Remember I wrote about Gage’s destructive side? Yeah, so it included his baby clothes. Every so often Gage and Quinn will open their memory boxes and dig through them to look at how small they were or what baby bottle they drank from and on this fun day Gage decided to put his baby clothes (an outfit, a hat and a t-shirt) on his favorite animals.

Except you know, one of his favs has a tail. And strangely enough, his baby pants from his sweet baby outfit did NOT have a hole in it for a tail. So my ingenious son decided to make it custom. Oh, how he can be charming and destructive at exactly the same time. Dawn thought it was charming too.

I’ve been thinking a lot about Gage’s transplant this week as we embark on Quinn’s in the (hopefully) near future. We were so happy he had kidney function and that he was alive.

This was Gage’s first day back to school post transplant. He was happy too.

For some reason today I’m in tears about Quinn’s impending transplant. Sometimes when this happens - and I don’t always blog it - I look at pictures of the kids when they are happy. This is one of those times.

If only we would discipline him more.

Sometimes we all see a glimpse of the old Gage. And we long for him. There’s nothing wrong with cotton candy. In fact, it brings out the best in people.

Gage and Quinn each invited a friend for painting pottery and lunch. We had some down time after and decided to take a nature walk.

I love this picture. Sometimes we can look like a normal family.

It’s not a very clear picture of Gage (Digital Camera v1.0, circa 2001) but it sure is cute.

These pictures of Gage on dialysis remind me of just how much we’ve been through. How much Gage has been through. Just over two years ago - a mere 4 days before Gage’s kidney transplant - Dan Larson, PKD Foundation President made a visit to Gage while he was on dialysis as part of  a weekend long trip to Atlanta.

My trip this weekend to Kansas City for Walk for PKD training for the weekend and this isn’t the most opportune time for me or the family, most obviously.

But raising awareness about PKD and money for research is really important to our family. It’s one of those things that I see as a non-negotiable. It’s important for the kids to see our family doing something that helps research progress. One day, I believe, when they are old enough to understand the concept of working on something for the greater good - the world beyond our world - they will be more inclined to be advocates.

Timing for this trip? Not so great. Reason for the trip? Two cute kids and a bunch more just like them.

This was my gift to Julian for Valentine’s Day. He will tell you that we weren’t exchanging gifts, which is true, except I love this artist’s work and so this gift, while paid for by me, was from the kids! So it was not included in the “no gifts” policy is what I say.

Molly Parker-Myers is the talented artist who created this lovely portrait. We did it completely by email. I sent her a few pictures of the kids and gave her some information about what they like…obviously dogs and earrings for Quinn and trees and Indiana Jones for Gage.

Did she capture them or what?

I know you want to get one of your kids. Or your dog. Or your cat, even. Molly didn’t ask me to do this, but she knew I was going to…so visit Molly at her site and email her at brooklynmama@earthlink.net. You can’t believe how affordable this was…it took about two weeks and was mailed safely just in time for V-day!

We just love it. Now go order one for yourself to love.