Lauren is doing great. She's been a very busy little girl these past few weeks.
Her eyes healed beautifully within a week after her surgery and the doctor is very happy with how they look. She said she wants to see how things look in 3 months and that maybe (a big maybe) she can get rid of the glasses. I was pretty surprised to hear this because she had said earlier that Lauren would probably need them until close to her teenage years. So, I'm not holding my breath but it would be awesome if she doesn't need them anymore.
Lauren has been having some up and downs lately at PT. Some days her balance and muscle control are great and other days she seems all over the place. Her therapist thinks she might be going through or about to go through a growth spurt as this could explain a lot of what she's seeing. So we'll just have to watch and see what happens over the next few weeks.
Two weeks ago Bill and Timmy took off for a guys only weekend. They headed north to visit Bill's old college roomate (Uncle Slick) in upstate NY. They had a great time. Since there is considerably more snow up there than here they spent a lot of time out sledding. And since they were also pretty close to the Canadian border, the boys decided to do a little sightseeing. Unfortunately it was Sunday and most stuff in Canada was closed. They did get some nice pictures of Timmy in front of some historical sights and Tim was happy he got to bring home some "funny" money.
While the boys were away Lauren and I did some serious shopping! We met up with Grandma, Uncle Gary & Elizabeth and spent the day at the mall. The next day we met up with my brother & neice again and also Aunt Nean and went bowling. It was a lot of fun. About halfway through Lauren asked Aunt Nean if she could have a sleepover at her house. Figuring she wouldn't go through with it Aunt Nean said sure. Well Lauren wanted to pack it up and leave right then and there. Every five minutes she would ask "Are we done yet? Can we go see the doggies?" Finally we headed out to the cars. I kept asking Lauren if she was sure she wanted to go. (I really didn't want to have to drive all the way up to Nean's to get her at midnight!) but she wasn't changing her mind. She was so excited. So off she went, without anything from home except of course dolly and a bag of cheddar cheese popcorn. She had an absolute blast. They called me twice to tell me how much fun she was having. I was so proud of her as this was her first ever sleepover without me! Lauren says she can't wait to do it again. I told her we had to let Aunt Nean recoup first LOL
Last weekend we took a trip down to Bill's parents house for some R&R and to attend a fundraiser dinner for Lauren. My sister-in law Kerri and Rich put together another awesome dinner at the VFW. The food was great (thanks John and Dave).There were over 100 wonderful people there, many whom I had never met before and who hadn't seen Bill since he was young. The concern, compassion and generosity of everyone was truely amazing. Thanks so much to all who attended and especially to the super bunch of guys at VFW post 2226 for making this possible. As I've said before, words can not express how grateful we are for all the everyone has done for us. This was the first dinner that we were able to attend and I am so glad that everyone finally got a chance to meet Lauren and Timmy. Lauren was such the social butterfly, talking to and hugging everyone. She and Timmy went table to table handing out Hershey Kisses to say "thanks for coming". She even took the microphone at the end and serenaded us all with "God Bless the USA". She really had a blast.
Well, it's hard to belive but another six weeks has flown by. We'll be checking into the RMH tomorrow afternoon and heading to clinic bright and early Monday morning to start Round 9 of antibodies. Lauren will also be having all of her 4 month testing done this week. Though I know she's doing fine, scan time is always an anxious time. It's always a huge relief to hear the words "all clear"!
I should hopefully have the results by the time we finish the round in two weeks so I'll let y'all know.
As always - Thanks for checking in on us and for keeping us in your prayers
