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I was born May 1, 2007 with a malignant brain tumor. The doctors sent me home to be with God, but then I surprised everyone. I am a living miracle, working hard to beat this nasty disease. Please leave me a note in the guestbook. I love hearing encouragement from you.

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Journal

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:55 PM, CDT

After receiving requests for Andrew's dance video, I decided to attatch the link here at the top of the entry. Papaw Tom and Abby make an appearance, but Andrew definitely steals the show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akJBWoabUpY

My baby boy turned five yesterday. He will start school in the fall. How could he have grown up so fast? Every day he becomes more independant. I feel equal parts elation and heartbreak as I watch my son take over many of the jobs that I used to do for him. No more do I make him giggle at bathtime with a squeaky duck and bubbles. No more do I cover him in baby lotion and tuck him into his footie pajamas.  He is becoming more of an adolescent and less of a baby every day.  I am so proud of his achievements, but I am definitely not going to wish him to grow up too quickly.

As for Abby, she remains my baby. She loves to snuggle, and she doesn't let Michael and I out of her sights for long.  I am so glad to report that she is also developing beautifully. It is not happening as fast as it does with other kids her age. But Abby sets the schedule for herself with daily accomplishments.

Abigail has now developed the fine motor control to turn her toys, and the lightswitches on and off. She especially likes to play this game when I have the vacumn plugged into the outlet that is controlled by the nearby lightswitch. ("Let me see how many times Mommy will have to remove me from the switch before she completes her vacumning job") She is obviously shooting for some kind of record.

Although the casting had to be pushed back until next week because of scheduling conflicts, Abby continues to walk.  She is pretty inconsistent with it either from the seizures, or just because she doesn't seem to feel like doing it. But when she finally decides to take off on two feet, it is amazing. I am so anxious to get this casting started because Abby has such a strong determination to walk. I am certain that once her leg is stretched out enough for her to take a proper step, she will never go back to crawling. Her is a video from Michael's sister Beth's wedding. You can see how well she is walking on her own. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkVLjJkAetU

You can also see Abby using her donald duck sounds on this video.  She is such a goof-ball.

The seizures remain. But they are controlled. We see about 4-5 every day. But we are staying in close contact with the local neurologist (We transferred Abby's neurological care to her local doctor). He assures us that the chance of any long-term damage from these very short staring seizures is almost nonexistent. (My own research on the subject has led me to agree with him). So we are going to refrain from increasing the medications as long as the seizure activity stays the same.

We have fit the medications back into our schedule without too many problems. The liquids go into a bottle of chocolate milk, and the time-release balls are folded into a square of fruit roll-up. We have had to bring back the bottle because of the need for increased fluids (The Topamax causes kidney stones if Abby doesn't drink the required amount of fluids each day.) Ah well, I am sure that we will have her off of the baby bottle by the time she leaves for college. I am not going to worry about rushing it now.

So that is the latest. I guess that the situation isn't absolutely perfect, but it is still "all good"-as Michael says. Please continue to pray for the healing of Abby's seizures and for her to fully recover the use of her left side. We are believing and fully expecting big things for our little girl

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