Day 4.

 Watts is doing great. Side effects have been minimal and seem to mainly make him sleepy. After weeks of broken, sleepless nights, I am not complaining about; I'm more rested now than I have been in ages.

Every time we make it through a hospital stay with minimal side effects, it is such a relief. With less than 24 hours to go, we are thankful. Very thankful.

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We met with a child life specialist yesterday and she evaluated Watts to see how he is doing developmentally. She used the Denver test on him and found that Watts is mostly on track with where a 15 month old should be. He is a little behind with his gross motors skills but that is to be expected given the frequent hospital stays and harsh chemo. The physical therapist also came by (Watts hasn't worked with one in a couple months) and, after working with him, said that she was really happy with how Watts is doing. Infant ALL kiddos can have some developmental delays due to the aggressiveness of treatment, so to get confirmation that he is on track is encouraging. Honestly, I can hardly believe that Watts has continued to develop in the midst of all of this. Amazing, really.

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For my own sake, since I have neglected our family blog for so long, here is what he is doing at 15 months:

Babbles constantly and has said the following words: ball, bubble, mama, dog, and no. Although mama and no are the only words he is using consistently. Also seems to be saying "what is that?" [Child Life Specialist was very impressed with his communication skills.]

Crawls, pulls up on things, cruises, and will stand for about two seconds.

Is good at communicating what he wants through grunting and pointing.

Has the craziest, goofiest facial expressions.

Is obsessed with dropping small objects in containers.

Is very social and lights up when new people come into the room.

Has a love/ hate relationship with Piper. Playtime with her usually ends with Watts screaming "noooo!" until his whole body shakes.

Things he loves: anything to do with music, animals, the peek-a-boo game, being outside, loud machines (esp. helicopters), and electronics.

Loves to dance and has some hilarious moves where he shakes his elbow and bobs his head.

Loving on his puppy dog.

Watching music videos with Papa.

Watts, we couldn't be more proud of you. 

You are our little warrior boy and we love you more than you'll ever know.