Ella continues to improve by very small increments daily. Sometimes she seems very alert, like when I’m feeding her and she is hungry. She can be very interactive then and have good head control and eye contact. At other times she seems subdued and spacey. I assume this is due to the soreness or weakness she may still have from the surgery. In any case, we are taking her out more and it is such a pleasure not to have to worry about the seizures that could have come at any time. Ella is getting more proficient at using her right hand. Her left is lagging far behind now and the therapists say she has some tightness in her left leg that we have to watch out for (and stretch her leg from time to time). This weakness in the left side (hemiparesis) is to be expected and I guess that is where much of the therapy will focus in the next years. In two weeks I will start taking Ella to aquatic therapy. We met yesterday with the therapist — Donalee. She seems very experienced. Also, Ella’s test dermabrasion, to test this method for treatment of her facial nevus (dark patch birthmark) has now been scheduled for August 9th with Dr. Mulliken.