Birthday Celebrations

What an awesome few days we have had celebrating Dylan’s birthday! Dylan spent Thursday morning opening all his wonderful gifts and cards that had been sent to him from all over the world. Thank you to everyone for your unbelievable kindness. All the gifts were so special, particularly the drawings and cards from many students in various schools. I also want to say thank you to someone in Kansas who sent us a letter and gift with no name or address, so I want to thank you via Dylan’s webpage because you said you read his journal regularly. Just after lunch time, we headed off to the hospital and Dylan had his chemo, while we were gone, Alyssa and her mom Jennie baked Dylan an amazing birthday cake! It was so beautiful and decorated with sponge Bob. A few friends arrived and we sat down in the Living room where a live band was playing, along with serving pizza. It was great luck that his birthday happened to be on a night when a band was playing. The next day we went to clinic early hoping to get back by noon to prepare to spend the weekend in Long Island but Dylan needed a blood transfusion, so we were stuck there until 4:30pm, leaving with IV fluids attached for the weekend. We met up with Justine, Skye and Greg at Penn station by 6pm and by 7pm we were safely in Long Island. Then our friend Joel rang us to say that he saw Dylan coming up on the T.V, so we quickly turned it on and there on Access Hollywood Dylan was announced as “star of the week” I know Michelle will love that status! On Saturday we had a great party for Dylan, with balloons, BBQ and caring friends. Greg, Lynn, Tomer and Efrat had organized a very special birthday cake for Dylan, with Angelina Jolie on it! He loved it so much. After everyone left and the sun went down, we were cleaning up while Greg set up the telescope in the backyard so Dylan and Thomas could look at the moon. I was in the kitchen and I heard screams, I went running outside to a crying Dylan, his access line had gotten caught. I carried him to the lounge room in my arms and he was crying, in between saying a few bad words (but I guess he was entitled) I laid him down and we took off the dressing and sure enough the line had been ripped out. We bundled him up in the car and headed back to Manhattan, to urgent care at MSKCC. Dylan had calmed down and after snacking on some chicken from the BBQ that we had taken with us for the drive, the nurse replaced the line and he was all hooked up again. We got back to Long Island by 10pm and Dylan got to look at the Moon and at Mars. Greg then gave Dylan a solar system lesson as he started asking lots of questions about space. We then all sat by the fire in the backyard and then we got a nice surprise, two raccoons came into the yard and ate some chicken bones that we left for them. Dylan loved seeing them as it was his first raccoon sighting! Thanks to Greg and Lynn for such a great weekend and for organizing in conjunction with Skye, such a great party. Thank you also to everyone for coming and making it such a special day. On Sunday we returned to the Ronald McDonald House and while Dylan was having some Chinese food for dinner his bottom tooth fell out! Looks like the tooth fairy will have to pay him a visit tonight!