Happy New Year everybody!

Our Christmas was wonderful, and it was great getting together with family. My dad has had a nice break from therapy these past 2 weeks, but he seems eager to start up again.
He'll be starting therapy at Sister Kenny this upcoming week, and will continue to work on physical, occupational, and speech therapy, as well as aqua therapy.

Although he hasn't been going to 'real' therapy, we've been keeping him busy with our own projects. My dad will walk around the house, or we'll head to a mall so he can get some walking in. We feel that his hamstring has strengthened these past few weeks, and his walking keeps improving.

We work his right arm and hand quite a bit at home. He continues to wear the electrical stimulant 6 hours a day. He has gotten to the point now where he has enough strength to pull out a chair from the table with his right arm/hand! It takes a lot of concentration, but it's great progress!

His speech is always improving. Research says that you will have days when your speech seems great, then it falls back to where it was the day before. These 'down' days seem to occur less and less. He can read single words aloud. Yesterday we were looking at a children's dictionary and for the first time he was able to read over 50 words aloud to us! This is huge progress! The accuracy of his words and the sentences he's able to say is improving every day!

Today is my dad's 51st birthday! We all sang him 'Happy Birthday' this morning and he sang along too, singing every word with perfect accuracy! No big plans for today, except for as my dad says, 'PARTY!' So party we will, and enjoy the new year!



"The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." -Zephaniah 3:17

(picture is from this Christmas Eve)