"and many more"

If you have heard a loved one speak today, stop right now and thank God!

It is amazing to me just how much I take for granted.  I have a new appreciation for a lot of things in life, and for that I have my dad to thank! Today I talked to my brother and sisters and grandparents about all of us meeting on the 5th floor at Mayo Hospital to celebrate mom's birthday.  Usually the weekend before one of our birthdays we always get together for a family dinner. This would be the Sunday that we would get together to celebrate mom's birthday this coming Tuesday. We wanted to include dad in celebrating mom so we went and picked up a little cake and all sang happy birthday to mom.  I kept an eye on dad, I think he was trying to sing along, but at the end of the song he said, "and many more."  We all looked at him and said "yes, and many more!"  There were even a few tears that fell out of pure joy to hear his voice, something we didn't think we would hear again. I heard him speak yesterday but it was very soft and you really had to be paying attention. Today he projected his voice, we all heard it, and that is something that he would always add to the end of the Happy Birthday song during times we would celebrate as a family.  He also doubled his steps today - 8 steps today, he took 4 yesterday.  And I just talked to my mom and she told me that he was being rather stubborn and unplugging monitors.  I think he is just so ready to go home!  One of my mom and dads friends, people who have been part of our life for a long time, always there for each other even if they go for a while without talking, anyways, they have been checking on my mom and I love this picture from this morning....I love the love that this picture displays.

  You can also see how the swelling has gone down on my dads head where he had to have a piece of his skull removed, this picture shows how much was removed.  The doctor who did that surgery came by today and was very happy with how he was healing and actually said he might not have to go as long without it as they originally thought.  My dad is incredible. My dad is a fighter.  

I love my dad so much!

*edit* Just heard a great story from my mom that I wanted to add to this day - they have my dads left hand restrained because he kept messing with the incision on his head and they don't want him touching it because of the risk of infection.  He has 46 staples currently.  He does not like having his hand restrained.  He kept asking my mom to untie his hand and she kept telling him it needed to stay how it was so he could heal, he got a bit of an attitude and turned away from her.  This made her sad so she walked around to the other side of the bed and asked him if he was mad, to which he shook his head yes and rolled his yes.  When the nurses came in they let his hand lose while the nurses were tending to him before my mom came home.  As soon as his wrist was released he grabbed the strap and put it under his right arm and then put a pillow over both hands and his head on top the pillow. He found this rather amusing. And less than 2 minutes after having his hand free he put it on top of his head and looked at my mom and the nurse.  He knew what he was doing! This kind of stubbornness will be good once he gets into rehab and can channel it into learning how to take care of himself.