Happiness is... loving thy neighbors and my daughter

Gracie's been having some fairly rough days. For most of the week, she did not feel well and had only little pockets of time where we'd catch glimpses of her perky self. She missed school Wednesday, perked up a bit Thursday (still only a mediocre day overall) and has been laying low all weekend. She has had difficulty tolerating her feedings, she's got a lot of chest congestion and her eyes got extremely goopy as the weekend progressed. (I think she might have a sinus infection - we have an appointment first thing Monday morning.) She's getting 'round the clock breathing treatments (she's the perkiest immediately following those), two of which, because they're coupled with her regular treatment regimen, take well over an hour.

On Saturday, she didn't emerge from her room until almost noon. Up until that point, Preston (with the exception of suctioning every fifteen minutes or so) had my undivided attention. Thus, I felt slightly less guilty when Gracie demanded my complete attention. She finally signed that she wanted a bath - - and she immediately got a long, prune-inducing, steamy soak with her brother! (Thankfully, he thought it sounded fun, too!) After bath time, Preston was begging to go out and play at the park. Just as I told him he could play in the backyard, our phone rang. Our friends (and neighbors, Rachel, Lance & Addison) asked if we wanted to go to the park. I explained Miss Gracie's situation and they said they'd take Preston. He was ecstatic and I was so grateful that he'd get a break from the house. I planned to knock out one of those hour+ nebulizer treatments while he was gone. (Understandably, he's not overly fond of the continuous noise of the machine - - not to mention the fact that both Gracie and I are completely occupied.)

As it turned out, they didn't just take him for an hour. He was gone the rest of the afternoon, used the potty at their house a gazillion times (the kids were motivating each other, we think!), had dinner with them and came home around 6:30 happy as a clam and exhausted! He was out by 7 pm! I just love our neighbors! They are so good to all of us! (Tonight, they brought us a huge variety of rolls from a sushi restaurant... so sweet!)

Here's a precious picture of the "happy couple" as they watched part of a movie.
(They actually did more playing than watching, but Rachel told me that when they did stop and watch, they were all cuddled up!)

While they were loving on my boy, I got in some good TLC time with my girl... time that didn't solely involve therapy or appointments. (I say that because with the exception of our "quality" time in the middle of the night, lately I feel like my alone time with Gracie revolves around therapy and appointments.) We did her marathon breathing treatments and CPT. After that, she actually asked to sit at the table and I, of course, obliged! She refused her hearing aid, threw down half of the stuff I brought her and didn't want to "listen" to anything I signed to her. I pulled out the laminated, colored shapes I made ages ago and wanted to see if she could match like shapes (by giving her a red triangle, red circle, red square, a red rectangle and then a match to one of those... the idea is for her to place the match on the board). She refused... fine. She's sick... she's in charge. I didn't care what she wanted to do, I was just glad she was doing something other than lying on her bed.

What she wanted to do was name colors (she's been doing this for years)... colors of the bears, the blocks and the laminated shapes. So, I put eight squares on the Velcro board and let her go to town! I purposely sat on her blind side so she wouldn't be as distracted by the camera. (Oh... and, yes... she's completely deaf... and yes, I talk to her like she's not... but she is. I just can't not talk! ) I did not sign any answers. I did try to get her to "find green" instead of randomly picking them up, but she ignored me! Other than that, I just signed to her when she needed to "do better" with her signing or "look and try again" when she made a mistake.



You can see in her sweet face that she doesn't feel well - - she's mottled, red-eyed and puffy - - but that didn't stop her from doing her colors! As always, I am amazed by her spirit and will. She felt cruddy... no two ways about it... but she still wanted to try and do something.

After "table time," we cuddled up and spent the better part of an hour staring at each other and exchanging Eskimo kisses! Today was a bit better. Hopefully, tomorrow will be, too.