A very interesting day. Emily passed all of her solid food swallowing tests with her speech therapist and was upgraded to a soft diet from the pureed one. Hurray - she gets to eat food that looks like food. Katie continues to work with Emily on how quickly she swallows - she needs to swallow more quickly in order to get thin liquids back. We have figured out what she does and doesn't like in the thickened liquids - milk with thickening powder is a no, fruit juices like apple, grape and pineapple are too sweet, but she's okay with orange juice and lemonade.

Emily also got fitted for her new sports car wheel chair. Her new chair is certainly not ready for a 10K - hopefully wheel chairs aren't a permanent part of our lives - but it's certainly more maneuverable than her old reclining one. She can learn to propel herself in this one by using her left hand and left foot. It'll be much better for outings and walks too.

Ken and I have both been trained now to help with Emily's transfers. It's amazing how much more therapy time she gets when we can do a simple slide transfer versus having to use the lift. Emily tries to help more and more, which in itself is good therapy.

Dr. Yarnell told us this afternoon that its good that she can cough and mouth words, which she does more and more these days. That means that speech is just a matter of time (a phrase I could easily learn to hate).

Emily's OT's used an issue of US magazine in therapy today. It was really ingenuous - they used a large rolling board and binder clips to put the magazine up and in front of Emily - she had to sit tall and reach (great for strengthening her trunk and improving her balance) to turn pages, tell us which dresses and shoes she liked, and point to interesting gossip (I had no idea Reese Withespoon and Jake Gyllenhal were dating).

We went to a ceremony and reception tonight for the 4 high school graduates that are at Craig. The Director of Craig spoke and it was a lovely ceremony. One of the young men was hurt in Winter Park (on a jump they'd built for their snowboards at the condo because they weren't scheduled to be on the mountain until Monday) on the same day as Emily. He was one of Emily's neighbors in the ICU at St. Anthony's. He's regained the use of his arms and seems to have an incredible attitude.