halloween and birthday fun

So, there of course will be more pix after tonight and trick or treating! But for now, Sharon has had fun with the preparation. She and Anna worked hard on pumpkin carving...well, Anna worked hard. Sharon had fun scooping the guts from the bowl back into the pumpkin...
Anna's birthday was yesterday and Rose outdid herself with another awesome cake. Sharon helped herself to the foot.
Happy trick or treating (or whatever celebrating you do!)!

fun week(s)

So, sorry it's been a little while. I'm having some fun "me" time with two shows (in one, teching for another) so time is limited! I'm so lucky that RJ is supportive of my hobbies that keep me sane!
I had to get a couple of pix of here that have been taken in the past days/weeks. Sharon loves to help with Flare, so the first is her helping me groom before Sharon rides (in fact, i can't recall, but i think Flare may actuall have the "saddle" on already? It's the special one we have for Sharon that is basically a glorified pad so that Sharon can still feel Flare's body with her legs).
The next is Sharon with Jack. Jack is the son of Whitney who was Sharon's first PT (when she was 5 weeks old!) and who has just recently quit her job to stay home with Jack and so now Sharon and I both have friends to play with regularly and we love it!! Jack is only 8 months old but they love each other and really enjoy their time together!
And the next is Sharon doing a plie in ballet! As you can see, she likes to put her whole body into the moves...we're working on getting the butt to stay still but it's darn funny in the meantime!
And finally, i had to get a picture up of Sharon with family friend Jim Donnelly. He is actually the very first contributer (other than Jax) to the blog. he wrote a poem for Sharon the minute her heard that she was in trouble at birth(archives, March 2005). I've always considered him a strong Sharon prayer warrior and supporter and am sorry that i haven't posted a picture of him sooner!!!!

We've been having a nice couple of weeks. The weather has been hot and wonderful and we've spent every minute outside. Sharon is not going to be happy being inside this winter but she'll have to adjust...
I had to share a little story that happened today that just tickled me. Sharon and I went to visit Great Gram (who is now full time in a wheelchair and a lot more tired than she ever has been, but still going strong!). Sharon tends to get nervous when a lot of Gram's fellow residents try to get too close to her (which happens frequently!) but loves hanging out with Gram and just finds her very humorous. Well, today the residents were gathered in the main hall for karaoke and Sharon wound up being the hit of the show. She made her way to the center of the room and just danced her heart out song after song. Sometimes she would get nervous by reaching hands and would make her way back to me, but she was never able to stay still for long. Her body would literally start moving to the beat even if she didn't want it to! It was so funny to watch and see how much she just FEELS and loves the music!! And as timid as she often seems around strangers, she most definitely got some performing genes from me and i couldn't be happier about that! It will be so good for her to have something that gets her past the timidness!

We started a new seizure med over the weekend (on top of the old one) and we are FINALLY seeing some results. Sharon has actually slept for HOURS on end for 2-3 nights this week. It's truly amazing. RJ and I have realized just how much sleep other children get and how soundly they sleep. We've never seen that in Sharon until now and it's truly amazing. I had gotten so used to having a child that just never slept that it's going to take some adjustment for us to realize that we don't have to tiptoe, that we can bump her at night and she'll still sleep...all those things that other parents are used to! So, say a prayer that this continues to go well. It's only been a couple of days and this isn't a long-term med so we don't know just how long we'll see it's benefits...
Thanks for checking in!!

fall fun

So, here's our girl enjoying a home-made caramel apple from the Messick cousins, and here's a shot of her riding by herself. She just loves it. We don't get to do it as often as we'd like because it takes 3 adults, but when it happens it's great! Otherwise, she gets to ride with me twice a week so that's great too! As long as she's up on Flare and getting that great stretch and movement, we're thrilled!
She's still dancing once a week and loving it. her helpers tell us that "she has very definite ideas about the way she thinks dance should be and doesn't always want to do what the rest of the class is doing"! yeah, that's my girl! She really just wants to tap rather than ballet!
She is loving school. I'm still working out therapies (we still don't have PT! Gotta love the NC school system). I'm still trying to work out the schedule to best suit her but we'll get there!
No news on the seizure front. I still think she is having them at night and we're now at the max dose of her current meds so we'll see where we go from here (a new med more than likely). It all takes LOTS of time so there are no quick answers. THANKFULLY she is not showing too many adverse reactions to the meds that she is on. They have the potential to make her very groggy and sluggish but other than needing to really slow down around lunchtime and have some good chill-time, she's doing okay.
Hey, any of you folks i saw on our Malvern trip, could you please send me pictures since i didn't have my camera? Thanks!