Welcome to the newly redesigned Icatar.com! Our lives have certainly changed dramatically over the last year and this new site represents a fresh start. Here you will continue to find news updates for our family and other potential news of interest. We've made the most interesting items more readily available. Over to the right, we will post recent photos from our family. You will also notice a dedicated video player which will display all of our family videos that we have posted to Youtube. Also, be sure to click the Subscribe link below and you will receive an e-mail anytime we post anything new. Finally, feel free to comment on any post or you can e-mail me directly with any comments at roneil@icatar.com.

Orlando Vacation–April 2011

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 4/11/2011 09:52:00 PM 2 comments

A couple weeks ago, we went down to Florida to get away from the nasty Northeast weather before Isabella’s next chemo cycle.  We had our own house with a pool which we took full advantage of!  We spent a couple days at Sea World and at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.  Below is a quick slideshow of our vacation along with a couple videos.  Enjoy!

 

Here is a tour of our vacation home.

Here we are hanging out in the pool.

Isabella flies on the Pteranadon ride at Islands of Adventures.

We ate with the sharks at Sea World!

Annalise and Isabella feed the stingrays at Sea World.


Update on Upcoming Treatments

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 1/07/2011 12:18:00 PM 0 comments

Isabella’s MRI yesterday didn’t show that the tumor is any smaller, but it also didn’t show that it had grown significantly so our doctor thinks that it is worth it to try another round of chemo.  We were fully expecting that the MRI would show significant growth and that we would stop any further treatment.  So although we will have another rough couple of weeks coming up with the chemo, we were relieved that the scan was “stable”.

We also decided to start the cycle on Saturday which allowed Isabella to go to school today.  Ironically, because of the snow storm hitting the northeast, it’ll end up being a short day since school will be dismissed early.

So although Julianne and I have been pretty bummed the last couple days, we’ve been trying to have some fun.  A couple nights ago, we played hide and seek around the house.  Here are a couple pictures from that.

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Annalise and Nathaniel look for Isabella under the couch.

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They still can’t find Isabella.

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There she is under their nose the whole time!  I can’t believe she stayed still and quiet the whole time they were looking for her.

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It took the kids a long time to find Roneil.  Can you spot him in the picture?


Christmas Highlights

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 12/27/2010 11:33:00 PM 0 comments

Isabella’s white counts have climbed so she’s no longer neutropenic (low white counts that make her susceptible to infections), but her platelets count is low.  This means we’ll have to go into the City tomorrow for a platelet infusion, but that should be it for this round.  We’ll have to discuss with our oncologist what the next steps are, but it won’t be for another week or two.

In other news, the snow came a day late to give us a white Christmas.  Oh well.  That didn’t stop us from having a great Christmas.  Here are a bunch of pictures and a video from the last couple of days.  Click on the picture to see a larger view.

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Annalise in front of the festively lit Empire State Building.

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Isabella laughs as she wears her reindeer antlers.P1030964

Annalise and Isabella help decorate the door with snowflakes.

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Here we are for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of pierogies, fish sticks and green beans substituting for peas.

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Even though we didn’t have any time to shop, Santa came by with lots of gifts for the kids.  This also included some handmade, custom stockings for everyone in the family!

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Nathaniel wears his new tool belt.

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Isabella poses with her favorite new toy, a remote control walking puppy she named Snowflake.

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Annalise made this cool ornament at school.  It has a transparent picture of her inside the ornament.

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Nathaniel and Isabella venture out into the snow before the blizzard got really bad!

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Annalise and Nathaniel pose by some of the large snow piles in our yard.

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And what else are you going to do with all of that snow?  Well build a snow fort, of course!  Here’s a video tour of our snow fort!

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Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from our family to yours!


Merry Christmas!

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 12/24/2010 08:36:00 PM 1 comments

Thanks to everyone for all the wonderful support you’ve shown.  I hope that you are all able to spend time with your loved ones and enjoy this blessed time with each other.  From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

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Happy Halloween Weekend

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 10/31/2010 10:53:00 PM 0 comments

As promised, we had a great Halloween weekend.  On Friday night, the kids had a Halloween dance at their school.  On Saturday, we went for a nice walk through the New Canaan Nature Center discovery trails.  On Sunday, before the the trick-or-treating festivities, we played in some leaf piles.  As they say, pictures are worth a thousand words, so we have a few thousand words below!

(Click on each picture to see a larger view!)

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New Additions to the Family

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 10/24/2010 09:20:00 PM 1 comments

We recently bought two new pets for the kids, sugar gliders, also known as sugar bears.  These cute little furry animals are part of the marsupial family and come all the way from Australia.  The attractive features they bring as pets are that they are clean, friendly, and need relatively little maintenance.  We’ve had them for about a week now and are still going through the bonding phase, and we think they are getting a little more used to us now. 

Here are a couple pictures and videos of “Oriette” and “Squeeky”, our new sugar gliders.  (FYI, Annalise wanted to name hers Oreo because it was black and white, but since it is a girl, she wanted the name to be more feminine, hence, Oriette!)

Click each picture for a larger view.

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Fall Fun–10/10/10

Posted by Roneil Icatar On 10/10/2010 09:59:00 PM 2 comments

Here are a couple recent pictures showing some fun that we’ve been having.  Enjoy!

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The kids try out this tractor during our visit to the Norwalk Department of Public Works.P1030428

Another picture of the kids at the Norwalk DPW.

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Roneil getting ready for the first game of the Yankees playoffs.  He’s wearing his Yankees hat, shirt, jacket, snuggie, foam finger, shopping bag, and coffee mug.

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Annalise is pretty upset that all the Yankees ice cream is gone! Sad smile

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The kids had their own sleepover party last night.

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Isabella shows off a new hand-made shawl from a friend.

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The kids enjoy treats from apple picking.  We actually brought a portable scale to the orchard so that we can weigh the apple that Isabella ate.  (By the way, the apple Isabella ate was 104g and 12g of carbs.)P1030476

From the odd and bizarre file.  This half eaten apple was still on the tree!

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The kids pick out their pumpkin to prepare for Halloween.