I can't even believe we are halfway through June. Sundays at the hospital remind me of being in a foregin country all by yourself without the wonder. Lonely. BUT, today we put Addison on the ground of her room in a foam chair she can sit in and put a mat down for Andrew and let them "play" for a couple of hours, and it was lovely. Andrew comes multiple times each day, but he doesn't normally sit in the room for very long. Today, for Father's Day, we decided to try and let them hang out, and it was great and we got lots and lots of laughs from Addison. This weekend has felt like a HUGE breakthrough. She's more and more online. Still NO issues since switching over to the Functional Formularies food. I definitely believe we would have seen faster improvement had we switched to this food sooner. I'm just thankful we made the switch. She is going to the bathroom daily on her own and sleeping through the night. Phew. There was a point in time I thought we would never get here. 

Yesterday she had two of her good friends from our neighborhood come by and visit her and my mom got to spend time with her this weekend. Kyle's parents are back for the week. 

This past week in therapies she worked a lot on walking, incline push up position, some rolling, shifting weight from hand to hand while in a seated position. We are using this big red button for communication, currently. We record one word, like "yes" or "no" or "go" or "stop", and we put it on her wheelchair by her feet and ask her a question, and have her kick the button to respond. There is still a delay in response - her body is still taking time to figure out how to do what it wants to do. Her legs and feet are much more responsive than her hands and arms. Her hands and arms are a lot more disorganized and flail frequently. That being said, I put a lolipop in her hand today, and she curled her hand around the stick, but didn't grab hard enough to hold it. I have her pressing the elevator button every time it's time to get on. 

This weekend we had her in the stander both days for about an hour each day. Tomorrow she will get to go in the pool at the hospital - I am not sure exactly what that looks like, but I'm excited for her. She has a lot of cute new pajamas thanks to both grandmas! Still waiting on speech, but she has started to be more interested in food! Yesterday I put some chocolate ice cream on her lips. Today I touched a lolipop to her lips and some ketchup! You could see her lips trying to try each of those things and swallow. The interest alone is a huge step. She is still resistant to swallowing, which results in lots and lots of saliva constantly. She is able to swallow but waits until her mouth is completely full of saliva to do. The one benefit of laughing, crying or yawning is it forces her to swallow. 

One week from tomorrow we FINALLY get to take this neck collar off. I cannot wait to see what transpires after removing that. Our biggest joy and source of hope each day is seeing the light in her eyes and watching her giggle EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. because of her brother, Kyle, Pop and sometimes even mama. 

We are feeling like this week is going to be a big breakthrough week for her in therapies, and I am even wondering if we will get to go home sooner. No one has said this, but based on the progress from week 2 vs week 1, I am hopeful our visit will be cut short. I'm ready to take this girl on adventures again!

Current prayers: 
-  She starts consistently swallowing
- Continues to show an interest in food
- This week is a breakthrough week in rehab
- That her neural pathways would remember, reorganize, and rewire swiftly 
-That her laughter would compound her progress
-For guidance in making decisions for choosing providers for outpatient
- Patience for the "process"
-SPEECH
- We would get to go home sooner
- That her feeding tube will come out before we go home
-That she continues to feel safe and at peace