Paul's Update - 11/24/07

Dear Friends:

Friday was a quiet day. We stayed home ... no appointments, no work, no SHOPPING!! LOL Dora was back. Dad & Paul have been watching the Star Wars Movie Series so they watched several movies throughout the day. I spent lots of time in my office ... cleaning & filing! It is a place that constantly needs work and I don’t always have time to do a really good job. Dad has been encouraging Paul to do more standing up by himself. He is doing really well and gets up by himself most of the time. Dad is always nearby and sometimes Paul does lose his balance but he is doing extremely good. We went out to dinner with Bill & Ronda. We left early so we could beat the dinner crowd at Olive Garden. We only had to wait a couple of minutes while they prepared the table for us. Paul had ... FISH!! He really likes fish lately. They say fish is “brain food” ... I wonder if there is any relationship?? After dinner we headed to our house for coffee and a movie. Paul had gotten the movie Evan Almighty for his birthday so we decided to watch it. Paul was ready for bed about 11pm.

Saturday morning Gradis showed up and helped Dad get Paul up. She began her cleaning once Paul was up, dressed & in the bathroom. I really like the fact that the carpet & floors get cleaned every Saturday!! Gradis was so excited when Paul got up from the chair all by himself. She really enjoys seeing Paul do well. About 2pm we headed out to El Agave for lunch. We took two cars since the van wouldn’t start ... the battery is dead. I guess we need to use it more often!! LOL I must admit ... it is nice that Paul doesn’t really need the van or the chair lift anymore!! After lunch Bill, Ronda & I went to the hospital to visit Michelle. Dad, Paul & Gradis headed home. Michelle was sitting up when we arrived and looked very well for someone who just had open heart surgery! We didn’t stay long since Michelle had been sitting up for some time and was very exhausted. Bill needed to stop at the radio station where he works to check on one of his computers so I got a chance to see the station! It isn’t anything like WKRP in Cincinnati!! LOL Once I arrived home I found that Carolyn wanted to take Alysa to the movies so she needed me to watch Chris for a while. They had a great time but Chris was very tired and fighting sleep ... he was ready to go home!! Just before bed Paul got my attention. I asked him if he needed something and he said “yes”. Dad asked him “do you need to go to the bathroom?” and he said “yes”. I’ve been trying to get him to tell us when he needs the bathroom so I asked him “what do you say?” He started out slow but SAID “I ... need ... bathroom”! He said this totally by himself ... I didn’t even prompt him!! WOW ... what a breakthrough (I hope!). Sometimes I think he probably could say other things that he just won’t try to say. He was tired but he stayed up until almost 11pm. I set the vaporizer up for him since he is still very congested ... we all are! He seems to be progressing through the cold and I hope he will be mostly over it by the end of the week!

Have a great day, Lynne & Carl