Now that Jenny has found significant movement in her right arm, she is experinecing a joy far beyond what I am able to describe. She actually doing what I have been waiting for these past 6 months and using her movements for self help skills. These skills are at the begining stage, bit I see her adjust her glasses, rub her eyes, helps me with getting her dressed, and hugs the kids as they sit on her lap. The kids miss doing active stuff with Jenny so I had Zach play Yatzee Jr with her. Jenny could shake and roll the dice from the cup and I helped with keepig score. Jenny will laugh and cry at the same time she is able to do these new and different things because she is so happy. As for Zach, there could not have been anything in this world that he would have wanted to do more than to play a game with his mom (and get beat 3 times in a row).

Jenny has also demonstrated voluntary movement in her left arm by turning her wrist back and forth. One of her new exercise machines is a reclining stationary bike. After one week on it, Jenny appeared to push the pedal on her own. I placed her right leg so it was ready for a downward push and Jenny would hold it until I told her to push. After doing this a few times, I had her do the same with the left leg. She had similar control. We put this together and she was almost able to make a complete revolution with the pedals without help.

Just to be clear, all of her movements are wonderful, but very limited. Where she does have functional movement in her right arm, it is weak and shakey. After a couple movements, she is as worn out as if she ran a marathon. It is so very exciting to see her improve as she has.

Jenny has had a bitter sweet past couple of days. There were a bunch of great things that have happened. My father finally came out to stay with us for a while. His goals, aside from helping with Jenny, were to teach the kids to ride bikes without training wheels. That took about 10 minutes before they were both darting around like they had been riding this way all summer. It took another 10 minutes before Jessie was stunt riding and trying tricks. Zach started piano lessons and was able to learn his first little song that he played for Jenny and I. These were the good parts that Jenny admitted were things she felt that made all the things she went through well worth it.

The bitter part was when the kids would crash in front of her and she could not do a thing even though they lay hurt just a few feet away. She so much wanted to let Zach know how proud she was about his piano and to give him a long hug and kiss. Even though I was quick to tell the kids that mom was so proud of them, she indicated it was not the same as holding them in her arms and her own voice telling them what she felt. Sophia was choking yesterday and later wanted to be held and comforted, and it was the same type of result. Sophie was asked if she wanted to sit in mom’s lap (Jenny was crying because she so wanted to comfort Sophie), but Sophie refused- which happens occasionally. I finally convinced Sophie, but it is just another example of the many heart breaks Jenny experiences on a daily basis.

As for Jenny’s health, she is getting much stronger. She sits longer and with less pain when on the floor. We do more standing exercises where I help support her or she stands on a tilt table. I sat Jenny in front of the piano. I could see her right hand trying so hard to push with enough force to make sounds. The keys moved, but not with enough behind it to strike the chords. She wanted to sit longer and try more. I was so proud of her and her increased desire lately. I think she hides it if things hurt during exercises. I keep asking and she tells me that she is fine. Hopefully, she really is doing well enough that these exercises do not hurt.

The past few days have been wonderful as Jenny and I have had more time alone and with the kids. I am impressed that she has been able to support herself in a sitting position (legs crossed and arms supporting her upper body) while on the floor. Like many other things, she could not do it this well just a short while ago. Jenny has enjoyed being able to go to the back to school nights for Zach and Jessie, but it is with mixed emotions. She has always enjoyed being a parent volunteer at school (when not a teacher herself) and it is hard to not be as involved as she would like to be. She also struggles with the fact that she has little control of her emotions, so she will either laugh or cry without the ability to control it. I know she is self conscious about it and I will see her laugh at something (that most people would chuckle about in their head) and then she will turn to tears because she knows it is not a situationally appropriate emotion.

We had a visit by my Aunt Janice and Uncle Ron, from Utah. It was great to see them and these visits are always a positive thing for Jenny’s morale. Anyhow, I guess the kids have been surrounded with so many relatives in the past few months that are new to them, or have not seen in a while that they simply just catigorize them in three groups. Children are in the cousin group. Adults in our age range are aunts and uncles, and those who are my parents age are grandparents. Ron and Janice were called grandma and grampa. Every now and then, children of our friends from out of town end up being lumped into the cousin category as well. Either way, the kids love their big family.

For the first time, Jenny may have had a good day that she admitted to. Usually, I need to be careful how I ask her things. If I ask if she feels good today, she will reply, “No”. If I ask if she is having a normal day she will usually say yes. I am not sure what a good day would be defined as, but I think it would involve speech and more voluntary movement. As for her good day, she spelled out, “Thanks for today” which the day was a good day. We had a great family night activity playing our favorite “bowling” game and Jenny ate a bunch of good foods like pizza, root beer and brownies. Obvioulsy, the food was cut small for her, but it tasted good. I also did not make her work too hard in therapies, and she had new movements in her left leg. We snuggled on the couch for a while and just enjoyed being together as a family. I’ll take “thanks for today” as a good sign.