Oatie and the Honey Farm.... where Pooh Bear lives....

On Friday, Oatie had a field trip, and my daughter did the Honey Farm two years back as she was in the same preschool where Oatie goes now. Two years ago, Oatie Screamed and HATED honey, he wouldn't even try to taste any, he cried and really didn't enjoy it.

Well this time, he tried all 6 different honey types, he had a go using the Smoker, he got to turn the honey centrifuge thing and he was so into seeing the Bee's looking for the Queen bee and and just loved every minute of it.

When we left, he said, "Mama, Pooh Bear lives here"

We had a quiet weekend, we bought my daughter a bunk bed, Oatie is thrilled as now he can camp in either room, he kind of breaks in and lies on their lower bunks and says "nite nite" lol!

Just 2-3 weeks left of School and wow this year has flown.

My Favourite Apps... for the caregivers...

Well, I did promise Eric, that I would put my favourite apps, I am partial to Apple products, you might have guessed when Oatie says "look at the apple mama" when he takes photos of me pretend or real... Luckily for you, he hasn't worked out how to upload the photos he has taken of me to his blog... PHEW! shhhh don't tell him!

Well, with all the faffing of the red tape and otherwise, we have decided just to buy him an Ipad2 and just get the ball rolling as he to me, is at a crucial point in his speech development, he's parroting everything and is trying so hard to communicate and be understood... and if you work out what he's saying, it just gives him a huge confidence boost.

A lot of them do have FREE versions, so you can trial it, but some free ones have all the features as paid ones, the informant you can upgrade by migrating it so you don't have to re-enter your data... well it was like that...

So here are my favourite Apps for the Caregivers! Apps for the kids I'll leave to the experts...

Just right click on the link and open in a new tab, so you don't have to go back and forth...

My first one is
1password:

This is so fantastic for me, I store our health card details, membership, credit card, library card, any sort of online activity here, you put in your extra password and can lock it down further to a master password and, once you're in, you press to log in to say the library or eBay or amazon it's fantastic... so if you hate looking around for your card or can't remember it's a great app, you can have auto lock so no chance of someone being able to see your sensitive info and you can also have auto wipe or remote erase I believe...

Timelogger:
I have just gone for the free version as I actually weirdly like the adverts. It's what I time my ABR with, and it's fantastic. I put all Oatie's exercises in and press start stop, and there is also a pause and it logs all the time and at the end of the session I just email it as a CSV excel sheet to my desktop voila! easy...


Blogbooster, you may have seen photos uploaded with blogbooster, annoying as they have really upped their selfbragging, but it's so easy, quick to use, you can pixel size the photos and sync it to your Picassa web album and it's totally easy and brainless... so often if I'm at home I might type on my desktop, and then go to blogbooster and upload the photo as it can be uploaded and done in 10 seconds. The only disadvantage is that the photos don't show up in the margin of other's blogs.... but for a huge time saving app, I love it and like it says you can blog on the go.

Iflow, I really like this one, it was under a different name but they have re-branded it... it's the classics but it's cheap or free... and you can have hands free reading, you can customise the speed, colour etc,... it's great if you can't watch Dora the explorer for the millionth time or just want to treat your child and get a read in too.

Informant, well I have to say I love it, I have my desktop synced with google docs which then syncs with my phone. no probs or hassle, and I ensured I had the auto sync at totally different times of the day. So super I can change an appointment on my desktop, shake my phone with the app open and it's all synced... or vice versa... (I'll let you know how 3 way syncing with the ipad goes... people have said it's been fine...) Informant has my calendar and to do list, and one one of the organised methods, I have set up my contexts which is the different type of shops, so as I need things, I put them in under the correct shop so when I go out with my limited time budget, I can just go, Costco... and all the things I'd like to buy are there in a list. or Fabricland, and all listed, it's saved so much time and got rid of the feeling arghghgh I forgot X.

Obvioulsy, Shazam, Shazam is better than soundhound, I've been trying both out simultaneously and Shazam is more accurate. What is a better way than having your ipod playing great tunes to help you treat your kid more easily...

Home Routine, this is based on the "Sink Reflections" woman, but I love it and you can customise it and I like the morning evening routine very much, love checking off those stars...

if you have other kids and need them to "comply" well irewardchat is fantastic, you can even calculate how many stars till they qualify for X.

Lifeplanner, this is the one that I said most other would find it useless, but I really like it, it's kept separate from my schedule and keeps me on track, like it bings 5 or how many minutes you want, to tell you that you have free time or you should be doing your chores... I often get carried away doing something else and I has made me more time savvy... I like it a lot.

If you have a home gym or go to one, Ultratimer is your app. You can put your very own work out in it and group workouts, so you can just chill and do your reps and it tells you (from what you programmed) what you're doing next, and you can play music from your library at the same time.

Spelling, if you have younger kids who all have spelling homework, well this app is fab as you put your list in, and say the word or they can, and then they can practise the spellings and it emails you how they did, so you can see which words need some work....

Grocery Gadget, I love it! you can just scan the items you want to add to your list and you can email it or sync it with someone else and they can whilst they are out go shopping for you with photos and everything.

Ohhhh and if you want to see how much time you WASTE!!!! well this app is for you, you start and stop the time of your chosen list Eat dinner and you can see how much time you spend doing what. The worst bit is that it can't lie or fudge it so it is what it is... It's called Timerific

Well these are my favourite apps for being organised with a special needs kid...

Love Oatie's Mum
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh and we got 3:05 of ABR in on Monday and 2:32 today.

March and Friday AGAIN!!!

Oatie with the hardest push-along we have, the one behind is the harder cart and in the by the door is his sturdy tikes cart.

Here's Oatie taking Crystal my other son's cat for a walk in my daughter's Barbie Pram. You can just see the paw and tail.

Yesterday was a rather hectic day with one school skiing with their dad, Oatie at preschool, my other son at home for a teacher training day.  We made some paper aeroplanes together then picked up Oatie, had lunch, cleaned up did some ABR then had to go to the volunteer meeting which I actually (I'm surprised) got an apology for the whole "annoyed" thing.  So I was like oh OK, and well then the kids had skating followed by off ice followed by me leading our Scout meeting we were making peppermint creams.

It's really quite tricky trying to lead something when you just can't speak up, not because I'm shy (I'm about as far from shy as one can be.  Well that's not strictly true as the introvert side on occasion I can be but I don't mind public speaking or making a speech those thing just don't phase.  So it was like Galaxy Quest when I say something and then my fellow Scouter would repeat it for me.

So anyway, today I've declared that on Teacher Training days' I'm just not going to roll Oatie, I will take the day off, my eldest is going to be 8 this year and my daughter 6 next month and Oatie 4 in July... so seeing the actual Numbers, I'm like YIKES, and so I'd really like to enjoy those days with them.

So we've done 3 hours in the last two days and tomorrow & Sunday I should get our full hours in.

Quiet Saturday's are nice...

My oven is busy making all these dishes.

Today we had a quiet day at home.   It wasn't as quiet as I thought, as I did a bit of spring cleaning, I know I've mentioned my oven a few times, but I really do love it, how many ovens can you clean while your cooking?  My oven was grilling sausages, had a casserole, frying onions, a huge rice pudding, and cooking rice and had the contents of my quiche filling, oh and making me a cup of tea too!  (Yes that is a giant sized mug, it's my ABR mug).  I can make a nice cup of tea it stays hot and is great especially for $0.50cents!

We took today off from ABR, and Oatie played with his less sturdier cart, this morning he stood up and went to walk with it and lost his balance and fell on his bottom, he was about to crawl away and cry, when I told him that he was able to play with it, but he couldn't lean on it as it won't take his weight,and he'd need to put a few of his cuddlies/stuffies back inside the cart to help, so he said "OK Mama" and stood up in open space and had another go.

What's ironic is that having the combination of "able" and less "able" children in our house, at times, I'm not sure who's the less able one, as Oatie rarely spills anything, gets any food around his mouth, where as my 7 year old.....!  So it's quite funny, even though they have differences physically to Oatie, they all 'struggle' with similar goals just in different ways,  my older two are trying to perfect their "sweet-spot" on their figure skates whereas Oatie is trying to find his "Sweet-spot" on his feet too.  When he stood up, with his cart after he fell, he rocked back on his feet and forward, looked like he found his balance (same look as my older son on his hockey skates last week) and then was off...  It's called his "speed cart" and it's full of all his stuffies/cuddlies.

Meanwhile, Crystal was hunting the sausages...

I can smell Sausages...

A change... a good change but a change...

I'm perplexed, doesn't happen often but, I'm had a few moments of actually looking, not believing my eyes and looking again! I suppose it was subtle, but just a good few 'subtles' today which was eyebrow raising for me.


If I could ever have multiple me's like Multiplicity (with Michael Keaton), I would kind of love. The rest of the world wouldn't as there would never be any peace for a start and if they could chat half as much as I can... then it would be "God save the world", as I am a Gemini too, but 50-50 extrovert-Introvert straight down the line.

Well I have decided what "jobs" they would all have. I'm sure you who read my blog can guess what, one for ABR, one for running the house... But ultimately I don't think I could as they would be like Slaves and I just couldn't stomach that. I wouldn't mind employing someone to help, but they would have to treated "tiptop" for sure.

The reason I think of Multiplicity.... is the balance, my plate spinning goes awry at times, I hear a few chinks of of Stoneware hitting the floor. I would say China, but I only like my cup of tea in China. Good old Stoneware is so durable.

My "old life" was predictabley boringly balanced, too balanced, I like running things to perfection, (OK i'll admit it) it was a tad dull,... there is never a dull moment now! Be careful what you wish for!!!

Today my younger two had teacher training days, (I can hear you shouting WHAT ANOTHER ONE!!!) like I said between Oatie picking up every illness at school... and the Teacher Training days of 3 different school calendars... I have job some days working out who is meant to be in the car and who isn't!

Well, I decided to take my daughter to the public figure skate, not because she was lacking in ice time but just to spend some one on one with her. She skated this evening for another 1.5 hours but we went for a giggle together, we held hands, she looked at my 3 turns, and we really enjoyed it too. The trade off was Oaties ABR so I did manage 1 hour and I thought one hour is better than no hours and well it has a knock on to the dishwasher not being run and then adds a few chinks to my well oiled machine. Oatie is still having everyday 10-14 hours of ABR Machine a night. I suppose I wish I could be there for everyone whenever they need me (highly unrealistic) but it was what my "old life" before his diagnosis was like and I did really enjoy the freedom of the past, I don't want it to sound bad as I love Oatie just as much as my other two, and in some ways he's the least trouble as he always does his best and listens most of the time and doesn't have strops. What I mean is, I liked being able to "waste an afternoon chatting to a friend about nothing", or not multitasking EVERYTHING, all the time, and as long as the basics were done, laundry, dinner sorted, school run and clean kids, didn't really have a care in the world, I suppose the simplicity. Hence the thought of multiplicity.

I thought this was going to be a short post! Well I wished I could roll (ABR) Oatie more, not because anyone is making me do it, or out of guilt as I don't feel guilty about what happened to him. But on days like today, for a fleeting moment I do wish I got our "usual" hours in, especially when you see him progressing.

Here's why I was gobsmacked...today, he spontaneously asked for food, when offered lunch he said no, later!, and then told me which pudding he'd like, when I said it wasn't available (he hmmmmmmed and then said something else), he stoutly was opinionated, used words I had never heard him use before and, pushed his other cart that he couldn't hold even if I was holding it he'd fall over (I felt bad for buying it as it seemed cruel that he had this toy and couldn't use it, so I hid it in a corner behind the door in the playroom for the past 2 years)..., today he got it out, did squats with it and pushed it along and I was like, OMG!!!! and said to my husband "did you see that?" he looked up and just said yes (automatically) thinking Oatie was with his usual more sturdier cart, when he looked up again and went OH! He found two stuffies from this cart, decided they were friends, and gave them names and told me what they liked!?!?!? (OMG!) Watching Skating this evening he sat on the bench watching his DVD holding his dad's hand (usually he'll stand up) and he walked to get his bedtime water and opened the underbed-drawer to get his ABR machine out, and well he was just "different" like a good change had happened again, nothing major, but all the little bits really added up to "WOW" for me, and that's why I couldn't believe my eyes.

Well it's our Friday night Date Nite, our Takeout/Takeaway is arriving soon, so I'll leave you in peace... for now! Hope you all have a great weekend too.


Love Oatie's Mum (Mel xxx)

Pizza car at the gas bar

Today was -34oC and with the wind chill it felt like -40oC.  If you weren't wearing gloves after about 20 seconds you hands were burning....  OUCH!  I don't normally mind our winters but this one is very "special" and I am sure I will treasure it in my heart... NOT!

Today we got 2:30 of manual ABR, which is more than usual on a Tuesday.  I didn't swim and Oatie didn't make school either.  But I did go to the Flag Ceremony.  It was really sweet, and for me looking into the Francophone community, it was nice that they wanted to be fully integrated into Alberta.  I do love O Canada in French, it sounds lovely!

My older two had dance, and my "Michael Jacksons" Thriller jacket arrived for recital, he was so excited... fortunately his figure skating pants are now above his ankle bones so they should be perfect for the pants to go with the Thriller Jackets maybe a minor mod to them.  My daughter is one of his dancers... in sparkling fuschia pink two piece they look gorgeous.


Today Oatie, found a lego ladder from on of the lego dumpster trucks, added a block to make it a "bridge" and then got Pizza Car and took him on the bridge which was Pizza car at the Gas Bar.  We do love his games, he's so inventive and it's super cute.  

 

I'm being a pickle for mum!

My mum is exhausted from me being a "pickle" she has been trying for an hour to get me on the bench for ABR but I either hide, walk to the otherside of the room or need changing for the fifth time... Here's me "on the run"... Quick hide mums coming...

Look at the "apple" Mama...

Swiper has a Car!

Today, Oatie and I had a day at home together.  We played and I did one of my Mass Cook-ups and filled our Freezer (one of my time saving tips) and gave the house a quick spruce up...

Well this is far more revealing than the posts I was cautious about...

We had this comic moment which had Oatie and I crying with laughter.  Oatie has his little tykes cart that he pushes around, goes pretend shopping, with his credit card and phone..., and he uses it for tidying up...

So, I was chopping up a 5kg bag of onions, and when I do, I wear an old pair of swimming goggles, it works fantastically!!! My kids thing this is hysterical.... I just hope no one rings the  doorbell... so I was busy chopping away and Oatie was "shopping" when he said, "Smile Mama, Say Cheese...", he picked up his toy Camera phone, and said, "Look at the Apple Mama"... well that was it, he obviously thought I looked ridiculous and wanted to capture a photo of that, he took about 5 and afterwards he went off with his cart muttering "funny Mama!".  and that was it, we were in hysterics...

I couldn't believe that he could do this:  Just before that, we were listening to our ipod through out sound system and it came to the end of the playlist, and as I was chopping the onions (before he tried to capture a photo), he's never touched the ipod before, so I asked Oatie to to to the ipod and press the triangle which is play.  He hopped over to where the ipod was, and looked and said rose or "gris?" so i walked over to see what he meant, and I forgot my pink shuffle was there... so I said Gris, he said OK Mama and pressed the play button...

A friends son with Brain injury is dying....

While I was on the Re-bounder, in our Basement, Oatie sat himself on the kiddy keyboard stool all by himself and I quickly snapped a photo of him.  Later he "demanded" his ABR... I think he thought I took too long in the Shower...

A friend of mine posted an excellent post on his blog. Questionning the big man himself...  you can click the link to read it.

Well, my personal beliefs have altered significantly since I found out Oatie's diagnosis.  But one thing that I do believe in is some of the people you are "destined" to meet.  I always think of that film "sliding doors" with Gwyneth Paltrow, I wouldn't say it was a favourite of mine buy one that comes to mind now.  If you're wondering... my FAVOURITE 'film' is "Pride and Prejudice" - Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle BBC 1995 TV Adaptation. 

When I worked at Heathrow, I checked in my Future Father in-law before I officially met my husband.  He (my Father in-law) was such a lovely man, he had impeccable manners and such an English Gentleman.  It was his birthday and he way flying to the far east on Business and I was teasing him about his birthday and made sure the Cabin Crew spoilt him rotten.  After he left my desk, I said to my friends either side, "don't you just wish he had a son...?"  Before that I saw this guy (my husband now) at the gym, we shared the same machine and well I liked his six-pack, we had done this without much dialogue for 6 months... and one-day I was running on the treadmill at the gym, and the speakers blew up, anyway he was Yawning I know now... but because of the cracking speaker sound, I thought he said Hi... so I stopped the treadmill and I asked him... out but for two weeks time as I was going to the Gambia with some friends that I worked with.  Well when I gave him my address and number I saw his surname... and I was like is your dad a "BA gold card holder?"... he was like "errrrrr..." , and I said is your dad's birthday and recalled the date... and he was like Yes (this was 4 months later) and I told him how I had checked his dad in... and well the rest is history.  It's our 11 wedding anniversary this year.  Yes... Yes... we were a 2000 wedding.

One of my very dear friends I only met last December, first in our Adult skate class, she was a top level skater and after not skating for 10 years went for her Axel!  We then met one week later on Christmas eve family skate, and she caught me from falling...we hadn't really said any more than Hello to each other...as my eldest was chatting to her daughter who had just joined our skating club and then, one morning in Jan I went to drop my daughter and her son had just joined my daughter's preschool class and then about one hour later, we bumped into each other at the running track... and the that was it, we were instant friends... she told me a few months back, that because of my accent that she couldn't understand a word that I was saying for the first 6 weeks of our friendship, but she said she knew two things that, she liked me and knew we'd be friends...

I have met Phil, Sharon and Adam, who are such an amazing, wonderful, loving family and hope to meet Aimee one day too.

Well another mum from that preschool class, my daughter and her son hit it off straight off... and Independently, my son and her daughter were both in the same Ballet class, but the four of them had NEVER met, so it took this mum and I a few months to work out that our kids had independently become friends with each others siblings!  Well it's this mum who has this horrible chapter coming up in her life...She's a mum of 5, and her 3rd child a son, who was born fine, but due to medical negligence at the hospital, long story, but he ended up with a brain injury to his pituitary gland mainly, and now the part of the brain that controls his Cardiovascular system is seizing which will result in this lovely child's heart stopping and starting and one day he'll just die in his sleep and from what his mum was saying they think it will be soon, so he won't make it being 10, she told everyone yesterday by email late last night.  They are such a lovely family, I feel so useless, I can't take away their pain, or make them feel better, so apart from my endless supply of hugs...so I have offered my shoulders....and that I'm there... 

Well Today I saw this mum, (the son who's dying)  in the car-park and the poor love, got out the car ran across sheet ice and fell into my arms..... For someone who likes to chat a lot (Me) I'm verbally rubbish in such situations, but at least my hugs seem to be good.

Phil, I feel a line forming should you meet "the man" I think there's another mother who'd like to have a word....

Happyland Vs Errands... arghghghg! don't you just love them...!

You might have guessed that I like to "Rabbit" on,... yes I am a Chatterbox, and have been since I  could talk, and haven't stopped since, (unless I lose my voice!) but now I have our blog! and you could probably tell from the length of the post, when I'm blogging from my i-phone or from the luxury of my keyboard.... Fortunately in my former-life I was a PA so touch typing does have it's uses!

Yesterday while Oatie's daddy and our older two were having their Ski lesson, Oatie and I popped up to town to get my elder two's skates sharpened, Oatie has been drawn to Hockey since we moved here 2.5 years ago, and the old-timers when they see him give Oatie some pucks so he has collection. The skate shop does both Figure and Hockey, and have a Huge TV with either sport on there., yesterday a Hockey game was on and Oatie was shouting Good Job when he saw a goal! The nice man who held the door open for us asked if he played Hockey? (Yep a Dagger through the heart moment, I just said not yet...) and then later the nice man was watching Oatie in the shop looking puzzled... as he could hear that he was intelligent from what he was saying to me, but then looking at his legs...

We had a fast dump of snow so using Oatie's wheels was not an option so I carried Oatie in, he was amazingly good, he knew why we were there and he wants to skate SO bad, and our backyard rink is a right-off this year, it is now 4 feet high of snow! so as it has the  mesh fence around it the snow is trapped.  You can see just the top of our Hockey Goal poking through the snow.  Oatie walked everywhere holding my hands and we looked at bags, to tops to hockey stick to whatever he wanted to look at and my favourite thing he does at the moment is "What's that?"... "What's that?" the game can go on for hours, but he just wants to know what EVERYTHING is and what EVERYTHING is called... and I can't deny him that! so after we announced everything in the shop, he looked at the blade covers and picked out some snakes, I thought he wanted them for himself, but he said NO, for his Brother... and what I loved was he carried them in his not so good hand, dropped them did a full squat, while holding my hand and dropped them and another squat... he was so good.  My kids skating coach gave them a Reddi rink as a treat for being hard workers, so think I'll get that out and maybe Oatie can have some fun on that.

 Today started of how our usual relaxing Sunday's have been our week's usually  fairly action packed so it's nice to have an "unwind" day... but not today, The Elder two had their early morning skate, and Oatie was playing his Happyland... which my older two like to play with him too, we alternate between our Thomas more serious set for half the year, and then Happyland for the other half of the year... set up in our Bonus room.

 I love Happyland, and when my eldest was a baby this toy shop always had a buy two get the 3rd item free so we have a huge set.  Oatie loves playing it, he sets up traffic jams or multiple trains or bath's the characters.

My husband who's the sensible one, reminded us of the impending errands that needed to be done, (my eldest)"oh no! we have to leave the house on a Sunday?"  In-between the questions why you don't get a "Snowbow" when it's snowing and Sunny from my daughter.  I remember the time when even with the three of them, Oatie as a baby, I'd have the double stroller and my eldest holding my hand, and pop by the Supermarket for some bread... or something you fancied for dinner...

 Well now, our shopping / errands are kind of compartmentalised, I have a Super app on my iphone called "pocket informant" it's available on the ipad too I believe, and one of the organising settings you can have a "project" with contexts for tasks, and each context is say a store, so under one project called shopping, I have all the stores, so if we head to town, I can see everything that we need to buy at that store, for me it saves so much time, so efficient and that what we do so we can get our ABR hours in.  Yes, when I see someone with a pint of milk, I do inwardly smile, oh how that was once me...We bunch up the errands and hit them in one go, in a logical circuit.  That way we do that once every 4-6 weeks rather than weekly, you save on the drive there and back and can systematically get through the list fast...as no one is really enjoying it so no one wants to browse and job done....  On the way home we stopped of for a meal treat, one that the kids weren't expecting, yes it was the one with the Golden Arches, say no more, and you can see who LOVES it, the photo at the top.  We don't have that type of food very often, so when we do the kids really enjoy it.

So that's how we deal with errands, bunch them up and get them done.  My husband does the weekly shop on a week-night .

When we got home, my husband bathed the kids and washed their hair and they settled down to watch a film, while mummy made home made snacks for the week+ banana bread, granola bars, chocolate brownies, gingerbread cookies (OK I have a secret addiction for them! well they dunk fabulously in a cup of tea!) and I'm making a Valentine's Cake, I banned my husband from buying me a card and flowers years ago, I'd rather a mug that I can enjoy day in and day out...(let's see if he's reading my blog!!- joke) and will Ice it tomorrow and pop it in the freezer, and I might go all out and pipe some Royal icing flowers which I'll make and store and then assemble the day before.  Oh and my darling husband did Oatie's Neck ABR exercises while I was baking.

Oatie's up to 15 flashcard words, today we added 'Flower', today we combined two of his flashcards and he was delighted when he read them... it was "red car".  Just before Bed I put on on Oatie's favourite Tune of the week which is Black Eyed Peas "Meet me Halfway" and he stood up in open space and bopped for almost a minute before diving on the beanbag.

Well I would have rather been at home playing Happyland, but at least the errands are done till the end of Feb lol!

Super Saturday...

Oatie on the bunk, passing me suffies

Oatie on his brother bunk bed helping me wash the sheets, by passing me his brothers stuffies, but first kissing each one and saying hi to them.

Today Oatie and I had a busy but quiet day at home. Oatie's dad took our older two for their skiing lessons. So Oatie and I made some banana bread, got dinner organised and did a bit of housework together. Oatie gets out his toy mop and dustpan had a good play. We finished the day with a couple hours of Manual ABR and then rest of our crew arrived home, they all had a bath, homemade pizza bit of Wizards of Waverly place and the kids were tucked up in bed.

No School today...

Well for some in the area it was a "snow day" we've had extreme weather Since Saturday night, it's high winds -16 but feels like -30, you say, hey that's normal, but at the moment it's WET cold, it's 80-95% humidity... usually here it's really dry, so even if it's the -20's you don't feel it.

Well, I have taken my kids to school in some treacherous weather, and I know when they are there they'll be fine, but during that journey, I'm like what am I doing out here this is NUTS! So today, I heard some schools were closed and waited till Sunrise to make our decision to go or not. So I took my eldest two out they were both keen to get back to school after the long break. The roads were OK a bit hairy but ok. I felt bad as I took my daughter into her school but not Oatie. we couldn't park in the bay as it wasn't snowplowed at all, it was 3 feet high, so they only parking was in the staff car-park, the path wasn't shoveled and neither was the disabled ramp. So there was no way I could wheel Oatie in at all, he would have to be carried, My daughter in that situation would carry his backpack which is way lighter than his and I carry hers and Oatie and she does the doors and helps with his boots, holds his hands so I can take my boots off etc... It's like a comic act, but my daughter is just LOVELY. (The sensation of "breaking into School" is like walking up a mountain). His teacher saw me in the hall and totally understood, she said that when she arrived at school that it would be really hard to get Oatie in. The thing is that he's growing as kids do... so he gets heavier but I am not matching in strength! If I had more time, I would shovel the ramp myself. Only one family (if they see us), ever helps us, only 1 and I am thankful that it is 1 and not 0, and my point is... that it's not like England where some buildings are centuries old.... these are recent buildings where people have known of physically less able people when they were designed, planned, approved and built! Why don't they have a service road be designed around the back of the building say...that could be used for vehicles carrying people who need wheels and they could use it for emergency vehicles like fire/ambulance or even deliveries on each majorly used public building, on right from the onset, and not an after thought! I feel bad as I wonder if we will lose his aid, from Oatie's sporadic preschool attendance, but if he can't get in to school without it being an iron-man challenge for mummy, then he can't get into school. I've seen what it's like for tomorrow, so I will put on my winter camping gear, and psych myself up for the challenge!

Today Oatie got all his flashcards correct, first go, so his sister added Dad to his flashcards. We did 2 hours of manual ABR and as per usual, he'll have 11-12 hours of Machine ABR tonight.

Oatie is excited as he'll be going into school tomorrow regardless, come rain, shine, arctic storm, arctic front and mummy's burning biceps!

While I was doing guided reading with my eldest, Oatie spontaneously built a plane out of stickle bricks...

Building his plane

adding sound effects

enjoying his plane

Swiper earned the Sheriff Bandana

Today we did our session in 3 bits which was very unusual for us as we normally do the 2-3 hours in one go. Oatie let Swiper wear his Sheriff bandana today and snuggled with him on his bench. I don't know if Oatie previously overlooked this toy or maybe he wasn't strong enough as you have to have some core strength to push the spinning top down to make it work but today Oatie discovered it and loved it. It was one of his big brother's very first toys. Oatie played Wii Mario and build lego and watched his brother and sister skate. We didn't hit our 3 hours today, we got in 2:35 today. Oatie put his cuddly stuffies on his bed and only when it got to Swiper, he said Buzz Bench YES, (Buzz Bench is Oatie's ABR machine's name.)

Oatie's making his own disco

Oatie's Making his own NYE party, it was the first time he ever played the drum, he went and found it and found two beaters and just started to tap out a rhythm! 

New Years Eve

Well mum doesn't believe in New Years Resolutions well, for this main reason why wait till a particular time of year to make a positive change, any day in the year will do just fine.

Here we're playing a honeybee game and I'm counting the bees in French.

Ok I'm wearing my Sheriff outfit, someone got to see that the rules are followed! Sheriff Oatie !

I wonder if any of the police force have cerebral palsy?

Well, Happy New Year!

Love

Oatie xxx

Delayed bench

Oatie asked so nicely that we couldn't resist building one truck of his Lego set it was a team effort.

Snowy Wednesday...

Yesterday Oatie's dad said how when the snow on our shed gets to one inch it will snow, and well it did!  I think our shed has to be kept secret or the weather people might be out of work as his theory has been proven over 2.5 years.... YES!!! We have been in our new country for 2.5 years yesterday.... how exciting, I think we're going to make a special meal and pudding to celebrate tonight.

Oatie and his brother had a nice bath together, his brother asked if he could wash him and Oatie confessed his brother only washed his tummy!  When Oatie's brother is at home, Oatie when not on his bench is his constant shadow. and being 4 years apart sometimes has his challenges for both boys.  Oatie's brother likes play in the bath with Oatie as it's a place where Oatie's impairment isn't paramount, so they can again just play and be kids with out all the physical limitations.

Oatie and I are about to commence on our ABR Bench session but the boys are hanging up Oatie's brother's clothes and I can hear Oatie, say Tidy up now in a menacing way to his brother and then laughing!

This holiday Oatie's brother and sister have decided to see if they can teach Oatie to read, he can pick out numbers and letters and occasionally without any pictorial cue knows what something says... which as you can't ask him and get a straight answer you wonder if he read it or if it was by chance.

One of my pet hates, is when people talk about Oatie or ask a question about him to ME instead of him,  right in front of him while he's awake and it would be an answer a child of that age would answer for themselves.  I just say, why don't you ask him yourself?I suppose the annoying bit is another time they have a question they do the whole bypass thing, like he's not a person and I really don't like that, OK his speech isn't a coherent as an average person, but he isn't an average person, I think he's extraordinarily intelligent but just trapped, and just as gifted as his brother or sister or if not more as he tries sooooo much harder than they do. 

The brotherly bond is deteriorating into a battle of wills and even though Oatie isn't articulating as well as his brother he's holding his own in their verbal argument, even if it's no no no no no which is annoying his brother to bits as he can't get a word in edge-ways and as he does Oatie laughs and goes back to no no no no....  I think it's time for Bench!

2:35 and it was great apart from...

Ha ha no it's not post 2:41! Today we did a 2:35 of Manual ABR, we watched Barbies Fashion Fairytale which Oaties sister got for Christmas. Oatie put me through Super Babies Dora the Explorer. I don't mind Super Spies Dora as Swiper is the main character. I like watching the TV show "Modern Family" and I loved the bit when Cam said if he watched Dora one more time he would SNAP. Whenever Oatie requests Dora, that always makes me chuckle.  We also did a quick whirl in Toys R Us, and Oatie picked out his very first non Duplo lego, yes.... it's is a plane and car and trailer set, which is his favourite type of toy.  I'm hoping that it won't frustrate him, like Oatie can't do it on his own, but hopefully he'll accept help from one of us... it was very sweet, he held the box in the stroller, at Ikea he gave it a kiss and put it in his car seat, on the way home he hugged it and at night he put it to bed the box still sealed on his car garage.  Today we bought Oatie's brother and sister REAL plates and glasses. They are really excited.... Mummy treated the family to Creationary, which is the lego version of pictionary.  Well Oatie can't use a pencil like his brother or sister can at that age but we thought he's quite apt a lego so that might be a game that we can play as a family.

Boxing Day

My hot wheels toy, its a toy I can enjoy, I put the car in the launcher and hit the top and off it goes.

Christmas Day

Today no bench apart from my Machine, here I'm playing with a toy from Santa with my big brother. I was excellent. I/we could play as equals no able/less able issue!