January 4, 2007

What a difference a year makes! Ron, Brenda and Kelsey spent the holidays with the princess and were amazed to see the progress she's made in the past year. (The picture is Amanda with Kelsey - she's amazed that Kelsey is now taller than her!) This time last year, Amanda was still wearing her back brace, confined to her wheel chair, had "busy hands" (was constantly pulling at her trach tube, stomach tube and anything else she was hooked up to), was just beginning to eat non-hospital food (combining a lot of it in very unusual ways and spitting a lot of it out), was receiving round the clock care, and was not terribly self-aware. In 2006, she came home, she graduated to walking with the walker, she got rid of all tubes, she began to be able to really communicate meaningfully (participating in group discussions, making jokes, and sharing feelings and concerns), took more responsibility for her own care, and is even beginning to resume some care of the 4-legged babies! In short, she's back to being able to really participate and interact with everyone around her.

She kept us all very busy over the holidays with an excursion to the movies ("Night at the Museum", which we all recommend), looking at old photo albums (she doesn't remember all of the events in the photo albums yet, but her recall ability is increasing), making some jewelry, playing a popular (and might we add, very addicting) computer game (Master Case Files), reading some of her travel books, looking at her viewmaster (a hobby she has always shared with Brenda), going out to eat (especially a visit to Babe's with Chris and Dacia), looking at xmas lights, and even riding out to Aurora, Texas looking for the buried alien body. (We found the cemetary and enjoyed looking at the headstones, but sadly, we were not able to find the alien). One of the highlights of the visit was seeing her get back in the kitchen and make Kurt breakfast on 2 different mornings. They were simple dishes but we're hoping it's the beginning of the return of one of her passions. She still gets a little confused with names or words sometimes, but if you listen carefully you can understand what she's trying to say. Most of all she was the funny and viviacious girl we all know and love. We can't wait to see what she does in 2007!