Massimo and Luca will have a new brother or sister this year. The baby is due on 10th August, 2006. We had the 12 week scan today.
Goodness knows how they will take the advent of another baby, but time will tell. Of course with the projected extension starting in March or April our timing to get everything done is very tight.
Of those people already in the know we have had two main responses: “are you a glutton for punishment” and “let’s hope it is a girl this time”. Well, there is little science in hope and Murphy’s Law dictates it will be another boy, especially as we have completely run out of possible names for boys!
In the meantime, here are a couple of pictures of our gorgeous boys playing together yesterday.
We have been celebrating Max’s birthday now for about four days! We started off on Saturday at Granny’s and Gran Bri’s with a cake for tea. Max loved having Happy Birthday sung to him and enjoyed helping me cut the cake. Then on Sunday Maddy, Olivia, Maz and Simon came over for tea and Mummy baked a cake – 
Max last had an MRI scan on 5th July and the MLB (or bronchoscopy) was before that, so it has been just over six months since anyone has had a good look at what is happening with Max’s tumour. His oncologist and ENT surgeon are keen to continue to look at the tumour routinely on a six monthly basis. Also, a couple of weeks ago Max seemed to be losing blood from his mouth and nose and on one occasion from his ear. 
Massimo started nursery on Thursday afternoon. He was clearly not really aware of the momentous occasion and was totally relaxed in his buggy ready to go out. Max is supposed to wear a smock top over his clothes to go nursery but we haven’t received it quite yet. As soon as we do we will show you more pictures. All the following pictures were taken on his first day at nursery and the lady in the pictures with Max is his one-to-one teacher Orlaith who is absolutely brilliant with him but before I could post any pictures I wanted to get her permission first, hence the slight delay in the entry. Jemma stays at the nursery with him as his carer and looks after all the suctioning and feeding and all things medical. At the moment Max does spend most of his time on a one-to-one basis with Orlaith although he does join in with the group music lessons which he loves. 
Our holidays got off to a good start when we broke down on the M2 on our way to Dover. It was about 8.45 pm, Luca had fallen asleep but Max was still awake. We called the RAC and as we were on a motorway they promise to be with you in half an hour. They then put us through to a recorded message giving you safety advice which includes getting everyone out of the car and as far up the verge as possible. 
Just before Luca’s birthday, Max’s breathing started being a less efficient, especially at night and eventually we had to put him back on oxygen but just at night. Jemma and I kept a careful eye on him, but as the week progressed he got worse. On the Wednesday his community nurse came to see him and took a specimen of his trachy secretions for testing. 
The last real entry was on October 6th, nearly two months ago. Jemma and I were just cogitating on our next entry when Nonno passed away and things have been fairly hectic since. Looking at my diary I see that we didn’t do that much of note. Max was due to have the second part of his MMR on 11th October but this got postponed due to a cold. It was then done on the 21st October. Max is now up to date with all his immunisations – it is incredible how long it has taken us, especially when you consider that Luca is due his first MMR in just under a month. 
An autopsy was performed on Nonno on Friday morning and he died of a blood clot in the heart mainly due to the bad state of his arteries. He died peacefully in his sleep.
Massimo’s Italian grandfather died today, or at least we think it was today. Nonno was at Uncle Toio’s. As usual this morning, the two of them didn’t see each other before Toio left for work. This evening, when he got back from work, he found Nonno still in bed, hopefully having passed away in his sleep. We will know more when the various authorities have done what they need to do, possibly including an autopsy. We will be holding some sort of memorial service, details to follow.
Luca copies Max in absolutely everything he does and so he is now bum shuffling too. At first he just noticed that Max seemed to go up and down with his torso and somehow that propelled him forwards, so Luca used to sit there for ages bouncing up and down hoping to move forwards too – 
unfortunately if he’d just eaten it would make him sick instead! Eventually he started moving forwards slowly, really more by default than anything else, but he has now developed a technique of his own. So now we have two little boys who cannot be stopped from getting into mischief! 
….. who, along with her mother, is always the first to complain that we don’t write enough entries, but above all don’t put enough pictures on the website. We met Sarah’s little brother on PICU at St George’s Hospital in the summer of 2003 and the families have kept in touch ever since. Sarah is currently studying medicine at St George’s Hospital and, having worked very hard during the summer, has taken a well-earned break and is 
enjoying herself in Australia. She has, however, found the time to send the boys a postcard including a request for more news! So, Sarah, this is for you! 
