tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34711953342286191292024-03-14T02:17:41.373-05:00Taking It Day By DayAzaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.comBlogger331125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-33564796135507020532010-08-18T22:13:00.002-05:002010-08-18T22:24:21.230-05:00Musically InclinedOkay so I realize this probably makes me insane, but I'm looking into signing Skyler up for another music class.. Kindermusik. It's on Monday nights at 6pm. Lately he's been staying up until like 9pm anyway so this will hopefully tire him out enough to go to sleep before 9. It's a 15 min walk from my place. It's 15 weeks whereas the other one is only 10. You get a couple books and an activity book and a lunch bag and an instrument to keep. And you can pay in a series of post dated cheques. Skyler and I went to our Baby & Me class today and he watched the other babies interact, and he was reticent to join them. He wasn't crying or anything, but he was just sitting back and watching. At one point a little one came up and gave him a big hug. At first he was just like WTH, then he started to freak out a little like mommy why is this baby touching me?<br /><br />I really want him to interact more with other babies, especially since he's (hopefully) going to be a big brother soon. Most of all though I want him to have fun, to interact with others (including adults) and try something different. You have no idea how stir crazy we get sitting in the same apartment doing the exact same things every day, so I'm hoping since music is something he loves and something I love and something that visually impaired kids can participate in easily that this will be a good choice for him.<br /><br />Plus he gets a disability cheque each month, and that money is for him and to help support him in his development and all that stuff so I don't have a problem spending it on something like this. I know two days a week might be a lot, but they're spread apart enough I think. And both classes are parent involved classes so it's not like I'll be leaving him with strangers. Anyway, let me know if you think I'm nuts. (Not that it will change my mind or anything. ;)Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-17451424962809922612010-08-17T22:00:00.004-05:002010-08-17T22:08:02.106-05:00Watching TVYesterday Skyler and I were at my moms. I was sitting on the couch with Sky on my lap and there was some commercial on tv. (My mom's tv is smaller and much higher up than ours) My little man points to the tv and says "Car!" sure enough it's a car commercial. I just looked at him, rather stunned. "You can see that?" Seriously. I think he's slightly less blind than we think he is..<br /><br />And in the spirit of adorableness I have a picture of my little Scottish lad in his wee kilt. (My dad's side of the family is from Aberdeen, Scotland. We're proud Scots ;) I couldn't be happier that Skyler now owns his first kilt.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TGtN85MH02I/AAAAAAAAAc8/gNWFDrJ3wMo/s1600/004.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TGtN85MH02I/AAAAAAAAAc8/gNWFDrJ3wMo/s400/004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506580677929718626" border="0" /></a><br />Tonight Skyler discovered three new things. I feel like Sesame Street here; the word of the day is "comb" Skyler loves the comb today. No clue. Food of the day: raisins! I made him two different meals for dinner, nope. He wanted raisins. Handfuls of raisins. Ok then. And his newest activity: riding in the laundry basket and saying "Yey!!" and yes it sounds just the way I spelled it, but much cuter than I can convey in type.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-43168404140159958422010-08-16T10:33:00.002-05:002010-08-16T10:54:09.419-05:00Lots to SayI've been a bad blogger lately. There's so much going on it's hard to decide what to tell you about. I'll start with our appointment at the hospital for prenatal genetics last week. My appointment was for 2:30. We got into the hospital with 7 minutes to spare, but then had to find our way through the tunnels to the right building. Then when we got to the right building the people behind the bullet-proof glass (who you had to use a phone to talk to) couldn't seem to figure out where I was supposed to be. After 5-10 mins of searching through some binder they finally told me to go to the basement.. Weird I know. I get down there and we must have been like 5 minutes late. So I tell them I'm here they tell me to go sit down.<br /><br />Half an hour goes by and women are coming in and leaving fairly quickly after seeing their docs. There's a sign on the window of the reception that says "If you've been waiting longer than half an hour please inform the staff" Okay so I walk over and ask when I'll be seeing the doctor. The woman picks up a phone says she's calling him and then I'm standing there waiting. A couple walks in and basically shoves me aside to get to the window, I'm still standing there waiting. The woman hangs up the phone and tells me to "Go sit down." Which honestly was extremely rude. She didn't answer my question, I don't think she even talked to anyone on the phone, and just told me to sit down. I went and sat, annoyed.<br /><br />An hour goes by and I walk over to the other woman in the reception desk hoping for a better answer. This time I get an "I don't know" giggle shrug. I walk off to the bathroom and when I come back Skyler is starting to get annoyed, C is getting antsy so I start pacing the room with Skyler loudly saying "I know baby I'm sorry, I'm just as frustrated as you are. I didn't think we'd be here for an hour and a half." All the while I can't understand why new people keep coming in and getting seen and leaving so quickly while we're standing here waiting. Finally some woman comes and says the doctor is with a patient.. I tell her it's been almost 2 hours. She says she doesn't know how long it will be because she can't just interrupt him while he's with someone. Fine, whatever. So we wait.<br /><br />She comes back another 15 mins later and says it will be 10 more minutes. I'm frustrated, Skyler and C are frustrated. Finally the guy shows up and he says "I'm sorry about the wait I told them to call me when you got here. I had to go upstairs." I was ready to deck someone. We quickly run through the family history thing, how my pregnancy with Skyler went. He confirms for us (as we already knew) that septo-optic dysplasia is not hereditary, there is no reason to suspect that this baby will have it. He said that in some rare cases there is a gene that siblings might have in common, but it's not very likely. He set up an ultra sound for 22 weeks so they can check and see if anything looks abnormal, but thats it. He also stated that what Skyler has is an <span style="font-style: italic;">anomoly</span>. That word for some reason comforts me. It's something that they can't decipher why it happens, it's not genetics, it's not something we did wrong. It just happens randomly and usually only once in a family.<br /><br />___________________________________________<br /><br />Moving on, I haven't talked a lot about this pregnancy. Okay maybe hardly at all. Truth is I'm both excited beyond words and a bit nervous. We managed to have a baby already I know. I still worry though, I'm 11 weeks now. The morning sickness seems to have subsided mostly. I'm scheduled for so many appointments you wouldn't believe it. I have an ultrasound in October. They sent me a letter. No phone call, no Dr telling me why, I'm guessing she will explain at my appointment in September that it's because I'm high risk or whatever.<br /><br />I still want to hear the heartbeat. I've gone to the clinic twice now and they keep telling me I'm just not far enough along. So I'm waiting. My next appointment with my nurse practicioner is this coming Monday, I'll be 12 weeks and hopefully we will be able to hear the heartbeat. I love my nurse practicioner, I'm very happy to have one. Too bad I will be seen by the high risk OB for most of this pregnancy.<br /><br />The baby is due March 8th. We keep telling Skyler that mommy has a baby in her tummy. He doesn't seem to have clued in yet, but I'm not really showing (I have a tummy, but it's all fat) and he hasn't been around many other babies yet. He is saying a lot more new words. But he's not walking yet. He got new shoes and has worn them twice now. He seems to like them which is awesome because before he hated shoes. He's almost let go to stand a few times in his new shoes. I've got my fingers crossed. The weather has recently turned from scorching hot to chilly, windy and autumn-like. I'm thinking I might dress him up in something warm and take him for a walk soon.<br /><br />I have more to say, but this is already a novel, so thanks for reading if you made it this far. ;)Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-14102816956194923392010-08-15T23:41:00.002-05:002010-08-15T23:42:43.839-05:00Wordless Whateverday<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TGjBrDoSutI/AAAAAAAAAc0/3iuvXBpT6xM/s1600/006.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TGjBrDoSutI/AAAAAAAAAc0/3iuvXBpT6xM/s400/006.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5505863489913273042" border="0" /></a>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-1011223396750121812010-08-10T09:05:00.003-05:002010-08-10T09:14:37.732-05:00ReprieveTwo posts in one day, sometimes I forget my head. I forgot to mention that I've been stuck with my kid 24/7 and started to go insane. I called up my mom on Saturday and asked if she had some time for just me. Thankfully she called me back and said she had planned a nice night for me and my brother. The three of us went out for dinner, and then to the casino. I won $15. Haha doesn't sound like much but I'm one of those people who cashes out as soon as I get two dollars. And my mom gave me the $5 to put in the machine I didn't even bring money to spend. So I tripled the $5 and was happy with that. It was a great time, and it was nice to get a quick break from little guy. As much as I love him I think we all need a break sometimes.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-46868015766632805682010-08-10T08:34:00.003-05:002010-08-10T08:54:53.866-05:00CarSo C's done his holidays, back to work today. I'm having mixed feelings about it. I'm mostly sad that we'll have less time together, though at times he did get on my nerves (he likes things super tidy and uses his time off to clean and clean, and complain that I'm not wanting to clean) but that's just life as a couple. Honestly I'm more likely to clean while he's at work, I see his time off as time to spend together, I mean obviously some cleaning has to be done, but he went out and bought yet another carpet cleaning accessory and cleaned our carpets. Not that I'm complaining. Ah I just can't win here can I?<br /><br />Skyler has new words, including the word "car" which he loves. Whenever we get into the car he sits there saying "car" over and over with a big smile on his face. He's so proud of himself. Speaking of which I forgot to tell you what happened to our car on the Friday before we went camping. We were set to leave on Saturday morning to go to Gimli (a town about 2 hours away) and then Sunday leave to go camping. So Friday morning we were driving to C's parents (they live just outside of town) and this person in front of us was driving a pick-up truck with a trailer attached on the back. The trailer had those metal poles that you see on scaffalding to clean windows of sky scrapers. Anyway, they hadn't checked that it was properly secured and of course a huge metal pole comes flying off this trailer and into our wheel well. Busted our tire completely.<br /><br />C had to honk at them and follow them until they stopped (we pulled over to the shoulder) as these people had no clue. The guy who was driving was a grade A moron. He told us it wasn't his fault that the pole came off his trailer. As far as I can tell yeah it was his fault. If he had properly secured his load beforehand it wouldn't have happened. There was also another guy who ran over the metal pole before they went and picked it up out of traffic and he busted his tire too. The other guy was from out of province though and didn't know what to do. (My province's car insurance covers you anywhere in Canada, most other provinces don't.) So we called the police and tried to get them to respond to the scene (which if there's over a thousand dollars worth of damages they're supposed to) they told us to call Autopac (our insurance company) as no one was hurt so they didn't want to respond.<br /><br />So Autopac says to empty out everything in the car, leave the doors unlocked and the keys inside and the tow truck will come pick up the car. Fortunately we were almost at C's parents (about halfway there) so his mom came and picked us up. Talk about stressful. Our claim adjuster said we could make a claim against the person whose fault it was to try to get a rental car. When we got a hold of the adjuster he said we had to wait until that person filed a claim which he was unlikely to do because he didn't believe he was at fault. Autopac has to send them a letter telling them to make a claim and then it's up to him if he is going to take responsibility for the damages to our car! I don't get it!! Which means we have to pay $200 (our deductible) to get our car back.<br /><br />Fortunately C's youngest sister has a car but doesn't drive yet, so we fixed it up and we're borrowing that for now. I'm really ticked off about the whole thing though because I don't understand how this other person has the option of not taking responsibility for not properly securing his load. Now because of <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">HIS</span> actions we have to pay to have our car fixed, we can't get it back until we pay the $200, which is money we don't exactly have since I'm off work right now. Sigh.<br /><br />Wow I hadn't realized how annoyed I would get just typing all that out. Here's hoping this person decides to take responsibility for his lack of care (which I doubt he will) or else we have to take him to small claims court and try to get the money for our deductible out of him.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-75576161642144822932010-08-05T12:53:00.003-05:002010-08-05T13:03:43.617-05:00WhewIt's been a crazy week. Skyler loved camping right up until he realized we weren't going home at night and that he had to sleep with us on the air mattress. Then he was much less than pleased.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TFr7A22J5mI/AAAAAAAAAcs/e3SUGkdiWBQ/s1600/152.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TFr7A22J5mI/AAAAAAAAAcs/e3SUGkdiWBQ/s400/152.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5501985886927709794" border="0" /></a><br />So sleeping was less than ideal out in the woods, but the weather was beautiful (mostly, there was a bit of rain, but not much) and I got to spend some quality time with my brother. I really loved canoeing, it's been forever since I went out on the lake in a canoe! I surprised myself by actually remembering what to do. We came back a day early because we didn't feel like staying up all night a second night, but we really did enjoy our time camping.<br /><br />I've been looking into getting Skyler into a music program. He loves music, and I want him to have some sort of interaction with other kids as he's starting to get interested in them. I think it would be a good opportunity for us to spend some time with him in a different setting with other toddlers, helping him learn some social skills and having fun at the same time. I'm looking into a local program, and into kindermusik in our area. The kindermusik is closer to us, but it's on a Monday so I'd have to bus there with Skyler on my own and it's more expensive. The local program is cheaper, the classes are an hour instead of 45 mins, and it's on Friday afternoons so while it's a bit further away C can drive us and attend with us. It's at 2 on Friday afternoons, and I'm done work at 1 so it's good timing.<br /><br />The class sizes are small (6-8 kids) and the teacher is a music teacher. I'm hoping it will be something Skyler will like. I sent an email and they offered to hold a spot for us until registration on Sept 10th. Classes begin Oct 8th. I'm hoping it works out, and I'm hoping we can come up with the fees by then.. I'm supposedly on unemployment for the summer, but the gov't hasn't bothered to give me any money yet.. Sigh.. Here's hoping they get it figured out soon.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-47828855994498623922010-07-29T11:09:00.003-05:002010-07-29T11:21:47.357-05:00Girls..My boy really is growing up. In the past week or so he's started saying a bunch of new words like cracker, and ding dong. And the newest one as of yesterday while at our baby group is "girl". He was grabbing at another baby's skirt while she tried to crawl away, and later he was chasing another girl baby. I told him that was a girl and he began repeating it. It now seems to be his favourite word. Which, coupled with the new sound he started making this morning is actually quite amusing. I grabbed him from his crib and brought him to our bed. I told him to give his daddy a kiss good morning and he started making the kissy lip smacking sound. Now he says girl and makes the kissy sound. He's not even two yet.. ay yi yi.<br /><br />And we've started playing a game on the bed, where he stands up holding the wall and then lets go and just stands on his own for a bit. He's doing it a lot and has even started to do it on the floor. It's very exciting for us, he might eventually walk on his own! I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high. Also his other new skill is drinking juice from a juice box. So far it's less messy than drinking from a cup so I'm all for it. He has some apple juice once in a while, but he's still mostly drinking water and milk. We're working on using a spoon, but he still would rather scoop the food out with his fingers.<br /><br />I'm excited and nervous about camping this weekend. C tried to get Skyler to sleep on the air matress with him on his bedroom floor. That didn't work out so well. Skyler wanted nothing to do with laying down on the air mattress. He was too busy playing of course. I'm hoping he'll sleep on it when we're camping because he'll be so tired out from doing things all day, and there won't be much to do in the tent aside from sleep. *crossing my fingers*<br /><br />This week feels like it's gone on forever and a day and it still isn't over. I just want the weekend already, and I know C is feeling it more than anyone since he starts holidays tomorrow. And after all the insanity that happened at his work yesterday I think he's more than done for a while. He actually had a lady come into the store (they sell coffee, and so they have a sink by the coffee machines to fill and empty the machines) and <span style="font-style: italic;">she took off her shirt</span> and started washing herself at the sink! She wasn't wearing a bra, nothing. Just standing there with her tatas and everything hanging out, having a little bird bath at their sink! C told her she had to put her shirt back on, and she went nuts. She threatened to kill him, saying she's bigger than he is, and she could take him on and whatever. He ended up having to call the police and he banned her from the store. They didn't even show up, the lady left and then decided to come back a couple hours later. He called the police again, and he was pretty mad about it.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span>Craziness.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-32432462711075106332010-07-26T13:07:00.004-05:002010-07-26T13:21:30.403-05:00New UpdatesHey, thank you <span style="font-style: italic;">teacher</span> for pointing out on my last blog what's going on with the design thing. I really appreciate it!<br /><br />Wow these last couple days have been packed with news. Sunday we went to my mom's as per usual. My mom and I dug out some of her old tea cups and saucers. She has a collection of them and we're looking to sell them. (It's not like matching sets though, mostly odds and ends, but it looks like some pieces may be worth something). Last night after my mom's C and I worked out our plans for this weekend. He starts his week long holiday this Friday, so we're seeing the little girl I used to take care of sometime this weekend I hope. Saturday we're driving to another city in our province for their Icelandic festival in which some of our friends are historic viking re-enactors. (It's very cool) And then Sunday we've booked a campsite, and we're going camping Sunday and Monday with my little brother (and of course Skyler). I'm so excited, I haven't been camping in a long time. We're going to go hiking and canoeing too. I'm just worried that Skyler might not want to sleep in the tent..<br /><br />Then today I got a message from a girl I worked with at the centre. She told me to check my email for a message from the big boss. I realized they had my old email address. Anyway, turns out I'm not at the same centre (which I figured). I've been offered a position at a school that is about the same distance away. My new position is inclusion worker from 8:30am to 1pm with a little girl who has a visual impairment and is non-verbal. I couldn't be more excited. She's just starting kindergarten. I can't wait to meet her and get to know her. I think inclusion work will be perfect for me, as well as working with a child who has the same type of impairment as my own child. There's even a possibility that I'll be working with my son's OT at times, if she's still working with this child.<br /><br />So I'm off to try and figure out this blog design thing, I hope you all are well!Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-17858421848641507522010-07-24T06:06:00.002-05:002010-07-24T06:09:33.396-05:00Yeah, I Don't KnowI know, my blog looks weird now. Not sure what happened, but the template I was using before is no longer hosted by photobucket or something like that so it stopped working. I just quickly chose something different last night when I noticed what happened and since I'm still not quite awake yet I'm not going to mess with it too much yet. I'm not sure why I'm up so early, I'm still really tired and Skyler's not even awake yet. It seems every morning I wake up super early and sneeze a hundred times before I can go back to sleep, and this morning I still haven't gone back to sleep yet. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know what's going on with the weird background. I'm going to try to go back to sleep now.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-15308097426245287602010-07-21T16:01:00.005-05:002010-07-21T16:19:05.348-05:00Got Milk?Thanks for the encouragement everyone, it helps a lot. I've also found some new blogs recently about parents dealing with bigger issues than Skyler's and I remember to be grateful that his problems are not as bad as they could be. While I know at the same time there are people thinking "I have it bad but at least my kid isn't blind!" this makes me laugh, in a good way. If we can make some people feel less bad about whatever problems they have well that's good. I imagine that I could be sitting across from someone else whose kid has different special needs and both of us could be thinking "well, at least my child doesn't have her child's needs." I think this is simply because we grow accustomed to what we have to deal with every day. And yes, some people have more things to deal with in a day.<br /><br />Moving on, today I went to Baby & Me. It's the same group I started to go to when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Skyler. You can keep going up until your baby is a year old and then you have to find another group, but since they don't have childcare yet, and Skyler isn't as mobile as most toddlers his age the group co-ordinator (who knows us well) said she'd make an exception. I had to reregister and fill out the forms for the little whatsit and its due date. In the beginning of the group we all sit in a circle and introduce ourselves and talk about our due date/babies. Since most of the people are new since the last time I went I was straight forward. I told them about the little whatsit, and then I said "You may notice my son's eyes cross, that's because he's legally blind." I did this up front right away before anyone had a chance to question/stare/point & gossip.<br /><br />I got the questions after everyone had settled down and was started in on the snacks. Luckily since I had been upfront people weren't afraid to ask questions in a respectful manner. And it saved me time having to explain it to people one at a time as they showed interest. I think it helped that I was direct, matter-of-fact and I don't have a "poor baby" attitude about it so they didn't seem to show that either. It was nice to go back to a group with other moms, and this time Skyler showed a bit of interest in the other babies. He was really well behaved as usual. And the best part of all, I got milk coupons. I can't have "normal" milk because I'm lactose intolerant, and the milk I buy has the lactose broken down already but it's about $5 for a two litre. So milk coupons = free milk = awesome.<br /><br />So that's what's new with us. I hope you are doing well.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-52922019367778348382010-07-18T10:39:00.003-05:002010-07-18T10:48:15.643-05:0020 MonthsTomorrow Skyler will be 20 months old. I'm excited, I can't believe he's going to be two in four months. That seems crazy. And he's still not walking on his own. I'm trying to be positive about it. It seems like he's heading towards it, but then, nothing ever happens he just keeps crawling and using the tables. And we keep getting asked (by family no less) "Is he walking yet??" It's starting to make me feel like I'm a bad parent. We've been working on the same exercises, the same activities suggested by the PT and the OT for months, and still nothing. It feels like I'm just not doing enough to help him trust himself to walk.<br /><br />We have OT again tomorrow, I'm hoping to bring up the issue, again and see if there's anything new we can try. She has faith that he'll walk on his own soon. She doesn't want to bring in a walker or anything like that because he might become dependent on that and he seems to be so close to walking on his own. So I guess I just sit here, try to remind myself that he will do things in his own time on his own schedule and that's just the way it has to be. But sometimes, it's hard being the parent. I know I'm more upset about it than he is. He gets where he's going eventually even without walking so he doesn't seem to care much. I'm sure if I didn't have people breathing down my neck about when he's going to be walking I wouldn't care so much either. I'm just tired of explaining to people that he has no depth perception. They just keep asking anyway. Oh well, what can you do.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-64777907286454835542010-07-12T08:59:00.004-05:002010-07-12T09:44:17.840-05:00Guest PostI was asked to do a guest post over on BLOOM, a blog that I've been following for a while. It's a wonderful site and the webmaster/author has a child with special needs herself. This is the post I wrote <a href="http://bloom-parentingkidswithdisabilities.blogspot.com/2010/07/of-course-i-want-another-like-him.html">here. </a>It's about our decision to have another child after having Skyler who (obviously) has special needs.<br /><br />As for me, today I am trying to work up some energy and maybe I'll take Skyler to the wading pool close by for a bit or something. He hasn't quite been himself the last few days, I think he has a start of a cold or he's having a bad reaction to mosquito bites. On Saturday he just slept all day basically, woke up to eat breakfast, lunch, and then dinner, but aside from that was sleeping the day away. Then yesterday he was himself in the morning but when he woke up from his nap he was miserable and screaming and crying at everything which is not like him at all. I had planned on going to my mom's in the afternoon when C went to work so I almost called her and said we couldn't go. But in the end I decided I would rather have some support if he was in such a bad mood than be sitting at home with him alone while he screamed.<br /><br />Turned out he was much happier at grama's house. As soon as he got there he stopped the crying/screaming bit and happily made himself busy exploring and playing with the cats. He also showed some love to grama by calling her name, pointing at her and giving her a kiss! (We'll just not mention all the hair pulling and yelling "AGH!" he did at her while he was there okay?). My mom and I talked about Christmas time and how Skyler will be two. It's pretty insane to think he's not going to be my little baby for much longer, he already thinks he's a toddler (and I guess he is..) and I'm sure the Christmas tree is going to be of much interest to him this year, with it's glittery ornaments, shiny lights and his ability to crawl super fast and pull to standing..<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDsj_bNFEdI/AAAAAAAAAck/x0zmP4AI2v0/s1600/023.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDsj_bNFEdI/AAAAAAAAAck/x0zmP4AI2v0/s400/023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5493023743049798098" border="0" /></a><br />And as for the mystery in my tummy, it's making me quite sleepy and sometimes nauseous still. I'm starting to get a bit antsy about going back to work in September to be honest. I'm wondering if it's such a good idea to be working with children while .... you know, assuming I am still which I hope I am. I love my job don't get me wrong, it's just that schools and daycares are where you pick up the most illnesses.. Sigh, not sure what to do here, but I'm going to think on it. Maybe I'll do some meditation about it, that seems to help me. I hope you all are doing well.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-9599568592689936902010-07-09T18:56:00.004-05:002010-07-09T19:44:26.379-05:00Wading Pool FunI took Skyler to my nana's today for lunch. She made us delicious homemade mince and tatties. It's a simple Scottish dish, but it's my favourite comfort food so I was delighted. As was Skyler, he stuffed his face with fist after fist of ground beef, mashed potatoes and peas. We had walked to my nan's and it was a nice 26 degrees celcius outside (so a bit warm, not sure what that is in farenheit 90 something I think?) and I was feeling the heat. It's 4.2 km away from me, not sure what that is in miles, but it's a fair walk. It's a good thing she has air conditioning. We stayed and chatted for a bit until Skyler started to get tired then we headed back into the heat for a walk so he could take a nap in the stroller.From my nan's we walked a bit and then went to a nearby park with a wading pool.<br /><br />I was excited about taking Skyler to the wading pool for the first time this year. We had taken him last year but he was so little that he didn't really do anything there. This time he was interested and engaged. I was a bit frazzled from walking so long in the heat and I wasn't quite thinking when I changed him into his swim diaper and trunks and just plopped him into the water. He was pretty mad at me, and I don't blame him. I picked him up and put him on my lap and we sat that way for a while until he was ready to dip his toes in. Then he wanted to stand, and was content like that for a while, standing in the water, kicking it and holding onto my legs just barely.<br /><br />It was then that I heard a girl next to us talking to her friend "Look at <span style="font-style: italic;">his eyes</span>!" I heard this a few times as the girls talked to each other, pointing at my baby. I must say normally the younger ones don't bother me much and I can handle it easily. Today though I guess the heat had gotten to me and the girls were older, about 9 or so (I'm used to the kinder/grade 1 crowd). I found myself saying very bluntly over the sound of the rushing water "<span style="font-style: italic;">He's </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">blind</span>." Their parents were nowhere to be seen. The girl who had been pointing simply said "Oh." then she turned back to her friend and I turned back to my baby and I heard her say to her friend "Oh I feel so bad for him!" a few times. I basically rolled my eyes to myself and muttered that he was fine.<br /><br />They wandered back into the pool and went swimming. A little while later the girl came back and now she had some actual questions about whether or not he could see anything at all, and she told he me was cute. I admit that then I softened. I really don't mind when kids come and ask questions. It was the staring, pointing and talking about him that got to me. I was glad to answer her questions and she brought a little girl (who looked about two) to come and sit by us and was much nicer, telling the little girl to look at the cute baby. <span style="font-style: italic;">That</span> I didn't mind. I also had another odd experience today when some guy rode past me on a bike and said "Hello mama. <span style="font-style: italic;">Beautiful</span>." as he went by. Ew. Totally creepy.<br /><br /><br />After a little while of sitting there at the edge of the pool, C got off work (he's working days today and tomorrow) at about 4 and came to meet us at the park since it's right by his work. He even brought us some food and the picnic blanket. Skyler got much more interested in the water when daddy showed up and I took out the camera to take some pictures of him wading for the first time and playing with the water. All in all it was a lovely Friday with my family by the pool.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAPV4EO8I/AAAAAAAAAb8/ybjyaOw3YfY/s1600/004.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAPV4EO8I/AAAAAAAAAb8/ybjyaOw3YfY/s400/004.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492069640404483010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAQIcDxQI/AAAAAAAAAcE/yJ1jYbSpEzM/s1600/009.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAQIcDxQI/AAAAAAAAAcE/yJ1jYbSpEzM/s400/009.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492069653977220354" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAQ4LWAfI/AAAAAAAAAcM/2qj0FZhEKKE/s1600/034.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfAQ4LWAfI/AAAAAAAAAcM/2qj0FZhEKKE/s400/034.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492069666792014322" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfARMo2CEI/AAAAAAAAAcU/rhSq9hR7mj8/s1600/045.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfARMo2CEI/AAAAAAAAAcU/rhSq9hR7mj8/s400/045.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492069672284457026" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfARnYa2kI/AAAAAAAAAcc/rpt17k4M_lc/s1600/071.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TDfARnYa2kI/AAAAAAAAAcc/rpt17k4M_lc/s400/071.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5492069679463324226" border="0" /></a>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-11820938543758110702010-07-08T16:50:00.002-05:002010-07-08T17:20:40.013-05:00He Likes That<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwN8cW7ZDu6LYA2lVOUz3w3lO5LZ_SR7EK5cnex_kLJOQtibnZty-CoHyiAzuxr9HPz-hLSH862Fs9plnKo-g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />Quick update on things: the appt went well, they took five vials of blood. And they retested for me and confirmed. We scheduled the next one for the end of Aug.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-50870975191770228852010-07-07T20:24:00.006-05:002010-07-07T20:50:40.233-05:00I Like ThatStill here, and it seems to be still here so far too. It's only been like a day, but hey, every day adds up. I'm feeling tired, sometimes slightly nauseous, and ravenously hungry. I've been eating like a pig. I made an appt with the NP for tomorrow morning. I guess we'll see how it goes.<br /><br />Skyler has been entertaining everyone with his most favourite sentence. Every morning I wake up to a chorus of "I like that, I like that, I like that. Yeah, yeah. . .yeah yeah yeah" and the "yeah"s are sung. He has made it into a song. It's pretty adorable. All day long as he's playing with toys "I like that!" as he's putting his shorts on his head to wear as a hat "I like that!" and his personal favourite every time I sneeze or blow my nose (which is unfortunately frequent) he giggles and says "I like that!". It's kind of funny to have a small person "liking" every time you sneeze. It's a good thing he's not on facebook or he'd be liking everyone's status and their comments too. He's practiced saying it so much that he's got it down almost perfect now.<br /><br />If my camera hadn't broke on the last of school I would take a video of him saying it for you cause it's so funny and cute. I'll have to use C's camera.<br /><br />Oh and I wanted to tell you guys about the phones that C got us. He is a technogeek and always wanting to spend money unnecessarily on things I usually don't think we need. Well he wanted a wireless phone set for our home phone that cost $100 (on sale from $160). At first I thought this is absurd, we already have working phones. But he pointed out that they were from the year 2000, and he'd make sure I got to buy something frivolous too. (And we won $100 on a lottery ticket like a week later so that was cool) Anyway I said fine whatever get your silly phones.<br /><br />So we brought them home and he charged them up. So let me tell you a bit about them. There are four phones and a main base, and 3 other smaller bases (one for each phone). He mounted them around the apartment so we have a phone in each bedroom etc. Anyway you can program it, so all the numbers in the main phone show up in <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> the phones, it has an answering machine, and a bunch of other features that are kind of neat (including a bunch of alarms that say "it's time for dinner" "it's time for lunch", "it's time for bed" etc. Kind of creepy and awesome at the same time and I'll tell you why in a minute).<br /><br />My favourite feature of all, one that C didn't even realize it had is that the main base actually tells you <span style="font-style: italic;">out loud</span> who is calling. If the number is programmed into your phone with a name the main base will say "Call from <span style="font-weight: bold;">mom</span>." after each ring until you answer the phone or ignore the call. If the number is not programmed into your phone it will say "Call from <span style="font-weight: bold;">555-7891</span>" and it says each number clearly so you can listen to see if you recognize it or not. Now why is this even remotely interesting you ask? Because we have a blind child of course. As he gets older he may eventually want to use the phone, and having a phone that automatically tells you who is calling, so that you don't have to look at the screen is fantastic! He can hear right away if it's grandma calling or whoever and he can decide if he wants to answer the phone.<br /><br />It also has an option to block numbers. Annoying telemarketer calling you at all hours? Block their number! Everytime they call it will give them a busy signal and then disconnect on them. Fortunately we don't have any stalkers but we do get calls from time to time from a number that comes up as "000-000-0000" which is always some sort of telemarketer. So that's useful as well. But also the alarm feature that tells you when it's dinner time/bed time/whatever I could see that being useful for independent living for someone who is blind or even someone with other special needs. Overall I'm glad we spent the $100 on these phones, and the way I think of it is each handset cost $25, well worth it in my opinion if it's going to be helpful for Skyler. I'll just write them off as "assistive technology" because really they are! <span style="font-size:85%;">Hmm I wonder if my nana could use them as she's 82 and is now legally blind.. </span>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-22619951649558144552010-07-05T11:07:00.002-05:002010-07-05T11:08:52.218-05:00New Beginnings IndeedI'm hesitant to announce it on here.. but there may be something I just found out this morning.. something in the very early stages. I don't want to jinx it, but I believe that whatever will be will be.. So here's hoping it sticks.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-65290328756295317392010-07-03T08:03:00.004-05:002010-07-03T08:13:55.207-05:00Be The ChangeIn light of an event that recently happened in my personal life I have been reminded that we should <span style="font-style: italic;">be the change we want to see in others.</span> And I've decided that I want to challenge myself to do at least one random act of kindness or good-deed each day. I know that I'm usually polite, and helpful to everyone I encounter, but I want to do more. I want to make sure that I am setting a good example for my child. He needs to learn that it is the right thing to do to help people out even if it just means stopping to hold the door for someone or offering to walk an elderly person to their car. (I've done both those things of course). I'm afraid with all the people in the world who seem to only care for themselves and laugh at the misfortune of others that my son might get the wrong idea.<br /><br />I know he's still quite young, but it's never a bad thing to start early. I want to show others too, even adults, that it's still a good thing to treat people nicely and to offer help when it looks like someone could use it. On Canada day I saw a little girl crying on the street, surrounded by many people just walking by, she seemed to be all alone so I stopped and asked if she was lost. Her dad/caregiver turned around (he was at least 5-6 feet away) and put his hand out for her at this point, but I was left feeling uneasy nonetheless. It seems the little girl was having a fit I guess, and the caregiver was walking away, with his back turned to her, and there was a street full of people! It was a street festival (meaning tons of people, loud music, etc.) She was small, no more than 3 I'd say, he could have easily carried her. However he may have had his reasons for leaving her behind sitting on the pavement crying.. I just don't think I could do that as a parent personally. In a large crowd of people I want him by my side at all times.<br /><br />Anyway, what kind of random good deeds have you done? Or what kind of good deeds have others done for you?Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-11250540698733231942010-07-02T08:45:00.003-05:002010-07-02T09:02:08.036-05:00OverprotectedI was reading a post on another blog yesterday, it was by a parent of a child with special needs. It was talking about being an overprotective parent. I was reading this and wondering, am I overprotective?<br /><br />I like to think the answer is no and yes. When it comes to the things that typical kids do that may get my son hurt (think anything with movement involved) I think no, I don't want to be someone who will stop him and tell him 'no you can't do that because you're blind'. I want him to have a tricycle, I want him to play soccer (if he wants to) and do all those things that typical kids do that might cause him to fall down or run into things or whatever. Those bruises, scrapes, cuts, and owwies are going to be a part of his life and I don't think you can wrap your child in bubble wrap and make sure they don't get hurt because it's just going to take away their childhood and they'll never know how to take risks. Of course when it comes to things that are just too dangerous and could cause serious injury well then yeah I will put my foot down.<br /><br />And then on the other hand, am I overprotective of him when it comes to other people? I hope so. What I mean is when it comes to leaving my child with someone I don't know I'm very wary. You could tell me they have all the childcare training in the world and I wouldn't be comfortable leaving him with them. I have to get to know the person, I have to sit with them for a while, see how they interact with my son and other children. I have to know what their attitude is. And I have to see that they know how to interact with someone who is blind, and that they know what to do when he gets sick or if he starts to seize. I have to trust that that person will call me immediately and ask me what to do, even if they have the training. So yes, in that sense I think I am overprotective and I'm okay with that.<br /><br />How about you? Are you overprotective of your little one?<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Btw: Happy Canada Day! It was yesterday, but still :P</span>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-89285562190760944252010-06-29T14:28:00.003-05:002010-06-29T15:07:25.958-05:00The End is Always a New BeginningToday was the last day of kindergarten. I have one more day of work, tomorrow, and it's an inservice day so half of my kids won't be there. So I had to say goodbye to most of them today. It was very sad. So happy to have my summer off though.<br /><br />In other news, we got invited to a garden event with the Queen of England on Saturday. My mom made me buy a new dress. I'm not like a huge British monarch buff or anything but it's still pretty cool. And the dress bit segues into my next thing.<br /><br />Last night I designed, cut, and sewed my handfasting (like a wedding) dress. It's dark blue with a light blue sash. I wanted red, but I already had the blue satin, it had been sitting in my craft closet for a few years. Plus blue is my favourite colour and for a cost of $2.50 (for the elastic) to make my dress you just can't go wrong. Don't mind how tired I look in the pictures. I had just worked all morning, took care of the baby all afternoon, cooked, cleaned and then sewed a dress so I was a little worn out.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRufnJwVI/AAAAAAAAAbk/wtCS51Chp90/s1600/014.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRufnJwVI/AAAAAAAAAbk/wtCS51Chp90/s400/014.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488288955105919314" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRu0AkogI/AAAAAAAAAbs/JLNpBsaXfOA/s1600/023.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRu0AkogI/AAAAAAAAAbs/JLNpBsaXfOA/s400/023.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488288960581247490" border="0" /></a><br />In Skyler news, he's saying "I like that" now. It's the cutest thing, and it sounds so clear too. Even his nursery teacher at church heard him say it. She said it was so cute and funny to hear him say that. He's seeing a lot of things for a blind kid, his OT is impressed as usual. He's even stood on his own (for about 15-20 seconds each time) twice in the past week! He even did it while his OT was here. So that was awesome.<br /><br />We've finally moved everything into the new apartment but there's just not enough room in here for everything so it kind of looks like our living room is a still shot from that Hoarders show. It's mostly bookshelf stuff since our bookshelf basically disintegrated when we tried to move it. We need to buy a new one, but C is always working when I'm not and vice versa. Hopefully Friday we'll be able to get a new one. I have Thursday off of course but it's Canada Day so I doubt anything will be open. I plan to go to a street festival with my mom and Sky on Canada Day.<br /><br />Anyway there's a ton to say I'm sure, but I have to brave the lovely weather to get to the store. So I leave you with a picture of Sky stuffing his face at his auntie's graduation party.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRvaihKbI/AAAAAAAAAb0/Mzr7O6hBp_8/s1600/062.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TCpRvaihKbI/AAAAAAAAAb0/Mzr7O6hBp_8/s400/062.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5488288970924173746" border="0" /></a>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-18775104117046473462010-06-16T22:16:00.002-05:002010-06-16T22:28:03.595-05:00More NewsSkyler is learning more and more each day. I'm so proud to be his mommy. I'm thrilled that he knows that the garbage can and the toilet are "yuck" though the other day I was folding laundry and he was wandering around as he does, and I hear "yuck. yuck. yuck." I turn around and look into the bathroom where my little man is attempting to lift the lid and stick his hands into the toilet bowl. Kind of makes me think he's not quite getting what "yuck" actually means even though he clearly knows that certain things are yuck. Haha.<br /><br />His vocabulary now consists of: yeah, no, mum, dad, up, down, kiss, cat, meow, knock, door, duck, quack, Skyler, grama, and cut. There's more I'm sure, but I can't recall each word at the moment, I know he learned how to say "cut" today as I was holding him near the aluminum blinds and told him he couldn't play with them because he might get cut. He then started yelling "cut! cut! cut!". He's learning all sorts of new things. Today he finally used his red car to walk with! I was so excited. He's finally starting to balance better on his own. It's awesome.<br /><br />I can't wait until June is done, so close now! Loving the new apartment, still have a few things in the old one, as soon as C and I have some free time we'll probably be able to move the rest over here. I hope you are all doing well!Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-20771992356616518902010-06-13T10:12:00.004-05:002010-06-13T10:26:29.969-05:00Home Is Where Your Heart Is, But Also Where Your Stuff IsIt feels like it's been forever. We are finally living in the new apartment, though some of our stuff is still in the old one. We moved last night we now have a living room over here. We still have to move the baby's dresser, most of our clothes, the bathroom stuff, and the pots & pans etc. But for the most part we're moved, and the apartment looks great. I love it already, part of me though is sad about moving from our old apartment. I liked it there, it was familiar, the dining area was bigger, but oh well. I am sure there are tons of new memories to be made here. The living room looks much nicer here. I even made Skyler his own reading corner in the living room, it's cute.<br /><br />In Skyler news, the monster has been quite cranky the last two days. I'm pretty sure it's because of the move though so I'm hoping that levels out soon. He's been pretty good this morning, he's just mapping out the new apartment now that we added furniture. Before he was pretty good at finding everything but we snuck in the furniture last night while he was sleeping so things have changed a bit. Yesterday I crocheted him a new hat, because the "summer" weather we've been getting so far this year has been deplorable. Nothing but nonstop thunderstorms, rain, clouds and seriously cold temperatures. So I made him a new hat I used two different strands of yarn at the same time to make it double thick. It should last him through the coming fall and winter as long as his head doesn't grow too much.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TBT32wT1fDI/AAAAAAAAAbc/Doc48hQ00fM/s1600/001.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TBT32wT1fDI/AAAAAAAAAbc/Doc48hQ00fM/s400/001.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5482279166469831730" border="0" /></a><br />Anyway I hope you all are well. I'll update again soon hopefully, assuming time doesn't slip away from me too quickly.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-47915420739363205822010-06-09T05:49:00.003-05:002010-06-09T06:06:28.040-05:00The Verdict Is InYesterday morning I was trying to wake C up so we could take Sky to his appointment. So I'm saying "Chuck! Chuck! Wake up!" And I hear this echo, (but slightly different version) of "Quack! Quack! Dadaa!" and then a small person goes crawling quickly over to his dad to wake him up. I cracked up, the poor kid can't make a "ch" sound yet, but he knows his dad's name, and is making an effort to say it. Haha, and poor daddy is now known as quack.<br /><br />Now on to the important stuff. Yesterday we saw endocrinologist number 4. First meeting with her, and I have to say I liked her the most of all of them. I told her I was worried about him gaining and then losing, or basically staying the same weight for so long. She reassuringly told me not to worry, it's only been 3 months, he's a toddler, he's got teeth coming in it's okay. He <span style="font-style: italic;">has</span> grown in height and is growing perfectly on the scale for a "petite" person. Which is fine, both C and I are pretty short, and we were pretty small as kids too. So he's doing great. She said his bloodwork came back from the last bloodtest and was all good so we don't have to do any bloodwork until 4 months from now at the next appointment. And we're just going to keep an eye on his height and see if he stops growing.<br /><br />She also said that her and the other two female endocrinologists will be working as Skyler's team and that any decisions they make regarding the human growth hormone will be made as a team. She said three minds are better than one. She also noted that we're (Chuck & I) the specialists when it comes to our son. She was warm and kind and smiled a lot and said she wished she could see Skyler every week because he's just so cute. So she gets points in my book for that. We also found out as we grabbed a card on the way out that she's the medical director for the pediatric endocrinology clinic. Bonus. Of the other two doctors we're seeing on the team we have met one and she was lovely, we haven't met the last one yet, but hopefully she's just as nice.<br /><br />Skyler's appetite seems to be coming back somewhat now that his teeth have broken through, so that's a relief. Hopefully he'll go back to wanting to eat everything in sight again. And this morning he reminded me again that he is no longer a baby. He woke up at 4am and I changed him and brought him to the couch with me for some cuddles. My child has no interest whatsoever in cuddling. Used to be he'd snuggle up and breastfeed, when he was a baby. This child wants nothing to do with that, but he's more than happy to step on my head and anything else that might be in his way. Ahh toddlers. Always on the way to their next big adventure.Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-31899602860345979032010-06-07T21:14:00.007-05:002010-06-07T21:41:34.506-05:00WowThings have been slightly stressful over here to say the least. The apartment is still not finished being upgraded or whatever you want to call it. Our tub was done today, the hardwoods are getting done tomorrow, the fridge and stove on Wednesday and the carpet on Thursday. We've been living in two apartments for the last week or so and it's making me insane. At first it was slightly neat, but the novelty has worn off. I would like to be in one place now. Right now we're back in the old apartment (minus our bed which we have to go move tonight into the living room of the other apartment because they're doing the floor in the bedroom over there tomorrow) so we're on the couches, and we moved Skyler's crib back in here for the time being. PAIN IN THE BUTT. Sorry, had to get that out of my system.<br /><br />I've been having headaches the last 4 or 5 days and I don't know why. Stress maybe? But I've been way more stressed in the past and not had headaches. I don't usually get them so it's odd for me. Time is ticking on the school year, we'll be done in less than a month now. I have mixed feelings. I really do like my new supervisor, so the last few months have been good. I'm really going to miss the kids, but at the same time, wonderful glorious freedom! And I won't have to hear my name whined at me a million times a day for petty things, which is always a plus. I'm still going to miss them though. I'm working on a slideshow of our year together for the kids to take home as sort of a kindergarten grad present. It's looking pretty cute so far.<br /><br />Skyler is talking and comprehending more. I love it. He is still on the duck and quack thing. He now will point out his rubber duck every time we enter the bathroom, and the ducks on the garbage can which I didn't even notice at first. He will say quack and duck whenever he sees them or whenever we go in the bathroom at all. He also says "Yay!" which is pretty cute. Oh and I learned yesterday that while giving Skyler a bath is like going to Seaw.orld because you're not in the water but you'll still get wet, that taking a shower with Skyler around is like telling him that he's going to Seaw.orld and he'll want to get wet even though he's already taken his bath for the day. I went to shower yesterday and he went straight from the bedroom to the bathroom as soon as the water turned on, and he flung open the curtain and laughed <span style="font-style: italic;">(thanks for the confidence boost kid! :P)</span> and every time I tried to close it he just opened it again.<br /><br />He's still 19 pounds, even though he has been eating and getting formula supplements when he doesn't eat as much(and sometimes even if he does) and we have endocrine tomorrow. I'm so not looking forward to it.. I'm betting the reason he isn't gaining weight is because of the meds he's on (steroids and thyroxine, they both can cause weight gain or loss) but I doubt the doctors will take that as a reason. It's likely going to be time to do the 8 hour blood test for HGH since he hasn't even gained a single pound in 4 months. Sigh. I guess we shall find out tomorrow. Fortunately I have tomorrow and Wednesday off since my kinders will be in kindergarten all morning instead of with me on Wednesday. Hopefully the appointment will go well.<br /><br />Other Skyler news, I'm not sure of the exact reason but it seems that Skyler is seeing more lately. It could be that he is just developing and his eyes too are developing more, or maybe it's the patching that seems to be causing him to use both eyes a lot more while looking recently or his brain is connecting the other things and filling in the blanks for what he can't see, or maybe it's something else altogether but he is seeing more things/further away than he used to. I'll be passing by something while holding him and he'll reach out and try to grab even though in the past he had no clue it was there. Very exciting stuff! We have OT on Friday I'm excited to see what our OT thinks of this new development. All in all it's a busy week. I hope you all are well. And now your reward for skimming through this post:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Baby with an eyepatch!</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TA2swehhfxI/AAAAAAAAAbM/hXyd581q5Zs/s1600/IMG_9787.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TA2swehhfxI/AAAAAAAAAbM/hXyd581q5Zs/s400/IMG_9787.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480226270407130898" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TA2sw_cnwOI/AAAAAAAAAbU/5WCllbwDF0Q/s1600/IMG_9796.JPG"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OEp8cSfHTnk/TA2sw_cnwOI/AAAAAAAAAbU/5WCllbwDF0Q/s400/IMG_9796.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5480226279244939490" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">He sure loves the sand! Gotta take him to a beach one of these days.</span><br /></div>Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3471195334228619129.post-48738795883638774752010-06-02T05:42:00.004-05:002010-06-02T06:08:01.089-05:00Screaming PhaseMy little man thinks everything is a walking toy, which is awesome. He's constantly screaming at the top of his lungs when things don't do exactly what he wants them to (which is not so awesome). Such as yesterday during his half hour eye patch tv time he was desperately trying to reach Gro.ver on the screen which is just a bit too high for him, so how to solve this problem? Screech like a banshee, that should help right? It was kind of funny if I pretended I hadn't been listening to him scream all afternoon because of the various little things that tick him off in a given day. He also has 4 teeth breaking through the gums right now, might be part of his reasoning for the screaming. Also yesterday he would not touch anything I tried to feed to him. What did he want to eat? French fries, at midnight. GAH my child. Delicious vegetable stir-fry with turkey made by daddy? No thanks, I'd rather have junk food. We're trying to supplement him with toddler formula again since he has made literally no weight gain in the last two months.<br /><br />And we are currently in the process of moving. Next door. Our new apartment is the apartment right next to us so moving is fun, in a kind of annoying way. If the company that owns the building had bothered to get the repairs done on time we could be moved in already, but as it is we're waiting on a new stove, new fridge, new carpets, new hardwood floors (which they said will likely take more than two months.. sigh) and they have to paint the entire suite before we can move in. So we've moved some of our stuff over, but not all of it and it's kind of frustrating. Yesterday I went to heat up some food and remembered the microwave is next door.<br /><br />Skyler of course is not exactly thrilled about what's going on yet as he mainly doesn't know. His room is still pretty much empty because we need them to paint it first before we can put his stuff in it. I'm thinking it will be a big adjustment for him when we finally do get to move in because he's a little guy and it's a big change, but then you factor in the blindness and that he has to relearn the entire layout of his home and everything, it should be interesting. He's figured out how to draw with markers now and he loves colouring on himself and finger painting on his new desk is always fun. I've decided that when his room is done I'm going to put up poster board all along the bottom of the wall so that Skyler can decorate his room however he wants without ruining the walls.<br /><br />Also the day before yesterday he rode his little red car by himself for the first time ever. He finally figured out how to make it go, normally he just sits there wondering why I put him on such a boring toy. Well now he is cruising up and down the hallways. Today he even figured out how to turn. It doesn't have pedals so it's pretty slow moving and it's almost impossible to turn, but he found a way, he just stands up and moves it until it turns or he starts screaming until I turn it for him.<br /><br />So of course my next thought was "Oh that's soo cute! He needs a tricycle next!" Which was immediately followed by "Hmm wait a second is putting a blind kid on a trike such a good idea?" He can't see where he's going at all, and giving him something that he can speed around on may cause all sorts of injuries and mayhem. I can just picture him crashing headfirst into every wall, and every piece of furniture, not to mention people's legs. Also the thought of him outside on something with wheels gives me a heart attack. I'd be terrified of him speeding away from me and off into the street. And yet despite all of this I think I'm still going to get the kid a tricycle. Every kid deserves a trike, and besides, it's not like anyone's going to let him have a driver's license. Might as well let him learn how to use the only set of wheels he can legally drive.<br /><br />We'll just have to get him one of those little bells so he can warn people when he's coming. And I'll just have to find a yard with a fence that he can drive in. And even sighted kids crash into things from time to time, he'll just have to learn where things are.<br /><br />Oh and one more thing I have to share with you. Five year olds are hilarious. One of my kindergarten kids said this at the snack table yesterday: <span style="font-style: italic;">"I know why God is invisible. It's because he's naked.. And no one wants to see that.</span>"Azaerahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00778026696324592463noreply@blogger.com3