyone loved them! On Wednesday, Camden was acting fine until that afternoon, he woke up from his nap and didn't want to play outside yet wanted to go back to sleep. We had to wake him up for dinner at 7 pm, he didn't eat very much and went right back to sleep. I called the on-call Oncologist and she said to bring him in if he started running a fever. Aroung 12 am, we were headed to Vandy. Camden slept most of the day Thursday but did wake up long enough for the Oncology nurses to spoil him with presents and a huge birthday poster they had made for him! Luckily, all he had was a viral fever - so, after being pumped full of antibiotics we were able to come home Saturday. Unfortunately, due to the circumstances we had to cancel his birthday party which was scheduled for Saturday but we're definitely going to reschedule and celebrate in a couple of weeks! He had his re-evaluation with Kristin (his physical therapist), she said the only thing he needs work on is jumping and climbing the stairs by himself. We have an Occupational Therapy evaluation on Friday. Camden still goes to speech once a week and does AWESOME...PawPaw no longer has to stay in the room with him!! He starts daycare in 3 weeks - I am so sad but I know he will love meeting and playing with all his new friends. We are going to go down there a few times during their playtime to get to know the teachers and kids before he starts! I have loved spending all of this extra time with him but knew the day was coming when I would have to head back to work....

july 4th

We had a fun filled 4th of July weekend!! We started Sunday with our annual Lovett Family Reunion at Henry Horton State Park. Camden played with Landry, a distant cousin, he wanted to hug her the whole time but she was not having it - She didn't want anything to do with him. That night, we went to MawMaw and PawPaw's house for dinner & fireworks! Everyone was there including Judy and Lynn. He had a blast...he loved riding the barbie 4-wheeler with Mackenzie, I couldn't even get him off to eat his dinner! I thought the fireworks might scare him but he sat in Mackenzie and daddy's lap and would clap for each one - he always wanted more! After all the excitement you would've thought he would have slept in but we were up before 6 am - ready to go! We were outside by 8 playing and swimming with Ava. They both went in, had lunch and napped. That afternoon they were back at it playing in the sand box and in the pool! They are so cute together, as long as Camden isn't being rough with her or taking toys from her. Speech is going great. We haven't had to go to Physical therapy but will follow up with his PT in mid July to do his evaluation. We also go for Chemo treatment #5 this Monday. Pray for all the nurses!!

Saturday was Camden's benefit - OMG! It was so great!! CaCa did an AWESOME job! She is an amazing sister and aunt...I won't ever be able to repay her for this. She misses work one Monday a month so she can go to Camden's treatments and she usually is the one doing all the work. When she is there, that's who he wants. I am thankful I have her to lean on. So anyway, back to the benefit...She had a mini train, bounce houses, face painters, balloon artists, music, an auction and tons of food. There were so many people that came out to show their support for him. I just want to say THANK YOU - Thank you to everyone who came to the benefit...it meant so much to our family to see the support we have thru this time in our lives. Thank you to all the people praying for Camden and sending us cards/letters. My cousin's daughter told her classmates about it and they all sent him handmade cards! Thank you to all the people who volunteered and/or donated and helped make the benefit such a great success. I can't say it enough but Rick and I are so blessed to have such wonderful family and friends in our lives.

On June 7th we headed to Vandy for chemo #4 -- just 2 chemo treatments left!! Camden gained 150 grams, per PaPa Dean that is 1/4 oz. Camden did great today...I think we lapped the nurse's station 3 out of the 6 hours we were there - Camden figured out how to push the IV pole in front of him and we were off! He tried to master standing on the pole and riding but couldn't quite figure out his footing! Of course we had to play with the singing animals everytime we got around to them! The nurses and Dr. Slone spoil him rotten - they are so wonderful. I can't say enough how blessed we are to have such great Doctors and Nurses taking care of us. This month we don't have to go back for bloodwork so we won't see Vandy again till July 12th!

Okay, so I am not good at the whole blog thing. CaCa takes the pictures and I forget to load them. Enough about me...Chemo #3 (May 10th) was going as planned until Camden accidentally pulled the needle out of his port. He was full of energy and so active - during a lap around the nurse's station he stepped on the IV line before one of us could get to him. He kind of rubbed it but we didn't think anything about it until Nurse Kelly (we so love her!!) came by and realized he had pulled it out. Nurse Suzie was off today but told Nurse Kelly to take great care of us!! So, she had to put in another one which led to some tears and finally A NAP!! CaCa and I felt so bad. This visit he did gain 4oz. Once he woke up we made playdough balls and threw them at the wall - very entertaining. He loves stickers as long as there stuck on someone else and of course we played with the singing animals again. We have been so blessed to have 2 great nurses that take such great care of us! Here are a couple of pictures....

Camden mopping

Camden is doing awesome! He is walking everywhere and into everything. The only thing he hasn't mastered at therapy is climbing stairs by himself (holding on to the handrails) and going up and over a step. He will be starting speech therapy one day a week. We go back for our 3rd Chemo treatment on Monday, May 10th. CaCa is going with us again. Hopefully, everything will go great. I hope the nurses take the batteries out of all the singing toys. Listening to those things for 6 hours gets kind of old. So today, Camden snuck in the laundry room while I wasn't looking and got the Swiffer out. He cleaned the floors all afternoon. Here is a little video.