Home sweet home

We finally brought Ronan home yesterday evening. He was so excited! Liam, Quinn and Papa Charlie were waiting for us and had decorated the awning above our house with a bunch of letters, cards, and pictures from Mrs. Elwardt’s and Mrs. Martin’s 1st grade class. It was so cute to come home to. We got settled in a bit and the 3 boys played and laughed just like before. I have not heard Ronan’s giggles in over 2 weeks and Liam and Quinn had him in stitches:) It melted my heart. Those 3 boys love each other so much. Our neighbors and friends, The Tarbell’s, walked down a new wagon for Ronan and it was full of Mark’s amazing cooking from his restaurant. I swear, that man cooks like no other! It was our first meal together as a family in a long time and it was so special. We talked a little bit with all of the boys about how things are going to have to be different for a while. We told them there could be no more wrestling or rough housing with Ronan until he is better. This house used to be wrestlemania, 24/7…. can’t be like that anymore. We also tried to explain to them how Ronan will be going back and forth to the hospital and is going to get sicker before he gets better. They seemed o.k. with everything and didn’t have any questions or seem scared at all. Thankfully they are too young to fully understand what is going on. All they care about is that Ronan is back home now and that they get to play with him and help take care of him.

Ronan has been playing non-stop with his Star Wars guys (he is still obsessed) and shooting his guns. He is pretty weak though and is having a hard time remaining steady on his feet and prefers to crawl from place to place. This is hard for me to see. I’m so used to him being overly tough and rowdy. His little body is fighting hard and working overtime. I am just so thankful we are all home and together. Hopefully he’ll gather some strength in the next few days. I slept with him last night. I miss my husband, but Woody came in to check on us a few times during the night. I tried to sneak over and sleep in the other twin bed in Ronan’s room but he noticed after about 30 minutes and wanted me back in his bed. It’s fine by me, I love snuggling up with my little bug. We may have to end up getting rid of his two twin beds and just buying a bigger bed for the two of us. I have a feeling I won’t be sleeping in mine for a while. I would put Ronan in bed with Woody and I but Wood is such a night owl that I think he would keep us up. I love being in Ronan’s room anyway. His room has always been my favorite place in our house. We have just been hanging out at home today. I’ve been trying to put all of our 50 million hospital things away and Ronan has been pretty quiet playing and watching “Clone Wars.” Liam and Quinn are going up to Flagstaff for the weekend with Mimi and Papa. Woody and I will stay here with Ronan and just try to get him to rest and get used to doing his mouth care 3 times a day and his shots.

It feels nice to be home, nice to be doing normal things like dishes and laundry. I am so thankful I love my house so much since we are going to be spending most of our time in it. As much as we would love to have visitors, we have decided that we just can’t risk it. Liam, Quinn, Mimi, and Papa will pretty much be the only people we are able to have Ronan around. The less people we expose him to, the better. He is not going to have much of an immune system and one of our biggest worries is infection. I am going to be busy trying to keep our house and his environment as germ free as possible. We also have to keep his weight up. So far, his appetite seems to be really good. In fact, he ate one of the chicken dinners Mark made us last night for breakfast. The entire thing! He has always been a good eater so I’m hoping it stays that way. We will be making trips down to the hospital twice a week while Ronan is home in between his chemo treatments. They have to monitor his blood, platelets, and check his vitals. We don’t have to go into the hospital, which is nice. We check in right next door to the clinic.

We have decided that Monday we will shave Ronan’s hair. I have the girl who does my hair coming over. So nice of her to do. I don’t think I could handle taking him into my salon. He’s been itching his head a lot and keeps saying he wants it cut off. He’s more ready than I am:) Today, he brought me the toenail clippers and said, “CUT MY HAIR OFF!” He was so mad when he said it. I said, “You want me to cut part of you hair now?” He said, “Yes, please!” So I took some scissors and cut it shorter for him. That seemed to satisfy him for the moment. Woody wanted to shave it in the hospital, but I was not ready for that yet. He has the most amazing and unique color of hair. I’m going to miss it but I know it’s only hair and will grow back. My mom says when it grows back, she bets it comes back curly:) How cute would a curly haired little Ronan be?!!

I wanted to say thank you to everyone for the cards, gifts, balloons, candy, quilts, pictures, gift certificates, flowers, toys, etc….. I wish I could send each and everyone of you a thank you note personally. It’s one of the things on my “to do” list…. but I don’t know if I will actually have time to get to it any time soon. So a big huge Thank You from our entire family to all of you. Your love and support will never be forgotten.

xoxo