Mark and the kids went back home today.  They will just come back down for visits.  I miss them already.

James did great today.  I took him for a wheel around the unit again today.  This time we did two laps and stopped briefly in the 6th floor lobby and looked outside and watched a few minutes of TV.  He has been squeezing my hand to tell me "yes" for a while now,  but he has not done it for the nurses yet.  Often when the nurses come into the room he half closes his eyes or completely closes them.  He has yet to make eye contact with them at all.  When he was at the end of his chair time today,  I thought he was overstimulated and he was pulling his head forward and putting it back and tremoring and moving his left arm alot.  When I asked him if he was "ok"  he sqeezed my hand,  and did not squeeze for " Are you tired?"  When the nurse came in I told her how I thought he was overstimulated but that he squeezed that he was ok.  She asked him to squeeze her hand and he did but he did not release when asked.  He did look right at her though.  She turned his hand over and asked him to close his hand,  and he did.  She asked him to open his hand,  and he did!  She had him repeat this 3 times!  Then wiggle his toes,  he did this too.  She called in another nurse and they had him do it again and he did!  This jumped him up the "Glasgow coma scale"  by two points!  I think that times when I thought he was overstimulated or upset,  he has actually just been trying very hard to make his muscles work!  I was so proud of him today!  It was awesome to see how excited the nurses were about it too.  Seeing their reaction made me feel like I can be excited and hopeful too!