I am so happy to say we've had two just fantastic days with Cody.  He's back to being alert, happy, engaged, communicating....and best of all....just a few of what we call "microseizures."  I am still interested in this pattern he's developed -- 5 or so days of greatness -- followed by 2 or so days of big seizures.  I should qualify when I say "big."  The video from a few days ago is a "big" seizure to me - although it lasts just about 1 minute.  He's had far worse.  Sometimes they go 2.5 minutes.  But whenever he screams I tend to call them "big" because whether they're 1 minute or 2.5 minutes -- he's screaming, not breathing, etc. 

Anyway,  I pray for another string of good days.  Today he asked for "trike" 100% of the time with a picture of a trike in the park.  We wheeled him around and videotaped him.  Every time we stopped I help his communication board up with a picture of a trike and another non-preferred item.  He chose "trike" every time!  He also mastered "water" this weekend.  He sits in the bathtub and wants us to pour water over his hands from a bucket.  He could do this for hours!!!!  I got my picture of "water" and took it in there and every time he wanted more, I help up "water" along with a picture of something stupid like a crayon or a book.  He chose "water" non-stop!  Yay!  So we're still cruising along.  His speech teacher Dan is trying to come up with a way to make Cody's pictures portable (did I already mention this?)  Sorry if so - but it's so exciting!  Some way to have the pictures on his belt loop or on a belt - so he can shuffle through them and pick the photo he wants to request.  How liberating that would be for him!  We'd put on his "big" favorites like "bar" "swing" "beads" "water" and "trike" --- and then add each time he masters something new.  Eventually he'd have "eat" "drink" "go outside" "no" "yes" "all done"....the list goes on and on.  Pretty exciting to think of.

Don took both boys to the park yesterday while I was grocery shopping.  He had Cody loose and had Casey in the Baby Bjorn front-pack.  I bet the women at the park swooned at the sight of the handsome daddy with his two boys.  He's a good guy, my husband.  Always pitches in.  It's really good for the boys to spend alone time with him on the weekends.  By the time Don gets home from his 45 minute commute during the week it's time for dinner, jammies, and bed.  Not a lot of quality time to be had.  So the weekends we pack it in.  This was a really good weekend.  Great church service.  Beautiful weather.  No bad seizures.  Lots of Cody communicating.  I even made a fancy pork roast dinner in the crock pot! 

A couple of weeks ago our pastor told the story of a hymn writer named Spaffod who wrote "It Is Well With My Soul" which became one of the most famous hymns of all time.  History tells that this hymn was writ­ten af­ter two ma­jor trau­mas in Spaf­ford’s life. The first was the great Chi­ca­go Fire of Oc­to­ber 1871, which ru­ined him fi­nan­cial­ly (he had been a weal­thy bus­i­ness­man). Short­ly af­ter, while cross­ing the At­lan­tic, all four of Spaf­ford’s daugh­ters died in a col­li­sion with an­o­ther ship. Spaf­ford’s wife Anna sur­vived and sent him the now fa­mous tel­e­gram saying simply... “Saved alone.”  Sev­er­al weeks lat­er, as Spaf­ford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daugh­ters died, the Ho­ly Spir­it in­spired these words. I think they are profound and if you are suffering, I hope they are a balm to your soul as they have been to mine:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.