The Update Promised

We had a nice Easter. We got up and went to church with Grandma A and stayed for their Easter brunch. That has become our Easter morning tradition. After that, we headed home to get ready for Easter dinner at our house. We had a great meal with all the Grandmas and Grandpa and Uncle Chuck and Aunt Molly and cousin Cole and friends Dave and Karen and their son Ian. It was a laid back lunch with everyone pitching in and helping. In many ways, it was a "typical" Easter day and for that, we are blessed. We've learned that the most important thing is spending time with family and friends and that we don't have to be stressed about having everything perfect or about having an extravagant meal. If the family is together and enjoying the time, that is what is important.

We continue to keep up with school, therapy sessions and just life in general. It keeps us busy. We have been pretty healthy over the past few weeks, so we haven't had to cancel any appointments for that. Always a good thing.

Rebekah's eating continues to be challenging. Some days she eats better than others and some days she'll eat one thing and the next day she won't touch it. It makes it difficult to know what to try to feed her. Slowly, her weight is going up. Well, right now we're still trying to gain back the weight that she lost last month while not feeling well, but at least she's improving. Little by little.

Potty training is slow going. We've started rewarding the girls with chocolate covered raisins when they have a dry pullup and go peepee or when they go poopy in the potty. That is helping, but Rebekah still isn't ready to go back to big girl underwear. One day at a time...

The girls are learning to walk like different animals. They walk like bears - on hands and feet. Sarah does a really cute frog jump, jumping up from a squat with her hands on the floor in front of her and then back to the squat position. Rebekah tries the frog jump, but doesn't quite get down to the squat position. They also try to walk like crabs - on hands and feet, but walking sideways. They are still learning that one and don't do a perfect job at it.

Sarah has really gotten excited about Mickey Mouse lately. She notices him anywhere we see him. At bedtime (and naptime) the girls can each pick one stuffed animal or baby doll to sleep with. Sarah will often choose Mickey Mouse. Rebekah will sometimes want Mickey Mouse, too, but not as often as Sarah. When we were at Costco last week, we found a Mickey Mouse DVD, which the girls had to have. Now they want to watch it all the time. We were beginning to wonder if we should change the trip to see Dora to go see Mickey Mouse instead. We asked the girls that question, and at first they said yes. Then Rebekah was quick to say she wanted to see Dora.

When we started talking more about Rebekah's Make-a-Wish trip, the girls started asking if we were going tomorrow. Mommy decided to put together a calendar to help the girls to "see" when we would be going to Ohio and what we are doing each day. We have a picture for school, one for speech therapy, one for occupational therapy, etc... There is an airplane on the day we fly to Ohio and the day we fly home from Ohio and Dora for the days that we are at King's Island.

As part of our bedtime routine, we cross off the day (Sarah makes one line of the x and Rebekah makes the other line - both with Mommy's help) and we take a look at what tomorrow looks like. The calendar seems to be working and the girls are no longer asking if we are going to see Dora tomorrow. They make sure that we cross off the day. The calendar is in their room, so they can see it whenever they want.

Please continue to pray for McKenna. She started her Chemo this week and she continues to have some concerns and could use some prayers.