Hassinger Girls Birthdays in November

In the Hassinger house July is the boys birthday month, and November is the girls birthday month. I turned 29 on November 14th, and Abigail celebrates her 5th birthday on November 22nd. She is receiving the traditional homemade cake for breakfast, as well as a box of girly princess movies. She needs something other than cars, trains, and dinosaurs...

Speaking of Abigail, she is doing great in school. She really likes it, and is often awake at 5 or 6 in the morning staring at you, waiting to get dressed and out the door (her bus picks her up at 8am). I think she enjoys the atmosphere with new activities all the time geared just towards people with her capabilities. She is also very tired, and usually in bed by about 7pm. We no longer need the Melatonin to get to sleep. I am always excited to take a medication off of the list. We have also outgrown our need for the suppository every other day, since she is going to the bathroom consistently on her own. So that is 2 medications gone since I last wrote.

Regarding the sleep study results, we no longer need the Bi-Pap machine. That is one more step towards trache removal. And one less machine to bring with us when we travel. Furthermore, she is doing great with the new eye blink switch. We are trying to teach her a double blink, so it is easier to distinguish between intentional and non intentional blinking.

Josiah continues to do well in preschool, and at conferences his teacher praised him for being very compassionate, and one of the first to share with his friends in the class. That is one of the positives of having a sibling with special needs. You learn from a young age that it isn't all about you.

I have been writing down a bunch of stories lately about my boys, my family, and things I have been through in my life. One day I hope to give it out as a gift to my friends and family, or even better, to publish it. Let me share one from before Abigail's accident with you before I go to tuck my boys into bed for the night: When Abigail was three she really liked Sunday school, and she seemed to be internalizing the concept that Jesus loved her. One sunny summer afternoon she was sitting in her chair in the living room, and she looked up and said, "Mommy, Jesus loves me so much." "I know honey," I said. "Yeah," Abigail said, "He doesn't yell at me as much as you do." Nothing like children to keep you humble. A couple of weeks later when I picked her up from Sunday school, her teacher told me that she had been trying to climb the baby gate for most of the class. When I asked Abigail what she had learned in Sunday school that morning she answered, "You couldn't get out!"