Baby Emmett smiles “all the time,” has two bottom teeth growing in and just recently learned he can kick, says his mother.

“He’s getting better hand-eye co-ordination, grabbing stuff. Especially his feet,” Charlotte Francis said Wednesday from an Edmonton hospital as the chubby-cheeked baby gurgled happily in the background.

“He’s really talkative.”

Emmett is 4 1/2 months old now.

The Star wrote about him in January, when he and his parents had to travel to Vancouver for treatment of his hepatoblastoma, a form of liver cancer.

Emmett and his family live in Whitehorse. His father, Michael Smith, is a member of the Carcross-Tagish First Nation and Francis is from Fort McPherson, N.W.T.

Friends and supporters raised more than $10,000 for the family’s medical and travel costs through an online campaign.

Little Emmett underwent chemotherapy in Vancouver.

When doctors determined he needed a liver transplant, he and Francis flew to Edmonton, where the procedure could be done.

They’ve been there for nearly a month.

Francis said after four cycles of chemo, Emmett’s tumour has shrunk by about 40 per cent, but it’s not possible for doctors to surgically remove it.

Instead, they want to take out the whole liver.

Francis’ blood type matches Emmett’s – O positive – but she still has to have various tests to see if a small piece of her liver will be an appropriate match for her son.

And even before that happens, Emmett has to have one more round of chemo and pack on a few pounds.

He weighs about 5 1/2 kilograms now, and doctors want him to weigh seven before surgery.

Smith and the couple’s three other children are still in Whitehorse. Francis hasn’t been home since January.

“I’m doing OK,” she said. “What I say to people is I refuse to just sit here and cry, because that’s not going to do anything.

“I have my off-days, but usually I just look at his smiling face and keep going.”

Francis posts regular updates about Emmett’s condition in a Facebook group called Baby Emmett Smith.

People interested in seeing if their liver could be a match for Emmett’s are asked to call Alberta Health Services at 1-866-253-6833 or email livingdonors@albertahealthservices.ca.

The link to the fund-raising campaign is: gofundme.com/jwf13o