Aidan's BFF

Dear Logan,

Remember your brother's best friend, Jia Jia, from CCLC?  Her mother called me up and said Jia Jia misses Aidan.  So we set-up a playdate and met today.  We headed over to Jia Jia's house, and the two of them played like they have never been separated.  Wasn't that cool?  In reality, Aidan hasn't seen Jia Jian since the end of July.  In the beginning, your brother was more into the toys in the house than actually playing with Jia Jia.  But after a little warm up, they were acting silly as usual.  I wonder how long this friendship will last.  If Jia Jia and her mother are willing, I would love to keep this friendship going.  It doesn't hurt that us mommies also seemed to get along pretty well.

Oh, since it's pre-Halloween, we decorated a few pumpkins for you.  I used a sharpie and drew out some silly things on the miniature pumpkins.  Aidan wanted to participate and drew a smiley face for you.  At first, I thought I would bring them all to you.  But after some thought, I worried there wouldn't be enough room.  So, I asked Aidan to select two to bring them to you.  Guess which ones he picked?  He didn't pick his smiley face.  Instead he picked Mickey Mouse/Minnie Mouse (each character on one side of the pumpkin) and the little ghosts.  We all know he likes Mickey and Minnie.  I think he also likes the word "BOO!", that's why he picked that one.  We will be bringing them to you tomorrow before we head out to Happy Hollow for our Halloween date with the Cheung's!

Miss you,
Mommy

Pumpkins and Pizza!

Dear Logan,

Weather is definitely changing.  Fall has come upon us, bringing cooler temperature and rain.  It's been cloudy and rainy the last few days.  I like the Fall weather, but not the rain.

Today has been a very productive and fun day.  Because of the weather, we didn't go out.  But in order to keep your brother away from the TV and any electronics, I had to keep him busy.  He was watching his beloved Mickey Mouse Clubhouse this morning for a while.  But then, I was able to tempt him to go outside and play some baseball and soccer with me.  I was going to take him to the Children Museum in the afternoon, but then I got lazy and took a nap instead.  Of course, the point was to get your brother to sleep, but he didn't nap at all.  But at least he rested for a while.

Then the real fun began.  Yesterday, we went to Safeway and bought 2 big pumpkins and a few small ones.  Ever since I had my first pumpkin carving experience last year, I wanted to do it again this year, and maybe many more years to come.  Though I didn't grow up carving pumpkins, your brother has to have this experience.  At first, he wanted to carve Mickey Mouse, then today he changed his mind to Minnie Mouse.  He said he wanted Minnie Mouse because she's pretty.  Isn't he too young to like pretty girls?  So, I printed out the pictures of Mickey and Minnie from the Disney website and attempted doing it.

I set-up the table and Aidan assisted me for a while in scooping out the seeds and meat out of the pumpkins.  It was hard work, and was a little difficult for him.  This process took so long that he got bored and went to play with his toys instead.  So, this project ended up being completed by Daddy and Mommy.  I was glad Daddy finished working in time to take pictures and to carve out a Mickey Mouse.  I did Minnie and was so proud of the finished product.  I think the end products were pretty good, don't you think so?

Then comes the second part of our fun day... Pizza making.  Last week, Aidan wanted to make pizza, but we were unable to do that.  So yesterday, we went shopping for the ingredients and made it today.  Aidan was a lot of more involved in this process.  He assisted in spreading the tomato sauce, sprinkling cheese, layering his favorite pepperoni, mushrooms, pineapple and more cheese.  The pizza was pretty tasty!  We even have leftovers for breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

We had a rather productive day today.  Now I just hope the weather would be nice next weekend so that we can go trick-or-treating.  When we come by next Saturday to see you, I'll bring you some small pumpkins, ok?

Love you,
Mommy

Aidan's School Life

Dear Logan,

I didn't get a chance to give you an update on your brother's little hip condition.  Everything's fine!  He recovered really fast and was back to normal after 2 days.  What a big relief!

Mommy has been very busy with work lately.  Too many things going on and I was going crazy for a while.  This coming week will be another crazy week.  I've been actively looking for a job in the for-profit world, but with a bad economy and so many more qualified candidates out there, I haven't had any luck.  I am really not in a hurry to quit my job, it's just I am mentally and physically tired.  The commute is really getting to me.  Now that your brother's school is in Sunnyvale, I don't have the midway break in Palo Alto anymore.  The traffic down 280 by your place is so bad everyday, sometimes taking 101 is actually faster.

Aidan is enjoying life in his new school.  He is like a little sponge!  He's soaking up all the new words, new ideas, and new discoveries.  I am amazed at the things that they teach to 4-year-olds these days.  He learned about AB color and patterns, Pledge of Allegiance, Book Title and Authors, Earthquake drills, and of course reading and writing.

Aidan has never been an artist.  His art is still no way near the quality of other kids' that I've seen.  However, he has definitely developed a bigger interest in drawing these days.  His favorite thing to draw: Traffic Lights.  He's been drawing pictures of traffic lights and posting them on his bedroom wall.  It's actually really cute.  Of course, I wish he would be drawing cars and airplanes and flowers and trees, but I am happy that he is finally not opposing to drawing.  Took him a while.  His main interests are still in numbers, clocks and calendars.  That's him.  Numbers!

Remember the Spanish number song he sang to you last time?  Yes, he's learning Spanish at school, too.  Hopefully, next year his interest in learning Mandarin will be just as great.


Love you,
Mommy

Definitely a false alarm!

Dear Logan,

Thanks for watching over your big bro.  He's definitely a lot better today.  He was able to stand a little early this morning when we woke up.  Then throughout the day, he could sit and stand without much discomfort.  Yesterday, he would be crying when we moved him from one position to another.  I was able to take him shopping for his Buzz Lightyear outfit in a stroller, and went to Walmart and Costco for some shopping by placing him in the shopping cart.

By the end of the day, he was able to finally go pee pee by himself, walk like a crab for most of the day, and then limp and walk semi-normal.  What a big relief.  I guess the Dr. M was right.  It might be a case of Toxic Synovitis. 

I am hoping by tomorrow, your brother could be back to normal, though we will still limit him walking too much or running.  Hopefully he can go back to school on Monday.


Love you,
Mommy

It's just a scare. Make it a scare! False Alarm!

Dear Logan,

What a day.  Finally get a chance to relax since 4 a.m. this morning.  Let me tell you what happened today.

Your brother woke up at 4 a.m. crying in pain.  He complained that his leg was hurting.  So  I went to his room, laid down in bed next to him and gently massage his left thigh.  He slowly went back to sleep, and I went back to my room.  Not too long later, he cried and screamed in pain.  Aidan has a pretty high tolerance of pain.  If he's crying like this, he WAS in pain.  I went over and slept with him, comforting and massaging his left leg again.  He woke up periodically crying in pain.  I knew I would have to take him to the doctor when the sun came up.  This crying, massaging, soothing lasted until about 6:15 a.m.  Daddy was smart enough to suggest Mortrin.  Doh!  Why didn't I think of it at 4 a.m.??  We gave him some Mortrin and called our "trusted" Kaiser.  I called Kaiser way too often within the last 5 years as a parent.  We're lucky enough to get an appointment with the pediatrician at 10:50 a.m.  Phew!

The next few hours, I busied myself with calling work, calling your brother's school, sending work e-mails and such.  It's really too bad because today was Aidan's first field trip from school, and they're going to a pumpkin patch.  I told him that I would take him to another pumpkin patch to make up for it.  But he was sad coz he's been looking forward to taking the school bus!  Well that's what I told him before that he would be taking a school bus for field trips.  He then dozed back to sleep, and periodically whimpered and cried about the pain, and demanded me to scratch his big toe, side of his leg, etc.

Getting him in and out of the car was an adventure at first.  He had pain extending and bending his leg.  It was quite an ordeal getting him buckled up in the car seat, and then transferring him to the umbrella stroller (Thanks to the Cheung's for the stroller during our Disneyland Trip).  Got to Kaiser and waited for the doctor without much adventure.  Dr. M examined Aidan, and believed it's not the leg that was the problem, but his hips.  So, she ordered blood tests to rule out any infection, and an X-ray to check out his bones.  She said sometimes kids just hurt for a few days, and then got better by itself.  Sometimes, they get some sort of arthritis after a cold, and the pain will go away.  But just in case, she ordered those tests and x-ray to rule out any other problem.

Aidan's not even 5 years old, and he already had blood work done several times (when he was dehydrated/undernourished at 4 days old), and two X-rays (one when he fractured his skull at 10 months old).  How many more X-rays do I need to see him go through??  Aidan was a real trooper.  I've always been very proud of him when he had to get his immunization shots.  This time was a little different.  Daddy had to transfer him from the stroller to my lap, gave the technicians his left arm and got blood drawn.  He whimpered a little with the initial poke, but I was able to distract him with his toy.  I am so proud of him!

Then off to Radiology.  The all-too-familiar Radiology department.  I remember passing by there very often on the way to see you when you're at the hospital.  Once the doctor mentioned it's by the hospital wing, I immediately knew where it was.  Not a good feeling.  So, we got there and it's close to lunch time.  Luckily, we didn't have to wait for too long and was called in to change Aidan's clothes.  Getting the x-ray done wasn't too bad.  He found the fun in staring at the mirror to look at his reflections and make silly faces.  He was calm and listened to directions.  A trooper again!  I was relieved.

*waiting to get his X-ray*

Then off we went back to the pediatrician's office. I had to admit I was a little concerned when we're in the waiting room.  I thought about little Alan, and was afraid Aidan might have some sort of cancer.  I thought of you, and worried Aidan might also have a high percentage of mutated mitochondria that caused all this.   We waited for about 30 minutes and was seen by Dr. M. again.  She said she received 2 of the 3 blood test results and everything came back normal.  She's not concerned about the other test.  It appeared there's no infection.  She looked at the X-ray and didn't see anything abnormal.  But she wanted to confirm with the Radiologist before officially said everything was fine.  She suggested us to go home and would contact us after speaking with the radiologist.  So we left Kaiser at around 12:45 p.m.

I finally got the call back from Dr. M at around 3:45 p.m.  She told me that the Radiologist saw something in Aidan's hip bone that might be of concern of a problem that is usually seen in kids 10 years and older.  She also consulted with the two Orthopaedic surgeons, and both of them were NOT concerned.  Am I concerned?  Heck Yeah!  I asked Dr. M if a history of Leigh's Disease would cause the problem.  She said it had nothing to do with it.  Minor sigh of relief here, because I know everything linked to a Mitochondrial disease is definitely BAD news.  So for now, we would just monitor Aidan's pain.  If it got worse and he has a fever, then we need to bring him to the ER.  If the pain lessens and he can walk again, even with a limp, then we're going towards the right direction.

Please pray for your big brother and see that he gets better soon.  We plan to all come to visit you this weekend.  But now that he can't walk, we will probably stay home all weekend.

Love you,

Mommy