ChloeWatts.com

New Year’s Eve 2009

January 1st, 2010 Posted in Daily News Post

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! That’s our wish for all of us. And even though we didn’t catch the nurse before she gave Chloe benedryl a little early, we were able to keep Chloe awake to celebrate New Years Eve. So at midnight, Chloe, Dana, nurse Liz and I were able to toast the New Year with sparkling apple juice. Chloe can’t drink it but she did put her finger in the cup and then to her tongue… and she said she could taste it. That was a surprise as we were told there would be no way she’d be able to taste because of the trach. One more thing Chloe refuses to believe.

After another good night’s sleep, Chloe was put through her paces of PT/OT/ST. At 10:30 we had a good visit from PT and Speech. They each took a half hour and it went very well. Chloe is very quick. Then at 1pm we were on our way to the gym for more PT/OT.

I was out last night about 9 pm getting her some shoes for gym. At the last minute Dana called me to let me know Chloe didn’t like runners with the puffy sides. It was just in time so I found a pair of “skate” shoes that were pretty close to perfect for her. She gave me a thumbs up at least.

She is getting better every day at helping to sit up before transferring to the wheelchair. I thought she was going to do it on her own at the first visit of PT. The transfer to the chair is going much smoother as well. Then… the big news… we had Chloe standing, with help, for about 2 minutes the first time and a minute the second time. Both times she gave us clear signs that she needed to sit and lay back, but she made it nonetheless.

Back in the room she, Dana and I played catch with her baseball sized squeeze ball with the happy face. She is actually catching the ball with both hands together. Then her tosses are pretty accurate with the right hand. Sometimes it goes crazy but mostly she was close to target… my face.

She played a couple games of hangman with speech therapy today. It was interesting that she was asked to pick a name to put down and she chose COLIN as the word. She also chose that to write when asked to try right handed. Her writing is all over the place now but she couldn’t even hold the marker last week. I still attribute most of this fine motor movement accuracy to her working the Ipod touch. She has been emailing like crazy with it.

At one point today my oldest daughter, Kelly, called to ask if I had Skype on the computer. I didn’t yet but in five minutes I did and we had our first computer visit with Chloe’s almost step siblings. It was also the first time Dana was able to see everyone while speaking to them. This was a great time. Chloe loved the video visit with Kelly and Chris and her three s-brothers and one s-sister and their new puppy, Lily.

One of her best friends, Annale and her family walked in … actually was snuck in by Dana… at one point. They brought goodies and the cider we celebrated with. Chloe was ecstatic. The nurse walked in and I turned her around and told her she wasn’t supposed to be in here just now. She put her blinders on and retreated saying… make it quick. One more Rebel convert!

Being the holiday weekend we are seeing new faces and not many of them. It’s pretty much a ghost town on holidays and weekends. Kind of strange and a little bit good in a way.

Sandy and Colin joined us around dinnertime and stayed until about 10:30 pm. We celebrated NYE a bit early with cider from little medicine cups. They were on their way back home to avoid the midnight drunks. Not a bad plan. I’ll be dodging them in a little while.

Goodnight on this first day of a year that will be a Happy New Year!

Blessings,
Ron