Happy Kansas Day!
Our school celebrates Kansas day with students researching and portraying a famous Kansan. This year Aurora was Minnie Grinstead, the first woman Kansas state legislator, and Michael was Glenn Martin, a pioneer in aviation. The students also enjoy old west demonstrations, such as candle making, butter making, square dancing, and soap making.
Peter has been doing very well! Staying mostly secluded has been good for our health as a family. Not only have we avoided Covid so far, but we have experienced far fewer colds, etc. Peter continues to thrive with eating and drinking by mouth on his own. Since he has older siblings who get dessert and “victory snacks” for school accomplishments, he is well aware of the existence of ice cream and candy. Fortunately he has generous siblings who will share their shakes and cookies with him.
Peter is making slow but steady progress with speech. I counted that he knows over 120 signs. He has about 12 verbal words that someone other than me would understand him saying. He also recognizes colors, animals, body parts, and pretty much any command or question we ask of him. We have also had some simple conversations with him, using sign language, where he tells us about something that has happened. He has relayed to me about when Michael burned his finger on a lightbulb and his experience riding a sled with Aurora.
This coming Tuesday Peter has his yearly heart biopsy. This procedure checks for rejection in his heart tissue and measures pressures in his heart. We plan to be released same day. Heart caths feel sort of routine to us, but there is risk involved. Please pray for this appointment, for safety traveling, and for Peter in the procedure. Also that there would be no rejection.
COTA, our transplant fundraising organization, came to Salina earlier this month to interview me. I will share that video when it goes live in February.
I posted some pictures on CaringBridge of Kansas Day and sledding:https://caringbridge.org/visit/peterhernandez/journal/view/id/60143926140ae5920e8b5e63