Hi everyone! Taylor is terrific! He is gaining weight and eating like a typical child his age! He is also no longer on the feeding tube. He has a full head of very fine brown hair that is just starting to come in. He has eye lashes again and his cheeks are a healthy, rosy pink. He has an amazing amount of energy and he runs around and plays all day long, all without a nap! He has adjusted to life at home beautifully and he's enjoying every minute of being a normal, healthy child again. It's so cool to get to know the new Taylor now that he is well and has learned to talk these past few months! Despite what he has gone through, he is happy, bright, good natured, loving, and very well adjusted. He seems to always have a smile on his little face! We are having so much fun with him. We were afraid that we were going to have real issues with his behavior when he was finished with treatment. So far so good. We hope he's not saving it for when Cameron is born! Cameron is doing fine as well. I'm 30 weeks now and feeling very good. If I don't have him sooner, I will be induced on May 27th! May 27th will be the one year anniversary of the day Taylor was diagnosed with cancer. My doctor has no problem with our decision to be induced on that day...one week before my due date. Cameron's arrival on that day will make it a special day instead of one we would rather forget! What is really cool is my doctor told me that she is also a childhood cancer survivor! She had a tumor in her abdomen when she was four and she was treated with chemo, radiation, and surgery for her stage four tumor many years ago. Today, she delivers babies! God has big plans for Taylor too...I just know it! His first check up at MSK is Wednesday, March 17th. I will let you know how he does on Thursday. His feeding tube button will be removed on Wednesday at his check up. We love you all, Jen

Hi everyone! Taylor had his first post treatment check up Wednesday and he did very well. We met with one of the nurse practitioners from the sarcoma team for his exam. She said he looks great and she was very pleased to hear that he was eating so well! In fact, he had gained almost 3 pounds from eating all on his own in the last 5 weeks since he was last weighed at MSK! He had also grown over 5 inches since he first began treatment last June! What was really nice was the fact that when we arrived at MSK we learned that the outpatient floor had finally moved to the new wing. The inpatient floor had moved there in November. After being home and back to normal life again, it was so cool that we didn't have to bring him back to the old floor where all the memories are. The new floor is unbelievable! It's huge, bright, has state of the art everything, and it's totally what you would expect a top notch cancer center would be like. The playroom was amazing as well. Taylor forgot all about where he was and he joined right in with the other children. However, when he was brought back for his exam he seemed very quiet and then he started to act up a little. He kept giving me this look, as if to say, "Why did you bring me back here?" He actually put up more of a fight when his nurse tried to measure him than when the surgical nurse removed his stomache tube! It's so nice that he doesn't have anything attached or protruding from him anymore! Last night I had my leg up on the coffee table and he kept hurling his body over it and tumbling onto the floor. We would never let him do that before for fear that he could accidentally rip out his lines or his G-tube button! He can now go on and be a happy, healthy, normal child again...praise God! His next check up will be on Friday, April 16th. His scans will be the first week in May.

There will be a beefsteak dinner/tricky tray on Saturday evening 3/27. Matt will be posting a link to directions to the Lincoln Park American leagion on the web site home page either today or tomorrow. If you are planning to attend, please contact the Lastfogels at lastfogel@verizon.net.

We love you all, Jen