Working on Shapes

Ashley school created a IEP for Junior Kindergarten, she is working on recognizing the numbers between 1 to 6, the letters in her name.A,S,H,L,E,Y. Recognizing two colours (blue & pink), Shapes (circle, square and triangle) as well as body parts mouth, nose and eyes. She is able to use her eye gaze effectively to makes choice and identify selections. They are reinforcing her choice making by helping to point and touch her choice she needs reminders to do this.

She has been able to identify six farm animals, and the numbers 1 and 2. She gets time working on the smart board where they are focusing on the letters A, S and H this term. She also uses her step by step communicator to talk to her peers at snack time or say hi to classmates. Her biggest challenge has been illness she missed 12 days of school this first term which is a majority of class time since JK is only every second day alternating between 2 day and 3 day weeks.

Here's a clip of her working on shapes at home with her occupation therapist. It is hard for her to visual focus on the shapes on the table. But she enjoys this activity with her Occupation therapist who always has a few new toys for her to play with.

Damon's Speaking part in Mamma Mia

Here's one of Damon speaking part in Mamma Mia... this was so much fun.



Dancing Queen

Best Friends

This and That

Well lots has happened this week stress level was high when my  first mini crisis happened.  Ashley's mic-key button ballon burst and fell out. That was a first but I guess was bound to happen as she had that one in since fall '08 over a year.  Her nurse was here at the time but she was more stressed  then me .  I calmly went up stairs to find the kit  and instruction booklet.  Which  clearly stated that this was not an emergency in the book.

I guess they put that at the very front of the book as they must know it's a more then a little stressful to see the button and fluids coming out a whole in your child stomach. Perhaps some parents may feel like calling 911 or rushing to emergency.

So stress level were rising, I stay calm and got out her new mic-key button which was on hand followed the instructions and inserted a new one. Then called the g-tube clinic and they said I did everything okay. I just missed cleaning the site with soap and water before inserting the new button.  No big deal she good and getting all her nutrients.  It isn't really a big deal after all.

Two days later while I was driving Ashley to physiotherapy my car started to show it's age.  The front hood popped up in serve wind blocking my view of the road and totally smashing my windshield.  I was alone with Ashley at the time as my parents were in town and they were at home with Taylor.  It was 11 am and there was very little traffic on the four lane road I was on so I just slowed down and pulled off the road.  I don't normally worry to much about charging my phone so I was on the side of the road with a cell phone that was not charged.  I flag down a car and used their cell phone.  Now my van is at a collision repair shop, the front hood needs to be replaced and the windshield. My mini van is 7 1/2 years old so it's seen better days and isn't worth too much at this point it may be a write off.   I'll learn on monday. I'm not really sure I want to be driving around in it any more .  I just had the car pass a safety inspection mid october so my insurance company says they may cover the claim and at they  towed  it and provided me with a Grand Caravan rental for the next few days.

Ashley and James also participate in a schools holiday concert, James class played three songs on the recorder and Ashley class sang three songs it was great.  Ashley was a little overwhelmed but participated. I'll post some clips once I download them.

It's mid december and I'm still working away on my christmas cards  I  have 11 down and 29 to go. Not one gift purchased and I'm out one minivan.

I've been a good girl this year Santa please consider bringing me a new Van. I'm sure your sleigh can handle one of those I'm not fussy just need power sliding doors, working A/C built in DVD would be really nice too, power rear door. I don't ask for much now do I.  

As you can see I'm all over the map on this post. my mind is going a mile a minute to.

Mamma Mia

Damon had a role in Mamma Mia a musical they produced at school it was so much fun to watch. This was a ten week lunch program. It concludes tomorrow with a final show. Thursday night was the first production. Here is a short clip he is in the back row far right dancing and singing.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

No not my girl!

No not my girl  attempting to make a big cereal mess on my kitchen floor.
No not my girl emptying  a kleenex box for fun
No not my girl lifting pots over her head and banging them on the floor.
My oh my the amazing new skills she has and the interest in exploring, dumping and banging everything to Mommy's delight!   I thought Taylor was going to be modeling these things for her in a few months but no she is the leader.  

You see for now Taylor is still stationary but his sister is moving right  along.

it's starting to look a lot like Christmas everywhere I go

Some pictures from my home photo session with the kids for my christmas cards. That's our house all decked out for the season. My husband spent most of the day saturday and sunday putting up the lights.  I can't believe it's december already where did November go any ways.  I'm far from ready for christmas I have not stepped in a store yet so not a gift is bought.  I have a bigger tree to go up in the family room too. Well at least I've started how about you?  Are you ready for christmas? 

Ashley 's Home

That was her third trip to Sickkids emergency this month.  It was her shortest stay.  The doctors and nurses are starting to recognize us as nice as that is it's not a good thing.   Ashley was sent home with Ventalin for an inhaler and a steroid called Prednisolone this medication they use to treat asthma which we knew Ashley doesn't have. She has tight airways and is going into respiratory distress just from a viral infection which appears as a head cold with lots of coughing.  Her chest x-ray didn't look to bad they said she had improved from the x-ray 2 weeks which showed pneumonia.   She's in rough shape when she starts coughing.  Today I  gave  her all the meds even the inhaler which was given on an as needed basis.  When she couldn't stop coughing this evening I pulled it out.

I noticed that the prednisolone has a side effect of insomnia .. not a good one for a little girl who bad needs to rest and recover she only fell asleep at midnight.  She was bathed in bed at eight read books and I checked on many times until finally feel asleep at midnight.  Very unusual for her .. she didn't seem upset to be awake she was sitting up and reading her books.  Mommy just really wanted her to be resting.

I hope tomorrow the coughing will let up. I cancelled the sears photo trip tomorrow but the boys and i put up one of our trees in the living room.  I'll attempt to take my own photo for this years christmas cards by the tree.   I'm sure it won't be as nice as sears.. I don't even have co-ordinating clothing for them to wear. Oh well I know they will still look cute. I hope I can get at least 2 out of 4 smiling.

your sick when ...

Your nail beds are blue.
Your respiration rate is 50 and your sleeping.
Coughing fits are frequent.

It was a rough night. She is feeling better thanks to steroids. We are back in the hospital 3rd time this month.

I hope all this will end soon. We are suppose to get the kids Christmas photo taken at sears on Saturday.
-- Post From My iPod
Sherry

Relentless - Ashley fighting off another bug

My little girl is still sick she has an ear and sinus infection and possible pneumonia. She had too many chest x rays in the last few weeks so her doctor thought he would just treat her and if she doesn't respond or gets worse we are to head to the hospital.  I pray she gets better soon she has been missing lots of school i think she been only once since  October 23rd and November is almost over.

On a more exciting note we went shopping for some furniture for her and found this beautiful sleigh bed.  It is   Isabella furniture by Young America unfortunately not Canadian but lovely.  I picked up some soft and cozy pink side rails from Toys r us the other week too . We are also going to  order her a dresser,  mirror and  night stand.  I can't wait to see it all set up and Taylor in his crib.

Santa Baby

These cheeks are getting bigger everyday!

 Taylor and James

Advocacy

This girl is worth it!

Earlier this month when I was busy caring for Ashley in the hospital while she was fighting  H1N1 and the nasty side effects.    A number of services Ashley receives from CCAC (Community Care Access Centre) or our government came in question. Such as why does Ashley need to receive the level of physiotherapy?  She gets 20 visit every six months currently and has been for a while now.   Her  case manager thought perhaps Ashley should get 10 visits every 12 months like less then one a month.

CCAC also believes it would be better for  Ashley's CME therapist to  be  teaching me how do physio with Ashley ?   Rather then do weekly treatment.  You see Ashley has a new case manager since Ashley started school who doesn't understand how CME therapy benefits Ashley.  Or  how taking this away would put her at risk of not reaching per potential to walk.

 I have no idea what would give them such an idea.  Obviously this case manager does not understand CME therapy, have a child that does not walk, or think I'm super human and if I could be Ashley's Mom and her CME therapist I would but  I'm NOT!!  Ashley's CME therapist that is provided by CCAC is one of the absolute best and is determined to see that Ashley is walking as her mode of transportation. This is a a hugh goal that Ashley has made tremendous gains with thanks to her help as well as Ashley private therapist help.

Ashley has been seeing these 2 therapist weekly since she was less then one year old.  It is expensive therapy and worth every penny we have spent on this privately.  The government is under pressure because there is not enough therapist or funding to provide adequate help to everyone.  Which is really too bad  however my child is making developmental gain that will lead her to live a much more independent and happy live. It is critical now that she continues to receive the same level of therapy in order to reach her walking goal we have been working on this for 4 years now.  She is getting closer and closer every day so now is not the time to make these kind of changes. What were they thinking??

However the shorter version of this story is Ashley amazing CME therapist is a great advocate and went to batt for Ashley and managed to get  another 20 visit for the next 6 months.  Thank god!  She is very worried what will happen six months from now.

In the mean time I went searching for some advice on how to best advocate for Ashley in case her service level is in question again. Which I'm sure will come up again in 6 months time however I will be much more prepare. This is what I learned...

When you get those unexpected question like about decreasing nursing  hours.  I was told to  respond with... "I'd like to consult with Ashley's Doctor on that if you don't mind and get back to you with his input".

 Same goes with questions about reducing  PT or OT get letters from everyone professional involved they hold a lot of weight and make it easy for your case manager to grant you what you need since he or she needs to plead our kids case to her manger.   If  provide  back up from our Doctors, therapist, Early Interventionist, you are more likely to get what we are looking for.

Here's some important content I was told to include in these letters...

- The letter needs to state the benefits my  child gets from the therapy giving our child the much needed developmental gains.

-Be  specific if you know who the therapist is you want or need state their name and why  they are  trained and the best person to help.

- Without this service CCAC is  putting my  child at RISK if she loses these supports.

- It would detrimental or counter intuitive to take away or make changes to her services at this time.

Gather letters of support from everyone on your team that can help, your EI, PT,OT, all involved Doctors, nurses.   The more the better they don't have to be long.

Also in question was Ashley need for home nursing but nothing has been changed so far. I definitely worried about this but  plan to be better prepared next time I get a call about services.  If anyone has any advice for me on this I'd love to hear it .

Les Trois Petit Cochons

For Grammy and Grampy grade 4 french play of Les Trois Petit Cochons. The video is a bit jumpy as Taylor had a good hold on the camera while I was taping. Enjoy

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Guess where I've been here's a hint ..H1N1

I haven't had time to blog for a while there .. I blame it on  H1N1.  If you can I highly recommend getting your vaccine.  The first H1N1 vaccine clinic opened in our area after we were all sick. A little too late for us.

It's been a long 3 weeks or so as everyone at my house was ill with H1N1. My husband and myself and all four kids.  It hit Ashley the hardest she had the many days of fever followed by a hospital admission for respiratory distress she needed some oxygen, and breathing treatments.  Her lungs hadn't needed for this kind of help since she was a  baby despite many colds.  H1N1 was tough on her, she was only initially hospitalized for 48 hours and came for 4 days on Tamiflu and antibiotics.  She appeared to be getting better  when almost a week later she woke up from a nap with a fever that didn't respond very well to motrin, she was in respiratory distress again we headed back to the hospital she had developed bacterial pneumonia.  The doctors said this is something they see in some kids with H1N1 after many days of been sick pneumonia kicks in.  Totally yucky!   We caught it early and she only had a few more days hospital stay thank god.

She missed tick or treating, a good friends birthday party,  not to mention three  weeks of therapy and school. Tomorrow I hope she can return to her normal routine.  She's been eating really well the last few days  I hope that means she is on the road to recovery she lost weight of course so I  hope she will continue her interest in food for the next few weeks.

All in all Ashley  doing great and we all recovered.    I'm just a little sleep deprived after many nights up watching over her and need to get out of the house and do something.  My Mom and Dad  have been her helping me with  everything it would have been very hard caring for everyone  when I was sick myself.  Not to mention all the cleaning, cooking and laundry.  My mom even stayed overnight at the hospital with Ashley her first night admitted as my temperature was raging  too.  Thanks Mom and Dad I hope you get plenty of time to rest and relax now that your home.

104.8. Not a good temperature

Her checks and nose are so pink she reminds me of pinkalicious ( her bedtime story tonight). She was burning up at 2am with a temp of 104.8 and i'm usually under the impression her temperature may be higher then that Braun ear thermoter is reading. It's after 3 am now and sleep is far from my mind as she breathing a little rapidly and through her month. I've administered motrin. She is dressed lighter now has cooled down to 101.54 The humidifier is helping let's hope we are not at sickkids hospital soon. Curse that flu bug!!!


-- Post From My iPod
Sherry

yucky flu!

Ashley's now on Tamiflu after running a high fever for two days.  My husband and James have recovered but now it's Ashley's and Damon's turn.  I'm hoping Taylor and I miss this flu altogether.

Flu is stopping by for a visit.

Getting by the last two days  with  both  my hubby and James  fighting fevers,  along with aches and pains, it looks and sounds a lot  like flu to me.  Scary stuff around here but so far no one else is sick and they were well enough to eat small meals, freezies and drink.  My husband is fine spending the day up in our bedroom however that's harder for James he naps up there  but once the tylenol kicks in he wants to be down stairs with us but was willing to sit on the far couch.   I hope his germs didn't reach his siblings.

Another downer the weather man says it's going to rain for Halloween. still early but 60% chance.  I hope the forecast is wrong it's so much fun to go trick or treating with them.  Ashley has a number of friends on the street I like to take her out as well but not in the rain.

More exciting news Taylor is sitting up already at 6 months, it so cool to see him play at the fisher price piano upright and unsupported.   It's truly  amazing to me after watching his sister struggle and struggle with this skill  it took her 28 long months and hundreds of  hours of therapy to achieve sitting.  I can't take anything Taylor learns to do for granted now and I'm so pleased for my little guy.

Saturday morning therapy

Ashley's  brothers thought it would be fun to play Kerpluck with her this morning.
Brother therapy the best kind.  Look at the skills she worked on..

1. Sitting cross legged
2. Hand over hand help from mom to insert the sticks for game set up. 
3. pulling out the sticks by herself
4. turn taking which James patiently and loving explained to Ashley a few times.
5. Ashley was declared the winner by the boys.

Fun had by all !!!  Mommy loved it too.

Therapy Thursday

Ashley at therapy yesterday working on stepping, and taking a break she wanted to crawl into the TV.

Taylor cheering on his sister!

Junior Kindergarten - October

It's mid october and Ashley is adjusting well to JK despite missing a few days due to illness.  Today she received her step by step simple communication device ,  she had a good time with it. Her EA recorded greetings which she used when they visited people along the way to the library. When she pressed the button it said. "Hi, I'm going to the Library".

You can also  pre-record multiply messages  which they did for snack time she used her device to say  " I'm having cookies what are you having Mya?" ,  "And you Sarah"  , What are you eating Anna? and so on.  The girls eating with her responded right away and really enjoyed talking with her.   They wanted to try the button for themselves but Ashley EA explained it was Ashley voice they had their own.   Ashley was very pleased with all of this.

I was also told she loved the smartboard.  Ashley was thrilled to touch it and enjoy the alphabet software they were using to teach her the letters "a" and "s".  They are working on teaching her all the letters of her name.

Taylor and Carter

Most monday's I take Taylor to the library for Mother Goose a class for mom's and babes where we learn rhymes and songs to entertain our little ones.  It's lots of fun for Taylor and this is something I  did with his brothers when they were young.

This week my good friend Carm and her littlest one Carter 4 1/2 months joined us. The boys are already buddies.  Aren't they cute

6 months already!

My youngest monkey is 6 months old as of yesterday.  He's so lovable and continually smiling.  He's Ashley favourite she is always giving him hugs and kisses.   It's so wonderful for him to be  the youngest of 4 as there is always someone to play or cuddle with him which makes for one very happy baby.

Taylor 6 months old

My smart cookie!

I went with Ashley to JK this morning to meet with the school physiotherapist (PT) (who is also the school's occupation therapist (OT) ). In the real world this would be two separate professionals but here in the Canadian school system a PT is acting as both PT/OT.   She seems very qualified to do both roles I just would love it to be two people not sure why perhaps then Ashley would get more help.

We reviewed her one hand walking with Ashley's Educational Assistant as well as  walking with the walker.  Her EA seems comfortable doing both so Ashley's  getting great practice with  both types of walking each day at school which will really help her reach her goals of independent walking.

We also talked about getting Ashley a better chair for the classroom that can go very low so she sits with her peers at classroom work tables and also raises high enough  for her to work at the classrooms smartboard.  The school is also planning on ordering her a computer and switch which will act as a mouse and some software which will work on literacy skills. We are having another meeting to discuss the computer  and software in early november and I hope  to attend that meeting  as well.  I was told that I will likely get a copy of the software so she can practise at home  on her alternate days.

The PT also suggested we use a product similar to floam to wrap around chalk, crayons or markers to help her learn to make marks on paper or learn to  scribble.

They are also going to teach her to  tear paper , I was thinking perhaps tissue paper.  She spends tones of time now reading her books now and has never torn a page I don't think she has the strength or perhaps just needs to be shown how.    It should be fun to help her learn this I hope she won't tear her beloved books  after that.


Her  teacher  also told me today that she was able to use her eye  gaze communication to select requested numbers and she  found both number  1 and 2 on request with her eyes and followed thru by picking up the correct number!  That was as far as they got due to time so she is 2 for 2! 


She is also finishing everything sent  for snacktime  and i should send more food.  Image that from my skinny girl who just learn to eat back in March!!    I need to send more then 2 fudgeoos and oreos.  (I send fruit too but she loves the cookies and they have more calories!)

Next week she is going to attempt  staying for pizza lunch at school with her class on wednesday.

And my sweet boys

My Damon is always trying to avoid my camera,  here's one photo I managed to get.  He's joined   Act One Productions at school which is a 10 weeks lunch time program.   They are   putting  together a musical production of Mamma Mia.   He loves listening to ABBA so when he heard the school was putting on a musical based on ABBA he came home asking me to sign him up I don't think he realized what he was signing up for at that point, acting singing and dance doesn't really happen around here too much.     After three weeks he had to fill out a form requesting the part he wanted he  initially  asked for a non speaking part but they gave him a small speaking part anyways and I believe he is warming up to it.

He also has to sing in a group for a  few songs.  I'm excited to see the show already.

My littlest babe of course  I can't leave him out he is starting cereal already!

Taylor is eating me out of house and home already in one week he polished off two boxes of baby cereal.  I recall with Ashley having a pantry full of cereal she could never finish a box as she eats so little she would maybe eat a tablespoon or two for a meal.  Taylor  eats 5 or 6 tablespoons and wants more and as an added bonus is sleeping a little better now too.  He is such an angel!

Cross Country Running

Now that James is in 4th grade he is allowed to join a number of teams at school, this fall they offered Cross country running.  This was a sport I excelled in  when I was a child so I talked it up a lot and he was very eager to join.  He has been training with the team every lunch hour for the last month or so.  Today was the big race it was fun to go and cheer him on.  It was was very fast paced he placed 95th there was many kids in the race and not sure he inherited my running genes.  However he was thrilled he enjoyed every minute of it and says he can't wait to do it again next year !!!    I'm so proud of him he also brought home 4 test for me sign this week he had perfect on three and an A on the forth. Talk about a good start seems like something has changed for him and I think it's that he's matured.   It's so nice to be getting all this positive stuff happening at school.  He tells me he is even walking away from conflict on the school yard when kids are playing too rough!

For all this good stuff we are rewarding him with a book  ( Diary of a Wimpy Kid book 4) he can't wait to read it. He can't get enough of books!   I'm going to pick it up tomorrow!

Okay I'm going to stop bragging about him now.   I just couldn't resist.

Time for pumpkins

Ashley been sick again with some sort of virus it was in her ears last week but just a little not enough for her doctor to treat.  It's a week and a half later and she still fighting something but her ears are clear and it appears to be a bad head cold.  At least her doctor decided it was time to treat it with some good old amoxicillin as he was concerned it may have moved to her sinius.  Which would explain some of her  crying and out of sorts. Despite all that she missed all her class time last week but I still took her over to the pumpkin patch to join her class for some fun at the farm.

Last week my parents also visited it was so nice to see them as they have been traveling for many weeks and we had not visited with them since late July.  My mom cooked so much food we ate and ate it was so yummy.  Mom I hope your going to visit again soon.

Happy 40th Birthday Honey

It's hard to believe my husband is turning 40 today.  We meet in university when I was just 20 and now it's more then a few years later and  we  have 4  kids  and a great life together.  Honey I hope you enjoy every minute of today and our  celebration dinner tomorrow with your family.  You are a  wonderful husband and father and I'm looking forward to celebrating many more birthdays with you.

Happy Birthday !

I love you

Remember when........   life was a little slower and quieter

Ashley's success with PICs in JK

At school this morning Ashley was able to correctly identify  farm animals using her eyes to look at the correct picture card when presented with four different choice.  She did this successfully each time she was asked.  This was an exercise done to show her teacher how they can use the picture cards to teach her colours, shapes or other themes being taught in JK.

She was also able to make choices between activities with picture communication and use her "yes" or "no" cards to tell her teacher when she wanted to stop or continue.    Her preschool speech and language  CDA who has been working with Ashley for close to 2 years was visiting and was thrilled and so were her teachers.

 Ashley you continue to impress us all!

Feeling better

Ashley's  on the mend  and Taylor seems fine. We really got off easy I guess.  I on the other hand  had my 4th maybe 5th case of mastistis I'm losing count now but it's very draining and makes me want to start bottle feeding but only  as long  my  fevers lasts.  As in that state  I barely have the energy needed to change a  diaper thankfully  it only  lasted 24 hours and by sunday morning was up and about.  It's harder to bare with school drop off and pick up days.  I hope I've seen the last of it.   I'm taking antibotics now myself so hopefully I'll  get rid of this problem for good.

On a good note this is the 4th week of kindergarten and Ashley's doing great! The speech therapist and augmentative communication team are coming to meet with Ashley and her teacher this wednesday and it sounds like the school may get her some augmentative device to use in school.

We also have new neighbours moved in next door and they have a boy who is ten which my older boys are thrilled about they just moved to canada from bejing China in June of this year.  My boys were introducing him to nintendo they were surprised to learn he never played that in China.  He has been telling them about his home in china too. The boys seem very fascinate by the differences which there are many.  It's nice that they have a new friend.  He can ripstik too so he is giving James some much needed lessons.

I picked up this book today a good friend mentioned it to me and I can't wait to read it.

My Stoke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor

It's the story of a 37 year old brain scientist that experienced a massive stroke.

Earache, earache go away!

Well looks like Ashley virus  from last week has moved to her ear and now she is on antibiotics again.  This is her fourth ear infection this year, I'm not pleased.  She seemed better Sunday and monday and attended a party and school.  After waking from a very long nap yesterday she couldn't stop crying and poking at her right ear.  I knew right away she was going to need antibiotics.  So after school I took all four to the clinic and we came home with amoxicilin.  

Taylor cold is sticking around too but it doesn't seem to be bothering him he's happy and energized despite the runny nose.  Both my husband and I  also seem to have this cold now too.   The cold and flu season didn't take anytime to hit our house this year.

Feeling good enough for a party

Ashley and Taylor are much better today, so we decided to take in a fun birthday party.  Ashley's friend Tristan turned three today and we were invited to celebrate at a local farm.  There was a petting zoo and best of all pony rides.  Ashley loved the pony ride she was all giggles.

Ashley & Tristan

Happy Birthday Tristan!

Thanks for inviting us Adrienne it was lots of fun

Fever and Runny nose bring on too much worry!

All this talk of H1N1 and my thoughts of RSV keep going thru my head with each cough and nose I wipe. Little Taylor just turned 5 months yesterday and has been running a fever since Wednesday evening around 102 F. Ashley had a fever too which appears to be gone as of this morning but her nose is still runny. I feel particularly concerned because of H1N1 with Ashley's underlying conditions and Taylor young age. However we went to the doctor this morning and he believes it just to be a regular run of the mill cold or virus. They are both still eating and not acting too miserable so I guess I need to relax a little. I'm not getting much sleep and keep checking for sign of respiratory distress just to be on the safe side. They need to get better quickly as Ashley has a fun Birthday party to attend on sunday and I'm tired.

In the mean time I can't wait for the flu shot to be ready this year.

Music to my ears

My oldest came home saying he needed a recorder for school on monday. We headed over to COSMO music superstore. The store was so impressive it made me long for a baby grand piano.

However we left with one red Yamaha recorder for James and shiny new harmonica for Damon.
If you would like a glimpse what I've been hearing for the last 24 hours music protegees i think not.


The boys filmed this video personally. All credit goes to them.

James has been spending time reading his introductory book as well as practising a few notes. Hopefully he will be playing jingle bells for us by christmas if so I promise to post.

Junior Kindergarten Day 2

Well Ashley finished her second day, I manged to get her feed, dressed, AFO's and all and arrive at school for 8:30am. Her brothers as well I'm not exactly a fan of getting up early but I managed a timely arrival each day this week. That is an accomplishment for me. I hope I can keep it up.

Ashley had a little trouble for the first part of the morning. From 8:30 until recess she did some crying. She had a walk instead of circle. By the time recess arrived they decided to remove her AFOs and take her for a walk in her stroller. I showed up briefly at recess to tube feed her some milk. She decided to start smiling at that point too. She was happy to be there for the rest of the morning. I was told she sat and listened to the lesson, smiled while doing arts and crafts and sand play. When they told the class Ashley was heading home for the day at lunch a number of her peers came by and caressed her hand or patted her head good bye. Junior Kindergarten last all day 8:30 until 2:50 but were are going to let Ashley slowly ease into it with half days planned for September.

I saw another Junior Kindergartner who looked to be developing typically shedding a few tears at recess so I know Ashley's not alone feeling a little upset.

All in all I think her first week of school was a great one. Her teacher even gave her this certificate which she loved.

Fabulous start to Junior Kindergarten

I can't believe my little girl has come so far she rode her tricycle to her first day of school. Then she walked in with the aid of her new Kaye walker and AFOs. Way to go girl! I was so proud of her she has an amazing teacher and aid at school its going to be such a positive experience for her. When Ashley was born so ill and struggling for every breath I could never have imagined how wonderful and special today would be. She is even at the same school as her big brothers.

She enjoyed a story, did some arts and crafts, made a friend and just enjoyed herself. I can't wait for Friday her second day. She's going to start slow just mornings for now and alternating days.

She didn't even mind wearing her AFOs today.

Ashley you keep rising to the challenge and making your mommy and daddy so proud.


play dough fun

She is taking it all in here..

arriving with mom



new friends

my kaye walker

More photos ..

The city is building this trail in the woods by our house they have been working on it since spring, it's not finished yet but on labour day we decided to go exploring and check it out. It was a really nice walk.


Taylor has taken to sucking his thumb it's so cute i tried to get a picture but he keeps pulling his hand out as i snap the image. I'm not a photographer that is for sure maybe i need to attend a class not sure where I'd find the time.

A new school year begins

I took a number of photos this morning of James, Damon and Ashley on the front step. As James starts grade 4 and Damon grade 2. Tomorrow Ashley will start Junior Kindergarten. I tried real hard to take a good picture of the three of them on the front step but had no success getting them all to look at the camera and smile at the same time. But you will see how nicely Ashley is able to sit on the bottom step her balance is improving very nicely her physiotherapist was commenting on just that today too.

Here are a few better photos taken on the short walk to school.
Of course Taylor came along to drop them off so I had to take his picture as well.