Rattins living Coram Deo

Gracie kicking around "on her own" in the swimming pool - think she likes the water?! Can't quite tell from the huge grin on her beautiful face! Gracie sleeping peacefully in her own room and bed.

We had our first successful night of Gracie sleeping in her OWN room by herself. Gracie OUT of our bed, in her big girl bed! Moma slept, Gracie slept, and mama and daddy were very happy to have a bed to ourselves! I only had to get up twice for her, both just little visits to put her in a new position when she was whining and couldn't get herself back to sleep. I know this was only the first night, but a big step for all of us!

We finally had opportunity to visit the Ruhls in Minnesota - it was SO fun to spend time with their 4 beautiful children, introduce Gracie, meet more of their church family, and of course, spend time with Gregg and Dianne. Gracie and Ruhls' kids got along famously - she's just half a year younger than little Abby who was so sweet to her. Katie is an excellent big sister and loves taking care of children with special needs - she was so attentive and competent with Gracie. Jacob and David enjoyed Gracie's love for rough housing and making her giggle. She got lots of love and attention and also made some milestone leaps in the company of such amazing kids. She kicked around BY HERSELF (with a head supporting life jacket) in the pool purposefully, she lifted one leg at a time to get her shoes on, and she played with the kids beautifully! She especially enjoyed the yard complete with playground equipment and giggled hysterically at the boys catching her at the bottom of the slid...

Gracie's in summer school - she has to be there by 8:00am.... a tall order for a child who would rather stay up late into the night and sleep in till 10:00am. Her muscles don't even work until 9:00am, let alone coordinate enough to eat breakfast... but she's getting there! She starting to wake up on her own by 6:15, although she'll fall back to sleep as long as we let her sleep. The other room is actually a bedroom now! Gracie's got a bed and the crib is now in there - it looks great! however, Gracie's still in our bed... 'sigh'... her seizures still aren't controlled so I'm still nervous about putting her in the other room. Part of me also likes being close to her since I'm not with her all day long, sometimes 7 days a week. Last week, she has a completely silent seizure (like an absence seizure), so now she's shown me that she can seize without making ANY noise to be picked up on a monitor to wake me up... 'sigh.' The amazing...