Catching Up

A lot has happened since Thanksgiving. On Friday we loaded ourselves in the car and drove 3 hours to spend time with Jeff's family and to celebrate Gracie's great grandma's life with a beautiful funeral service. Gracie and I spent most of the funeral in the back of the church as Gracie doesn't like to sit still these days. Jeff spoke at the funeral on memories of grandma. At one point he said something funny and his biggest fan at the back of the church (yes, Gracie) laughed out loud too. Gracie got to spend some good quality time with Grandma & Grandpa D., Auntie Kathy, as well as cousins and great aunts and uncles. We spent the weekend in a hotel and Gracie enjoyed taking walks, running the long halls (we were pretty much the only ones at the hotel, so we let her make as much noise as she wanted). She also made friends with a lady that lives at the hotel and her very cute little puppy.

We travelled home on Monday and got home in time to allow Gracie a much needed nap, before we headed to the clinic for a late afternoon appointment with Gracie's neurologist. Gracie was looking especially cute (I know I'm a little biased) in a jean jumper, tights with little pink hearts, and a bright pink headband. She made the rounds to all of her favorite desk staff as well as others she knows to say hello. She took a few of the clinical assistants for walks, and when it was time for our appointment with Dr. N., she promptly took her hand, lead Dr. N. to her desk chair and sat on her lap. Gracie was in a great mood and pretty much charmed everyone. Our news was good. Dr. N. was very pleased with the progress that Gracie is making. She is hitting good milestones, and she was especially pleased with Gracie's blossoming verbal skills. She even treated Dr. N. to a "hi" and later she heard her say "up". Although Gracie is delayed, Dr. N. has a great way of making us realize that she isn't as far behind as we sometimes think. She puts a lot of things in perspective for us in a really good way. She was extremely pleased to hear about all the projects and work that Gracie's daycare is doing with her. Dr. N. emphasized how important that was for her to continue to grow and how good the peer modeling was for her. Thank you Barb and Michelle!!!

We will continue to keep her on her current dose of seizure meds, but are gearing up to increase at her next growth spurt. She has not had any type of seizure activity since late July so her dosing is good and we want to make sure we stay on top of it by increasing as her weight increases. Her current dose is on the low side of normal, so we are at a good place with that.

Today it was back to our normal routine. Gracie was happy to see her friends at daycare. She was busy doing lots of fun projects today. One was a family tree, oh so cute. Jeff picked Gracie up at daycare and headed back to the clinic for Gracie's PT appointment. She was full of energy and was so cooperative and just so much fun to be around. Everyone in the exercise room was so impressed with her progress and today she was very verbal. At one point, Gracie's PT asked her if she watched football with dad. Gracie didn't hesitate to respond quite loudly "Yep". Then Leslie asked her another question and again she responded "yep". She was standing so straight and tall today and seemed to have great balance and strength. At the end of her appointment she ran down the hall. I said "Gracie, say goodbye to Leslie." Gracie turned around from the other side of the hallway and in the biggest voice ever yelled "BYE". Everyone just cracked up, because usually Gracie talks quietly.

Tonight she was in the best of moods. She even ate applesauce with a spoon tonight all by herself and did really well. Both mommy and daddy are pretty proud of all of her accomplishments.

Love,
Lisa, Jeff, and Gracie