I gave Ella her first real haircut (other than getting her head shaved for operations) a few days ago. I tried to straighten it out some because for the shunt operation, her head was shaved only on one side in the back. She looks like such a big girl sometimes. Work and school have kept me away from home so much the last few days that I have barely even seen Ella awake. I’ve heard that the new progress is kneeling. Etan reports that she does that well and is able to balance and straighten up when positioned on her knees. It is hard to imagine. When she falls back from a sitting position she still can’t get up again so it seems that her motor skills are very behind. But I guess she makes progress in some areas and not in others making her development very uneven. Ella is getting better control over chewing and when I sneak small peices of string cheese in with her pureed food, they don’t come back out as before. She chews and swallows them. One thing is for sure, whatever the progress — Ella is almost always happy and smiling with us which makes up for any lack of progress.