The good news continues

What a week this has been...in an entirely good way! Now that the fever is gone and we are full steam ahead on the road to recovery, things just feel so positive and exciting. First and foremost is the thrill of seeing Julia wake up each morning and after each nap without a seizure striking. That will never get old. But even beyond that, she has changed so much in such a short period of time. Much of the change is subtle...Michael and I both agree that she just seems more mature. For instance, she insists on using a fork to eat her meals, whereas before we would have to remind her many times to use it and even then she would rather just use her hands for everything. She also seems to understand so much more of what we are saying. This has dramatically cut down on the temper tantrums that we saw pre-surgery. Don't get me wrong...she still can get mad when you tell her no. But we're not seeing any prolonged, full body kicking and screaming on the ground tantrums like we used to.

Other things...she's interested in other children in an entirely new way. We went out to lunch today and she was trying to catch the attention of kids her age at other tables. Pre-surgery? She wouldn't have noticed them at all. Tonight we went to a Halloween party that my mom's group put on. She got excited when she saw the sandbox and went and played in it. Before surgery she HATED sandboxes. She has stopped putting things in her mouth that shouldn't be there. This had gotten a lot better before surgery but we still had issues...and I haven't seen anything at all since. The list goes on and on. I had hoped for all of these positive changes but to see them in action is so heartwarming...I can't begin to express how proud of her I am.

We still have work to do, undoubtedly. Her speech is still behind and there is a lot of catching up to do. She is still weak on her right side and towards the end of the day doesn't initiate using her right hand much, if at all. But overall she is leaps and bounds ahead of where she was pre-surgery. And that makes it pretty darn easy to keep working at the other stuff.

I have quite a few pictures to upload but Blogger was being difficult today and wouldn't let me. I will try again tomorrow. They include before and after photos of Daniel's first haircut...adorable! We didn't cut a lot off, just cleaned it up a bit, and the effect is so cute that words don't do it justice.