First things first, Cutler is still doing great.  We had our biweekly appointment this past Tuesday and everything continues to look great.  We are now down to just one medicine, which is given only on Mondays and Tuesdays so for the rest of the week things are getting pretty normal.  Still having to give pediasure via the feeding tube, but we are down to only three times a day to see if his eating can sustain his weight.  Speaking of, he is now up to a whopping 23 lbs, which is more than some 2 year olds that I know.  I guess that is just further proof that he is my son. 

As for his eating, he is still eating a lot of baby food but occasionally will surprise us by eating some new things.  Today he decided that he wanted a bite of my turkey and salami sandwich and after the first bite decided that he wanted more.  Mason was more than happy to share his sandwich with him as well and by the end of lunch he probably ate close to a quarter of a sandwich.  Tonight, at dinner, he decided that he likes blueberries, grapes, and cherries.  Still isn’t too interested in Strawberries, which is a bit shocking since he likes sweet things.  And the biggest news from our dinner, is that he actually drank 6 oz of a yogurt drink through a straw.  He has started to drink a bit from a water bottle with a pop top, but tonight was so exciting to see how much he drank.  I would imagine that if he keeps doing this with more frequency we can get the tube taken out.

While having the tube taken out is a big thing for us, I think it is just more of a mental victory than anything else, as having it isn’t really hampering anything for us.  He is still able to take a bath and is even starting to swim in the pool now with us.  He really enjoys splashing around, sticking his face in the water, and loves being splashed by his big brother when he performs his high flying canon balls.  Just a week ago Mason wasn’t showing much interest in actually swimming, although he can, instead he just wanted to kick around on his boogie board.  After challenging his ego a bit while at a friend’s house, he has quickly ditched the boogie board and is determined to become a world class swimmer before Cutler does.  Finally, I may have found a good use for sibling rivalry. 

Finally in one of my last updates I sent out a good luck to Ginger on running the San Diego marathon.  If you remember, she was running in honor of Cutler and successfully raised $6000 to help fight Leukemia.  I mentioned that we weren’t able to make it, but that was just to help throw Ginger off our tracks.  Melanie and Cutler flew to San Diego last Saturday and surprised Ginger and then Ginger was able to carry Cutler across the finish line with her!  I still can’t thank Ginger enough for what she has done in helping the fight against Leukemia and doing it in honor of Cutler.  As a bonus, Cutler got to have dinner with his Aunt Emily who happens to live out there so it was a fun filled two day trip for Melanie and Cutler.  By the way, he did great on the plane both ways, aside from giving Melanie a black eye.  Below are a few pictures from the trip and be on the lookout for a few more random posts that will be more pictures than anything else.

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