Week 2 of Being Home

Week 2 of being home was not as uneventful as we were hoping it would be.  Unfortunately on Monday Sharon, the friend that spends her days with Avery while Jeremy and I work, slipped and fell on the stairs.  This caused a very ugly break in her ankle that required surgery, lots of pins, and a really big cast.  Needless to say, Avery's best buddy will not be around for the next few weeks while she recoups.  Avery was extremely upset by this, but Sharon will be back so she'll get over it.  Just another bump in the road I guess.  The good news is that Sharon had some options in the fall and chose (thank God) to protect Avery's head while sacrificing her ankle.  Definitely a rotten deal either way but it so could have been way worse.  We feel awful that poor Sharon will be spending the summer attempting to itch through a cast!

In the mean time, we are conducting interviews for a temporary nanny to spend the next few weeks with Avery.  She is working really hard on her PT and Speech and we are hoping to really start hearing her talk here pretty soon.  She has "yeah"  down pretty well now, but we are still waiting on "mom".  It looks like we may be adding the OT sessions at some point as well so the kid will have a very tiring week of therapy...but a little hard work now means a lot more playing later....right?

Our goal this summer is to make it to Iowa and Minnesota for a visit.  Both are places she hasn't seen in quite some time and we are hoping that we may get the chance to see many of you while we are there.  The MN trip is planned for the 4th of July weekend.  If you happen to be around that weekend - we'll be at Mom's in Burnsville hanging by the pool.  Come on over and see us!  The Iowa trip is not definite yet, but looking like August.  We just heard today that they shut down interstate 29 due to the flooding so driving up now would be a bit of a struggle.  Hopefully that will go down in the next few weeks and leave us wide open for a small town reunion in Underwood.

Avery is more than excited to be home.  Her own bed, her own toys, her own dog -- all things she really missed.  It seems like she has progressed so much in the last 2 weeks, when in NYC she seemed to stand still.  I really hope that she continues to grow and discover the world around her now that she has a chance to be a kid again.  We even went and had her ears pierced this weekend! She loves her "big girl" earrings and didn't cry when they got her.  Maybe this will help us avoid the "oh what a handsome little man" comments we seem to elicit from strangers all the time.  We return in mid July for a check up at Sloan Kettering.  A short visit, but scary none the less.  A short month from now, we'll be working on our scanxiety and asking you all for big prayers...something you do for us daily I'm sure.  All of our St Jude friends appear to be doing excellent with their progress as well and that just adds to the relief we feel at this point. 

We continue to live one day at time -- for the moment, taking it all in.  So we appreciate the appeasement when we ask to do something now rather than in a few weeks...which reminds me, we need to schedule a date night soon.  For now, we'll live in today and worry about tomorrow later -- so we don't have a nanny....it will all work out, if only you believe.

Jenn