Chirstmas in San Francisco

This year we spent Christmas in San Francisco! We had an amazing time and enjoyed lots of quality time with our family. Meredith came down with a stomach bug the night before our flight which had us nervous to fly. However, she pulled through wonderfully and didn't get sick at all on the plane, thank goodness. We had a fancy little gadget that allowed us to strap her carseat to a piece of carry-on luggage so we could tote her around the airport easily. We were spoiled with warm weather (compared to Boston!) and were able to get outside each day for a walk or run and enjoy all those amazing hilly views. We were so happy to visit with cousin Graham, Uncle John and Auntie Jackie who were such generous hosts, as always. We also got to see Uncle Matt's new woodworking space which was really cool and see Matt and Melissa's new Hansel and Gretel style apartment, which I instantly fell in love with. We went kayaking around the harbor, walked around on the Goldengate bridge (something we always wanted to do and never had) and other than that, just took it easy. We had such a good time and can't wait to visit again.

Meredith has been doing AMAZINGLY well on her new medication. She has not had a cluster of seizures in weeks. She has had a handful of them, but no clusters. Just one here, or one there, and only when she's had an ear infection or other illness. We have not had to use Diastat in over a month. We are definitely making progress, and I cannot even describe with words the happiness that this brings Greg and I. We both feel we've seen some significant improvements in Meredith's eye contact and general interaction. She seems to pay more attention to people and things and notices more of her environment. Yesterday, I put on a Baby Einstein DVD for her to watch in her new fancy chair and she basically watched the whole thing. This is huge for her - normally, she may or may not notice it was on, and it would not keep her attention for more than a few seconds at a time. She's been her normal "chatty" self lately and has been tearing it up in the stander. Yesterday, she did 2 hours straight!