Into the new year

Friday 30th: After a couple of colder days it was nice to be able to head down to the pool once Brendon was home from work. Water temperature was 24, so not quite our liking yet, but Brendon braved it. Asher was having so much fun, and then she got quiet and had a couple of small jerks. So we took her out, got her dry, and she sat with me for a while, quietly watching everyone in the pool.

And then it was if she just woke up and she clearly wanted to get down and back in the pool. I didn't bother with the wet suit now, and she was happy (although a bit cold) in her togs. No more episodes or jerks in the pool and she had a ball.
Later we headed to the farm for the dinner (and then bible study for me and the older 2 girls). Before dinner Asher was playing nicely with some balls that were around when the jerking and quietness happened again.

Hannah has improved so much with her swimming. It's still
amazing to see her with her head under the water.

So we took her inside and just as we got in a Tonic Clonic seizure started. Thankfully it only lasted for a minute, but she went very blue again. Brendon and I stayed inside with her and then he headed home with the younger 3. It was a good study again and I enjoyed the time of chatting with different people afterwards. The girls were in bed very late again, so it was good that they could get to sleep in a bit the next morning.

With no seizures on Saturday - these are the final comparative graphs for Asher's seizures over the last 3 years.
You can see the clear spite in the number of seizures in October and November after stopping the Epilim. Thankfully she has had a really good December with only 5 seizures. In total she had just 7 more seizures this year than the previous 2 years.
The wonderful improvement through this year however, is with the length of seizures. In total this year she has had 227 minutes of seizures. In the previous 2 years it was 277 (2014) and 292 (2015). 50 and 65 minutes more. This is such a blessing and we are so thankful.
Saturday 31st: Stripes had climbed right to the top of the tree for a nap. So Hezekiah put Anakin up there with him and they had a lovely long nap up there.
This afternoon I had a bit of a "parent-child" outing with Rachel - although we didn't go out anywhere. I did her nails for her.

Ruth had some Guiding puzzles to do with family or friends - so we were on duty again. It was all about team work. We had fun working them out. I'm not sure if they got easier, or if we just got better at working together at figuring them out. We got the 3rd one very quickly. :-)

Sunday 1st January 2017. I wonder how long it will take for everyone adjust to writing the new date. :-)
The first photo was loads of fun, but a bit over the top from Hezekiah, so I took another. He was so excited about wearing his suit to church. I convinced him to leave his jacket in the car.
Hezekiah has been especially excited about Daniel coming to visit today. He is a friend of Rachel's who stays on the other side of town. His boss is taking Stripes, so he came to fetch him today. Daniel met us at church and then joined us for lunch.

I had told Hezekiah that Daniel could perhaps play with him with his new cricket bat this afternoon - so that was the first thing on his mind when we got home.
I love how in the first photo Hezekiah has bowled so hard that he has thrown himself over. :-)

Time for a game after lunch. Yahtzee was chosen.

And then we said goodbye to this little cutie. We heard in the evening that he has been named Storm. A lovely name for him.

And then another game of Yahtzee this evening with these two. We were thrilled when Hannah got her first Yahtzee. For those who are wondering - that's getting the same number on all 5 dice (you have up to 3 throws).
They ended up playing on their own this evening because Brendon, Rachel and I were chatting about some theological issues. Daniel had raised a question with Rachel and so we have enjoyed chatting through things and finding some video sermons for them to watch to stimulate more discussion on the topic. It's wonderful for us to have Rachel finally have a friend that is stimulating her to spend so much more time in the Word.