February 29, 2008 (Leap Day!)

Things have gone well for the past week. Amanda's visit with Dr Wooten went great. He was very pleased with her progress and her successful weaning down from high levels of Topamax. Already, Amanda is losing the Topamax tan, she has learned to sweat, and her cognitive skills have picked up substantially. The other night, she pulled every toy she could find out to play with and used the knobs, buttons, etc appropriately. She moved from toy to toy to toy as she got bored. She only got mad once when she couldn't "taste" part of a toy that she really wanted to bite on. She has been very happy as she has weaned off of Topamax. We are holding steady for a little while because both Katie and Susan have had head colds and we don't want Amanda to be weaning if she gets the cold. We will probably start dropping the last bit of Topamax in the next few days. Many of her therapists have commented recently about how interactive and egaged Amanda is. She is definitely a different kid now that she is off the high doses of Topamax. We couldn't be more thrilled with her progress. Have a great day/week!
God Bless!
Susan

2/17/08 - Happy Belated Valentines Day

Whew... The last week and a half has been busy but great. I have had GMAT review and executive education teaching responsibilities on top of my normal course load so it has been busy. Sorry for being late in posting to the blog. Things are going well in the Ivancevich household.

Katie continues to make us proud with her academic efforts. After being named a winner in her school science fair, Katie was a winner in the New Hanover County Science fair so progressed to the NC Southeast Regional Science Fair. She spent from 8 am - 4 pm yesterday competing in the Regional Science Fair. She had a great time and did very well. While, she did not get selected to advance to the State Science Fair, she came away from the experience having had a fun day, knowing she had done a great job and thinking about ideas for next year. We are very proud of her! Way to go Katie!

Amanda has done very well with her Topamax wean. She used to be on 7 Topamax pills per day and she is down to 3! She hasn't had any major issues with the wean. She is full of energy. We are hoping that her verbal skills will be on the rise again. Yesterday, she said Mama, Dada, and Papa so that is a great start! She still loves to wave bye-bye to everyone and give high fives and hugs. She seems more engaged with her surroundings now as well. She has decided that American Idol is her favorite tv show because she likes the music. She loves to be entertained in any way. Last night, she was a wild woman bouncing on her ball and squealing. It is a good thing we have high quality glass in our windows or they might have shattered by now. It is nice to see her happy. This Wednesday, we head back to Raleigh for a neurology appointment. I will keep you posted on how things go.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentines Day. God Bless!

Susan

February 4, 2008 Update

We had a wonderful weekend. Katie LOVED the Hannah Montana movie and a good time was had by all. Dan even stayed awake :-) Saturday, we got to ride for a good portion of the day. It was nice to get out in the nice weather and relax. Yesterday, we enjoyed the outdoors again and then watched the Super Bowl game. I was the only one in my house happy to see the Giants win. Everyone else wanted to witness history in the making. I can see both sides but the whole cheating incident didn't really endear me to the Pats. I would rather see a perfect season with no scandals.

Amanda had a great weekend. She was full of bananas all weekends. She is quite silly these days and is showing her sense of humor a lot. She got to try the Super Bowl spinach dip and she was a big fan. She is also enjoying the wonderful fruit that Grandpa and Grandmama sent. Her favorite thing to do now is to wave hello and goodbye to everyone. She also really enjoyed walking all over the place in her gait trainer yesterday. It was fun because we could hold hands and go for a walk together. We are holding steady on meds for a few days to make sure Amanda didn't catch my cold, then we will continue reducing the Topamax. Thanks for all the wonderful thoughts and prayers! Have a wonderful day!

Susan