HAH!! I have a response to my e-mail...
was just cc:ed on a memo to our Commission (which meets tonight)
requesting $10,500 from our localities (we're a regional agency that
covers six local governments) for solid waste/recycling planning! Of
course, that's no guarantee that they will fund it, but at least now the
effort is being made. I'm SO danged pleased with myself... 
Happy 6th birthday to Laurel!
We are so proud of all she is accomplishing
lately! Last night she ate several florets of cut-up but unpureed
broccoli. 
She's a sad girl this morning, though, so I hope she cheers up! Laurel
and I have had something pretty much continuously for about three weeks
now (not the same bug - I think we've been through at least two), and
Miss Laurel is still not feeling her best. But we're hoping she'll be up
for going to the Virginia Safari Park today.
Here are some blast-from-the-past pictures of Laurel:
2 days old
2 weeks old
1 year old
2 years old
3 years old
4 years old
5 years old (I don't seem to have a birthday picture! I think she was a
sad girl on her birthday last year, too. Here's the one from our
Christmas card, that was taken one month later)
6 years old (from yesterday's party at school - not a happy camper then,
either!)
I have to show you guys what I've been working on the past two evenings!
In Laurel's class, the birthday child gets to
be "Star of the Week" (Laurel's didn't start till today,
because they were off Monday and Tuesday last week, then a little boy
whose birthday was the day before hers was Star of the Week). I found
out last week that this meant that Mommy got to make a poster to hang in
the class. Below is a picture of the fruits of my labors. Bob says he
thinks I'll pass kindergarten! 
(He also asked, "Does this make her a poster child?" 
)
Bad news/good news day...
First the bad news. We took Laurel to a second-opinion orthopedist today, one that was recommended by my chiropractor as someone he often exchanges patients with so it seems likely he's not a real slice 'em dice 'em guy, but we got exactly the same opinion. Laurel needs the surgery on her leg and hip. I have to admit, looking at the x-ray, I can't really see that there is any other way to fix it either. If we had caught this when it first started...but it's too late now. I feel so sad for her - I'm sure this is going to hurt a LOT, and then she has to wear these long-leg casts that will keep her legs splayed for four weeks. We'll have to rent a special wheelchair for her, and apparently she'll have to ride in the car on her side in some sort of special vest that hooks into the seat belt. I have no idea how much of the time she'll need to take off school. This is going to be such a nightmare! I just feel ill thinking about it. Seriously. The surgery is scheduled for January 8.
OK, the good news. This may not seem to be such a big thing, but for
me, it's hugely symbolic. Tonight for the first time, she ate her own
birthday cake! Not just the frosting, but the actual cake! We didn't
want to try it without her speech therapist, but she came tonight and
Laurel calmly chewed and swallowed some bites of actual birthday cake
like it was no big deal. Along with some more unpureed broccoli and some
pureed fruit to wash it all down with. Unfortunately, I was at Special
Needs Moms' Night Out and missed it all! But to me it's SO big to know
that she ate birthday cake, because when the doctors told us that they
wanted to place the g-tube, one of the things that flashed through my
mind was a picture of a sad girl who never got to eat her own birthday
cake. So to me, it's a milestone! 
Some scenes from our Thanksgiving...
It wasn't all warm fuzzies - I spent most of
the day with Laurel while Bob cooked dinner, and she was cranky or tired
for a good chunk of the day. But the day did have some highlights, and
here they are:
OK, this hand turkey may not look like much to you. I'm sure most
6-year-olds are doing a WAY better job of coloring. But all of the
coloring on the bottom part of the page was done by Laurel holding the
crayon all by herself - a first!
For the first time, we brought Laurel's wheechair up to the table and
tried to feed her part of the dinner as we were eating it. Laurel's
favorite part of the dinner, though, was the sound of plates scraping,
which for some reason is just the funniest thing to Laurel:
I have to say that I think unpureed turkey is still a little too
advanced for Laurel. The jellied cranberries were a huge hit, though.
Made all the better for me by the fact that Bob got to feed them to her
(having finished his dinner first, because I'd been busy trying to feed
Laurel turkey and stuffing and gravy) and he can't STAND them. I think
he must have said "No accounting for tastes" after every bite!
After dinner, Laurel played with her switch-operated fan (it does a cool
light display, too). That seemed to be a pretty big hit as well:
Then we went downstairs, called Bob's folks, watched the rest of
"Cars" (which we'd started earlier while dinner was cooking),
and Laurel fell asleep. That was our Thanksgiving!
You know, I had expected that I would spend a lot of the day reflecting
on last Thanksgiving, which of course was the last one with my mom. And
I did, some. But more, what I found myself thinking about was the only
other Thanksgiving when it was just the three of us, Thanksgiving 2000.
Which you know, it's funny, I hadn't even been thinking about it - I've
been telling people that the only Thanksgiving I'd spent without my mom
was the one where Bob's sister got married (way back before my dad
died). I think I tend to try to not think about that period too much. It
was a hard day, although it had a magical ending. We spent a somber day,
had a little dinner that folks at church had made up for us, and then
trudged down to the NICU. And Laurel finally came out of her phenobarb
coma that night and saw us for the first time! Anyway, the quiet day I
think took me back to that time. How much things have changed!
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!