Saturday, April 11, 2009 4:02 PM, EDT

In case you missed yesterday's update: Ally's scans came back as good as we could hope for. She has less activity in the same amount of tumor. In the overall scope of things this does not change her prognosis (her only hope is finding a cure...fast), but continues to give us a little extra time with the coolest kiddo around. We take what we can get. Every extra day is like the best Christmas gift ever. But enough of that, because we don't like to think too much about specifics....

This week Ally received a big gift in the mail. But let me back up for a moment...EVERY week Ally gets mail. She gets lots of mail from First Baptist Church in Farmington, and various cards from other people. We are VERY bad at writing back to people and thanking them for their thoughtful gifts, but please know Ally LOVES all the cards and stickers and pictures she gets...blame the no response on Mommy and Daddy. Perhaps over the summer Mommy can catch up on thank yous...but don't hold your breath! Anyway...this week Ally got a huge package in the mail. A star has been named after her! I know at least one person who reads this has access to a powerful telescope so here are the coordinates: Ursa Major RA9h11m17.91s D57º 16'55.28" I have no idea what that means, but looking at the map they gave us, if you look at the big dipper and towards the end of the handle look down (an inch on our map...who knows how much in the night sky) you will see the star "Allyson Mae". Thanks to our friends in Maine for thinking of Ally in such a special way. There is a star that Ally can see out our front door each night as we take her upstairs for bed. She always says that star is blue, so we are pretty sure this star is blue.

Anyway, in a more day to day update of Ally: her speech is coming a long way. It seems she adds 1 or 2 new words a day. She is pronouncing words better (she used to say "oap" and now says "soap", stuff like that). She is still not putting 2 words together, but that will come when she is ready. She is starting to climb up on things (like the couch). We had always discouraged this activity in the past, due to her tubies, but now that she is stream-lined we are not so anxious about it.

Okay, this has turned into one of my longest posts ever, so once again...Happy Easter.