February Potpourri

When Rosalie was on chemo it was very obvious when to post. We had finite "rounds" that had a beginning, middle, and end. We had frequent visits to the doctor which almost always bore some sort of "news" to send out to our family and friends.

Now that Rosie is off treatment (Hallelujah!) it is a little less obvious when to post, but there are a few odds and ends that will help bring this site up to date.

First, Susannah had her second birthday on Saturday (2/16)which was a blast. You can see from the photos below that she chose to wear her favorite dress, her Snow White dress. Susannah is growing into a funny, smart, and energetic little girl. She loves her sister dearly and we are so happy that the two girls have one another as buddies.

Rosalie has enough hair to wake up with bed head most mornings. Very exciting!

Along the hair topic, Susannah had her very first haircut last week. She was pretty wiggly, but I managed to get all the way around her head before she was ready to call it quits.

Rosalie is making progress in all her therapies. She is initiating conversation all the time at home. We hope that she will start to use more of her language skills at school as well. At the moment she is still quite shy and while she is responding to questions a little better, she is still not initiating any conversations. We see progress in OT and PT as well. Most notably, Rosalie is using a reverse walker to enter and exit buildings. She needs my assistance to steer the walker in the right direction. She can use it independently if we lock the wheels in straight.

Medically, we have been spending a lot of time working on Rosalie's vision. Her left eye turns inward and as a result her vision in that eye is weaker. So we have been patching her dominant right eye every day for half a day to maintain and improve the vision in her weaker left eye. We are happy to report that the patching did indeed improve her left eye's vision - but she still needs strabismus surgery to correct the eye's direction. We are in the process of scheduling this surgery. We are very happy that there is a way, albeit a surgical way, of helping Rosalie with this issue. Strabismus surgery is very common/routine and can be conducted on an outpatient basis. We will keep you posted about when this surgery will take place.

Rosalie's next MRI and spinal tap are scheduled for March 25. Please pray that Rosalie has been cured!

All our love,
The Reibels



Susannah's first hair cut

Joanna's last day :( Joanna has cared for both Rosalie and Susannah in a care-share with the girls' buddy, Judah. This was Joanna's last week and we will miss her dearly. We wish her all the best as delves into her studies at SFSU and focuses on her next career. Thank you, Joanna!

Birthday Balloons

Rosalie sporting a new look

Susannah's birthday cupcakes homemade by Carolyn Barber

The birthday girl digs in
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