After our ill-fated trip to Chicago, Ella got a bad cold. She was ok on the way back (Tuesday) but on Wednesday she was wheezing and coughing and her nose was constantly running. Good thing they didn’t do the surgery! New tentative date: May 31st. Now Ella is doing fine. She’s making daily progress which is amazing. I don’t think we’ve ever been able to say that and Etan and I wonder again if it has to do with the last shunt adjustment when Dr. Black had the valve turned down to its lowest setting. Among Ella’s new tricks are dragging herself accross the floor and moving along the sofa to get to a toy while standing up. The dragging is the closest movement yet to crawling. She isn’t using her legs to push but she is able to pull herself while propped up on her arms. This is exciting. We remember the days when Ella wouldn’t tolerate more than a minute or two on her stomach. Now she’s motivated enough to get toys and work hard. I imagine that takes alot of upper body strength. Ella’s strong and balanced enough on her feet to be able to move sideways along the couch. She only goes leftwards for now but that is independent movement. Otherwise, she just seems more aware and responsive in almost every way. We do a game of Sounds where she’ll make some sound and I’ll copy it. Then she’ll make a different sound. As I echo her, she keeps trying to make new sounds. Thats fun and a good exercise. Another development is that last week when Ella had no school and no Beth, Gaul took care of her one morning. He did a great job. He did exercises with her and even took her to the toilet despite him swearing he would never deal with that. Kudos to Gaul!