Ah-goo brought this huge technix copter home from work for NJ, wow! And a Lord of the Rings set. So cool, thank you Uncle Perry!

Dinner for Ah-gong's birthday this week. We had the whole family at one of NJ's favorite Taiwanese restaurants. He calls it Red House even though that's not the real name of it. 

Baba and NJ worked on some fun lego creations. I love watching them work together. 

Copa Vida, cup of life, I enjoyed one with a sweet friend. It was really nice to connect and share. 

Ah-ma came with gifts from Alaska. We all got hats, Baba got a shirt with a bear and moose on it, and NJ got a train whistle and a light up spinner. 

NJ brought out one of his wooden puzzles to build with grandma. They took a lot of time to work on it, but didn't get to finish. 

We went to NJ's back to school night. We didn't take note that it was parents only so we had to scramble to find a sitter. NJ went to dinner with grandma while we walked over to school to visit his classroom. Without seeing his name I knew the "I like legos" was his. And he still wants to be a doctor. It was nice to talk to the teacher, see other parents, hear from the principal, and visit the book faire. His teacher had good things to say about him (thank goodness!) that he's a good leader, very helpful, easy to reign back when he gets too excited, and was surprised at how well he reads. Such a difference from last year. He's grown and matured a lot more since his first year of school. We're so proud. 

"I have new skin"

My first of two appointments. Liver, then kidney. Surprisingly this time my kidneys are doing better than my liver. That's unusual. Either there was something different about me today or everyone seemed to be in an especially good mood. I got a bit of a life story from the one who drew my blood, my coordinator came in to give me a hug, my Dr. said I looked great with more muscle (as opposed to skin and bone because I haven't seen this Dr. in particular since before my transplant), and my other Dr. called me his favorite patient. I always get warm welcomes from all the familiar faces and ones that know me. But today everyone was happier or something. Whatever it is, it made waking up at 4:30am, driving in traffic, and the hours of waiting a little less painful. 

NJ did homework while our friend and her baby hung out with us.

We also had a drop in and NJ got to give a birthday card. It made me laugh when he explained the pictures. From left to right, he said: "There's Jesus dying on the cross, you driving with me in the car, and remember in that movie with the rats that's cooking (Ratatouille)? That's the girl remember when she's on the motorcycle at the red light? Yeah."
He wrote what was on his mind and what he felt like he wanted to tell Uncle Peter: I have new skin.
He's been saying that after his scab came off from the big cut on his elbow from last week. Baba was cleaning it up and told him, "See, the cut is healing, you have new skin growing over."
Such a strange and unique card that he made. Only for one that has the humor for it, and that would be Uncle Pete. 

He did his homework so nicely, I asked him what he wanted to do that we could do together. 

NJ wanted to do a puzzle together. We did it pretty quickly. 

He wanted to do the rest of these origami animals. 

The fox remains his favorite, the first one he made. The fox, beetle, whale, seagull, turtle.

NJ helped roll out Ah-goo's luggage. It was huge, but he was fine since he was rolling it. All three of them lifted it into the trunk of his rental. 

Bye Ah-goo, come back to stay again soon! 

NJ was sad to have to go to bed last night before spending more time with him. We talked to him about not waking up to early, to please not make a lot of noise near Uncle Perry's room, or knock on the door, go in, or wake him up. Let him wake up on his own. He promised NJ to make scrambled eggs together in the morning. But NJ could not contain his excitement because my brother tells me that he was opening his door to keep checking if he was awake. Eventually he ended up climbing into his bed to snuggle with him and they watched videos on his phone. Poor Uncle didn't get a lot of sleep, but he seemed happy to spend that time with him. We ate some eggs, sausage, and buns. Wish we could have had him come to HOPE with us, but he couldn't join us. 

NJ is all groggy, he fell asleep in the car briefly. We went to pick up a couple of poster photos that Baba had printed for a friend. They turned out great. 

He found the origami book that he got yesterday from his cousin and wanted to try them out. He made a fox, a beetle, and a whale. I think this is his first time doing origami. He was enjoying it.