Busy, Busy!

Gracie had a great time at the zoo earlier this week.  The highlight was the coyotes and the wolf howling back and forth.  They were sad to see that one of the otters had died since their last visit.  The kids had a picnic lunch and everyone had a good time.  The cooler weather was definitely appreciated.

We've been taking advantage of the cooler weather by spending our evenings outdoors - from the time supper is done until bedtime, we are out playing.  Gracie is like a renewed bundle of energy with the cooler temps.  The house is in dire need of attention, but I just can't seem to want to deal with it when there is outdoor fun to be had.  Do you think the dirty dishes will keep til winter??  ;)

Yesterday, Gracie had some big kid fun at daycare.  Our provider's nephews came to stay with her for the day and Gracie had great fun with them as they are a number of years older.  So she thought she was a big kid too.  I picked her up just after lunch and headed home so we could get ready to participate in the 2011 Epilepsy Stroll to raise money for epilepsy research.  Gracie doesn't do well if we take her right from daycare or one event right to another, so we took a nap at home and had some down time before we headed out for our "stroll".

When we arrived at the Epilepsy Stroll, Grace was mondo excited to see the big bounce houses and was totally impatient, didn't want to wait for mommy to load up the stroller, so I sent her and daddy ahead of me.  She was so excited that I thought we would get her to go in...they were even going to let Jeff go in with her and there were no other kids in it at the time, but at the last minute she refused.  She also did not want to play any games, get a tattoo, or get her face painted.  She didn't want to go fishing at the fish pond either, but I kind of forced the issue so she could see what it was about, she was very pleased to get her gift -- a small pillow pet.  She was very enthralled with Nanny Giggles, the clown who was tying balloons.  Gracie got a butterfly balloon which she loved but thought she needed to stick in her mouth constantly and bite on it, so eventually her balloon flew into the car for safe keeping.  Gracie loved seeing her neurologist and wanted her to hold her the whole night.  So we had to find creative ways to distract her.  She enjoyed dancing to the music played by the DJ, she enjoyed cheering as the neurologists took their turn in the dunk tank - she would clap when they would get dunked, she made some new friends, she loved being in the stroller when we were on our "stroll", and she enjoyed meeting many of the dogs that came to stroll.  She met Dr. Jack, a therapy dog, and his owner.  They were both wonderful with Grace. 

Since we had to be careful about food offered at the event and Gracie didn't get to have any of the fun treats we ended the evening with a drive through McDonald's where she got a vanilla ice cream cone which she pretty much polished off all on her own.  She was smiles and ice cream from ear to ear.

We also increased Gracie's seizure meds this week.  We did not see any seizure breakthrough, but with a 5 lb increase in her weight since we last increased the meds, we knew it would only be a matter of time, so we were proactive.  

Wishing you all a great weekend...hard to believe the start of school is just around the corner. 

Love,
Lisa, Jeff, and Gracie