Appointment with Shriner's in St. Louis

I'm so excited to say that we have an appointment with Shriners in St. Louis on March 29th. My mom and I are going to head out the Sunday before so we aren't spending 8+ hours on the road in one day, since I'll be doing the driving. We used to take the Shriner's van and it would be a full day trip to and from and also the doctor's appointment. That was when she was little and would spend most of the trip sleeping. Now, however, at 2 1/2 she talks non-stop and I'm afraid they would kick us all off out of the van because no one would be able to sleep. :)

It will make a nice little get-away for the 3 of us also. We are going to leave on Sunday mid-afternoon early enough to arrive before dark. I'm sure Ashlyn is going to LOVE being in a hotel for the first time ever. We'll spend the evening there thinking of ways to entertain her, since she has the attention span of a...well, 2.5 year old. Her appointment is at 9:00 am on Monday.

This appointment will just be for a fitting for her new arm. I'm excited about this because this arm should be a more useful arm. It'll be a new "gadget" for her to explore and learn to use. She doesn't really "need" it because she has compensated for the lack of a left arm so well. I just don't want to limit her if she wants to become a super-user of the new arm.

She showed her first real signs of interest in getting a new arm a couple of weeks ago. She found her old arm in a desk in our entry hall. Although it didn't fit (since that was from our last trip at 9 months old) she stuck it on her little arm and waved it around saying "Hi!" to me and my mom. It was pretty darn cute. So I asked if she wanted to go get a new one. Of course she did, she wants anything NEW. Shoes, clothes, ponytail ties, dresses...yep...she's her momma's girl alright.

I'm sure I'll be posting more between now and then. In fact I KNOW I will because I now have potty-training bragging rights!