Great Weekend!

Well, we had a really wonderful weekend. We had a special visit from my friend Adrianne and her daughter Cecilia. They drove all the way from Columbus to spend part of the weekend with us. We were able to check out the Center for Puppetry Arts, the playground at Centennial Park, Johnny Rockets, and the park near our house. It was the first time in a long time that Samantha and I were able to venture out for a date to somewhere other than the grocery store or Willy's.

The Center for Puppetry Arts was an interesting experience. Samantha enjoyed seeing Big Bird and Elmo, as they have the Jim Henson puppets on display. The group wasn't a huge fan of the puppet show itself. The Adventures of Little Noodle was somewhat disappointing in its message on food choices and body image. The girls were well behaved and I would definitely go back with a little more research in to the puppet show ahead of time.

The playground at Centennial Park was amazing. I had no idea how extensive it was. The girls had a fun time exploring the various apparatus, riding the swings, and running through the wide open green space. I will definitely plan on taking Samantha and Alli down there more often. It was well worth the cost of parking.

Cecilia and Samantha are only 3 days apart in age. They were fast friends and had a great time together.

It was sad to see our friends go this morning, but we wish them a safe journey on to Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans.

Alli enjoyed some fun family bonding time with Daddy while we toured around the city. She has had a pretty good weekend. We are still seeing intermittent spasms, but she seems to be getting some personality back. She has been cracking a few smiles and smirks at us and has been more engaged in her toys. We gave her the last dose of prednisolone and increased her dose of vigabatrin at the end of last week. We will continue to go up on the vigabatrin until we see the spasms stop completely. We'll see how the next couple of days go.

I spoke with the neurologist regarding the results of her MRI last Thursday. Her scans show that she is microcephalic and has micro hemorrhages on her brain. I need to look at a copy of the MRI report in order to interpret what all of that means, but for the time being it means that her scan wasn't completely clean. Her cardiac scan looked better than the doctors anticipated. We will discuss that with them in greater detail at our appointment on the 20th.

We hope everyone had a nice weekend and has a great week!

Enjoy the attached pictures!