Ilan's Tsa-adah (Hike)

Fan-tas-tic and a-maz-ing are the two words that come to mind to describe Ilan's active dedication to improving himself during the past 10 days.

Besides card playing, backgammon, ping pong and other board games Ilan has kept busy building up his stamina.  It is ironically a deja-vu subject on stamina because just prior to the accident Ilan spoke to me very seriously about improving his stamina so that he could play better in the waterpolo team.  At therapy he is being made to stand mostly alone with the aid of a walker to keep his balance and strengthen his legs.  He is also having to move his head in all directions to strengthen his neck muscles (most of the time he sits holding his head straight up!).

Last weekend Ilan, Mum and Dad took Nahla (our dog) and went for a long walk near Venice Beach.  Ilan absolutely loved the outdoors as the weather that day was great. 

Over the past few days Ilan has played a kind of handball.  We take a beach ball and throw it to him and he has to punch the ball with his left hand - he does fairly well.  He also plays soccer: we throw the ball near his leg and he has to kick it - his coordination is phenominal when he kicks the ball with his left leg (probably because he is/was a natural leftie in soccer?!) 

HAPPY PESACH from all of us in the Ashkenazi family  

To all Ilan's friends that read this blog:  PLEASE take a few seconds to write Ilan a sentence or two in the comments section - we promise to read it with/to him.  Ilan should be getting a userfriendly computer soon for his own use; once he gets up-to-speed we will have him communicate directly online?!