[kathleenandjoe]

Sorry for the paste, but I do not have the energy to retype. This is an email and pic link (I hope) I sent to friends and family via email tonight. I thought I would share it with you all too!:

Hello there! Just thought we’d take a minute to update from here in Virginia!

Becca continues to do fabulous at school. They are not quite sure what to do with her as far as addressing her reading level at school. She does not like to leave the room or do anything others are not doing – so that makes things hard on the reading specialist. She loves school, and comes home with some interesting facts about her little friends some days. She loves to draw, read, play games, and cuddle.

When we moved, I made a list of activities she could so here on a piece of paper and told her she could circle the two she wanted to participate in. She chose soccer and girl scouts (Daisies for Kindergarten). So Becca plays soccer for Team Dynamo this fall. I included some pictures in the link below and updated our page, her album. She does not have the competitive sports drive (at least yet), but she seems to be having fun most of the time. She is the youngest on the team (some are 7!), and the smallest – but she holds her own. Becca often spaces out and watches the other games rather than the ball, but she has moments of focus which are both entertaining and exciting. I figured that if this was something she wanted to do – then this is the best age - - before kids are too mean about ability differences - - to go for it. She likes the games, but it’s hard to get her excited for practice as she is tired after school. Nonetheless – she is playing soccer. . . A hemiplegic playing soccer. . . And we are proud of her efforts and willingness to go for it.

Now Daisies – I somehow got talked into being a co-leader for her troop. This should be interesting. I need to call my mom on that one. She was my leader in girl scouts.

Becca has a sleep-deprived EEG last Thursday. She could only sleep for 4 hours the night prior and no food for 8 hours prior to it. That was fun. It was a horrible experience.

She started seizing Wed. night, kicked the tech in the shoulder so hard she had to leave as they glued the 50 probes to her head on no sleep and food Thurs. morning . . . .now the test actually went well overall after that. . . But then she had a total of geez 23 or so seizures over the weekend despite catching up on sleep. It was horrible.

We exhausted the meds we had at home and had to go the ER at Childrens National in DC to get bigger doses in her. We were able to leave once she went over an hour without any seizures, thank God. She had another last night – so we stomped it out with some more ativan at home. She wanted to go to school today, was not as strung out from the bigger doses of ativan on Sat. any longer, and has been good today. Hopefully we’re over all that now. I pray.

I have been sleeping with her to watch, time, and count - and Sat. night. . . With all that ativan in her. . . She woke me in a panic to inform me that she heard the Wiggles (a kids music group) under my pillow. Scared the crap out of me. . .but all I could do was laugh and cry after all that she’d endured. She passed right back out. My baby was so drugged, and so out of it. The nasty seizure monster stole a whole weekend from her. We hate seeing her like this and hope that the new Lamictal works as we titrate up on it, and the EEG will offer more info and options. Because WE DO NOT WANT TO DO ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE AGAIN.

Becca is – as difficult as she has been lately – our hero still. We have an MRI and more appts. in October.

AJ turned 18 months yesterday, though we can hardly believe it! He is always busy, climbs on everything, and just makes us laugh and smile every day. He loves to read, and has a couple of books memorized. He “reads” the pages with most of the correct words (these are books with like 2-4 words on each page now – some words are animal sounds. . . But still!)! It is just so cute! He also can count to four and knows many letters. So smart he is!!! He loves to be outside, sing, dance, to watch for Becca’s bus, the sound of the train on base (or any vehicle really – he is fascinated by lawn mowers, weed wackers, cars, motorcycles), his baby ipod, elmo, ducks, water, mud, salad, cookies, a new show called Wonder Pets, and hugs and kisses. He hugs and kisses now and it is so sweet. He also can cling to you with a death grip while your cooking or doing something he’d rather you not do.

AJ is keeping busy these days! We have story time at the library on Mondays, Tot Play on Tuesdays, and Kindermusik on Thursdays at the moment! He is in the older age bracket of Kindermusik here and in class with our nephew’s daughter (you can figure out how they are actually related!) and her mom. It is great that they will grow up together for at least a couple of years!

AJ hates being told he cannot do something, diaper changes, and when Becca is at school. He likes to walk around and hold actual little babbling conversations – including giggles for what I suppose are jokes – and then says bye on his toy phones. He is talking more and more each day and actually putting words together. Let’s see – he regularly says – momma, dadda, Becca, dog, hungry, up, down, mine (thanks to Becca!), bus, car, choo choo train, color, what that?, where are you?, I see you, book, read, eat, snack, drink, milk, water, pig, bird, ball. . . Geez. . . He says a lot. . .I could go on, but will spare you any more! You really have to hear his sweet voice for yourself anyway!


Thanks for reading, if you made it this far! I have not been good about updating or sending pictures lately. . .so am trying to make up for it, I suppose! I updated our webpage (the address in in the signature below the picture), and am including a link below to a bunch of recent pictures of the kids. Enjoy!

Picture link:
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...8AcsmLRq3ZM2wT




Joe, Kathleen, Rebecca and A.J. Riley
Quantico, VA
http://rileyusmc.shutterfly.com

[lauren'smom]

hey Kathleen,

The kids look so good and happy!!!! You sound like you are staying busy with all the activities. Glad that Becca is still enjoying school so much and it is so sweet that AJ misses her, sounds like they have a special bond.

Hugs,

Debi

[GinaMarie]

The kids have grown so much!! Glad things are going so well. I couldnt get the one link to work but I got the one in your sig. to work. Great pics.
GM