Thanksgiving

We had a very nice visit for the holiday. I spent two nights and brought my friend Melissa along. On Thursday I transferred Daniel to and from the Nissan twice. It was fun, funny, and I finally found out that I could do it. He's got such a great sense of humor. We all end up laughing half the time we're together. Lately I've been looking for the positive side effects of all the bad that's happened. Two for today: Daniel laughes readily without embarassment and sings outloud to the stereo! I love that boy so much. I'm so glad that we had another thanksgiving together.

Daniel got a haircut!! He looks so much more like himself. I was happily surprised at how great he looked when Christie finished:

Real food and water?

Yes Dan can now have real food and normal liquids. He is so happy, I think he was starting to feel like a baby bird. He eating more now to, hopefully he'll start to gain some weight. Dec. 1st he has an appointment to see if he can get out of his back brace.

new tests soon

Dan's next swallow test will be next thursday, I told him if can eat regular food I'll pic up some "bamboo panda" on the way home. His Dr's appt. is on wensday, I allready have a list of ???'s for him. Hopefully he'll be able to get the back brace off in the next couple of weeks. We went for a walk today the weather was great, but we did decide when we buy a house that we are going to walk around the neighborhood first and check for dogs. We have a lot of dogs in our town that people just let run around. We counted 8 in a 3 block radius and that diden't enclude the ones that were in a yard. It did get Danny to talk louder though. lol. Autums new thing is to ride on daddys lap when we go for walks. It's to cute.

Standing Strong

Christie can come on and give us a real update, but I talked to mom for a few minutes today. She was visiting with Daniel while Christie was finishing the testing for her summer classes. She said that he stood up against the sink twice during physical therapy. I'm so looking forward to spending Thanksgiving with them. I'm looking forward to a time that they can come visit us.

wow

In the beggining of all of this I wasen't shure if I would ever see a picture of me and Dan again. Out of all of the pictures we have in the last 5 years this one is my favorite.

Weekend pictures...

Click on the image to see a larger size and go to the flickr site.

At home

This weekend we went to see Daniel, Christie, and Autum at home. It was a nice visit. I repeatedly told him how nice it was to visit him at home. He's doing well. They have some obstacles to work around and lots of goals to work toward, but generally, they are all happy to be home. I took some pictures that I'll upload tonight. Before we left for the benefit dinner, we took a walk to the post office. We bundled up and walked, taking turns holding Autum's hand, holding Autum away from the neighborhood dogs, and pushing Daniel's wheelchair. He's using his upper body a lot more, and maneuvering his wheelchair a lot more by himself. He said that he's feeling more in his right side, but still can't really feel his right foot much. He said that sometimes he can't tell if there's a shoe on it or if the foot is on the ground or not. When we left, Autum was playing in her room, Daniel was resting a bit, and Christie was making dinner. I'm planning to go stay with them for Thanksgiving this year.

Bedtime story...

On July 25th Autum told the nurse that her daddy had to come home and put her to bed that night...well, he took a few (15) weeks to get there, but tonight he read her a bedtime story and put her to bed. I couldn't stop crying when I got the voicemail...it just made me so happy to know that they're finding their normal in their home filled with love.

Tomorrow we're going to La Junta to help with the benefit dinner that mom's putting on. I'm glad we can help. I'll try to take lots of pictures of Daniel at home (he's so happy to be there finally), and Christie and Autum with him there too.

Tomorrow's the day!!

Christie's bringing Daniel home tomorrow. They're both excited to be sleeping at home together in their own bed after fifteen weeks away. I'm typing this with little time to spare, but I wanted everybody to know that he's heading home.

He has another swallow test scheduled for a week from the time they get home. Christie has worked with the doctors to set up home health people to come in and help. I'm sending them all the wonderful good loving energy that I have inside.

If you'd like to connect with them, I suggest you write them real physical paper letters. (PO Box 1, Cheraw, 81030) They'll be able to read them together as a family as opposed to phone calls that are sometimes difficult. Anyway, I think it's a good idea so I'm going to start writing to them next week since I'm going to see them on Saturday. I'll do my best to take lots of pictures.