We are giving our cat away today :(. After years of peeing and pooping everywhere in our home, (you name it we have tried it to get this cat to use her pan). We are sending our sweet Nilly to live on a farm in Kansas. We are so thankful for our friend and her mother, who came up with this plan and offered us a solution.

This was such a hard decision for us to make! Nilly came into our lives the day after my sister’s wedding. We woke up to a note on the door going out to the garage that said “Cat in garage, will explain later”. We opened the door to a meowing box, open the box and inside was a tiny little meowing kitteh with bright blue eyes. She stole our hearts immediately!

Our time in Nashville was tough for a variety of reasons and she was one of the bright spots! Chuck traveled a lot and so she and I always had each other 😉 She has been a great pet in many, many ways but for a variety reasons would not adoptable to another family. I have been a wits end over what to do for months, even turned this same offer down when it was first offered.

So saying goodbye today is really hard…but it is the right thing. She is going to be fine, so are we..some tears this morning saying goodbye.

We are having a wonderful summer! We aren’t completing big projects or going on fantastic vacations, but we are getting to spend time together as a family! Chuck is not teaching or taking classes, my preschool is out for summer and Gabriel doesn’t have school either.

Most importantly we are celebrating close to 4 months seizure free! We are also getting to wean one of Gabriel’s medicine. The combination of these 2 things are bringing forth great results! He no longer seems to be in a haze all the time. He eyes are brighter. He is more coordinated and more interactive! He is doing things like walking up the stairs with alternating feet and manipulating scissors with one hand. These are great developmental milestones to see him hitting. They are things he was beginning to do before Doose hit a year ago. It is wonderful to know that the interventions (school, therapy,diet,meds etc)are working! For so long I was just hoping that he would be able to “catch up” at some point. Now I am focusing on and celebrating each accomplishment he has. Yesterday he sat with me and cut paper for a good 30 minutes. Then we turned the pieces paper into mail and he had me write “you are a good cutter” on each piece of mail 🙂 Awesome for him to engage in pretend play, as well as, have prolonged interest in something other than trash trucks or trains!

We continue to faithfully follow the diet, although we are pretty sure the newest medication is doing most, if not all the seizure control. His latest favorite food is cheese and butter made into “crunchies”. I like them because they are fast and easy to make. Measure butter, measure and add cheese, microwave until crispy, let cool, crumble and let little man enjoy 🙂

Our little guy continues to be doing very well. We went to the zoo for 3 hours one afternoon this week. This would not have been possible during the last year. He would have been totally exhausted after an hour. He has wanted to go outside and play, his favorite pasttime at the moment is “gardening”. He has a couple new shovels and rakes that he uses to move dirt from one part of the yard to another and back. He is interacting very well with others including other kids. Several times recently he has talked with other kids at the park or library. EEEE 🙂 so wonderful!

We are continue to wean him off of one of his medications. We took 1/2 pill away 2 weeks ago. Today we get to take another 1/2 pill away. So he will be down 1 whole pill a day 🙂 We hope and pray that the wean continues to go well.