Wednesday, September 28, 2011


Oh and we did managed our very first cycle as a family. Well Oatie had been in the buggy with his brother and sister (we have two bike buggies) when we were in England. But this was our first family outing with Oatie. it was only around the block but we really enjoyed it. Now his sister can ride her bike we can find a new freedom next spring and bike a bit more...



Well Oatie lasted 8 days before he got sick.... well he does seem to be bouncing back a bit quicker.

I have tried to blog about 5 times this week already either no internet connection, i flaked out or I was too busy eating coconut milk ice-cream....

Yep it's the Gluten free recipes that are causing the grimacing in our home. The brown rice pasta is actually very nice and we've gotten used to it for our main rice too... my tip is to throw on some vegetable stock when you are boiling the rice and it's tastes so much better:)

Well Oatie still hasn't make it back into school. We are pursuing his immunity quest as:

. I can't roll him, I know that they say that you can, but I find that it makes him so much worse.

- He can't go swimming, Swimming is amazing for kids with CP and he LOVES it, it could be "his sport"

- I think it's bad enough having CP without being ill all the time.... I HATE being ill and I can walk and do things, what fun is being ill when you can't even go and do the things that you can do...

So back to Bulk barn i went.... I have no idea how it gets expensive in there when everything is pretty cheap... But I am doing a cost analysis of baking from scratch (home-baking if you're from the UK) and using their packet mixes... Oddly enough it's almost the same price to buy a packet mix, than it is from scratch... go figure!?!?!

anyway... I got some cat food treats for Crystal as it's her 2nd birthday on Saturday so my eldest is so excited and is busy planning her a mini party with just us... Oh to bake a wheat cake or a gluten free cake... that's the question...

On the home front... my war on the Mayor has been temporarily delayed as my friend works at the council and I was going to ask her the best method of declaring war... on this very nice man. He is a really nice man and looks a lot like my pal Phil Dzialo (over at Adam's blog) actually but Phil (isn't a politician, and is way nicer...)

Anyway as I have an impeding battle to commence at Oatie's preschool...

is it the parents? NO! is it the other kids giving Oatie a hard time? No! Who is it? YEP! it's them the teacher and aide....

OMG! yes, I have had a whine and moan every single day (in that respect I have not missed taking Oatie in for that reason), well anyone who has lived in Sunny Alberta knows that from one end of the province to the other is like 2 different countries, and if you live by the mountains, you have NO IDEA what the heck to wear. I describe it as actually living up a mountain, the weather is changeable and unpredictable to say the least I can be sunny one minute and serious snow storm the next!

So, i get, I have dressed Oatie too warmly, well it was cold when we left our house... i have no control over their class room temperature... he was wearing a under layer, and no could they take that off... NO! they just whinge and whine and arghghghghghg. They could have left him in his under layer which looks like a tshirt or taken that of and left on his top layer!

The next day get all this SHIT (excuse the pun) about the toilet seat that they bought from his grant, and it doesn't fit... so i offer to bring one in from home... and well that doesn't fit so I get this woman say "so what do YOU want to do about it!!??!?"..... hhhhmmmm it's YOU chose the seat for the toilet at the school you teach at? it had nothing to do with me!!!

The next day i get a complaint about his nails, they were short... but anyway I cut them again... and then the day after I get another complaint about his nails... I was like they are short, he can't help it if he has strong nails... I showed her mine which after an hour in the pool and hot tub were not soft... arhghghghghg

I get another complaint the day after that THEY CANNOT FEED HIM SOME OF THE CRAPPY TREATS, yes they want to in 2.5 hours feed our kids JUNK! when we all provide snacks for them.... they were disappointed that he can't join in on their junk quest!? arhghgghhg

They make me feel guilty for enjoying my 2.5 hours away from him.... I'm sorry be he needs to be away from me too,



So anyway that aside, I have bought another mix for Oatie to try, another mum swears by this bread mix which is GF for her bread machine.

And yes, I have entered the paradise world of coconuts.... we bought and ice cream maker and made our own coconut milk ice cream... there are not any photos of the actual ice cream as it was demolished! And so delicious!


Friday, September 23, 2011

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Mmmm Soup....

Oatie, the sweetheart has been on his special "immune resting diet" for a week. I have to say that he hasn't been ill for a week either.....

I have asked my older two to help Oatie on his immunity quest... and be supportive of the new meals... and even if the food tastes disgusting even if it tastes like cardboard... not to express their dislike at the table they can come and tell me afterwards.

So our meal times on occasion have gone like this. Mum (me) puts interesting meal down on the table...The kids faces look like I have just served up a cooked shoe. Oatie, then takes a mouthful and screws his face up... like YUCK!

Oatie then looks at my daughter, who is grimacing and trying to smile at the same time,.. (a bit like in Bridget Jones when Bridget served BLUE string soup)... So my daughter goes mmmmmm yummy!, so Oatie takes another spoon, pulls the same face, quick fires a side glance at his big brother who is quite happily eating it (when Oatie is looking) and looks up and goes hmmmmm tastes LOVELY mum... at which point i'm trying not to burst with laughter... Oatie does the same with me and his dad. Oatie is trying to catch us out, he knows there is something up with the food... He/We eat it.... well the whole thing reminds me of Joey from a Friends episode when he was doing his soup commercial, the over acting of yumminess!

We didn't tell him that he's on a special diet... well he's a fussy eater to start with, and he will now eat something or drink something even if it tastes gross, if we do. In a few weeks ours and his taste buds will adapt.. (I hope). I am not serving up poison, we ate 95% from scratch anyway, all packed with veggies etc... so we have just gone the extra step. I do give the older two a treat in their lunch kit, something that Oatie can't eat on his quest... but they can, it must be hard for them and they have been doing a super job of encouraging Oatie to eat it and try new things.

Well actually since Sunday I've had the older two asking for his dodgey chocolate brownie now too.... and yesterday and today I was asked by my older two for a second helping and today they couldn't even tell that it was brown rice spaghetti...

I've been chucking OLIVE oil in the brownies, (Oatie isn't allowed Vegetable oils on his immunity quest) and weirdly enough I thought it would taste awful, but you can't taste it.

So tomorrow/friday I will be experimenting with Banana bread recipes and maybe some cookies which are diabetic friendly!

My oven makes the best Bread ever, but I think I indulge and buy a bread making machine so he can have some gluten free bread to eat too... so I might be able to reclaim some of our ABR time.

Oh and today we got in 2.5 hours of ABR.... there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day at the moment especially now with the dishwasher malfunctioning too! arrgghghg.

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Trial

Ok, well it sounds like a John Grishom Novel... lol! After Oatie made it at school for 2 days before he became sick. Then missed a week and then went back.

Well sometime it's odd when you end up having to PAY someone to tell you what you already know,... but it seemed that I needed that push to try.

We took Oatie to a Naturopath, and well the bit that we knew was to remove all allergen's from his diet. i think because of his physical limitations, and then having two other children, and we're already all dairy free.... that I make most of our food from scratch... that the thought of now going for Gluten, dairy, sugar free.... so the Naturopath suggested that Oatie goes on a high protein diet, with a type 2 diabetic, gluten, dairy diet..... Oatie's also not allowed to eat any form of cereal either.

So my best friend told me about a bulk food store, where you go and fill up bags of different flours etc... this shop also has blends that you can make by adding say eggs etc.

So we're now on almond milk and coconut oil and all sorts of gluten free flours lol! We're joining Oatie on his new trial diet for the most part. My older two can still have their favourite wheat cinnamon bread, as I made Oatie a gluten free version. Which my daughter asked if she could have some more of Oatie's dodgey bread! lol!

We've tried the gluten free pizza crust mix too... it was ok as long as you make the pizza crustless! lol!

So it feels a bit overwhelming till I get up and going with it, but we're hoping it will make a huge difference with Oatie, we were also given some homeopathic remedies to accompany the elimination/immune rest diet.

My aim is apart from him to not be ill as frequently, is that I can take him swimming as it's something that he loves, and could be really good at... and it could be a direction that he can thrive in, but at present we can only swim during the warm months/Summer holidays.

Not only that, I really don't like doing his ABR on him when he's ill as he's coughing and spluttering and I end up going down with it too... so not good for anyone.

Well he saw the Guy last wednesday after school, and so since he got home till now, he's only had a minor deviation on his allergy free diet.... he had a morsel of wheat bread, like a slither, one chocolate/(no wheat) and a slither of cake (which I made and was for a baby shower that we went to). OMG what am I going to make tomorrow? lol!

So I'm about to go and try out the gluten free brownie mix, and what I am doing is making the gluten free things and then going to make my own version with the raw flours and we can do a taste/cost test between them!


So for me, I'm finding the back to school really tough, I'm fighting the thyroid energy levels, recovering from the throat lump which still hurts... followed with a week of illness, and then now the total exclusion diet for Oatie... lol!

Well we decided that we would give it one month and see how it goes...

Monday, September 12, 2011

La prematernelle Strkes back

I started to write this before school started on 3rd Sep and finished writing it today. Tempted to get a darth vader mask or borrow my 8 year olds and go in with Oatie on day one. And say "if you bully Oatie, I am darth vader" only kidding, but the thought of the whole prejudice revisited and the bullying and all that horrible stuff starting up AGAIN! is like, arghghghgh


More so as his beloved Aide, who was like an older brother to Oatie, lovely man, 27 and didn't have kids was just amazing with him and tought outside the box, this guy got my rebellious Oatie who was also being bully, stopped the bullying, got Oatie to enjoy art, sit down at story time, and taught him the alphabet and was just amazing with him... has gone home back to Quebec, understandably to be with his financeé


Well, his aid on Tuesday will be his second aide, the one who liked him but didn't get Oatie, but then by the end of the year,she was his regular aides fill in, said, the transformation of Oatie was just HUGE! so at least he'll have this lady there and the main two teacher are remaing the same. Like last time, it wasn't the school, it was the parents last time, and this time a lot of the good parents wont be there as their kids are now in Kindergarten. I still have a core 4 parents who will be allies so it should be better this time and obviously Oatie is maturer by a whole year on last year.


Oatie has the maturity of a 2 year old, but then his ability, how his thinks, level of understanding, counting and reading rivals an average 6 year old. Like he can paint with real watercolours, he sat there for I think an hour mixing the colours and painted with care and pride his picture that his brother drew for him.

Well no bullying so far during the first week so, so far, so good.


Well that was last Tuesday after Labour Day weekend. Oatie was so delighted to be back and yes, within 2 days of being back at school he was ill already. His CP means his lungs are really hit hard as of his cough reflex is immature... yep... I'm ill too! Oh well. Today was the first day that the pool was open.

Last year I had hoped to take Mr Oatie swimming on Wed's after preschool as I tend to park at the rec centre anyway, we're members so it doesn't cost anything but last year he was so sick. We had hoped that having a totally ill free Summer that he would have a better fall. His little swimming kit is all packed so the first day he's ok, I'm going to just take him for a swim. It's his favourite activity.

We went swimming almost EVERYDAY for 6 weeks in the Summer so it wasn't like he wasn't exposed to Germs, it's just at preschool he gets really sick.

well look at that! we were so proud of him, he actually COLOURED with a crayon! Well that was down to his sister who could colour all day long, sitting with him and teaching him to colour and to enjoy it.

Water spray park, (yes was a total waste of money) the council could have put it towards adding indoor slides or this. This is open from victoria day till it gets cold. So its only open 4 months of the year and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars! Anyway Oatie loves the Yellow Water Bucket! we walk past it on our way back to the car

Here is Oatie enjoying the water bucket. We went from 30oC on Saturday to 9oC today!

Hopefully he'll be back at school tomorrow.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

top tip to kill a conversation or have people walk away!

My theory on making people walk away with a set phrase works every time! Yep. if you want anyone to walk away in North America, just talk about School busses not having seat belts. It worked last year and well it still works this year too!

Well aside from that I ended up having a lively debate about aides/school.

A person I know was telling me about a child who has Attention deficit disorder, and how this child was EXCLUDED from class until the Mother gave in to medicate the child. Now I have absolutely no knowledge/first hand experience on ADD and surprisingly no opinion on to medicate or not as I have never personally researched it so please don't think I have an opinion...as I don't. The reason for my pointing this out is, that this child who has ADD, was described as "dangerous to the other children, violent etc" and the fact that this child ended up on medication was a TRIUMPH, when the mother gave in.

AT which point, I pointed out, well what about Oatie? this time last year, he was labelled as a DANGER to his classmates, and violent and angry. Where as the actual truth was, that he was being bullied by 3-4 other kids in his class and it wasn't until several months of me fighting the principle did we eventually get it to stop and for her to see the light! Oatie didn't need to be medicated, he was being bullied! Point being it depend which end of the spectrum that you stand at... isn't it!

How I finally got the matter to rest was a public display out outrage from me...when Oatie didn't attend the field trip to the fire station and I went to the preschool room to tell the teachers and the parents exactly why Oatie wasn't going, because of their (the parents) prejudice behaviour.

--------so our conversation moved on to....
I was just saying that I really enjoy the 2 hours that I have while Oatie is at preschool...... and with him having Cerebral palsy.... it's the only break I/we get. I wasn't moaning, I was merely trying to EDUCATE!

Which our debate went on to aides as Oatie's fabulous aide went back to his home town, and he has his stand in aide is also very nice and I just happened to mention why people find being an aide stressful. I was saying that the best aides that I have seen are those who don't have young children while aiding another young child....or their children are older or don't have any children. The ones I have noticed who find it stressful have kids similar age to that they are aiding. Where by the person I was debating with disagreed saying that being an aide is a stressful job.

The person I was having this discussion with, was saying that it's totally different having a disabled person who is your child as you love them unconditionally...but an aide doesn't have that emotional link with them.

I'm sorry but I just don't agree,.... Yes I love Oatie unconditionally... and yes I have a great bond with him. But having a disabled person to care for isnt really a choice, like all the fellow bloggers I've met... you just get on with what you're dealt... (I'm not entering the selective abortion arena), I'm just saying that I didn't go hey let's have a kid with CP today! or who wishes that something unfortunate happens to their kids to enter the world of disability... like no one....

What about if the parent didn't bond with their kid with special needs from Post natal depression for example... how would that be not stressful to care for the kid but being an aide is? And... Even with a strong bond... The never having a day off... Knowing the difference with able and lesser able kids even with your own. And the general on your own feeling that comes part of the baggage of special needs What special needs actually means (you're on your FUBAR own...OK! And we'll rub your face in it!!! Got it!)

I'm not wanting to dis any aides out there, I think anyone who is an aide is a special kind of person, I'm just debating the debate.

You see, that to me to be an aide..... an aide, is PAID, and an aide gets to choose if they want to work with the individual or not. The aide has the person for a limited amount of hours, an aide can walk away, and aide can go home at night and shut the door. I really don't see how that is stressful at all. To be an aide is a CHOICE!

So my point is, although you love your special one unconditionally, having to care for someone who is long term dependent on you 24-7 is way more stressful than being an aide. No actual break apart from an hour here or there. Maybe I should have banged on about seat belts on school busses with this person!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Adapting to Changes in your life

Well I had about 10 ideas for  blog posts this week but I think that you need some apple insurance for "Apple-itis" for using Touch screen based things that give your thumbs a strange RSI, combined with you son's kitten biting you in a nerve centre in your thumb and when going down for an operation a fabulous nurse sticking a line-needle into the bone in your thumb going ooops! hhhmmm


Yes the cost of not talking for 2 weeks did result in a mild apple-itis for me, which is why I have been quieter than usual!


Well, thank goodness for the keyboard an ergonomic ones at that!


Like I've said previously although I feel most welcome in our sphere :)  I do also feel like a fraud too.  Saying that, just when I think I have adapted to life with a non-walking (yet) person.... something else comes by and I feel like I fall on my butt all over again!


Like last week, I pushed Oatie around on his bike-trike and well now her can steer since going to the theme park, I put my roller blades on and skated behind him while he steered which meant we both had good fun.... especially when he did tight repetative circles!  He also knows his rights from lefts so that was great fun too.


Coming from the UK, I really don't think that the school busses are that safe without seatbelts.  I know that people band around that the busses are compartmentalised, but at the end of the day it's not, its cheap vinyl on cheap foam, so if they have a high speed impact, I can't really see anyone surviving (apart from the driver who gets a seat belt), it's so down to money,... buy no politician wants to say that do they!  When I challenged one, he said busses are perfectly safe with no seatbelts... so I said right well let's cut the drivers one then?  He was like, NO! the driver might get injured...!?!?!  So What about the kids? are they disposible?  I don't mind them driving around town, but when they go on the highway with no seatbelts at 100km per hour or 60m.p.h I think it's wrong.  So mine have never really ridden the school bus before, my son's previous school (same province) only used busses with seatbelts. 


Both of mine started at a new school in the fall, which the disabled parking is even worse than it was previously so I have to push Oatie in the snow or carry him it's a total nightmare.  So I have relented and taken the fact that even though the buses with no seatbelts are not really safe, they also don't have very many collisions either.  So my older two are now riding the bus and I have to say, they absolutely LOVE it!  The driver is amazing, he's just such a nice bloke, loves driving the kids, takes pride in his driving and just loves his job... so the older two are now bussing in the mornings so then it's just trudging across the one field to get Oatie into his school rather than spending 30 minutes getting my older two into school and then another 30 minutes with Oatie.  YEP you guessed it, do they shovel the sidewalks/pavements in Winter?  NO!  This way 3 days a week they will get the bus home too and that way I can get my ABR hours back in as the school run was taking 1.5 hours each way at least!


So our ABR hours have been up this week!  Hooray!






Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...