I Will Skate!

WOW where have the last few days gone?

2012-02-21T23:05:00.003-07:00


Oatie playing knights with his brother and sister		Oatie had a Buzz Lazer Zapper ROL!

Well I kept on meaning to blog but hadn't had a single spare minute but haven't been that busy either ?!? When all 3 are off school the day just melts away! ROL!

I know well last week and this week we've been taking it easy... winding down for family week which is nice and I put an electronic BAN on in our house for a good portion of the day and the kids have all been playing from bathing my daughter's baby that pee's Oatie finds that hysterical... to playing the colour changing hot wheels octoblast... Hmmm yes are you noticing the trend of the games all involving WATER inside the house! They have been painting and my eldest has been doing reading with Oatie and my daughter and Oatie made a book which was really sweet...

They did whinge I have to say when I said no gadgets for most of the day or TV... but they soon got over it and have had a great few days so far...

My older two have been skating and my eldest had a all guy figure skating clinic thing which they do each year and he loves it they have from the little guys all the way up to guys landing triples !

Today for Shrove Tuesday we had everyone's favourite toppings and well I found out that Oatie has a huge Chocolate liking :))

Fits of giggles is our Chocolate Monster!

The Sheriff is caught red-handed!

My daughter is now all caught up on her immunisations for now with Oatie so nothing for good few years !

ROL...MMR.. ABR... an abbreviated day LOL!

2012-02-10T21:33:00.002-07:00

Today Oatie had his 1 year old MMR Vaccine at the age of 4 3/4... yep.. I couldn't stomach him having it to be honest.. It's a shame that we don't live in a more higher vaccinated popluation... but I've still never got why they don't offer the single vaccines but just charge you extra for the nurse&room time?

You do that for travel vaccines? as it's deemed a luxury... why not others?

So far he seems to be fine, polished off 2 lunches, snack and a mighty dinner...

Then it got me wondering as I am really anti the MMR (as is my husband) but I was vaccinated as a child and I got Mumps and German measles and chicken pox (not together but within a year or two of each other)

But it got me thinking, as I am ANTI the MMR, and say I was PRO MMR, and he got vaccinated at 1... we didn't get Oatie's diagnosis till he was 2.5 so just think we might have wondered whether it attributed to his CP?

No I'm still not pro MMR... Well I will keep you posted of his after MMR Vaccine...

Other than that, we had a normalish day I skated for an hour with a friend and swam a km, Oatie's dad and Oatie were doing "guy stuff" and then my daughter went straight from school (half day) to a friends for a playdate... so I went and had a quick coffee with another mum who's kid goes to the same school and then we both went and picked up from school. I then got in Oatie's ABR while my older two went skating and now everyone is tuck up in bed well all 4 cats and 3 kidlets.

My husband is out grocery shopping and about to bring back our weekly treat!

Costco did take it back, I was with Oatie (he was in his stroller) and I didn't actually use the words I gestured more what happened... (I didn't realise Oatie had been listening during our walk with my friend) as then he just cut the crap and got to the point,.... he looked up from his nintendo DS and said with total Clarity....

"My mum's boobs were out!..." in a matter of fact tone... looked down again and carried on playing.

I was a bit taken back at his frankness....and I don't embarrass easily, but I'm sure my cheeks coloured a bit...at that point the lady immediately asked for my card and put the credit on my card.

Anyway... then after we decided to pick up some fruit from Costco when I saw another lady admiring the same costume... so we went over and I went to warn her.... when Oatie again, matter of factly said the same thing... and she said "thank you" to Oatie and he with a straight face said "you're welcome".

After he came home and told the older two and well they were all in hysterics...

If you want to borrow Oatie to return items, just let me know!

Have a great weekend if we're not about x

Gray Hair Experiment... oh why did i think it was a good idea? Speedo Swimsuit DISASTER!!! ARGGHGH

2012-02-08T22:15:00.002-07:00

Today is the 100th Day of School at my older two's school... so they are all dressing up as an "old" person what ever that is, well the idea is to look like you're 100... I think it's offensive... but anyway, the kids see it as fun and if you asked if their nearly 70 year old granddad was old... no of course not...you'd get "Grandad's not old, he skis as fast as me and I'm fast!"

I think after some discussion they agreed that E.T was old as he was several hundred years old... and that was old...or as my eldest put it... Yoda, he was old.. he was over 800 years old...

So after the qualification of "OLD" I didn't mind helping out... I remember being a young leader for the Brownie Guides in England and I was 17, one of the brownies was guessing my age, and said that I was 67!.. and then Brown Owl who was 67 asked how old the Brownie thought she was and she thought about it and said 367 or something like that... Brown Owl was not a happy BIRD!

Well I did google earlier and it said hairgel and talc... or hairspray and talc... which I then put on my daughters.. it looked so fab... she went to Beavers with a 2-3inch wide hairband!!!

So anyway, I wanted some silver or white hairspray.... can I find any... NO?! so while my eldest was a Karate... and my daughter and husband at Beavers.... Oatie and I went "shopping", Oatie was like "No Mummy... it's dark... it's cold... it's too late!!!"

Why is my 4 year old usually right? anyway it was strong gusty wind but we set off only to find, blue, red, green, well every colour apart from white or silver!!! arghghghgg Maybe all the other parents bought it? So I ended up with GREEN it was a metalic pale not bright green so I thought it might pass...

So what did I do... my lovely clean shiny glossy hair.. after experimenting on my daughters hair earlier, and decided that maybe green spray would be better... so I sprayed some of that on..

It WAS NOT! pale green... it was VIBRANT URGH GREEN!!! So i put some talc which clumped... then i tried the clear hairspray and talc.... in the end... i found out that white facepaint worked best...I know that they have the standing joke about a pink or blue rinse... so I thought that GREEN would be a laugh... when my daughter got home.. and chortled out in her most Hermione voice..."Oh Mummy! What HAVE you done to YOUR hair!?!?"

So now I have matted, green, grey white, talc clumped hair!?!?! I'm running tomorrow so I'm sure to scare some people! ROL!

I did go running and got a few odd looks then after skating I FORGOT about my hair... and took my helmet off only to have the instructor SCREAM!!! WHAT is WRONG with your HAIR!!! (fortunately her daughter goes to the same school... and it was like OH!) she said I thought you greyed over night... I was like,,,, thanks for that!!!

So the kids had their grey hair and all been washed out... the facepaint washes out of hair really easily and as it's hypoallergenic and doesnt' stink... it's a really good way of colouring your hair, and it also didn't come off on things they touched.

Tomorrrow... I have to go back to costco with my new Swimming costume(bathing suit)... I was in the pool on Monday, and just after explaining to my friend how I go for the most PRUDE-ISH costume that I can find a blue Speedo one... high necked and low legged from my teen days as I got sick of guys hitting on me in the pool and I just wanted to go swimming so I found a prude one from Speedo, just plain navy. And well I stuck with that design as is NEVER goes seethru...doesn't sag or fill with air... and is brilliant and lasts for years!!! If I go swimming I just want to swim not faff around with annoying bathing suits...

So I splashed out on a speedo one, thinking wouldn't it be nice to have some colour, still a distance swimming costume design... and my friend who I swim with on Mondays' was admiring it and thinking she might get one in a different colour... Well I was at 500m and this guy (no he wasn't handsome to me...) in the next lane was looking over at my lane... and and smiling.... I was thinking... "WHAT? what is he smiling at while swimming a length?" I look down and I'm like YIKES! so I YANK the top back up and well it was the most irritating 2k I've EVER swam for a long time.. It was bizarre, it fit fine standing up and wet but actual swimming it was a no no...

Well that's going to be fun at Costo tomorrow... what's even better is that Oatie will be with me PARROTING everything I say... which is usually great for his speech but I'm not sure I want him ROARING WITH LAUGHTER when I tell there service desk person what's "wrong with it", the little man will be in hysterics for the whole afternoon... and shouting it out all around the shop!

Yes, I will be sticking to my Prude style bathing suit from now on...!

Farewell to someone who I thought would out live us all...

2012-02-07T13:02:00.000-07:00

Today in England, is the funeral of a dear family friend. So dear that I cannot remember not remembering him. He was actually one of my dad's customers and that's how they became friends 43 years ago...and even thought my dad was and still is tea-total, in his shop he had a sherry barrel and every Christmas before he closed his shop for Christmas... my dad would have juice, but his friend and I would have a shot of Sherry.... Mine was a thimble if that, but I used to enjoy that.

My dad's friend was one of the good guys, the type of person who restored your faith in humanity each time you saw him. He was always there for anybody or everybody... if our car broke down... my dad's friend would come... if your boiler broke (he was a plumber) no matter what time... he would come.

He was so sweet...In our first home that I bought with my boyfriend (now husband) he came over to help move us in and he checked over our boiler over a cup of tea and found it was leaking carbon monoxide...

He would chat to me in a way that my dad never did when I grew up and he was more like my uncle than a family friend.

He was always so lovely and happy and so hardy like he was never sick. We thought he'd outlive us all. Last year he was diagnosed with Cancer...I can't believe he has died.

He will be sorely missed...

Sports, Ice Skating Skiing Sled Hockey.... Anything... Just SOMETHING!

2012-02-03T22:22:00.001-07:00

OMG! OMG! I am sick of hearing more and more cases of people who don't fit the normal distribution curve to be EXCLUDED from SPORTS... because people who can't walk or think or communicate the same as someone in the Bell Curve doesn't NEED sport or physical fitness!

I don't usually use expletives on our blog, but what an absolute load of B@ll@cks! (Did you like the pun with the @ sign to make it BALL! ROL!!!)

OMG! Well today I went for a skate and a swim, my usual friday morning ritual... when I was feeling a little guilty about not taking Oatie for his "diversity swim", Oatie's Dad would drop him off and I'd get him ready for his swim. Oatie was fine after his vaccination but I just wanted him to have another day away from vomit, and faeces at the pool! ROL!

When I bumped into the principle who was the lovely lady who invited Oatie to swim with her pupils... all 'special needs' I don't like Special needs word... but it's Friday! Anyhow she was asking after Oatie and I said that he had been Skiing and Ice Skating...

When she said (this is the OMG bit) that all but 1 of her pupils can walk. They each have either physical or intellectual or other hurdles in their life.... but NONE of them have skied and NONE of them have ICE SKATED!

Ok, Skiing is a bit more hardcore... you have to drive to the mountain first, not a huge one as it's only 1.5 hours to the base of the lift...

But SKATING!!! they walk past the One of the two rinks to get to the pool! She said that there has NEVER been anything to support kids like Oatie or her students to ice skate... and she was taken back in awe that Oatie was in the parent and tot... I did say it had something to do with the fact that I know the instructor and she would stand up for Oatie in a heartbeat...

Oatie Before we got his skating gear

I have to say that this is truly disgusting... If any of you ever saw how much fun this ladies students have in the pool 3 times a week, like they're having the time of their life in the pool... it's fabulous... imagine how much fun they'd have ice skating... or skiing with their family?

I was telling this lady how Kidsport only does walking kids, and the Special Olympics only intellectually disadvantaged kids.... where as CADS and the PARAS will aid both... but you have to be a CHARITY!

It's just water to you or I but to Oatie it's FREEDOM

Well that's it! this is so wrong... Only this week my good friend Phil mentioned an article about Canadian Children with disabilities excluded from society and not having friends... well not being able to participate in sports really isn't going to help! That was my point!!! What Activities...Where the 'F' are they? as I haven't found any! The only thing I found was the "diversity Swim" and the pool is EMPTY anyway!

To take an extract from the article:

"As far as anyone can tell, there are a plethora of programs for kids with disabilities, But a startling 78 per cent of parents said their children don’t participate regularly in community programs. There are a variety of reasons. Many programs are inaccessible (and that doesn’t mean there are no ramps, it means they are at inconvenient times or in inconvenient places). Transportation is a major problem for children who, because of their disabilities, can’t use public transit. And cost is a big factor, especially as parents of children with life-long disabilities often stop paid work to become caregivers."

What Plethora... please let them tell me where this PLETHORA is? There is NO overabundance or excess of programmes that would include Oatie. What a load of CRAP!

Cant' see him smiling it's because his grin is HIDDEN it was huge, he looked like MR HAPPY from the MR Men!!!

Our rec centre that is meant to be PRO disability, like they let service dogs in etc etc and have the diversity swim and they did agree to let Oatie have his Ice Walker out there... There is maybe 20 preschool programmes... but NOT 1, NOT 1, not a single 1 will let Oatie join, because of his handicap... not a single programme so what plethora!!??? we had to BEG them to let Oatie join the santa workshop and yes... we had to accompany him...

We have "gate crashed" into the parent and tot, and as it's parent with child... then no one can complain... what happens when Oatie is 6? what then? I would have to FIGHT to get him into CanSkate! FIGHT and Skate Canada is meant to be pro- Getting EVERYBODY on the ice but I have emailed them several time and not a single reply to programmes or supporting EVERYBODY out on the ice... it's all empty words!

I have found 1 sled hockey group but that is in the North of the City and Oatie would need to be say 7 or 8... however they have mixed teams so his siblings could play too which is brilliant!

I look at the sheer joy and happiness and the emotional, spiritual development and the motor improvements that it gives Oatie... each time I take him skating, or swimming, it's like he says a few more words or gets that bit more co-ordinated or throws a spontaneous sentence together... or gives him the drive to strive harder or go for it... and yes he feels "NORMAL" what ever that is, but he's doing a sport that he sees lots of other people enjoy... He can't run...... ON LAND!!! but he CAN run on ICE!

Got his Skates on and can't wait to skate!

Just look at his mouth, he is giggling his heart out!

He let go and caught the ball!!!

Just today my friend who is Oatie's skating instructor.... said he's the fastest KID on the ice... why? he's FREE, his CP is left at the rink door. and he is FREE on ice!

Something has to be done...so all the kids in the area can enjoy the same fun and opportunities as Oatie.... like forcing the town to have an adaptive ice skating programme... and fund raising for equipment for the special needs skiiers... and I'm getting the feeling that the someone to do it will have to be me...

Just this week Feb 2012 look at his gait! He's FREE on the ICE! FREE!

Immunising and MMR and family house moved on a truck!

2012-02-02T21:52:00.000-07:00

Oatie Skating on Tuesday

I have to say this week has been rather odd! My older two had 2 teacher training days... and Tuesday my older two came to watch Oatie in HIS lesson, as they are usually at school. On the way in I bumped into 4 people I knew and as nice as it was to see them, I was like arghghgghh we need every minute to lace him up.

Anyway having two older skaters I forgot what bliss this could be... I had one who just held the door open while the other clipped Oatie in the stroller as I have to bump him down the steps... to get to the changing room... I know NICE WHEEL FRIENDLY Rec Centre... NO!!! that's right because only people who can skate unaided or WALK like skating... NOT!

Anyway we did get to the changing room and before I know it, my eldest is putting on Oatie's Skate guards, my daughter is taking off Oat's winter boots and putting on his popsocks... and then my eldest is getting out his helmet and hat and when it came to putting on his skates, my daughter was massaging his feet and my eldest was making him laugh and we got his skates on no time...

Older Brother and Sister Fussing over Oatie

So we weren't late with all that help :) and while he was skating they were actively cheering him on and I even heard my daughter say, that's my baby brother... isn't he just AWESOME! They took so many videos and photos and well it was just lovely!

Today we got Oatie's diptheria etc vaccine the rote ones... and in two weeks time he's having something that we never wanted him to have... the MMR.... :((

Well when I was a kid, they did the vaccines separately... and then this whole MMR thing.... well apart from cost cutting like saying reducing 4 visits to the nurse... as you have to have a round of boosters... I never understood why they didn't offer singles but say, hey! 4 extra visits you need to pay for the nurses time... and then people can pick which they want to have... but NO!

In the UK my eldest got single vaccines and had his boosters like that and my daughter got her first round of singles. but needs a booster.

Our plan was to return to England and get the singles done for Oatie even if it was a few weeks apart would be better than 3 in one go...

I just don't get it, if you had measles you wouldn't be out socialising and then contract mumps and then be out and getting rubella? like what is the statistics of actually NATURALLY contracting all 3 in one go... you JUST WOULDN'T so why the heck would you get all 3 in the same needle when you'd used to have them individually?

I have seen 2 children first hand happily babbling before the MMR when they were 1 and then after they were non verbal for a good long while and that quite frankly scared me to death.

Our plans of returning to the UK to do this got mildly diverted by finding out that Oatie had CP, in the sense that the best treatment for his Cerebral Palsy is ABR (Advanced bio-mechanic rehabilitation) and that isn't funded at all from your health insurance or the government.... so any vacation or travel money has been allocated to that. So we've had to give in to an extent... the population that we live in haven't been immunised to the extent that everyone has been vaccinated apart from mine... and Oatie is entering a school with 600 in the Fall... so we've had to compromise on our beliefs but he's that many years older than he would have been having the triple that I hope he'll be ok.

Well in Canada, our GP said that he would administer the singles if we could find a pharmacist who would import them... we've looked for 3 years and we can only get 1 of the 3....decided that now Oatie is nearly 5, he can have the baby dose now... his immune system is way more mature than it was when he was 1.... I just hope that he doesn't have a reaction.... nor my daughter with a booster.

In Europe you can get the singles in France or the UK really easily... this company has a mobile clinic...

YES! this ia a HOUSE on a truck, not a small thing, it took up 2 road widths WIDE+

Then to top it off, I didn't see a permanent caravan on a flat-bed long vehicle... it was actual a modest sized FAMILY HOME!!! I'm like WTF! It was HUGE! and on a TRUCK!

I Will Skate!: Beaver Camp Watch out!!! Take 3

2012-01-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Well, this should be called take 3, and well I wrote about Beaver Camp on Saturday, it was in the side bar and published and then it vanished from the side bar, went to edit the post and then the post is blank? but it's still online on Oatie's home page... so I then copied it to a new post and then that one was blank...so I've done a link to the post??? and well that went strange... so here it is, below this post!

Please find our Beaver Camp post by clicking this link

Beaver Camp Watch out!!! Take 2

2012-01-28T23:11:00.000-07:00

Oatie did something cool today, look he's standing and holding his ipad, while steering his car racing game!

Oatie Standing holding his ipad

Well we had a usual Saturday, Older two had figure skating with a special surprise. The coach who took my older two for their first experience ice skating ever, her daughter who was training to be a coach (she was a teenager) came to watch them today! The Coaches daughter is at University and using her coaching to support herself so for a few weeks she is coaching on the other ice surface so in between another venue where she does lessons for the city in the morning the pm session is at our kids location, she came to watch them skate. I have to say I was a bit choked, she is only 20, and she's teaching little guys how to skate, and for her other job she is respite care for a family with 3 special needs children twice a week. Like WOW what a fine and lovely person. (I know she is getting paid, but I saw her last week teaching and well when she taught mine 3 years ago, that she is just that type of person and it isn't about money for her.) Her mum, is just the same... my little guy he was 6 at the time and at a skating seminar and my son was a bit shy/reserved and she was there for one of her own skaters a higher level skaters on opposite ice sessions to my son, and instead of taking her skates off and having a cup of tea.. she saw my son and asked if he wouldn't mind if she skated with him during the seminar and coached him for free and wouldn't have it any other way. So all in all, she had her skates on for 6 hours that day. This same woman supported Oatie's ice walker on the ice at our rec centre and when I showed her some photos of Oatie skating last week she was all choked up.

Just when you encounter unpleasantness over and over in your day to day life, to have people like that in your life, restores you faith in humanity... what a lovely family and we're really lucky to have them in our life. I've noticed that whether you enjoy ice skating can often come from your first experience on the ice and this lady gave ours a positive one and now they have a sport/skill they can enjoy for life.

For my eldest, he came away relatively unscathed from being a premature 32weeker... but his gait and gross motor skills were his weakness, he reminded me of Maggie from the Simpsons... I did put him in Ballet since he was two as I used to have pidgeon feet and my mum put me in ballet to correct my posture...Figure skating has been almost therapeutic for him, he is still awkward on land, like today he fell up the stairs and grazed his elbow... but on the ice he's solid and fluid and at home. When he was 2 our doctor was concerned about his gait etc... and you can imagine what the conversation was like... well, just through ballet and figure skating he's a different kid, he's amazing he's working on his axel.

My little girl is at Beaver Scout Camp with her dad tonight. Enjoying the company of another girl beaver, so tomorrow I'm doing the insane get your kid on the ice for the crack of dawn, but I'm taking Oatie along too. I did swap our volunteer duties (playing music etc) so I can just sit there with Oatie... so hopefully I'll survive!

Winter LOL! At least it's warm today, only -4oC Not bad for a camp!

I posted this on Saturday night, but it appears on the web, but not in the sidebar... and then when you go to edit it online... it's BLANK! eh?

Everyone Outdoors: Adaptive Ice Skating Techniques

2012-01-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

Everyone Outdoors: Adaptive Ice Skating Techniques

Have a look at our Friends Marcy's Blog, It's a brilliant blog!

It inspired me to get Oatie out on Skis and Skates for sure!

Jumping Thursday...

2012-01-26T21:47:00.002-07:00

Today we got a really good session of ABR in, I was really pleased! I ran 5 miles with my friend and had a skating lesson while my kids were having theirs... and I did a botched job of a Salchow but I did it and I have to say, I LOVE ice skating and I have two little coaches who skate past and give me some tips and show me how it's really done... lol! I used to be really scared when I first started but since Oatie started to skate and I saw his sheer Bravery and sheer determination, I'm not scared anymore,... if someone who can't walk more than 30feet on land on the best day, is going to put some knifes on the feet and get on the slippery stuff, surely I can leave the air for a second or two!!! I was jumping for an hour... (how on earth does my 8&6 year old do it for 2 hours?!?!?) they must have buns of steel! They had a go at ice dancing today and went splat lol! but they got up and kept going. Children are amazing they truly are!

My daughter was jumping for joy when she has a PD day (teacher training) on Tuesday as my other two get to come and See Oatie in his Ice Skating lesson. Oatie is going to get spoiled rotten, they'll be putting on his harness and taking of his skate guards and fighting to dry his ice skates... they absolutely ADORE their baby brother and I'm really happy as they could have become indifferent to him, instead of being ashamed of him they burst with pride with his achievements... (and then they fight lol!)

Well I'm going to go and try some Scotch with honey on the rocks...

Had a Much Better Day...

2012-01-25T21:57:00.001-07:00

Oatie at Story time with his story cape!

Today we had a much better day, I had a morning adult skate which is always great fun. Then a friend came over for a coffee and Oatie wanted to get down off his bench (the cheeky monkey), but we did get one hour of ABR in. Oatie really wanted to be social and got really excited showing her all his things and telling her all about everything as it was the first time she'd been over for a coffee, he enjoyed playing host, he even offered her a drink! The choice he gave her was "Tea, Coffee or Juice... or you can share my juice, I'll share with you" I know what a sweetie, he's such a happy beautiful soul. Although we've been friends for years, but we usually chat during the week while our kids skate on the benches and (funny enough...she is also my skating instructor and for this Sessions Oatie's Skating instructor too.)

Then my mother in law (super lady, I love her to bits) phoned and we haven't chatted for AGES so that was lovely too.

I have put the episode yesterday behind me. I suppose it's funny when you know you've grown up. 10-20 years ago I would have fought tooth and nail to get the person to see that they had incorrect facts and were wrong. But Now, particularly since Oatie, I can't be bothered to argue back with someone who I can't have a rational debate etc. with and I'm happy to walk away from the conflict, as nothing you do or say will make any difference instead they just get worse! The problem is that they want to keep at it and I don't see the point of arguing with people who demonstrate a lack of logical reasoning, I don't mind a good old fashioned healthy debate, but there is no point doing that with people who don't and refuse to see the facts as facts and get all steamed up about nothing or get the wrong end of the stick and then go on the war path. The problem is, when you walk away from the conflict, it seems that they don't like it and keep on going!

I remember this quote from one of my dad's desk calendars the paper ones which have a proverb or saying of the day under the date...from when I was a teen... funny enough he used to say it to me when I was a kid “Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference.” by Mark Twain.

Life is way too short for all that and I can't be done with all that negative energy, what a waste of energy and for those who carry around grudges for years, how pointless is that? What a total waste! I actually almost pity them for being like that.

I, like Oatie, is fascinated with the Sun, I like warm, positive vibrant energy, I can't bear grudges, I never have and I don't think I ever will.

Oatie loves the Sun, he says sunshine is beautiful and I couldn't agree more.

To finish our nice day, we had a lovely pasta meal that had a slow cooked sauce and for pudding we home-made coconut milk ice cream with chocolate sauce on top.

Terrible Tuesday

2012-01-24T21:51:00.001-07:00

Well the day actually started off great. We had a minor blip in the morning when we were going to be really early for skating and then cut it fine. Well today we managed to get both our skates on within 20 minutes! Which I have to say is unbelievably amazing usually it takes us about 40 minutes. It all depends on how Oatie's Feet are on the day. I found giving him the plastic squeaky burger a great help to distract him and get him to "not help" put his skates on as when the poor loves tries to help his feet get totally rigid...

Anyway! we had a brilliant session, not so much standing around and he learned a new skill by having a hoop on the ice, everyone else had to stand in their hoop and walk along inside, and Oatie had his infront and had to push it around so he had to steer and skate and for 2 few second moments he glided on 2 feet. He's doing so good that I'm hardly holding him up and he even had a go letting go of the walker and bending down. It was one of his best sessions EVER.

After that we had to get some supplies for my daughters upcoming beaver Scout camp, my husband is running one of the camp crafts... and so we swung via costco enroute and I treated Oatie to some Chips (french fries) which he wasn't expecting and he was so very happy about the treat. I tend to shop at the weekend only as during the week it just eats at my ABR hours so it was a one off and now I remember why lol!

As soon as we got in I was all set to Roll him with his ABR he was filled up with albeit junk food... lol! so we had lunch out the way so we had a good clean few hours to get his ABR in. When my friend who we've been meaning to meet up for ages with said that she was free, and she could pop by in a few minutes... so I put a fresh pot of coffee on and thought I'll just sit down for 5 minutes and then get up and do Oatie's ABR while we chat. Well I don't know how 2 hours just zipped by, it was nice to sit down and just enjoy my friends company and then I saw the time and I was like yikes....

Well I thought I can still get it (Oatie's ABR) in, as the older two are coming on the bus today.... just got started when I got a horrid unexpected message which just left me numb... (it was at that moment I hated my smart phone) or me, for looking. Instantly upon reading the content...it I felt like I was coming down with something, know when you get a sudden shock..., fortunately I had put dinner in the oven before my friend came to visit... and I helped the kids with their homework, we got the kids to the activities and I used that app to put them to bed and my daughter read everyone a bedtime story as now my throat has swelled up (from crying) and I can't hardly speak, I still don't know if I have the all clear with that, as I have to go for a follow up in Feb, days like this when it swells which makes me dreading Feb....

We got 15 minutes of ABR in today. (I wouldn't mind if it was a busy day but it just wasn't).

Anyway tomorrow is another day, it will be a better day... I think I'll go and find my cat.

Mel
x

Jan So far! ABR - Skating - Swimming and the government?

2012-01-23T21:21:00.002-07:00

Oatie Skating Jan 2012

Well 2012 is going swimmingly well so far.

Well I'm not sure where I got to but I did have a nice lady come and tell us (government help) what they Can't do for us. She was lovely... but as ABR isn't medically recognised they can't help pay towards transport or accommodation or anything.

Oatie can have some remedial help, but it's hours of being shown how to help him with his speech or whatever? (OK I'm a bit puzzled at that bit). so once again, I'm the one doing it all with an onlooker???

Either way, we're unlikely to find someone as our province is anti alternatives... so they probably won't help anyway. As ABR will contradict the therapists beliefs and hence they won't want to come over?

Well they will contribute towards clothes... maybe? We do get some babysitting allowance... which is nice...

So all in all, not much help with anything really for our lifestyle... it's ok for those who are fully integrated with the medical professions viewpoint...I guess....

The last thing I fancy doing is going out. I don't mind once in a while, but I'd rather collapse snuggled on the sofa.

What I would like help with... maybe someone else help Oatie with an activity... or.... I would LOVE someone just to run through the house with a vacuum cleaner!! Now that would be pure pleasure!!! That's what would be help!

Anyway we've picked up his Fall Kindergarten enrolment form. We've also started to save up for buying a bi-ski for him. I still can't get over all the politics with borrowing one!

Last week for example, I was a bit late for my run before I skated so I ran up and down the stairs after 15 minutes of that, I felt like I had run a good few miles... Can Oatie do something simple like that to get his heart pumping? No! The best I can find is Swimming at our leisure centre and skating and in time it will be Skiing too. Our pool has reduced the swimming session times for "the Oaties!" great Huh! They've knocked off an hour... then next year it will be another hour till it become a once a week event!

Did you know that Kidsport will only help WALKING kids! (of course if you can't walk, you don't have a cardio vascular system did you know!!!) gosh that makes me so cross.

Did you know that the special olympics is only for intellectual disability! If you can't walk you can go and get stuffed too! Where as.... CADS (canadian association for disabled skiiers encompasses both physically and intellecutally diverse people) as does the para olympics... they not only help people with limb loss, or paralysis.. but Cerebral Palsy and intellectual disabilities too!

I'm sorry but I have to say that unfair, why is the 'Special Olympics' excluding other amazing athletes out there just because they can't walk! What happens in the scenario that you have a child with intellectual and physical disability? I have emailed the Special olympics contact person several times posing this question with zero reply! I guess you just get blocked out then!!! What happens if you have mild CP and say you could walk... the para's don't have speed skating yet or figure skating as a recognised event... but the Special's do... or vice versa?

Why can't anyone who wants to do sport or exercise just be able to do it... why is there red tape and all this other stuff in the way... like you can walk so you get 'x' and you can't so you go that way... why can't everyone (all sports charities/groups) just work together and just get the whole community active rather than labouring on about who can and can't do what!

Aside from all of that, Oatie has been Swimming and Skating and thoroughly enjoying it. We've been doing good ABR hours.

On a comical note, I've just used a "work out app" with upbeat music and reprogrammed it... to get the kids into bed, instead of rep interval airhorn... it comes up with the the airhorn... with the next stage(s) of getting ready for bed. I even put story time interval in it.... in it and a two minute bedroom tidy and get their clothes out for tomorrow... it was super!! Highly recommend it! it's called UltraTimer in the app store! worth every cent!

The Best Christmas Holiday's EVER!

2012-01-15T13:02:00.001-07:00

WOW! What a brilliant 3 weeks! We've had the best Christmas Holidays EVER! It was 3 weeks but 3 brilliant weeks!

School finished just before Christmas, so that was nice as it gave me more time to get things organised. I shook off the Flu just before Christmas.

With the illness we went to visit Santa a bit later than we planned so it was about 4 days before Christmas day so that was nice.

Then we did some Christmas Baking, we made a cake for a friend as a gift for pudding on Christmas day. We were planning on having Christmas just ourselves but one of my best friends Oatie is best friends with her dog. My eldest is 6 months younger than her eldest and same for my middle and Oatie....

So we went there for Christmas day, we had the best day, we were with my friends family and it was really lovely and Christmassy.

Then on boxing day we cooked up our Christmas dinner.

The Gingerbread house that we made, it was delicious as it was homemade, and so much fun, we went to Bulk Barn and stocked up on candy (chocolate) to decorate it with.

Oatie playing with one of his new DS games.....

My eldest's cat. She loved Christmas, she "rearranged" the tree over and over and in the end took a sitting vigil in the tree and lay on the last remaining branch as I put the tree away....

During the week before New Years my older two had 2 play dates, so that was really nice and we entertained a few times with our super friends and their kiddlets for dinner which was really nice.

Then we had a great new years too. We had a special dinner and movies with the kids, they went to bed and then we stayed up to the early hours watching a movie with a bottle of wine which was nice. It was the Adjustment Bureau and well i was surprised as the director pulled it off well.

The kids built dens, played games, went for an ice skate, just played and we had so much fun.

I cooked for our upcoming ski trip as I've decided to start to save up for an adaptive ski for Oatie. The Bi-Ski is $3000US. So what we did was pick a self catering hotel-condo.

Then a few days after New Years I picked my parents up from the airport and then last weekend we left for our Family Ski trip. It's the first time I have skiied really since my daughter was born. The last time I skiied with my parents we didn't have any kids.

My dad has a milestone birthday in 2012 so I thought what a better way of celebrating it than doing what we all love.... SKI!

So we all did fit in to my Dodge Grand Caravan.... It was unbelieveable... but my dad even squashed Oatie's wheels in the car too! We had 6 pairs of skis and poles... 6 ski boots, Breakfast and Dinners for 7 for 5 days... Oatie's wheels, and all of us and it's a 7 seater.... and a SLED too! My husband did relent and buy a ski rack for the ski's...

Santa's Elf Workshop

2012-01-02T23:29:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what's going on with Blogger! but some of my scheduled posts didn't post... and some that did post didn't update in the column like my previous post..Charity is the faliure of governments globally... .Well overall Oatie had a ball, a few of the ladies who were running it are my friends and Oatie's dad took him for the first hour while I joined them for the second hour (I was ice skating with blocked ears... very interesting experience ) it involved a lot of arhhhhhghghghhhghghghg!

Well in the past my older two have both been and loved it, and they could go unattended as they were both potty trained. If you're not potty trained then you can't participate in ANYTHING as a preschooler regardless of your age or reason. So we had to accompany him, not that we minded it was quite exciting to share it with him.

I don't know, sometime you get this really off feeling from other people, like vibes WHY is Oatie at the workshop? Or some of the helpers were just watching Oatie (trying to be discrete) when I felt the staring I automatically looked and then they'd look away... kind of intrigued what he would get from the experience.

A person (was a friend) I knew from 2 years back her younger child was there who's about 1 year younger than Oatie and well that was a bit awkward too, not sure if it was pity or avoidance or what...

I think the thing I felt from most of the parents when they came to pick their kids up (the people I didn't know) was that they saw Oatie and they felt FEAR! Like OMG my child is in a room with "him" for 2 hours.

Well this one was from a few days before Christmas Eve that never got published...

Charity is the faliure of governments globally...

2011-12-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Well I was thinking about Charity how some countries have more of a certain type of Charity to support some causes than others and how some Charities are "means tested" and the type of people who GIVE to Charities too.

Well I was chatting to someone how I came about donating my hair (they hadn't seen me since the Summer) and well I was saying how you sometimes feel that you've "exhausted your group of people who sponsor you"... like how many times can you ask the same people to sponsor you for a run/swim/cycle to raise money for charity?

We wanted to go on a vacation, a family vacation and ski... the problem was that the equipment came from a charity and they couldn't let it leave the mountain. (well that's fair enough)... so it looked like we'd have to pay $3000 to buy one of our own. Well then you think of how many other people who are non walkers who must ski, do they all have one in their garage... looking on a classifieds site... and seeing some for sale sadly not Oatie's size...... Ski shops rent "normal" ski equipment but no one except charities rent the BiSki's....

As it happens our nice instructor who is key in the charity that rents the biSkis found one that we could rent, he's such a lovely guy.... we have to go to another province... but we can go and ski as a family....

So I thought about setting up a charity, thinking well if it could raise money for a pool of the special sports equipment then people could hire and go and spend time with their family together rather than the non walking person not being involved and not paying $3000 to do so. I fundriase all the time and I know a bunch of people who do the same.... But then I looked there are just simply thousands and thousands of charities out there.... and you think WHY? even on just giving.com they were trying to promote the charities that people have never heard of... and you think well that charity was a plea for someone elses cause...

Well I could be wrong but I am sure it's the same sort of person who gives to Charity. Why are there charities in the first place? Apart from helping those who are less fortunate than yourselves... why is that money needed? Why is it 'necessary' to have Charities?

If you think of how many thousands of pounds/dollars you have raised personally during your life as in individual and then multiply that by all the people who you know do the same or those who regularly put their hand in their pocket to give......

Or we had a situation in England where there was one Cancer hospice and it was for adults, and there was due to be a childrens's respite hospice within 3 miles... and basically the established hospice fought tooth and nail and almost sabotage so the children's hospice never left the ground. Their reasoning was that if there were 2 hospices then the CHARITABLE DONATIONS WOULD BE HALVED!

So you have Charity Vs Charity wars too...

Or when only 20% of your £1 for example actually makes it to the people in need... so the rest is absorbed in overheads.

On a separate angle, we don't get any help whatsoever towards Oatie... the health care plan deems his treatment (which has made him go from a sack of potatoes to being able to stand freely in space and kick a ball) to adaptive gear for SPORT all considered a luxury... so he can be a PERSON rather than a "labelled disability, sit in a wheelchair and end of story".... you even have to pay for your disabled parking badge. Anything and everything for Oatie is considered a "Luxury" so nothing is covered, not even Diapers!hhmmmmm? The Diapers is a battle to commence...

I am sure that people might consider SPORTS for a non walking person to be a Luxury, but forgive me if I am mistaken, but whether you have able legs or not, you still have a heart and lungs (not to mention feelings) and surely benefit from exercise as are people who can walk.... not to mention the emotional benefit of exercising, making friends etc etc... But NO! it's a LUXURY!

Anything that will enable someone like Oatie to have a vague chance of leading an independent life or having a degree of normalcy it is all called a LUXURY! But hey, I think they'd under the medical insurance plan chop his tendons in his body in a heartbeat... and spend thousand and thousands of dollars on that...

A service dog... well that comes from a Charity.... a little bit of money towards an adaptive bike... well that comes from a charity... The skiing that we did, the loan of the equipment... well that came from a Charity... The Skating that Oatie we bought his equipment but its run by a non-profit organisation..... even speech devices a lot are considered LUXURY so you have to stump up a lot of the cost.

EVEN Kidsport that is a Charity state that they bring sports to those kids who can't normally do them... well it looks like that is for WALKING kids only... and is means tested.

Well we get means tested before taking into the cost of his clothes, diapers, equipment, treatment etc etc etc...

Anything that give him his humanity back... all comes from those with humanity (people like you, I...) from Charities...

Why is there so many Charities? Charity is like the hidden tax that people give from their heart...governments seem to DEPEND on it..... it seems to be the 'sandwich' between insivility and civility....globally....

Well I think that because there is the vast number of charities out there is a signs of failure of Governments who all like their fat-cat pay cheques, and are bureaucrats paper shufflers who are powerhungry for power rather having the vested interest of the people who live in their country and make constantly short term plans till the next election rather than a long term vision that encompasses all areas of society.

Rant over...and out.

Go away Flu! Swiper please swipe it!

2011-12-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, we've all come down with it, I battled on for an extra week before I finally came down with it.... (I was doing my good friend Phil's remedy of a good olde Scotch!!!) obviously I think I should have a bigger serving???

Oatie ASKED Swiper the fox to Swipe his illness away, He said Swiper Swipe NOSE... Swiper SWipe NOSE!!!

Anyway... Oatie missed his last skating lesson he was pretty devastated... the poor love, so we've promised to take him during the School holidays.

I have done something insane... I said to my parents that we would all fit for a 7 hour drive.... in a Dodge Grand Caravan.....

A sled

6 pairs of skis and poles

7 pairs of Ski Boots

A huge cool box....

Ski Gear for 7 people... hmmmmm

Clothes,etc....

AND.... 7 People!!!

AND...............maybe Oatie's Wheels!!!!!!!

What was I thinking??? but saying that when we lived in England we drove to Disneyland Paris with a 0,2,4 year old... all the baby paraphania... clothes travel potty's slings, 2 pushchairs all in a smaller car....

Yes the kids will all be wedged in the 3rd Row! lol!lol!lol! Maybe I'll just take my apple ear buds (ROL Roar of laughter!!!).... hang on a minute they WON'T FIT!!!

WHO said that all this stuff would fit in my car.... (I did!!!) Well worst case scenario everyone can wear their ski jackets and snowpants and we turn the heating off inside the car??? ROL!!! ROL!!!

Well yesterday we did pop by Santa, and Oatie just LOVED it this year, he told me all about the candy cane that he, his brother and sister got.

Tomorrow Oatie is going to the ELF workshop, to learn to be an ELF, he couldn't go last year because he was ill so he's very excited about tomorrow.

7 people, plus ski gear in a Dodge Grand Caravan.... ROL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey we should take pictures of our car if we fit it all in and send it to them for an advert...

Just going downstairs to laugh some more!

Miserable gits...

2011-12-13T22:30:00.000-07:00

Why are people just so blatantly miserable! like seriously... they see someone like one of our special folk, who is willing to break the boundaries and defy "medical professionals predictions" and are some of the happiest people I know... ... and THEN their (Oatie for e.g) JOY draws out........this group of Bar-humbug people who I would like to group together and put them on "miserable mountain"

Their nose it out of joint because you are under 90 and they use a disabled parking badge as do we...... (they are busy taking down your plate number) or shout this isn't "toddler parking!!!" or "you shouldn't park here" my favourite line is.... "hey! lets have a walking race!!!" that makes them RUN lol!
You're in the pool with non special needs children of the same age...

Ohhh don't go near "him" (Oatie) you might catch it... Catch WHAT?!!!! - Happiness?

Ohh yes Happiness is an ILLNESS/DISEASE indeed!

Parent and tot Skating... (suits us as Oatie needs me to skate with him)

The other parents who are determined that their kid who can't even stand up on the ice (non physically challenged) is going to the NHL and this group lesson... which is parented class as the kids attending aren't "ready" to be brave to go without an adult with them... is SOOOOOOOOOOOOooo going to the NHL... and the fact that Oatie is there is a thorn in their side... Well GO and GET A LIFE MATEY!

Do you have any fun anecdotes with idiots?

Oh, and last bit of my rant... Skiing on Tuesday, and this woman about my age said... "I WISH I had one of those to sit in, and be pushed around and take it easy... he's so LUCKY!"

(Well Yes, Oatie was fortunate to have a Bi-Ski experience) I wouldn't call him having CP Lucky...and being unable to ski like 99% of the other skiers that day on their feet Lucky either... . and I'm sure that if it was possible he'd trade places with that woman wishing to "him" in a heartbeat.

Ice, Ice and More Ice... lol!

2011-12-06T22:37:00.001-07:00

Laced up...

Oatie's PreSchool retirement is going well! On Monday he has his skating lesson and insanely... I took him Swimming afterwards! I know... I know!

Well considering we arrive about 45 minutes before he's due to go out to his lesson to put his skates on. His skate are great... they open almost to the toe, just because of the spascisity in his feet, It takes about 10-15 minutes to put the skate on his more spastic foot and about 6-10 minutes on his not so spastic right foot. I have to say that I am getting better at putting them on and this time after I took his skates off his feet felt like mine and he said "ahhhhh Nice Feet!" before they became stiffer again... Did I mention the changing rooms are downstairs? so there is the bumping of his stroller down the stairs with his frame with mine and his skate bags? Then the 20-25 minutes to put skates on Oatie... his harness is really easy to put on so maybe 5 mins and then I put my skates on and navigating the doors etc... so we do fill the 45 minutes arrival right till we step out. My friend giggles as the lesson is 30 minutes and We spend 45 to get ready for it.

About to catch the Beach Ball... look at his Smile!

Anyhow... after that... we step out and Oatie is being a pickle... he doesn't want to stand around and sing preschool songs... (I couldn't agree more....) but when he shouted out NO Rudolf Pokey Hokey at the top of his lungs and NO! I WANT SKATE NOT STAND HERE, not Rudolph's Hoof! !!! (they make a Christmas Hokey Pokey version about Rudolph putting his Right Hoof in etc), I was lost for words I was in agreement but he was a tad rude and then I was trying NOT to laugh at Rudolph Pokey Hokey as just how he said it was comical.and the extra detail of the Hoof... (he didn't have detail in his speech a while back so I was also smiling at his language development albeit a bit rude but honest at the same time).

Then he had his distaste of going around the pilons...(Cones) and literally stuck his pic in. Now he can Steer too.. So I'm now encountering a new era with him. Totally fascinating as well obviously he's his own person and has his own ideas and thoughts most of which he didn't have the ability to converse or convey... but now he's beginning to and it's really intriguing when you think you know someone and then they either back it up with words or contradict what you thought they might like or do... like Oatie.

Oatie Caught it!

Then there is the uncharted territory with Oatie for example at Skating on Monday.... and I... I his Mum and his majority caregiver....and now his physical aide... have the new dynamic of which role. Like Rudeness I will always take him up on it, which ever hat I'm wearing... He might have a point but he can convey it in a more polite manner. But his resistance of the pilons.... I had to take a step back and think well... if he was like my older two, if they resisted they'd either sit down or protest. Here I have a hand through his harness and he can't sit down or protest like they did. So I said that your teacher would like you to go through the pilons, do you understand and he said yes. Then I said that I am here as your method to skate, to be your facilitator your aide,... as your mum I would like you to go through the pilons (none of the other kids wanted to go through the pilons either and sat on the ice...). I said that you can now steer well enough to decide where you want to go... so if you choose not to go through the pilons your teacher will have a word with you and there might be consequences such as not getting a sticker for weaving through the pilons... do you understand? he said yes... so he just pootled off (me in tow) in the other direction by which his instructor came over and said no pilons not pilon sticker... so Oatie Huffed and turned his ice walker and weaved through he pilons and went and claimed his sticker. It was an odd changed in balance of our relationship but I had to remind myself that if he could stand up on his own I wouldn't be out there with him, he would be him boundary testing,,,. Obviously I wouldn't let him go off into a path of danger... but I felt he had asserted his "me" and wanted to test the boundaries like any other 4 year old.

I did say that if he worked hard in class, then we'd go for a swim after... so he did, he waited his turn, and did great. He did cry when he dropped the pilons when it was time to clear up... he almost passed them to his instructor after carrying them 10feet and then dropped them 6inches shy of her hand.... which made him cry. So after I explained that the pure fact that he wanted to tidy up and it didn't matter that he dropped them... the very fact he had a go was just amazing and I said just as amazing as his older brother landing his big fast jump... and Oatie just said ok and smiled. I told Oatie he was too hard on himself... and he should be proud of how far he's come on his skates. All this extra interaction with Oatie is all NEW...

Post Skating Snack... pulling a funny face for the camera...

Swimming was nice after, I do encourage him to develop his swimming kick and arm pulls as I really think he has the capacity to swim unaided one day.... or with a boyancy aide but without me holding him up. He usually likes these plastic boats but when we couldn't find them instead of crying he found a ball instead to play with in the pool.....

After lunch we did 2hours of ABR before taking my older two skating. At the moment Oatie cries if we're out of the house and he's hungry so I've been saying that he just needs to say Food or Hungry instead of howling and not using his words and we don't know what's wrong. So he walks along the bench snuggled his head on my arm and said "Snack Mummy?" and blinked his cute eyelashes at me - another change another difference.

I have to say that after taking him skating and swimming and doing his bench taking the older two skating and doing all the normal chores I was looking forward to my bed later on in the day !!! but he does love his swimming and skating.

Our ABR has been going well... apart from the ski days we've been getting in 2-3 hours Monday-Friday. At the weekend we've had Xmas parties to go to...

Today Tuessday, my older two had a ice dance test which they both passed, I was relieved as they both worked so hard, i've never seen either of them practice as much or as hard as they did for this one... so not passing would have been a bigger blow than if you don't practice as much isn't it.

We got in 3 hours of ABR which was good...

.

Oatie on Skis.... first Bi-Ski experience

2011-11-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

I know! It's quite the Winter for our Oatie.... he's now sit skiing too!

Here is Oatie's dad on his very first time trying to use the Bi-Ski with Oatie...

Oaties Instructor and my daughter with Oatie... and yes Oatie did have a wipeout with his dad...

Oaties Dad with our instructor leading

This is what I will be doing tomorrow... Skiing yeah

2011-11-28T18:30:00.000-07:00

Oatie in his Sit Ski called "Scooby"

On Sunday, we took Oatie Ice Skating

2011-11-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

Another magical day, my older two had already skated for 1.45 minutes at 7am... and re put their skating gear on to take out Oatie. My eldest was amazing, he cruised at almost standstill backwards to encourage Oatie and out of the boys we don't know who was smiling the most...

Who would have though that he would be skating on his feet. If you asked me back in March 2010 I would have thought it unlikely...

Anyway I did find his sqeaky hamburger!!! so he will get to use it after all :)

Puss in boots

2011-11-26T19:00:00.000-07:00

The Day After Competition, we took the kids to see Puss in Boots... but first my eldest wanted to go and cheer on some of his friends who were also competing but in a different event.... My daughter is very fond of this one guy as she saw him land his first axel... and she spontaneously started cheering jumping up and down... and since then, he comes to see ours compete if he can and we him.

Well it was lovely, as their friend was warming up and didn't know we came out to see him skate and he skated past the glass saw my older two and his face just beamed... it was just so sweet...

Then we went 1km up the road to the Cinema and suprised Oatie with his hugest current Idol... his Idol is.... non other than Puss in boots from the Shrek film. He watches Shrek 2 just to see the cat! Oaties eyes lit up when he saw the poster and through out the entire 1.5 hours, his face was of Awe and wonderment it was just MAGIC to see his cute little face just Beaming...

Skating weekend! Toe Pics R Us LOL!

2011-11-25T21:47:00.001-07:00

This was the first competition of the season, so new programmes for both my older two and new outfits too!

Oatie's Brother is skating to Coldplays' Viva la Vida and my daughter to the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.

Well I have to say that I am one proud mum. Oatie clapped and cheered them on. Neither of my older two placed. My daughter skated up a category and well like my eldest often skating against kids 2 years older than them.

My son had an interesting time.... they misplayed his music, as soon as he almost got to his starting postion so he was off his game before even starting... they started his music instantly and his routine is action packed FAST... and near the end they cut his music off and stuck it back in the middle and then 10seconds before his time allowed they just pressed Stop! So he missed of one of his best moves as he didn't know what was going on the poor love. Anyway he's such a good sport, he was like "Oh Well!"

Both of them went and congratulated the kids on the podium... and well we had a great day...

Oatie's Sister

Oh No, my last weeks post disappeared in Blogworld!

2011-11-25T21:45:00.001-07:00

I just went to update my blog when I realised that my last weeks one of the skating comp has gone. Well I do use Blogger+ app on my iphone and on my ipad and occasionally I type on my desktop! and somewhere between syncing all of them, it's gone!

November ABR Comparison photos are here!

2011-11-16T22:17:00.001-07:00

Please look at our comparison page:

to see the progress from March 2010 from before we started ABR to now.

I put the same photos up so you can see the marked improvement in Oatie.

ABR is truly AMAZING!

Nov 2011

Parent and Tot

2011-11-14T13:10:00.001-07:00

Parent and tot Skate (don't look at his helmet lol!)

On Monday! we did our first parent and tot skating. We went for a trial run at family skate yesterday but for the first time in 3+ years the Sunday skate times have changed for the season. However it was a nice drill for this morning.

I persuaded Oatie's dad to come to the first session just in case I was "Dangerous on my skates" for Oatie. (there wasn't much persuasion on my part.... he was dying to come... he was great. I had to do all the carrying and lacing and putting the harness on myself... as that way I could see how I would fare next week by myself) but had Oatie's daddy for a lovely backup support.... As the first session in the USA was a blurr... What became apparent was that Oatie and I need to practise putting his skates on at home during the week... as we were going to be late for our session so his dad put his helmet on while I put my skates on... it was a classic ROL(Roar of laughter) as.... it wasn't till the end of the session that we all realised that his helmet was on BACKWARDS!!!! but it did fit better I have to say! ROL!!!! (I'm just so glad it wasn't me who did that! lol!)

Well Oatie's dad deemed me SAFE.... I even went under the toddler height arch ways a few times.... (I got cheers from the stands).

We only had 3 ignorant BURKE'S. One Father was Scowling at us... for being on in the parent and tot session... (WELL obviously as he believes that his son is going to be in the NHL, and Oatie is encroaching on is son's GROUP lesson where this kid stands up for all of one second and then takes a huge thunk). Maybe a tad mean for me to say... well maybe....

Or this other mother who was scowling too at us in the class... (little do they know that the instructors are my friends since we moved and they are delighted that they get to teach Oatie too) Or was it the other blue badged vehicle Huffing at us believing that we just ABUSED our blue badge status in the parking lot! Man I really detest that! The Eye Rolling or them taking my plate. Well my standard line is.... LETS HAVE A WALKING CONTEST AND SEE WHO WINS!!!?!

Yes these other blue badge people (who Eye roll and huff and take my licence plate) seem to all, be able to get in and out of a "NORMAL" car, no adaptations, and can walk as fast as I can....

Maybe its because Oatie and I had a brilliant time on the East Coast.... where people in Toronto/Montreal Area couldn't do enough to help us and Buffalo U.S.A too... and coming back to our area.... is a culture shock!

Well Oatie was so very impressive on his skates... I have to say that I have Oatie in total Awe.... (Yes my eldest learning his Axel at 8.5 is amazing or my 6.5 year old her lutz...., but Oatie is just as amazing to me. He's fearless, and a skating warrior... he won't rest he just wants to skate skate and skate!). My husband said he couldn't tell who was beaming more on the ice... Me or Oatie...!

My eldest has a new job that he likes,... he gets the sharpening stone and takes off the burrs of Oaties blades from Oaties new Ice adventures!

After all of that and our trip last week... I'm ready for a HUGE nap!

Planes, trains and automobiles... We had a brilliant trip!

2011-11-12T20:07:00.001-07:00

Well our epic 6 day adventure is coming to a close.... I'm typing this on the plane on the way home... Lol! So not home yet.

Well on Friday we headed for Toronto. Oatie and I hired a car, and drove to buffalo... We got held up at the border as we didn't cross where we wanted to... So ended up at the busier border crossing...

Anyway we sat in the queue for 45 minutes there was only 3 people in front of us... Meanwhile about 30 cars went by in the other lanes lol!

When it was our turn... We had to go in the office because we're British Citizens.... And explain the poppy (I was wearing)

Well we arrived at our hotel, it boasted being handicapable friendly.... Well they tried very hard... But..... The luggage cart was the worst I've ever used. Having one hand on Oaties wheels and the other on the cart it was almost impossible to push/pull both.... It took 20 mins to just get into our room...

They tried very hard with the bathroom and the drapes etc.

We grabbed some food and then we crashed for the night... Instead of Buffalo taking 1.5 hours it took 4.5 hours....

The next morning we got ready for our skating fitting/ session.

We got to the rink early we were very excited. We visited www.glidingstars.org a lovely lady called Elizabeth runs it and she runs it non profit. Elizabeth designed the skates and the walkers and the skates are made by Riedell by hand....

They have non weight bearing walkers to person who needs minimal support... Oatie got the middle walker... One that has a bar he can sit on.... But doesn't have the slingseat.

There are different skates... One for CP, one for Wearers of foot braces and the other for people with problems with their feet.

Oatie got the CP skates....

Elizabeth was brilliant! She brought like 11 pairs of skates to get the best fit for Oatie... She brought two ice walkers for Oatie to try... And one harness.

Then, we tried on the gear. And got it ready for the session for handicapable people. Elizabeth's weekly ice programme.

Then it was time for Oatie to get kitted up.

Then, we waited by the end rink door.... Lovely rink it had a nice disabled ramp down to the ice surface.

The ice programme was amazing, they have one to one or two to one aide per skater. Most volunteers are teens or young adults. There was a huge range of physical ability. There were some kids who started with Elizabeth when they were two and now skating around independently.

The format was lovely. First they shout their mantra. I can skate it and I can do it. There were three groups and the end with parachute and ball kicking.

So then two volunteers and Elizabeth came to help us on the ice... All I can say is WOW! Oatie LOvED it!

They thought he'd skate 5 steps and then need a rest... But not Oatie... He skated for a whole hour!

Oatie weaves in and out of the the pylons/cones.

Then we played a parachute game and then after it was ball kicking. Oatie really didn't want to leave the ice... So while I looked online at our rec centre and saw that there are some spaces in the parent and tot.... So Oatie is now signed up for this Monday!

So after that we grabbed our bags and headed back across the border. What was nice was when we came across the border the immigration officer said "welcome home" and it does feel like home...

So we toughed out the Toronto traffic back to the airpot to return our hire car...

Where I met my cousin in the parking lot. So we headed back to my aunts and uncles house which was absolutely wonderful. I haven't been to their house for 19 years. We spent two nights there.

We had a great time with our family. I went shopping with my little cousin and Oatie tried some bubble tea.

My uncle dropped us off at the Toronto downtown station on Monday Morning.

Well they have dug up all around the station so my uncle waited with Oatie while I went and found a porter who was fantastic. (Via Rail) she came and walked 5 mins to get my bags. Helped us to get our tickets and even get our bags checked in.

The journey was about 5 hours. The train was great with a snack cart service and free wifi and power cables so we had a great time.

When we got to Dorval, they have a shuttle to Trudeau airport. A via rail porter gets your bags and puts them on the shuttle. The driver was so nice he even took us to the car rental side which he didn't have to at all..... Even with Oatie shouting hommmmeee massssssss (ohh Mannnnn) from Swiper the fox in Dora the explorer.... At every corner and also shouting out you're driving too fast.....

The car rental person was great... He even loaded our bags, and the we headed off to the hotel that we often stay. Heavy traffic took us 1.5 hours to reach it rather than 35 mins.

The next day we set off for our ABR session and had a brilliant day. We met two families that we've trained with before and met 3 other families which was lovely. We now do 3 sessions... So we did one each day.

Oatie's progress was really good but I wasn't expecting a huge leap as I had been so ill this year with the lump. But there are still significant changes from the ABR machine. And still a major improvement which goes to show that the machine really does work...

On Wednesday we had lunch with another ABR family which was lovely to catch up on the past 6 months.

Hello to Sue and Noah xox

On Tuesday Oatie's preschool aide popped into our hotel to see Oatie.... (the amazing lovely wonderful aide)

He was so excited to see Oatie and Oatie was right back... So much so that after an hour Oatie asked to sit on his lap and fell asleep on him... Oatie was out for the count for 5 hours and woke at midnight... So I gave him a light supper and put him back to bed... Lol!

Our exercises are mainly on oats back with one on the neck and one on the head.

We learned how to use the eggs which is really exciting.

We've had a brilliant training session and they really have catered our exercises to our home setup.

I just need to get going when we get back with it....

So we had another nice person at the car rental. As soon as he realized that Oatie was special... He told me not to offload the car as he then dropped us off right outside the checkin desk door... So that was amazing. Oatie fell asleep in the car and had a huge screaming fit so WestJet were lovely... They basically took our bags early helped us push his ice walker and car seat to the oversized baggage belt and were really lovely.

So we're on the plane on our way home. Oatie has been totally amazing he's travelled so well it's amazing!

What I still can't get over is all the really nice people who couldn't do enough to help me or JJ. On our last visit where he was harder to manage not being able to stand at all and I needed more help... Just one soldier and a cab driver who were just so amazing, who I'm still thankful today for their help.

This time... I've had a nice car rental guy who took our cart to the car in Toronto... Elizabeth's team and volunteer army in Buffalo... Lovely porter at Via Rail Toronto... and in fact brilliant staff... Lovely shuttle bus driver in Montreal... and a nice passer by who pushed our delinquent cart to the car hire desk to this guy getting and loading our car for us... To one of the other ABR families who we had lunch with and it was walking distance from the centre... Who's dad insisted on carrying Oatie back for me to give my arms a break...To the nice car returning guy who dropped us off in the car outside the terminal in Montreal. To the lovely west jet staff who did a brilliant time checking us in with the loudest tantrum that Oatie's had in public for 15 months and were just so nice.

So there are some nice people out there... I think I've just had a lifetimes quota in 6 days...

We're back...

2011-11-11T23:25:00.000-07:00

We're back and had such a great time xxx

And we're off....

2011-11-04T01:03:00.003-06:00

Well I never said what context the "Diversity" was... our leisure centre has a DIVERSITY swim. To be honest the phrase hasn't clicked with me at all.

Well I had one "lovely" man take my number plate, I am sure to report me using the "handicapped" space With Oatie With our Placard..... the other day. Well I had 15 eye witnesses and the rink guy all to state that Oatie was in fact with me as he came to watch my adult skate class.

Well we are heading to the airport in 5 hours so I had better get some sleep... My phone hopefully will sync in time... it went flat after an hour, so we had to change the battery which was a HUGE saga!

Well Till the Oatie has landed....

Love

Mel
xxx

Ok... here's a new one... Diversity!

2011-10-28T21:30:00.001-06:00

How do you guys feel about being labelled a label?

Do you mind, don't mind or prefer having a PC(politically correct) name...

I don't know, nor do I spend much time thinking about it either... Well today i was at our rec centre my older two had a skating seminar today, and well.. I was due to be at the rink till 12.30... we arrived at 7.30....

Anyway; as the times weren't published, I missed my skate and Oatie missed his swim today (I did take him yesterday just in case) and... my husbands car was stuck in park well he managed to get his car to go in the end... but he missed the school meeting.

While he was enroute to the adaptive ski meeting at Tim Hortons... (I know, well the adaptive guy was really nice, he said rather than driving up to the Mountains, that as he was in town anyway he could see us before/after his other meeting).

So I don't know all the in's and outs, but basically we can get Oatie up the mountain mid November on adaptive ski gear, he said for now he would be a sit skier with the view to him being a standing skier when he can weight bear for 20 minutes at least.

So that was exciting. Our dog application has gone off, and Oatie being the bright one that he is is already talking about having a dog so I had to explain that although he would be amazing with a dog, and be a really good owner... there might be someone who needs a dog more... so he might not get one or for many many years....

My friends dog, he played his ipad with, she curled on the floor and he sat between her paws and he played his ipad with her and even a game of monopoly together on his ipad. He/She LOVED it.

The meeting that was missed was rescheduled for the pm and in that we now know what we need to do before Jan's application date for Oatie in Kindgergarten for next year.

Kids wiped and all in bed... Mummy more wiped but not in bed... yet. However a nice man called Ravi cooked my dinner tonight (it's take out) lol!

So going to put my feet up with our takeout and a lovely glass of vino and (yes Phil the Brandy / Whisky is going down a treat... :)) .)

Paper et al. lol!

2011-10-23T13:19:00.001-06:00

Here is tnew latest that we've been arranging that I haven't had time to blog about.

Tomorrow we're taking Oatie to the Dr's to.... get his application for a SERVICE DOG going.

I've filled out the preliminary forms and I have returned those and now they need signing off from a physician to state that he does have CP and that a dog would be beneficial for him.

If the application is application is approved, it could take 2 years for a dog to be trained just for Oatie, it depends they said on the needs of the person applying.

Oatie's future school already have one service dog attend school, our rec centre let's service dogs even pool side....

And...

We're taking Oatie to an charity/non-profit organization where Oatie can get some adaptive ice skating gear en route to Montreal for his ABR.

So I know it sounds totally insane, for a 6 day Trip....but, we're flying to Toronto, and staying the night in a neighboring town, Oatie can be fitted for special equipment and attend the Adaptive ice skating class/session. Then we casually drive back up to Toronto, have a rest evening and a whole day in Toronto I might catch up with some family. Then the next day we get the train from Toronto to Montreal and put our feet up. Grab another hire car and then the next day get stuck into our ABR training and then fly home.

So that's all been arranged and Oatie is so excited. Our rec centre has already approved the gear and, My older two's head figure skating coach has also volunteered to get Oatie going on his adaptive gear when we get back.

How can it be Friday Already!?

2011-10-21T18:06:00.004-06:00

Where has the week gone and we haven't been as busy as usual! Well, On Monday I did make a skating shirt for my eldest.... But apart from that, just the usual...

I did take Oatie Swimming twice this week, once on Wed and then again today.

Today the Kids like Oatie, they are a highschool group I think I mentioned last week invited Oatie to join their swimming session. I didn't want to offend them by saying no so I thought we'd give it a go.

Things I didn't miss about Parent and Tot Swim which is straight after:

I have to say it was really ODD not having anyone STARING at Oatie, and it was also very odd not to have anyone ask "What's wrong with him..." (I always want to retort back, well what's wrong with YOU for asking what's wrong with him?).

I really didn't MISS at all, the parents (not all of them but a few adults) who realise that Oatie is different and then their kid is happily playing with Oatie on the boat or with the plastic bathtub style boats, and then they try and drag their kid AWAY from Oatie, thinking that they can CATCH CP!

It was Surreal really, to be in a pool, and have Oatie excited and that's when his speech is most difficult to understand and the other kids Aides, UNDERSTANDING what he said without me having to decipher/translate what he's just said. It was one of the most oddest experiences in ages... to be somewhere and people WANTED to understand him and tried and did.

The other aspect that took me back was.... that some of the teenage boys, came over and wanted to high five Oatie and just asked him about the boats he was playing with, another came over and just wanted to hold Oatie's hand for a minute.... and Oatie came home and said I have 2 friends at swimming to his dad.

It was so nice to be accpeted. The only people who were FROWNING were the parents of the preschool learn to swim (other side of the rope) having so many kids who don't look like their kids having so much fun and you could see them trying not to stare... Their faces said it all, they wished it was a brick wall...

For me, I found it hard to let my guard down... I am so used to having to be his advocate it was nice to just be a mum for 45 minutes...

For me, I am usually on the other side of the rope (with the more able-bodied side of the population). DEFINATELY not sharing their disdain for the people who don't look the same as them... definately not.... but I enjoyed just swimming with Oatie, and not having to answer why he's different all the time.

I got a lot of "ooohhhhhh... now I understand" from some of the kids aides... as I have always chatted to the kids not just the aides, (I see them when I swim in the morning or at the rink before our adult skate class) and I do get a puzzled look from some of them looking at me like am I chatting to them or poking fun them.... One was that group of 20 something's running through (funny enough... the swimming group that we swam with today at the rink) I posted a photo of them last skating season. One aide has an adult male who she and another lady looks after and I always chat to him too, well I have done since we moved, well today these two ladies were in the pool and then one of them said, Now I know why you chat to our guys/treat them as equals (the people they aide) after seeing Oatie.

I don't know if we will swim with them every Friday depending on times... but it was really nice.

One of the best bits was that most of the high-school aged kids could all swim, which was so brilliant, just so brilliant. Their aides they had with them, WOW, that's what an aide should be like WOW!

I am still wondering whether I can teach Oatie to Swim, I hope I can, (looking at him today I thought he could so do this....) it would be so wonderful for him to be Free in the water.

Have a great weekend

x

We went Swimming!!!

2011-10-14T13:51:00.003-06:00

Well, we did it, Oatie went Swimming...

I went for a public skate and a quick swim, dove home and grabbed Oatie from his dad, and took Oatie Swimming. I must take my waterproof camera so you can see his face, it is just wonderful.

Oatie made a friend there, who was about the same age, and after a while he asked why Oatie couldn't walk... when I said not everyone can walk. So he said, that's ok, put him in the floating boat and I'll give Oatie a ride.

When I went for my swim earlier, I bumped into a group who.... were special kids like Oatie, they were from the high school and I asked what group it was and that Oatie always gets' asked why he can't walk and it would be nice for him to just go swimming and make some friends too. So when I took him back the chief organiser came and found us and said that we're more than welcome to come and join their special group... and left an open invitation... which is really nice of them.

Slight awkward moment after the parent and tot swim.... I bumped into my Oatie's ex school... well the k-9 Oatie's ex-preschool is housed in the building but not really part of it. My daughter went there for K, and she apart from being bullied did like it in the K. Her K teacher gave me a huge hug, where as this other mum who often was in the preschool class last year as she is apparently a "teacher" I don't know of what apart to be hostile lol! refused to speak to me, not that I was bothered....

Better go and finish of the lunches, Oatie is super hungry after all that swimming.

Oh and on a parting moment, there was this one mum who was in a WHITE tiny See through bikini and well it was so transparent and it was indeed YUCK to be honest....

I'm a stress free MAMA SHREK!

2011-10-13T13:28:00.002-06:00

O.M.G I think I'm "mama Shrek".... but stress free...

I get fiery about things but NOT emotionally angry... I have a good vent but it doesn't cause me sleepless nights...

Well after the outcome, I got the farewell email from the room leader... and it was along the lines of the type that one would receive if you moved.... or changed preschool.... not one that this person from their own bad choices and stupidity caused us to remove our little guy....

So no mention, not even a single apology about putting this person as my son's aide... not a single shred of remorse..... When my husband spelled out the reasons for Oatie leaving she just nodded and looked blankly like in one ear our the other or who knows what.

So I wasn't having, oh "he was such a happy boy... pleasure to work with....." Oh no! I decided that i would put it for her in black and white, why he left and I did use capitals, on the YOU bits... oh I did.

It was more the cheek that to push the whole situation away and not bear any responsibility for her rubbish choices or actions... or lack of them!

My 6 year old, said that Grown up's are silly. If kids don't make good choices when interacting with other kids, the situation is mediated out, and people move on,.... she then went on to say when Grown up's don't agree or when one grown up says to another grown up that that grown up didn't make a good choice she said they get all silly about it, and act like a toddler!

So I am waiting for my "toddler response back" from this woman. I really don't care what she says... someone has to tell her that she really didn't make the best choice and maybe she won't inflict the same on another family.....

-----

Mama Shrek... well the bus since the change of driver over the past 10 days has been late/lost and forgotten children... Once again the driver is very nice and looks like their driving is fine. But we live out in the country so you can see a 10 minute walk away to your neighbours on the other side of the estate... This bus does circuits and it's like a Benny Hill sketch... the bus goes this way, then that way, then drives past misses your turn off, turns around comes back up your road, drives past your house....then takes another turn on the route it just was and well my kids spend 20 minutes driving around the estate.... doing laps and laps of the estate..... I'm standing outside and waving at the kids in this direction and then they wave on the way back....

I know people will have a teething period with a new route... but... it's Canada and well they're already hinting of colder things to come and while its mild its not a huge deal to wait 20 for the bus... but you don't want to be out there for 20 minutes in -35... not when you're the first and last stop... So I just told the office and stated how I don't want this lady to get in trouble... just that they are now late for class too... I just think an experienced driver might sit with her over a coffee and plan the route with her..... What did my older twos school do, they forwarded it to the transportation office.... so I was like oh no!

-----

Mama Shrek part III

Well... you might know but we are a Scouting family... and well they are having a "no one left behind campaign". It's about raising money for families, kids who can't afford to go to Scouting for financial reasons stating how that they deserve a break from their hardship for a few hours a week. Well I couldn't agree more..... One of my Scouting friends sent me the link to the campaign.... but it just made me annoyed.....

However, it doesn't state anywhere that they want to help physically less able people, not a single bit.... so the "no one left behind" is for able bodied kids.... so does that mean that Oatie isn't a person? Because this campaign would leave him behind.... or just because you can't walk.... you are not allowed to be a Scout or a Guide? Having been in the Guiding and Scouting world since I was 7, and done it all from Brownie up.... I know that not to be the case at all, Baden Powell wanted EVERYONE to be included, and he meant everyone. I have one of the very first Scouting handbooks EVER, yep a 100 year old book! For my Queens' Guide, I had to study the life of BP and Agnes... and the formation of Scouting and Guiding. I have even been as a child to the Scouting Mecca of Brownsea Island. So don't tell me Scouts Canada that people who are not as physically able as my older two, can't join! It goes against the very principles of Scouting!

Yes I did email Scouts HQ in Ottawa... as Oatie would like to be a Beaver next year... and why not!
------

So Phil, there is 3 people down, now many more billion to go???

Well on an UPBEAT note, you know when people say one door closes another opens.....

My friend who LOVES JJ, he inspired her to be an aide but she was telling me about all the things she is learning and at my age (we're 4 months apart) has found her Niche in life and is just so happy and she is an awesome mum and the passion about her being an aide, is just beautiful...

I will blog about the new exciting things that we have lining up from Oatie... so exciting.

This week, I had no intention of being Mama Shrek.... at all.... but well, these things do pop up together sometimes... I will not and cannot stand for prejudice for people outside the normal distribution curve....

Maybe I'll get some green body paint just to really be Mama Shrek!....

---

I almost feel like going back to school and studying to be a disability rights lawyer! I really do...

This unfairness really shouldn't be here in today's times. It's so last Century!

Love

Mel
xxx

The outcome...

2011-10-12T14:23:00.001-06:00

Well... after 2 hours... the rest of the saga unfolded.

WOW! Unbelievable... The problem is that NICE people can make bad decisions and NICE people can be rubbish...

We found out where the issues really lay... and it was and became apparent to where it did lie... The head of the class (who wasn't there till date). and it wasn't the school board lady who was just as shocked at we were....

We found out that SHE (head of the room)was responsible for Hiring the aide, and SHE had 4 days of training worth on the speech app... and SHE was responsible for ensuring the room was clean and.....

This lady (very lovely actually) it's that what makes it hard... SHE never told the school board who she hired as his aide, the school board were stunned like we were (after the whole bullying thing last year). SHE wasn't even there in the room, I found out last week that she wasn't working there this year (till this all kicked off)...

Still total silence on how, when the room or toys were cleaned or IF they ever had... my husband said that it was a "crickets moment" = dead silence... ROL (Roar of laughter). - but it's not funny!

The most amusing bit was.... that this aide (who disliked my son so very much) apparently has been on an OT course an the INFAMOUS TOILET SEAT that this aide says DOESN'T fit... well according to the School board lady and the Room leader (SHE), both said it wasn't a bad fit... the AIDE (with OT training that she thought so highly of...) WASN'T USING IT RIGHT! What a total and utter joke!

The room leaders take on why they didn't apply for another aide? Well, it was because this aide (super stressed out, doesn't like my son and let him get totally bullied last year) had been on an OT course so therefore most qualified.... hhhmmmm (yep, and she couldn't use the toilet seat right so it hurt her back!) must ask her for details of THAT course... NOT!

Well he is now officially left, I have to say that I am so sad for Oatie... when we told him yesterday, he switched off his Ipad... came over in a very slow crawl, looked at us with his gorgeous eyes and had the biggest monkey on the lip pout, climbed up and said.... "I no words... but Oatie is very very sad... Oatie LOVE School, Oatie loves Friends". I asked him if the nice man aide he had ever growled at him for no reason and he said no, never... I asked him if this aide growls at him (when he isn't being naughty) and he said Yes..... Oatie then said "Oatie is good boy, but AideX still growls at him! but Oatie good".

Yep the victim in this is yes, my son.... but it's always the case isn't it... the one who benefits from going to school, forgetting his CP for an hour or two gets treated like XXXX.

The funding, i found out isn't that transferable... it's school board to school board....

We're now on the waitlist for another preschool that is attached to my older two's school... where the funding can be transferred....

I suppose I'm just sad that after all the XXXX we went through last year with this preschool.. I had more of an expectation that things would go right this year... and not have all the anger and upset that we had last year...

I do feel sad for Oat, this morning he said, "No School for Oatie and looked sad". Unfortunately for him my sons and daughter take after me... they will put up with endless amounts of XXXX and just stomach it.... if they like the social aspect of it or the actual organisation... (or if they feel that they have a right not to be bullied... and try and ride it out). ( I did that with the Girl Guides I got bullied for years by this horrid lady, but I loved going on the adventures with my friends) although I did transfer after 3 years of it to a different unit when we moved.

I took Sharon's Advice...

2011-10-12T11:35:00.003-06:00

I just couldn't send Oatie back to school... I just couldn't.... I got him all packed up and ready and then my legs were like lead.... like they wouldn't move. I wish it was different, I wish that people who are different to the normal distribution curve got treated fairly and with respect.

They, after my 8 page email... they called a meeting this morning very short notice... so I coudln't get anyone to look after Oatie at 3 hours notice... so I sent Oatie's dad to advocate for Oatie and not take their rubbish, or defence.

The bottom line is... they have let Oatie down, they suck at their jobs and really they should be SACKED! If they were in a company and did that, they would have had warnings and well I'd would have had them out before they could say teacake! So why do people get away with it in "education?"

If you can hear fireworks...well thats why... I was wishing I was at the meeting... but My husband went (for my throat) and he doesn't say much, but a true Scorpio, when he does, he says it short sharp and to the point.

So I'm at home waiting to hear how it went down.

We decided that we would have to take him out from Nursery this year well from there...

My debate was Pre-school Vs Pulling him out...

I feel like a horrible person, selfish...in fact.... on one side, I LOVED my break/tiny bit of independence it was just over 2 hours M-F but I LOVED it...mingling with other adults... swimming, skating and running with my friend.

BUT!, on the other, this past week it's transpired that... they lied right from the onset, they didn't even try to find him an aide and well the sharp verbal comments that the poor guy is hearing all the time is just unprofessional and wrong... and they are just short with Oatie. I said to my huband, would we leave any of our other kids with this aide, say if she ever offered to babysit.. and we instantly like NO! so why would we leave her to be with Oatie? She isn't alone with him at school but the now head of the room isn't much better. She's never wanted him to be at school as Oatie messes up her OCD of her planned morning.

Sharon was right, thank you Sharon x

I'll let you know how it goes....

Letter of complaint - Sent!

2011-10-07T16:41:00.001-06:00

I didn't take Oatie to School this morning...

Well, I started the ball rolling. One letter of complaint to the town mayor.... about disabled access etc etc...

The other to Oatie's preschool. Lining out all the "issues", it was totally non emotive (very proud of myself). When I've actually decided something, it doesn't really bother me anymore emotionally / no stress .... (I kind of like that change about me since I've had kids).

Well it's all kicking off, (the other parents have bough their popcorn to eat while watching on the sidelines ROL!) I bypassed all the people who kept on saying that they will do something and just in the end, emailed the head of the head of the head...I got back an email to me within one hour of my email being sent.... and stated that after Thanksgiving that she'll arrange a meeting. I decided that they can have one final meeting with me, the decider....whether I believe they will or have the capacity to change. I told her I don't want any of their defensive rubbish...

Well I really didn't pull any punches with his preschool, as quite frankly I don't care to be honest. My decisions been made in my mind (no change, he leaves...) (change he stays) and I'll see how it plays out... It will either it will go one way or the other way. ROL! I covered from the lack of snow shovelling on the disabled ramp, to how they couldn't be Bothered to switch on the disabled doors, to the toilet seat, to the bitch comments to the lies....I'm just not having my gorgeous Oatie stuck in the middle of it.

I was wondering whether they have a mould problem (It's a portable building), hence all the illness at the school... the Kindergarten is the same... as this dad told me that his son who was with Oatie, has been ill there for 3 weeks. My daughter was in K there last year and I moved her to a different school. 600+ students at her new school and only a light cold... (she caught from Oatie!)

Get this, this was the cheery on top..... but met a dad this morning, who's older kid did, and younger kid will be going to Oatie's pre-school. Anyway, he said that he KNEW this aide was returning permanently as... he bumped into her in the Summer ROL! Where as they told me they were looking....hmmmm

Oh and when my husband spoke to the "jaw wagger" Head of Oatie's Room...(she's all speak and no do, hence I emailed her bosses/bosses/boss) when asked how often they cleaned the toys... there was total silence on the phone.... NICE! After hearing that...my email was sent off within the hour.... ROL!

The Gym Creche I popped in today (all the ladies I know they've even taught me and my older two to skate) said that they would have Oatie hands down... no problem.. it's hit and miss, if he gets a slot... but they are really sweet ladies.

Happy Thanksgiving.... !

Love

Mel
xxx

I'm annoyed, so very annoyed!

2011-10-05T20:56:00.002-06:00

I wrote this on Monday, but slightly tentative about posting... but what the heck, I'm about to take my gorgeous no.3 back into school for some more **** so what the heck! At least the Peppa Pig link is amusing ROL (Roar of laughter)

Apart from me catching whatever the kids caught mean cold virus, my darling daughter caught it and is still smiling the sweetheart.

You know when you're over 30 when you can't remember what happened last week (roar of laughter ROL!). So I might have told you about this already....

Well I did managed over an hour of ABR, but my whole thyroid thing is really arghghgh!

My idea day would be that I woke up early and did an hour of ABR before the kids go to school but, well that's my aim. I've been totally off Soy now for 2 weeks, so I'll let you know what happens... I am trying to embed ABR into our life but with less stress, as last year I went at it like I would if I was running a half marathon. I'm trying to keep on top of the house, chores, cooking laundry etc... AND get my health back and get in his ABR too. AT least he has his machine each night.

As you know my older two love to skate, and well I have found out that in our province that people seem to hop from one thing to another and in a non rude way have no loyalty. For example, our local dance school, the standards have been declining and me being me, have been faithful and loyal to the dance company, and well this year it's even worse. I feel like that I might as well be throwing dollar bills on to the newly relocated firepit in our garden!

My kids love to dance, my older son has danced for 6 years and my daughter for 4 years. They both started when they were two. My daughters ballet class they all look like "peppa pig" (click on the link and you can see the episode lol!) from a British Cartoon jumping and what makes me annoyed is that well the classes are really going downhill. Yes, I wanted a more light hearted environment where they could have fun.. (as they are so dedicated to their skating) but also learn... too. Not to leap around like flat footed elephants. (no they can't say well that's their dexterity at that age... as my daughter can also do a full rotational jump on her ice skates) and funny enough this year my daughter is dancing to a ballet piece for her skating competition programme this year, when she skates it she has beautiful arms, gorgeous leg extension, looks like a ballerina and she just loves it. It's choreographed at her level, unlike this ballet class which is tomorrow and I'm like nooooo I don't want to take them.... I know it's getting worse at the studio as I danced from 2-18 myself.

Two other families (about 20 families left the year before last) who did the lets hop to another studio haven't looked back, and well I'm in a dilemma, do I pull them and they don't dance this year or do we just tough it out... (then kind of kick myself for being loyal, and giving the dance school another chance or riding out the storm...) so as it happens today (tue), my eldests teacher was in the building at the front and desk, dressed for dance.... but didn't take his classes lesson, and left a 10 year old teaching them, which frustrated them all as she was clueless what they were doing.... (I understand if someone is ill, but the teacher wasn't). My own dance teacher broker her foot once, and she was still in the class shouting out instruction and had another senior dancer demonstrate.

Meanwhile, back on the preschool frontier... I found out that after 8 months from when his gorgeous aide gave notice (he wanted to start his life with his fiancée back home) was with Oatie, the School have done NOTHING, yep!!! NOTHING.... yes you heard me right....NOTHING NOT EVEN AN ADVERT TO FIND A NEW AIDE FOR OATIE! So he had a woman who only sees the BAD in Oatie (Like she did last year), and to the point I don't want to take him in anymore... This aide phoned today (probably wondering if Oatie had left which means she's out of a job) to see how Oatie was, my friend has named the preschool team, the "Bitch club" as that is what they are doing to Oatie.... The nice head of the preschool room isn't there this year, and they didn't even tell us, I emailed her and just found out!

Yep, Oatie went in for a day and was ill again!!!! I really think that they don't clean the preschool room... like at all, I've never seen them wipe a single toy...

So I am going to try the "state help" and see what happens, I've emailed the intake line and well you have to wait 10 working days for a reply....

On a good note, still in disbelief, that we could tax deduct ABR, Oatie's dad put a case together and fought their ruling and they agreed in our favour... still in shock...

2011-09-28T17:36:00.001-06:00

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!

OMG look!

2011-09-23T22:18:00.001-06:00

Just Come in at our local supermarket, so excited and it's delicious !

Mmmm Soup....

2011-09-21T22:27:00.001-06:00

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.

The Trial

2011-09-19T21:54:00.001-06:00

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...

La prematernelle Strkes back

2011-09-12T10:21:00.000-06:00

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 **** 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 bullee, 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.

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

2011-09-08T13:14:00.001-06:00

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!

Adapting to Changes in your life

2011-09-02T16:11:00.001-06:00

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!

Theme Park - a Day to remember forever

2011-08-26T15:27:00.001-06:00

I think we had the nicest family day out in absolute YEARS. We decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the only Theme park in Western Canada. We told the kids that we were going shopping to the mall in the North of Town and it wasnt' till we went through the park gates did their mouths drop open. We have lived here for 3 years but we were lucky to go to Disneyland Paris the year that we moved and then last year we combined ABR in California with an extended trip around Disneyland for a joint birthday treat.

We got there shortly after the park opened and headed straight for the washroom lol! They spotted the kids Dodgems first and Oatie was 2 inches clear of being able to go on more of the bigger rides. The rides were colour coded so you could see at a glance who could and couldn't go on which ride which was neat.

So the went on the Dogems first, and Oatie managed to drive the car a bit and then got stuck for the remainder of the ride. So I have noticed that if you revisit something that he has got stuck on a little while later then he's had time for his brain to work it out. As he had to push the pedal with his feet and was independent driving something he has never done before. We went on the log flume and yes we demonstrated our Englishness... it was a hot 25'C blue skies and there i am pulling out our waterproof jackets. Well if you have ever been around Thorpe park in England and wearing jeans, (5 huge WATER rides if not more) you never go to a theme park ever again without them! It was nice we still got wet but just not saturated. Then we went on some trains, had a lovely lunch wattched the princess show, some more car rides, spiny ones, swinging boats, my husband and my older two went on the biggest ride the roller coaster and Oatie and i went on springy cars and hot air balloon ride (mini ferris wheel) we had delicious mini donuts for snack and then we went on a few more rides before I came across BLUE, yes BLUE candy floss (cotton candy) and it was just amazing in England with the humidity it's stickier and not as fluffy, but this was just amazing. Went on a few more rides before we headed back to the dodgems and this time Oatie got the hang of it, and got stuck and managed to steer out of the jam or wall and had the most beautiful manners, he said excuse me each time he bumped someone... he did so well, that we requeued and did it one last time where he drove around just like my other two and he also rode a few rides without me or my husband as we were too big and his brother and sister had their arm around him and you could just see that he grew, during the day. For the last ride we insanely headed back to the log flume and got we one for the road.

It was so nice to be able to go to a place where by disability was by the wayside and we got to all have a fun filled day out.

It's been Chopped!

2011-08-24T15:05:00.002-06:00

Well I've done it. I hung on to my hair for a few more months. A friend of a friend was diagnosed with Cancer and it was uncanny how similar our hair colour was to each other. Anyway this lady had a hard time getting a wig and wanted to use hers and her daughters hair and with my hair we would have been over half way to getting a wig.

I have found that it is really hard to donate your hair. It's political and corrupt and in fact a total nightmare. You think one place is reputable and then it isn't and then you think another place is and then you see reviews or hear of that being corrupt!

I got in to donating my hair as I raise money for a variety of charities and well apart from asking the same people over and over and over again for sponsorship... Growing my hair is "free" and I know that wig makers love Indian hair it's the one that they apparently prefer to use so I purposefully grow to donate. Yep i'm the duffs who sits in a hot tub with my hair in a swimming cap... and yes I have a large volume swimming cap made by Speedo, I don't know if it would fit Marge Simpsons hairdo in it but When I donated 2 lengths last time my hair was below my waist and that fitted in the swim cap. Last time I had to post my hair to the USA... This time it can stay in Canada.

A lot of people are now beginning to SELL their hair and then donate that money to charity... Well I went for Pantene beautiful lengths, hopping in the fact that it's a large public multinational company if there was any profiteering from the hair that it would come to light... It was also an unbraided 8 inches donation I gave them 11.

The problem with all these hair donation places is that it is unregulated, and some of the people profiteer from (sell it), if it isn't cut properly it gets thrown in the bin.... Which when you have spent 2+ years growing your hair for someone who is going through the fight of their life you just want these people to have hair/wig if they wish to have one...

Know the upset and despair that this lady (friend of a friend) went through with not getting a wig and then then being quoted $000's in to making a wig... it is just ridiculous... What I found more shocking was that well 5 of us had hair for her... and it takes between 6-8 donations to make a wig.... this lady and her daughters and I gave our hair away and this lady gets a synthetic wig from a wig exchange company. Don't you think that this is just wrong, apparently this lady didn't qualify for a wig. Just last week another friend of mine contacted me to offer her hair....

There are so many other uses for hair, some environmental groups make Boom's from hair and animal fur to collect oil from oil spillages.... they can even used dreadlocks...

I know hair is relatively free... (I say that the cost of hairbands that i have had/gone through lol! well I let my hair air dry as much as possible lol!) but it is the one thing that they can't manufacturer, which is why I think it's so special.... they can manufacturer synthetics but not the real McCoy.

What is more annoying is that some places (who take hair donations) want 8 inches unbraided, some want 10 braided... and some wont' accept grey, it costs money for hairdressers to post of donations so they just throw someones ponytail in the bin...
I wished that there was a national or international hair programme whereby you can donate you hair whatever condition it is, permed, grey, highlighted and it gets used for the best it can be used for... the wigs could be given out for free... Considering the cancer rates these days and having 3 out of 4 of my grandparents who have all died from cancer....

I know you probably are shouting what's the fuss it's just hair. Well have you ever come out from the hairdressers when you have had a hair disaster and think OMG! I had my hair cut on our honeymoon and I got a flattop from this hairdresser who hated English people, Well at least it grew back... I think that people who are facing cancer should have the choice, if they wish to have a wig or not, and if they wish to have one to not have to pay for it if they can't afford it and not have some external person telling them that they have to pay for it. You know if you can afford it by not blanching at the cost of paying for it.

Each time I have donated my hair, the places I can donate to have changed, not running anymore, I wonder if any of it has actually got to a person that I have intended it for-to. Or did it end up on some rich person who wanted hair extensions and have been sold twice?

Well I'm growing my hair to donate again, in good faith. If by my next donation, I have more than 5% of Grey hair then I can't donate to Pantene next time... maybe we should campaign to them to accept grey hair. Like one wig manufacturer said, not everyone wants to be a bottle blonde, some want to have their wig to look like 'them'.

One week left of the holidays....

2011-08-22T20:39:00.001-06:00

I have to say that I have really enjoyed the Summer holidays on the whole. The kids had a great time at Skate Camp, we got two of them swimming and I have been making a figure skating dress for my daughter who is skating to a piece from the Nutcracker.

I love the holidays, the older two have like an ironman training during Skate camp, it starts up on the last week of school... they are on the ice for 3.5 hours a day, Monday to Friday, Run and bike outside, Swim, yoga, skate, dance for 3.5 weeks, they do group dances with the whole club from Senior skaters down to the junior skaters, the older ones team up with the little ones and the kids totally love it, with their friends who range from my daughters Age of 6 to 16. After that, for the next 5 weeks, they just chil.

Oatie has got out on his bike a lot more and this tricycle is very basic, my eldest had it when he was 1. The pedals are really hard to push, and Oatie actually managed two pushes. I hope this April when the CP bike clinic is open that the cost of a special bike for him isn't out of our reach as I think this year he might be ready for a real bike.

The holidays are a time when the kids can rest emotionally, I think, there is no bullying or stress or illness, no one has been ill once. Next week two of mine are starting a new school together. Oatie is returning to where he started last year, but his amazing fantastic aide moved back East so I hope we don't have what we had last year.

Tomorrow we're surprising the kids with a trip to a mini theme park to enjoy most of the rides you have to be 36inches in height and phew Oatie cleared that, we're not telling them till we get there.

I decided to take the week off ABR, as next week is going to be crazy so I thought might as well have one more week of just enjoying the kids as I know it's cliché, but they are growing up so fast.

Fell of the wagon

2011-08-15T23:09:00.071-06:00

Well I think I spent more time on the title than on the actual post lol! Well I kind of fell off the wagon with my ABR since the operation. I still can't swim more than 50metres without a tugging feeling in my throat (used to swim 2000metres before the operation 5 times a week). And my ABR hours fell off the radar (it used to hurt to do ABR well even wear a round necked top).... and I found it really hard to get back in to my ABR routine, especially during the holidays. Well there was one very special family that got me back on track :), who are really special friends over at Healing, Empowering and Thriving, I wouldn't have got going again without them. The ABR trainer was also lovely, he broke our routine down to baby step to get us going again. Well we have got our hours back up to 2.5-3 hours a day. The challenge is that you have to use both hands obviously and having your 8 and 6 year old at home during the day too has been inventive to keep them occupied while my hands are occupied if you know what I mean. I'm finally getting the hang of it with 1.5 weeks left!!!

We have taken the kids swimming almost every day and finally got my eldest to swim 20m and my daughter 15m. Their goal each is to swim 25m by the end of the holidays.

Well on a side note, I have to say that I absolutely HATE it when I see other families with their1-2 year old COMPLAINING that they can walk or they can RUN. "Oh I can't STAND that X can walk, I'm always RUNNING after them" arghgghghghghghgh In fact I think I always have! My daughter didn't walk till she was 2 and I found that restrictive back then, couldn't put her down on the floor (rains a lot in England) and she wouldn't/refused to stand up (I found out that she didn't want to get her pink shoes dirty). 4 years with Oatie now. I think from being such an outdoorsy person that I find that the hardest. There are some amazing adaptive gear out there now.... look at Everyone Outdoors. It's because it's so expensive like a 4 year olds bike is $100-150 for Oatie it would be at least $800 and when they need a new bike it's another $800+ so somethings we will just have to wait :)

Well sorry if there are bits missing in my sentences my keyboard is cutting out every 8 seconds!

Why is everything excluding!

2011-08-08T22:56:00.001-06:00

Well... we have found that the Nintendo Wii is a platform that they can all play together, have fun and it's not desk bound like the computer so it works well... Oatie can sit on the beanbags just as well as my older two... so it's a nice equalizer...

We usually play Mario kart as it's challenging for each who play and everyone get something different out of it. Anyway the Easter Bunny did bring Mario the Olympics for Easter this year and we never opened it... my belief was that we were totally SICK and TIRED of snow and couldn't face seeing another vision of it on the TV either!

Well now it's 25-30oC outside, we're all quite happy to cool off and play it....

Well it was just something that I noticed. Mario Kart the last player doesn't have to finish it, for the game to move on... it will just end it when the 11th player finishes,,, 8 out of the 12 is the computer playing.... The Olympics Mario, not the case....

Oatie can't make it around a course of Mario, he know's he can't but he's quite happy picking his character, team and kart and joining in and having fun. He is getting better, he knows that the blocks have special things etc... and just loves it.

As you know that Oatie's dream is to skate.... the Winter had the figure skating, naturally my son creamed me... on ice and land with figure skating... he got his jumps to perfection and well my Mii wobbled on it's landing... lol! i was chuffed that I could look good skating somewhere even if it was pretend lol!

Oatie's face BEAMED on the figure skating as it skates around and finishes after a set time, so if you manage a jump you manage a jump etc...

So, why oh why doesn't the Wii have an option to select a player to finish after a set time or say that they have "special needs/co-ordination" mode... as well not just Oatie what about people with balance problems or all sorts... I can't believe that a device like that doesn't think that people who are physically challenged for whatever reason doesn't want to play too.

So our stop gap for that is that they quit the game and move on, that Way Oatie thinks it just finished (like Mario Kart) as if either my son or daughter try to finish his characters lap for him, he gets very angry.... like the cats have their paws over their ears ANGRY! "No I do it!!! and then a high pitched window shattering SCREAM"

Long Weekend

2011-08-01T17:38:00.001-06:00

We've had a really nice long weekend. We've taken the kids for an ice Skate and Swim on the Friday & Saturday

Then we went for a Starbucks to cool down...

We watched Star Wars, had a water balloon "fight" that was just so much fun... Oatie was in the middle of it just squirting everyone! That was just so much fun.... Followed by a BBQ. Lots of bike riding. My eldest has outgrown his bike and we said that he could have a bigger bike if he managed to come around the estate with me. So he cycled a 4km circuit around two blocks of our neighboring acreages.

We've played the Wii, baked banana bread, re-organized the kitchen and even got some ABR in too! Played some board games to get out the heat...

Happy Birthday! Oatie is 4!

2011-07-27T20:21:00.001-06:00

Oatie turned 4. The main thing is that he had a brilliant day! We hadn't decided on a birthday party as such as a lot of our good friends are on holiday or about to go this week. So we'll probably have a gathering of people to celebrate his birthday in a few weeks time. I am sure he won't mind... he'll get another cake!

If you don't want to read a rant! then scroll down to the photos below! (It's about disabled people being excluded by able people)
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For me it was a day of mixed feelings, I suppose the difference between my older two's birthday and Oats. My older two at the same age, had a hall full of people... and Oatie, well not many of his peers would come.

Still even now, you think someone has got it, got Oatie and on your inner circle of Oatie Supporters... only to find that this person, when it comes down to the crunch.... is actually no different, at the core than the people who view "disability" with disdain...... it's the exclusion, I think it's the exclusion that I find the hardest. (In a nutshell, Oatie doesn't get invited to a party but a non-physically restricted person does, who both (Oatie and this boy) know the boy, both from the same place). It wasn't that Oatie didn't get invited as such, it was that it was all "secret-secret, hush-hush" as the mum was I thought from the inner circle of families that I trust. I think what it was was the fact that it was all hush-hush, but then they spoke about it right in front of me, and rubbed your face in it too... not once but over DAYS! (the boy in question and Oatie are a few days apart in age so it wasn't like he's 8 and Oaties 4) and it wasn't like she said..., "I'd like to invite him but it's going to be a boisterous kick a ball around party..." and give him the choice. It was also at her house so it wasn't like 15$ per person nor did she ask If I would stay with him as I would do.

Then the mum (also a friend of mine) from the boy who was invited... did say, when she asked about directions..."Oh I thought that Oatie would be invited, as (friends/same age/ your neighbours). and she felt bad... she then said... "ahh Exclusion.." "I was like, yep probably..." And told her not to feel bad, they can invite whom ever they want and it isn't and won't be the last time Oatie will be EXCLUDED from things.

nevertheless, you cannot be surprised at other peoples crapness... I feel like Jack Burns from "Meet the F's..." she's out my circle of trust! lol! All I wanted was honesty... and not some whisperings behind my back!

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Oatie showing off his Drinking Skills with a Glass


A new Dora DVD for his ABR Bench time...

Dora Cake with Sparklers and Candles

Today (Wednesday) Oatie and I got in 3 hours of ABR, we did one of the new style exercises and two favorites of mine. We watched one of his new Thomas Tank DVD's.

Looking forward to resuming Oatie's bench ABR with him - Time Management

2011-07-20T22:10:00.001-06:00

Today I tried swimming, I didn't want to...but some mums on the bench pretty much forced me into the pool. I swam very very very slowly, 48seconds for 25metres... YEP I didn't know I could move that slow in a pool. I was swimming in slow motion and then stopped at the end, had some water and did the same thing back. After about 20 minutes.... my throat felt like I had stitches in it, which had gone tight and felt itchy.... so I immediately got out, got dressed in 2 minutes flat and went back to my car and found a throat lozenge and had a warm soothing tea, which made it feel much better. On the upside... it felt nice having a open airway, I must have had that lump for YEARS!!! The Surgeon said I could have swum 9 days ago, but I really couldn't picture that at all!

For the past 3 weeks, my older two have been at Figure skating camp, its in our local recreation centre so the pool is 20metres from the rink. My 6 year old learnt her loop, and has got some new music for this upcoming season, dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies.

My 8 year old, regained his Loop, and learnt his Flip and Lutz. And is skating to a new track too. Don't ask me what the jumps look like! I just sew the outfits and lace them up and get their skates sharpened and clap when necessary!

I had a heart in my mouth moment, my 6 year old who is wearing a two layer, lined with sorbothane soled touque mushroom hat, with a super thick woolly hat on top (it's a bit like an Ice Halo but hidden inside two wolly hats), yes so she does look a bit like Toad from Mario... She Went down and well no one could tell if she bumped her head on the back or not, there was no sound at all, and usually you can hear it....so I have been told... It was my nightmare, the reason I held on to the helmet and held her skating back..she would jump with it on and fall because it would throw her off balance having this thing on her head. I am learning to skate and if I try a basic jump one that my daughter could do at age 4.... the helmet does give me a huge headache and puts my neck out..... Having ONE brain injured child... It was very hard for me to let her, skate without her helmet, so this mushroom hat was our compromise... well as it turns out, she was shocked, it's the first time in nearly 3 years that her head has remotely got close to the ice...fortunately no bang, and if there was any impact the sorbothane must have taken it out as she was absolutely fine... What was ironic.... we were in the changing room just yesterday, her glove was missing so I bent down to look in her bag she stood over the top of me and I didn't know... I stood up and WHOP!!!! we SMACKED heads, mine hurt a lot... she got a bump and break in the skin on her forehead... but fortunately no concussion... I know helmets are topical at the moment, but she was more injured from what happened in the changing room than what has ever happened to her on the ice. When they compete, and their adrenaline is going that's the only time I worry and when they step back on land, I'm jumping up and down shouting, no brain injury WHOO HOO!, my friend said don't you care where they place... I'm like NOPE!!!

Because of the age of my daughter 6, and last year and the year before because of my Son he was 6, so this is my third Summer on the Bench for 3 weeks. One of us ideally should be rink side, for lacing and just because they are\were so young, and when they are 8 or so they can be left. There are some nice mums ont the bench/stands so it's a nice social for us... something I don't get to do as much since Oaties diagnosis...as I spend a lot of my free time doing his ABR...

Last Summer I managed the 3 hours ABR from Lunch till 4pm on the back of the skate camp (7.30 to 3.15) as my husband took over the "pm shift" and I'd fit a 1km swim in the morning while the kids were doing dry land training between 9-10. This year, upon swapping with my husband, Oatie and I have been taking a naps in the pm's during the past 3 weeks. It's the only thing that will take the pain away in my throat, resets it and makes me sociable in the evening. And today was my first 9-10am swim.

So From tomorrow or Friday I am looking forward to getting back into our ABR routine as Thursday is the last day of camp. Speaking of ABR, I cannot believe that we are their blogging winner for this quarter. The other ABR families who also have blogs have fantastic blogs and well I am honoured, flattered, stunned and a bit speechless that we won.

Thank you to every one who reads our blog and follows Oatie. Oatie turns 4 on the 25th July!

RSI has recovered and need to buy some bulk ear defenders LOL!

2011-07-19T23:21:00.002-06:00

OK, I'm back! and No I have been a good patient and not spoken too much... but I thought I'd be bursting to say stuff that I wanted to say for 2 weeks but really I wasn't. I know that people go on retreats that do this... but I had mine with a cold laser. (Benign Granuloma on my vocal cords).

I am a 50-50 extrovert introvert according to the psych tests they did at British Airwasys. They loved that I was a 50-50 extro intro split.. and did a different test to see if it came out the same and it did. Well I AM a Gemini what did they expect!

So as much as I LOVE to talk, I am quite happy being silent too. But when I talk I do talk with passion and super fast... well you can get more words per minute! lol!

What I found shocking from not speaking, was how FANTASTIC this speak it app was. OMG if you ever lose your voice, please download it... for a long term speech app, they need to have a conversation page skype style so you can press return rather than pressing speak it all the time but apart from that! I don't think I would have survived without it. It was the best few bucks I have EVER spent! The accents were life like too, not too bad, not robotic and pretty good actually....

Ok, well the few things I found shocking from not being able to talk for two weeks was:

How people perceived you, like people you encounter on a daily basis.
How willing your friends were to help or not help...
How people try and take advantage of you financially, I had one person try and short change me thinking because I couldn't speak... that she could do it and i can't complain! Well! she wasn't prepared for my iphone app or my Ipad to come out and me tap out a SUITABLE response back to her!!!
How you get IGNORED!
How you get taken advantage of......
How you can't shout for help
How even with the app, you can't convey the nuances or your feelings as you do when you have a "voice"
How isolating it really is... thank goodness for this app... but even with that... WOW! it made me want to cry!
How rude people are to you...
How people see your not speaking as an annoyance to them!
How they automatically think you're "ill"
The ILL treatment I got at hospital after the operation and I couldn't COMPLAIN!
Or when the surgeon came around after and asked if I had any questions!!! (I'm like are you a total idiot!) he wasn't ready for my pre printed questions was he lol!

Oatie and I went out together, and it was almost a comic act, he can't walk and I couldn't talk... so he did the talking and I did the walking. We had this comic moment where I asked for a price check... Oatie swiped my phone and wnated to play.... so I swiped it back and typed that I needed to thank the cashier(she was a nice one) and he said "OK I do it!" swiped my phone back and did his letters during the transaction. I had just paid... he looked up and said "Thank you LADY!! Have a nice Day", turned back to me in his stroller and said "done it Mum, lets go!". I wished I could have laughed out loud...

I even had one man, we live out in the country, and I pulled over on a road that has 5 people a day on it. It's a dead end road. This NICE person pulled up next to me... I just got a call and pulled turned off the main road to this dead end road to reply back and play the pre recorded message to say phone my husband.... This man asked if I was ok, so I gave him the thumbs up... he then asked if he could talk to me... and I shook my head no.... He said put my window down NOW! and talk to him or he'd call hte police as he thought I had been STRANGLED from not being able to talk! Anyway there were like 100000000000000000 mosquitoes outside... and I was like arghghghg. I was a bit annoyed by this stage as I didn't want the mosquitoes in my car, they love Biting me! and well I had just got the pre-recorded message to play down the phone to the person who had just rung me... so I had to delete that to find the other pre recorded message and then add to it to say that I was fine and can't talk from my throat operation. By this stage he's shouting he's dialling 911! So i opened my window a smidgen and held my phone outside and played the recording to him.... he was like OH! so you're ok? I'm nodding... no one has hurt you and I'm shaking my head... no... meanwhile 100 mosquito's came in the car! I couldn't even scream when they bit me :((

I was thankful that he stopped to see if I was ok as in the UK they would just drive by... but I think it was the frustration of not being able to communicate... something that we all take for granted.

How often do you think how lucky we are to have speech? Well I went home and squashed my Oatie, as he can speak but it's sometimes unclear and not many spontaneous words and he expresses basic feeling but not the nuances that my other kids do... like the detail. I am thankful that Oatie has that... but my not speaking for 2 weeks has really opened my eyes to how my aunt must have felt who had some strokes and degenerative diseases and Oatie and his friends who are special like him.

Please please please, do not speak at all if you lose your voice... just don't do it... download "Speak it" from the app store if you are an apple user! So many accents you can choose from!

I'm hoping my operation isn't a failure as my friend and I went to see Bridesmaids 3 days after I could talk again and I hadn't laughed so much in ages... she wanted to see it during my silence and I'm glad I didn't as I would have broken it for sure!

The Ear Defenders and Tylenol are for my friends who I've been madly tapping away at my keyboard on my speak it app for two weeks and now catching up properly....