At the Children's Hospital

We have a really nice vendor, he's the main one that the hospital use and I can see why...

He was a volunteer ski aide for disabled people for well over 20 years... he's coached down hill sit skiing and just a really nice guy.

The physical Therapist there is so nice, she doesn't know anything about ABR but, she does recognise that Oatie is doing great with it... never pushes braces or AFO's but if I ask a question she's happy to help or find stuff that might help within the scopes of supporting ABR...

photo of the cafe ceiling at the children's hospital. This facility is so nice, the staff are nice, it's clean, it has a disabled outside play area with adaptive swings and just a cool facility.

Today is the day that we pick up Oatie's Wheelchair for the bus...

so excited about picking up his wheelchair he's waited 3 months for it to be made... it's a standard self propelling wheelchair, but it still took 3 months..... got it just in time for school....

Wreckless....

We got season passes for the local family Theme park. Every single ride has, not advised if you're pregnant etc... as they do at Theme parks.

Well today, my husband, has been rotating, between taking Oatie on his own, then Oatie with his Siblings... and then the older two on their own. So today he took my elder two for an afternoon out... etc...

My husband just messaged me a photo of my kids in the line for the log flume... it's not one for the faint hearted... you have to hang on and there are not foot holds or anything to brace your feet on... Anyway I happened to notice this, in the corner of the photo....

Look how pregnant this lady is....

So, I'm txting him back, like there is no way that she'd go on that ride, it's not like the perimeter train or it's a small world at Disney....

but she did go on the ride...

things like this make me annoyed. There is a mother, who is carrying an unborn child, pretty heavily pregnant and taking an unnecessary risk! And as sods law has it, they'll have the non handicapped child even after going on a ride that is like being in a minor car collision... and there are people like us who wouldn't even consider doing that to an unborn child... who have the kid with the brain damage. See if you're in a car collision, then that is part of "being alive" / bad luck taking a risk by going in a car but you don't get hit every day... going in a car is a calculated risk.... going in a log flume is pure selfishness on that pregnant mother's part...

I'm not wishing any bad to this woman at all.. or dissing our Oatie. Oatie has brought so much pleasure in to our lives, as you all know he spends most of his day smiling and is such a character with an awesome sense of humour and puts most able bodied people to shame with his determination etc, although I do admit his physical limitations have altered the course of our family's path totally. My parents camped since I was 2, and have been in the Guiding and Scouting movement my entire life, and by the age of 16, I spend more than one year of my life under canvas camping with the Guides) a lot of my friends go camping and hiking most weekends with their kids, etc) and we're yet to be able to do that, I'm working, looking into solutions to make this possible for our family, not for each weekend, but so Oatie can also experience the pleasure of the outdoors too. I also hate it when "so-called friends" say, especially in the Summer, what you haven't been to this blah blah falls, or you haven't gone on this trek... I'm like no we haven't, Oatie can't WALK, or climb up rock or steps....

Altering your family's path, isn't necessarily bad, my husband and i have found that our talents/past sporting interests or physique (met in a gym), has all be so useful in our new path, like me being a lifeguard & Swim Instructor as a teen when I had a huge water phobia from almost drowning 4 times as a kid until I was 10... so now both skills really help Oatie with his swimming development. My husbands pretty serious back injury from Rugby through his 7 year recovery, taught him balance and control and even though I'm a better single skier than him (he may not agree) but he's a way better aide for Oatie on the Bi-ski, his turns and stance are perfect for the Bi-ski. I wanted to learn to ice skate since I was 5 and when we moved I did, I even tripped over my picks which had my knees bruised for 18 months... but I persisted and luckily I'm a good enough aide to skate with my Oatie. I LOVE skating with him, absolutely LOVE it!

So my next challenge is to get us outdoors more as a family... I think I might have found a solution, It's an "off road wheelchair" like the 3 wheel strollers but more robust...but it won't be until next Summer it comes into effect and we'll start small by camping in our yard... and having so many wonderful Scouting friends, I can ask them who have been on the trails etc (not the so-called friends), which ones terrain is suitable to start to experiment with being out doors more. With the help of ABR, I feel this is possible, where as before ABR any bumpy terrain even in a car park would have Oatie screaming in pain.

Nor am I saying that we should wrap everyone in cotton wool either, you know that my elder two figure skate and we're an avid skiing family.... all have risks... but in my opinion, going on a log flume is just plain STuPID when you're that pregnant.

I just think that this heavily pregnant lady is insane... this is one that could be avoided, it's not Disneyland with millions of strangers... it's a family park.. and you usually bump into at least 5 families that you know there... and like today my eldest had to ride the roller coaster sat next to a stranger as my husband was sat with my daughter, it's like when you go skiing and other people share the chair lifts with strangers or help take a ski-school kid on the chair with them. Ok, I won't see the outcome, but where we lived in England we used to go to an animal farm and had season passes for that, and I saw really pregnant women jumping into a shallow BALL PIT, others riding down the astroglide slide with a toddler on their lap and one Running for ice cream and falling flat on her tummy just because she was wearing flipflops.... and all 3 had non-brain damaged children. It's not like they were being sensible and then had an accidental fall, all are just plain stupidity... and just slaps you in the face how unfair life can be.

Rant over and out and yes, I'm hormonal as I'm pregnant... 33 weeks on Tuesday:), (I haven't been that public with it as I am excited but have all the past emotion of Oatie's birth with it), we went to the theme park with one of my friends who's daughter is my eldest age and she rode the ride in my place a month ago and said she had not had that much fun in ages having a tiny hand in hers on rides... And Last weekend I did go with my family, but I didn't ride any of the rides, I enjoyed watching my family riding the rides, and I enjoyed the precious gift of my unborn snuggled up safely, who kicked each time he/she heard his/her siblings approaching after coming off a ride.

My Extra Pair of Hands - I found them

Yes, Oatie is wearing Glasses again!  Well, we found out what was wrong with the other pair... they had the - instead of a + or the other way round.  I don't wear glasses myself so it's all greek to me... the poor guy couldn't see properly for 4 months and then we just took them off him and as it was a Machine which gave his prescription a "human" put it into the computer wrong and so hence his lenses were made totally wrong.

I don't know yet to whom I am to complain as they are Dr's in Canada, that practice should really get a big black X by it's name, that they couldn't even check what they ordered!

My Extra pair of Hands is the IRobot Zumba which my kids have called it "Munch",  I have to say I love it for several reasons!  First, they have to pick up all their tiny bits of lego or Munch will eat it, their rooms have to be tidy or Munch will attack what's on the floor and thirdly they are really enjoying having carpets vacuumed much more often!  (as do I)

I have found it bliss, I can sit happily playing with the kids, while Munch gets to work!  It has a spot clean function so you can put him under the table and he'll just get all the crumbs!

I've only used him for 3 days but I LOVE Munch!

Few more days of holidays and another huge school dilemma.  Where my older two went last year, they increased their bus journey to 1hour to go 10km! which I think is rather naff... they might tolerate it but Oatie won't.  We've heard nigh or high whether he has an aide, they sent us the wrong paperwork for which class Oatie was going to be in, and all the school supply list is useless to Oatie, as he wouldn't be able to use most of it.  instead of the chunky felt tips, he needs the small pip squeak style crayola ones instead.  No one from the school has contacted us or done anything really.

The school has expanded beyond belief that they are now at almost double capacity from what the school was originally designed for and have added portables and more portables.  The French Immersion was not what I thought it would be at all, it was dull boring and none of the other kids could muster more than a basic sentence after an entire year/or for some people 2 years of French immersion.  My eldest who is also very bright got super high prediction in his PAT's but I think he would have got that wherever he went really.  Things like the Disabled parking bay, there is 1 for a school of 700 pupils, which is in the BUS LOOP so it's prohibited to use during school drop off and pick up.  So I had the choice of sticking him on the bus for 1 hour, or parking 15 minutes away and pushing his wheelchair in -35oC on unshoveld paths or taking him and his siblings in 45 minutes late every day for school.  None of that bodes well for me really.  I emailed the school transportation officer and I got a reply that she would look into what she could do at the end of September!  I'm like that's RUBBISH!  what about the disabled bay that is in the bus loop?  I would have thought that prohibiting me from using the disabled blue badge bay would also be illegal?

So I'm wondering about French school, it  is pulling me back in that direction.  Oatie wouldn't be in the preschool he'd be in Kindergarten and have the same teacher that his big sister had... and she is LOVELY, the classes are smaller, it's a small building his big brother and sister would be 20-40 feet away at all times so they would see each other all day.  Oatie's dad works 5 minutes from there and so in Winter he's suggested that he goes and shovels the disabled ramp before he goes to work.  We know what their "let downs" are and as he's out of the clutches of the pre-school, the rest of the school which is run independently from the preschool the teachers seem to be nice.  We've known them for 4 years since we moved as My daughter went there for pre-school too but it was run differently back then.

My daughter who is like a Hermione Granger, started to play up (she was so bored last year) and I really think it's down to intellectual boredom.  My husband went to schools where you had the brain power to do the work they'd give you more and more....  I went to a school where I finished the work in 5 minutes flat and was just left to sit at my desk until everyone else finished.  My eldest copes with it by sketching in a sketch book or daydreaming... and my daughter is now very frustrated.  (they are both beyond their grade at reading) and my daughter is fluent reading in French.  So the appeal of them going totally into French French and doing all their schooling in French is sounding more and more appealing. They also learn Spanish too.  I have a core group of parents who (all stood up for Oatie) who would help.

So I've set a meeting up next Thursday to meet with the principle and the head of special needs from their school board.  I'm hoping it's not all a huge hormonal reaction on my part....lol!  We shall see....

Photos and Binoo

Another actioned packed week, Oatie and his Sibs had a photo shoot just the 3 of them on Friday, which was a nice end to the week followed by a "treat" of junk food lol!

Oatie watching one of his sib's pulling funny faces for the camera :)

Binoo, caught, we have an automatic tap in our main floor washroom and the other day someone left the door open, we were watching a movie and heard the tap go... so I was thinking if we're all here, who's using the tap?

Well before I lysoled the sink,... here he is, the Binoo washing his paws before he eats....

Binoo

Binoo, has been a wonderful addition to our family. He has managed to make all the cats LOVE him... and the person who loves him the most is... Oatie...

He's so thrilled to get his very own pet... we thought that way he could learn responsibility before his service dog arrived.

Oatie's new walkers arrived one for school and one for home... and his Wheelchair is arriving at the end of the month too.  The Wheelchair is for the bus and I wanted someway for him to get out of a building if it was on fire... at least this way he can be put in his chair and wheeled out.

Also he can propel himself... so maybe we might use it shopping and then he can have the independence that he craves... but without the walker.

I try to limit his use of the walker as I feel it does go against the ABR that I do on him... so it's a delicate balance of letting him walk over feeling like you've undone this mornings session if you know what I mean.  So I keep it in the car and then we gauge how much walking there is to do..  if I leave it in the car then he knows that I haven't taken it away from him and then he feels it's his choice not to use it.

i love Ikea!

Today we went to Ikea to celebrate my eldest and my daughter passing their ice dance tests.

We were going to Ikea anyway... as Oatie has been looking forward to the Swedish Meatballs and fries for a while. It's also a nice place to go if you're feeling homesick as the same Ikea in the UK tastes exactly the same in Canada lol! The UK Ikea that we went to was 5 mins from our home and with their free baby meals and kid friendly environment, we found it a nice place to go where you got real plates but food on a budget. Also the refill of coffee or tea was also very nice :)

Wow, where has the time gone...