Excuses Excuses

I didn't intend to take such a long break from blogging, but life does get in the way. Although I don't report to work until next week, I have had to go to trainings, and then got sucked into working in my room. In addition we've gone to dentist appointments, the zoo, the pool, the movies, etc.

One other thing we did a few nights ago was to make SMORES. The girls have been asking us to do this for about a week, but every night we have thunderstorms, so FINALLY we were able to do this. I accidently found a new setting on my camera that "stitched" the three pictures of Cheesie together, but overall it's sort of cool.

Therapy yesterday was great. Even though Blondie walked into therapy with a FILTHY shirt on (I wasn't paying attention until I started taking pictures - honestly I DO usually pay attention to what they wear) and her therapist started taking pictures. She did a bunch of weights (1 and 2 pound) with both hands, and then was scooting around hitting targets with "sleepy hand" doing the scooter pulling. Brian and I are very excited that our wonderful therapists are giving up their weekend to go to a Saebo training. Saebo is a brace that stroke patients wear, and since the easiest (non-negative) way to describe kids like Blondie is "like a stroke" we're hopeful that it will help. She has so much upper arm strength, that I want as much of the lower arm as possible. I've been told that the most we can hope for is to maybe hold things in that hand, but not much else. With this new brace I am hopeful we can get back more than that - I'm not expecting full strength, but I am hopeful for intentional opening and closing. Take a look at another great kid that we know using her Saebo. http://cameronragan.blogspot.com/ We met Cameron last year in Baltimore after her hemi, and are thrilled to see her doing so well. Cameron has a bunch of videos on youtube because a camera crew from Europe followed her around (search youtube for half a brain). She is close in age to Blondie, and we are glad to know kids like Jessie and Cameron so that Blondie knows she is not alone in this. I think in the future it will help them all.

Speaking of Jessie, she went home yesterday from rehab, and is now officially in her home in Texas. Other kids continue to go through the surgery, and I'm thankful that they continue to do so well. Check out the hemi foundation on the links to learn a little bit more, and make a donation.