Jenny is feeling better from the tube removal. Her stomach was sore for a few days and she even took her first nap in years for a couple hours. She has been working with augmentative communication devices that speak what she types. She is good at it, but she is faster at finger spelling, so she is reluctant to use the speaking machines. Sign language does not require her to carry around a small computer, but finger spelling limits who she an speak to – mostly the kids. She did write several notes to the kids telling them how she felt about them. Plus, Zach has homework assignments where he needs to make words from a group of predetermined letters, so this offered a perfect opportunity for her to help Zach with homework for her first time. Being a past 2nd grade teacher herself, this meant a lot to Jenny to feel useful and to interact with Zach.

Of course, like most of Jenny’s things, everyone else used the communication devices more. We had to do several sentences such as, “Jessie eats worms”, or “Zach kisses girls” to make sure we really figured how to make it worked.

The kids have been really sweet with Jenny lately. They wanted so much to help their mom get better. Even our two-year-old Sophie makes sure to pray every time that, “mom gets better”. I gave therapy assignments to the kids to do specific activities with mom to help with motor skills. They involve puzzles, games, and therapy putty- so the kids are even more excited.

Last night, we had an aid to help out, so Zach became the first child to sleep with mom. Jenny needed this badly. They fell asleep holding hands and giving each other their special “I love you” hand squeezes that they have always had as their special secret way to tell each other that they loved each other. Zach is so sweet to his mom and loves her so much. The other day, Zach pulled out a bunch of his mom’s old sign language books and was diligently studying them. Jenny broke down into tears because she realized how much he wanted to communicated with her.

Jenny finally gets to start outpatient therapy tomarrow! She is excited to see what they can offer. I am in the process of hooking her laptop up to a bigger screen so she can read without problems. I see her play games using a mouse and I do not see why she could not be doing more on a computer.

Sophia has been trying to be a helper in making her mother better. She often covers Jenny in band-aids, moves her arms and leg for “exercise”, and I see her try to feed Jenny every now and then, which I have to be cautious of. Jenny will usually push the buzzer to alarm me. Sophia was able to get a glass of water by me. She held up the capped feeding tube (without a way to funnel the water in) and dumped the glass over the top of the tube. Fortunately, it was bed time and Jenny needed to change into her pajamas. Sophie also accompanied Jenny to the ENT to have an injury on her ear drained. Sophia was shy until she felt she needed to tell the doctor how to do his job. She will be our child who most likely will be a doctor some day.