It is with great sadness that I inform you that my good friend’s daughter passed away early this morning at the young age of 14 months.  For those of you that don’t remember, Samantha is the daughter of my good friend Jason Muldoon, who lives in LA.  Here is a link to help describe the many issues she has fought through just to get out of the hospital. https://teamfricke.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/shout-out-for-more-attention/  Since returning home she fought through several complications and last night her fight came to an end after an incredibly tough week back in the hospital stemming from a cardiac arrest.  She is now in peace watching over all of us and I’d like to believe that Sami is keeping an especially close eye on Cutler for us.  Please send out prayers for Jason, Trisha, and family for strength during this incredibly hard time.

After a fun and full weekend visit from the Hopkins clan, we have decided that we need another weekend without rest and so we are flying to St. Louis to visit the entire family on Thursday.  My parents have graciously opened their doors to all family and friends that want to stop by for a visit with the stars of this blog…Mason and Cutler.  So, if you’re in the area on Saturday, everyone is welcome to come by for a visit.  Nothing formal, just an opportunity to catch up and thank everyone for all of their thoughts and prayers…and probably have a few beverages.

When: Saturday 8/21  2pm – ?

Where: 2077 Bowler Rd  O’Fallon, IL  62269

If you need directions, feel free to give me a call at 214 549 9444 or email me at aaron@teamfricke.com.

Cutler had his monthly check up today and he is doing AWESOME!!  So awesome, in fact, that he’s been taken off his last med – Bactrim 🙂  He will continue to see his doctors monthly, and eventually he’ll go once a year.  We’ve been given the green light for Cutler to get his vaccinations again by his pediatrician.  As a matter of fact, we’ll begin calling the pediatrician for routine issues, i.e., colds, fever, etc.  This is a HUGE step to getting Cutler, and our family, back to “normal”.  We couldn’t be happier…

I want to thank my mom and “grandma” Aunt Pat for staying with us and watching Cutler while Kobi was on vacation!  It is such a blessing that we have family so willing to drop everything to help us out.  And we all know “they” enjoyed the time with Cutler and Mason!

That’s it for now, just wanted everyone who has prayed for Cutler’s health to know that he is doing fantastic.  The only prayers we need is that his donor marrow percentage hits 100%.  They will test again next month.  It’s currently at 93%, so we still have room for improvement 🙂

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the circus and it was great time for both Mason and Cutler.  This is Mason’s fourth circus and Cutler’s first.  We quickly learned that Cutler doesn’t have the attention span or patience that Mason had at the same age as he was often more interested in walking around or pulling on my hair or pinching my cheeks.  Regardless it was a lot of fun and very refreshing to be able to take both boys out like that and it also clearly tired them both out as it was a very long and restful night.

Judging on Mason’s performance in the video below, he might be soon traveling with the circus as well…as a clown.

And it’s a good thing, because Cutler’s chest and stomach are full of them.  As of yesterday it looks like the hole where he had the feeding tube is closing nicely.  Given the doctor’s statement that it would take up to six weeks to close, I think it is doing extremely well.  When we changed the dressing last night it didn’t look like there was any leakage…just another belly button.  So Cutler now has two nice scars/indentions from his two different central lines and a second belly button.  He will have plenty of stories to charm the ladies with when he gets older.