March 26, 2011

Saturday night in Sioux City. Both girls are tucked into their beds. We head to Iowa City this week for Grace's annual appointments there. We'll meet with Dr. Mathews, who is her neurologist and the one who the specialist with SMA. We'll also meet with Dr. Starner, who is her respiratory specialist. Lastly, we'll meet with a new doctor (Dr. Dietz) who will deal with her spine issues--she'll eventually get curvature and scoliosis. Hopefully it'll be a good trip, always good to get down their to see the docs.

We had Grace's annual IEP meeting and her parent-teacher conference this week. Both went really well. The people at Nodland have really taken to Grace, and they do a great job taking care of her. We talked about how things will go in first grade, and they also told us they're going to put a special swing in their playground just for her. Great news there. She's doing very well in school. She's reading at an end of first grade/start of second grade level, and she also really enjoys the math they do. Still, however, she maintains that her favorite class is art.

Finally, much to my chagrin, Grace refuses to watch the NCAA Tournament with me. She told me the other day that she hates basketball unless it's a Briar Cliff game. I guess I can live with that.

March 13, 2011

We're going to try to get some emails out this week to start promoting Race 4 Grace and our 2011 RAGBRAI ventures. Like always, we hope to get previous riders back and find some new riders. We haven't decided yet on some of the logistics of the week. We have traditionally started RAce 4 Grace on Sunday (the first day of RAGBRAI), and if we do that again we'll be starting in Glenwood. We are considering starting later in the week because we've got connections in some of the other overnight towns. Michelle has most of her family in the Carroll area, which is the overnight town on Monday night. And we know people around Boone and Altoona, which are the overnight towns on Tuesday and Wednesday. We'll see.

Otherwise things are good with Grace. We've been busy this weekend making a leprechaun trap, which is an assignment they have for school this weel. As usual Grace has thrown herself fully into this assignment (hopefully she'll keep that mentality when she's doing Algebra and Chemistry homework down the line).

We had to get a new part for her Dani because she'd gotten too tall for the original part, so we've been without her Dani for a couple weeks. You don't realize how much you rely on mobility until you don't have it! Thankfully we were able to get it put back together yesterday, and she's back in full motion with her Dani. The problem when we don't have her Dani is that we keep her wheelchair at school, which means she often doesn't have any way to get around in the house.

February 26, 2011

A cold, snowy Saturday in Sioux City. Grace is just up for her rest time, which consists of her lying on the couch watching whatever her current favorite cartoon is. Right now that is My Little Pony Friendship, which is on some station called Hub.

We found out this week that Grace is going to be in a TV commercial. They're making one to promote the new Camp High Hopes here in town, which is a huge camp they're starting in town for kids with disabilities. It'll be the only one of its kind in the region, and it's a pretty cool thing. Anyway, we have to go to the TV studio sometime next week for Grace to shoot the commercial. She's pretty excited.

Otherwise Kindergarten is going really well. Grace has made a lot of new friends, and she really likes her teachers and the other staff at school. Even the custodian (Mr. Troy) is a pretty cool guy who really looks after her.

February 8, 2011

Grace is home sick today with what we think is a sinus infection. Michelle is taking her to the doctor this afternoon, and hopefully it's nothing too serious. She's been really health all winter, and this doesn't appear to be anything major. She's spent much of the morning playing computer games--she's really into games that require logic and/or creativity.

January 30, 2011

They announced the RAGBRAI overnight towns yesterday, which is always a big day for the start of Race 4 Grace planning. It'll start in Glenwood this year, get to Atlantic Sunday night, Carroll Monday night, Boone Tuesday night, Altoona Wednesday night, Grinnell Thursday night, Coralville Friday night, and Davenport Saturday night. Not sure what we'll do this year. Basically all of Michelle's family lives in the Carroll area, so I'm sure we'll try to do something connected there. Also there is probably a chance that Tuesday's route will go near or through Ogden, which was where I taught and coached for two years right out of college. We don't have any real connections to Glenwood or Atlantic, but I assume there is still a good chance we'll start on Sunday anyway. We'll see. More information to come.

January 22, 2011

Winter is rolling along in our house. Grace got a little bit of the flu bug yesterday at school and had to come home early. She's doing a lot better today, and overall her health has been really good this winter.

Grace has been pretty busy with a number of things. She's in Girl Scouts now, and they have a Monday night meeting once a month. She has the Girl Scout pledge memorized, and she has managed to see a few cookies.

She's also had a couple music programs at school in the past month or so. They had a huge Christmas (or is it winter?) program at East High School, and then the other night they sang at a soup supper thing.

Grace is eligible to go to MDA camp this summer for the first time, and we're kicking it around. It's the premier camp in the country for kids with disabilities, and everything we've heard about it is really positive. On the other hand, we're not sure we're ready for her to be away from us for a whole week. Grace, however, says she'd be fine with it. Not surprising.

January 8, 2011

Been awhile. We had a good Christmas, and now we're settling in for winter. Santa was good to the girls, and he even left a note for Grace thanking her for the milk and cookies. Grace was excited to go back to kindergarten this week, and we were happy about that. The neat development over the last couple months has been Grace's reading and writing. She's reading full books, and she can write pretty well. She'll always ask when she doesn't know how to read or write a word, and she seems to remember it the next time it comes around. At school the other day they had to say their goal for the new year, and Grace told us that she said she wanted to learn how to write more big words!