Leah Says Hello and it is time to raise money for Premature Babies.

[WackyDan]

It has been a long time since I gave you all a Leah update. I've been so busy with work and have been enjoying every spare minute I have with her.

She is 16 months old now, 12 3/4 months adjusted. She is babbling a lot and loves to say "Ut-Oh" and on occasion will wave and say "bye bye". Just starting to stand on her own, but not walking as of yet... She likes to hold onto stuff and "cruise" around the perimeter of her play pen or furniture. We are still watching her weight gain and are still concerned about it. She is not adjusting to a lot of the food we are trying to get her to eat... But that will just take time. She has a fleet of specialists that visit her at home... An Early Childhood Interventionist, a physical therapist, and a dietitian. They all rate her as on track and catching up to her real age.

It is hard to believe that she ever weighed 1 pound 4.2 ounces at birth. It is also hard to believe that she spent 79 days in the hospital's NICU. Our two primary nurses, Janet and Carly, have become close family friends as a result.

Another good outcome... Is that I speak on a regular basis at the hospital's NICU family support dinners and due to the amount of money we raised last year for the March of Dimes walk, I've been invited to speak at one of the walk's kick off events. Thanks to family, friends, facebook, and spyderlovers.com (wait... I already said family!), we raised $4190.00 last year. Spyder Lovers everywhere pledged over $2000.00 last year. We're still blown away by that!

So this year we return to the walk... Both a sad and joyous day for participants. Our goal this year is $5000.00. I'm not sure that is realistic or not. My pledge in all this is simple. I will donate $250 for every thousand dollars we raise - up to $4k - which will put us at our $5k goal.

My ultimate goal is to turn over the fund raising to Leah when she is old enough to understand it - if she chooses to.

Can I ask you all a favor? Can you share the following on your facebook pages? I'll be posting more videos as we go, but this is the start of our effort.




And the link to Leah's March For Babies page is: http://www.marchforbabies.org/leahpaquette

...and by all means... Find me on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/daniel.paquette1

[bikeguy]

Glad to see Leah doing so well and, yes, it was about time for an update. She is a real cutie. I don't do facebook so I can't help with that but I sent a donation. Hope you make your goal for a very worthy cause.

Cotton

[SpyderGirl]

Hi Leah!!!!!!

[ataDude]

Hi there, cutie!

[WackyDan]

Glad to see Leah doing so well and, yes, it was about time for an update. She is a real cutie. I don't do facebook so I can't help with that but I sent a donation. Hope you make your goal for a very worthy cause.

Cotton

Thank you very much!

[bikeguy]

Bump This needs to go back to the home page.

Cotton

[WackyDan]

Thank you!!

[zrc]

Hey Wacky, when is the walk, I might have an idea...

[WackyDan]

Hey Wacky, when is the walk, I might have an idea...

April 28th in Charlotte, NC... What do you have in mind?

[Boriken]

Hi Leah,
Love and prayers from the Boriken Clan.

[MickeyFisher]

Donated and reposted, Dan. If I can I'll do more soon, good luck!!

[Lifeisadaydream]

Lets get this back on the front page, you still have a ways to go to reach your goal. I hope my little bit helps get you get there.

[WackyDan]

We are doing well.. Not sure we'll make last year's number but I'm sure it will be close. Thank you to all who have donated and for those who have shared this with others.

I will be posting an updated thread with new video soon. Work has me traveling every week like a madman.