Day 206 - Saturday July 7, 2012

It's been great to have my brother Dave here for the past several days.  Bridgett was very close to his family and I can see her interacting with them in a really great way.  Bridgett had not only spent quite a bit of time with them at their home but she also was regularly "training" with Dave.  They worked out together, ran together and rode bikes together.  Even before Dave came Bridgett was talking about getting back to training for a triathlon but these past couple of days she has been talking to me about getting back into shape and I can see that she has a goal.  She is asking to go out walking many times a day and is almost always jogging when she goes out.  Of course, someone is always with her to make sure that she is safe.  We are serious about the direction we have been given to watch her for the entire first year to make sure that she doesn't hit her head again.  After hitting her head when she passed out we have very strong proof of why this is important.  She talked to me yesterday about strengthening her abs and she wants to start doing sit-ups regularly. Additionally not only has she been asking to work out she has been ASKING to do her eye exercises every day which is wonderful because really she hates doing them.  Several times a day she says can you do that eye thing now and she demonstrates with her hands; she even asked me at 11:00 at night on Friday!  She started asking about the eye exercises after we saw the eye doctor.  Perhaps she understood his feeling that surgery might not help and perhaps it's because we talked about surgery.  She always tells me that she doesn't ever want to have surgery again.  I tell her that it's important to do the exercises and wear the dreaded pinhole glasses in order to help her eyes so that she might avoid surgery.  Bridgett really hates the pinhole glasses; she states that they make her look ugly and dumb but she does use them every time I ask her to.  Dave said maybe he should bling them up so that they are more fun to wear!  It's an idea!