Watching TV

Yesterday 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..

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.
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.

Wordless Whateverday

Wading Pool Fun

I 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.

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.

It was then that I heard a girl next to us talking to her friend "Look at his eyes!" 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 "He's blind." 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.

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. That I didn't mind. I also had another odd experience today when some guy rode past me on a bike and said "Hello mama. Beautiful." as he went by. Ew. Totally creepy.


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.

The End is Always a New Beginning

Today 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.

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.

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.


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.

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.

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.

Home Is Where Your Heart Is, But Also Where Your Stuff Is

It 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.

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.


Anyway I hope you all are well. I'll update again soon hopefully, assuming time doesn't slip away from me too quickly.

Wow

Things 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.

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.

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 (thanks for the confidence boost kid! :P) and every time I tried to close it he just opened it again.

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.

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:

Baby with an eyepatch!

He sure loves the sand! Gotta take him to a beach one of these days.

Yar! Here There Be Treasure

Where have I been all this time? Floating through the days in a daze I suppose. Skyler is doing new things! He has two new words, duck and quack. Coincidence? I think not. He loves to play with his rubber ducks while he sits on the potty, before and after he brushes his teeth. He has several rubber ducks, and we often sing that song about the five litt.le du.cks. You know the one you may remember as the song that made me start sobbing when I was all tripped out on hormones after having him. Haha. Also tonight at the dinner table I kept singing some random melody using only his name over and over and he tried to repeat it and was saying "Kyeh"! That's almost his name. Sort of. Good enough for me anyway.

(Shown here, brushing said teeth. Of which he now has five.)

AND my child is so odd, I love him to bits. We have one of those walking toys (it's a red car that turns into a riding toy, has wheels you push it while you walk, blah blah blah) PT and OT are always asking about that toy because he's not walking on his own yet and it will encourage him. Well I can't get him to use it as a walking toy for the life of me. He will gladly sit and push all the buttons, make it sing all the songs, but the second you try to stand him near it he sits down on his butt. Usually indignant that you would try such a thing. Anyway long story short, I was standing in the kitchen trying to quickly get some dishes done, when he starts ambling over to me, pushing not his toy car but our portable barbeque that we took out of storage the other day. It has a lid with a handle on it and I guess the handle was like the perfect thing because he wouldn't let go of it, even when he kept walking the thing into walls and getting down right p*ssed off about it.

He's really started to become more interested in the world around him in the past week alone. I took him to a play group on Friday with C and normally he would just sit in one spot at these things, clinging to me. But this time he took off, finding every new toy he could, sitting close to new babies/toddlers he'd never met before. He was enthralled. Normally he won't touch anything unfamiliar or even go near it, but now he is all over the place exploring. He also does this weird thing where he moves in a complete circle around an object. I'm thinking he is doing it because he wants to see the entire thing from every angle since he can't see it all at once. He's so smart.

I took him to my mom's on Tuesday and he explored her place like never before, and he found something we don't have at home: stairs. Fortunately we were on the ball and he never got a chance to try them out (or fall down them), maybe next time I'll let him investigate, but for now I'm going with the safer choices. My mom has two cats, one that we've had since I was 14 and one that I got when I lived with my ex. Skyler normally could care less about said creatures, but this time he saw something moving.. he felt something furry, and those cats were not safe. He crawled faster than I'd ever seen him crawl trying to get a hold of those cats. They're pretty calm so they mostly laid there while he petted them gently (and possibly pulled a tail a couple times).

Now on to the most important part of our week. Yesterday was opthalmology. Dr said he's confident Skyler can see out of both eyes, but the left eye is a dominant. It's not really bad, he is still using both eyes, but as he explained sometimes with nystagmus the person will cross the eyes to look at something up close because it makes their eyes stop wiggling and makes the object easier to see. But the issue here is that he is crossing the right one in a bit more than the left. So you know what that means. Pirate baby! Yesterday was our first day patching. We bought the patches right after the appointment and tried it out. The doctor said he didn't expect Sky to let us patch him for the full two hours a day at first, he said not to worry if we started out with 15-30 mins a day for the first while.

Skyler surprised us though. He was mad when we put the patch on (who wouldn't be? we're putting something sticky on his face, and taking away the sight in his better eye) but he calmed down after 5 minutes (and possibly some milk :) and was fine for the entire two hours. Both yesterday and today when we patched him. The only problem so far is the patches (nex.tech or whatever they're called) stuck to him really bad when we went to take it off. Yesterday it was awful, worse than ripping off a bandaid and he had glue on his face even after his bath. Today it wasn't as bad. I'm looking into other brands. So far I've seen a few that interest me, but I may have to order them in because our local stores don't seem to carry too many options for toddler size eye patches.

And that's how my week has been going (in as brief a synopsis as I can manage.) how about you?

Saturday in the Countryside

Yesterday we woke up at noon (almost. It was 11:45) packed up the baby, some bottles, and some lunch and headed out into the wilderness. We drove for 2 and a half hours to the goose sanctuary out in one of the provincial parks. It was lovely. We spent the day together as a family enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was much too nice to stay inside. We took a long hike around the beautiful lake where the geese live. As you can see Skyler had a great time, even though he hates putting on sunscreen.

I hope each one of you had lovely weekend as well!

Super Baby

Skyler shows off one of his new cloth diapers. We're on day two now of cloth diapering, and so far I love it. The diapers are adorable, and since we're using liners we don't need to wash the diapers unless he soaks right through. We have a ton of microfibre cloth liners that we tuck into his diaper (two at a time) and once he pees through them we just toss them into the wash pile and put in clean ones and a disposible liner and we're good to go. The diaper itself is sooo soft and he seems to have more movement with it. So far no red lines, no diaper rash, no leaks and no complaints. I'll keep you updated as it goes. Also the colours are just adorable, we got him a bright blue one (in the picture) and a bright red one. When we bought them the shop owner remarked on our choice of "superman" colours. I told her he is our superbaby. We plan on going back on Friday to buy some more since we are loving it so far.

Washing the liners and diapers is no problem. We ran them in a load of laundry to start (with biodegradable specially formulated laundry soap) and dried them in the dryer, and they came out fluffy and clean. And I've been handwashing in the interim and hanging them up to dry. Handwashing them takes only a few minutes and it's easy to do. All in all, I'm loving the cloth diapering thing so far. I can't wait to get him some more tomorrow.

In other news we got (almost) approved for the apartment we applied for. One more step and hopefully we will have a new place to live in June. And I got my course materials from Hadley School for the Blind for my course entitled The Human Eye. Hopefully I can finish my first assignment tonight. I got half way through it and then thought I had better take a nap. Of course Skyler decided to wake up as soon as I almost fell asleep. Sigh. So now I must keep him occupied until bedtime and hopefully then I will be able to finish it.

Under The Sea

It's been a busy week as usual. I'm so glad it's almost over. I'm beginning to enjoy working with my new supervisor. She's not perfect, but who is? At least she seems pretty level even if she's kind of rough around the edges. Work is going well. My kids are hilarious and crazy of course. We went on a field trip to a marsh. They were showing us around the marsh, talking about plants. We had been there all of 30 minutes when one of our kinders came up to me and was complaining about looking at the plants and this what he said: "I've been here for three days, and I just want to stand on some rocks!! When are we going to stand on some rocks!?!" That pretty much made my week.

Skyler had OT yesterday, he's doing great, she suggested we get him some of those shape sorter toys. I've been meaning to pick some up for a while now but haven't. She said it will be good for his motor control. Also she is very impressed with his visual range. He is definitely seeing further than before, and his play and movement and interests are all mainly visually guided. He may hear something but he will turn to look at it right away and see if it's of interest. She also pointed out that most children with visual impairments are apprehensive when it comes to touching new things, but Skyler is more apprehensive about new things when he can see them. He will stare at it and concentrate trying to figure out if it's safe before he makes a move to touch it. Textures however don't bother him in the slightest.

As for me, I am beginning to get a little burnt out lately. C has been working nonstop pretty much. He has been working almost a full week and everytime he's not at work someone is calling him from work or he's going in to do interviews for new applicants or he's going in to cover a shift. I got dumped off at church with Skyler on Sunday because he got a call from work saying someone had called in sick. I ended up spending that service in the nursery with Skyler because my nose wouldn't stop running and I had no tissues so I went downstairs to blow my nose and never made it back up. It was lonely up there without him. I'm so proud of C for being such a hard worker, but we talked today and I told him that his family still needs him too and he does need some time for himself as well. He agreed and said he'd tell them not to call him on his days off anymore.

And now, what did I spend my night doing tonight? Scribbling and cutting and gluing and being silly. Nothing like working in a daycare to make you randomly want to create things. Here's the finished project, Skyler's new placemat (laminated of course):

Don't mind the hilarious size differences between things. Nothing in this picture makes sense, which is probably because I'm a prairie girl who's never even been near a coast, and my drawing skill leaves much to be desired. And yet I think it's kind of cute nonetheless. Also Skyler helped paint the background blue with his fingerpaints so that makes it special right there.

Weekends Are Good

We had a busy weekend. Yesterday we drove out to Ontario, it was gorgeous. Living in the prairies means that seeing any kind of actual terrain aside from flat grasslands gets me all excited. There are rocks in Ontario, and hills. We visited at our friend's parents place. They live out in the wilderness by Lake of the Woods in a gorgeous home that they built themselves, so we did some exploring and poking around. Took lots of beautiful pictures and came home tired but happy at the end of the night.

This morning we opted to skip church and have a lazy morning. We got up and moving around twn thirty and made a huge Sunday brunch which we ate as a family at our new table. I did all the prep work (including making the pancake batter from scratch) and set the table, while Chuck cooked the bacon, eggs, pancakes, and hashbrowns. Of course we had syrup and fresh strawberries and bananas with our pancakes. And a glass of blueberry juice. I added a tiny amount of it to Skyler's water in his sippy and he went nuts drinking it as though it would disappear if he didn't gulp it down in time.

Skyler's still doing amazing with the potty, he used it after his breakfast this morning. We've been keeping up with it every day, and he has no complaints. He actually claps each time I sit him on it. Oh and he pees in it now too. We're just working on the sign for potty now so he can tell me when he needs to go. Oddly enough I use potty time to work on other things. While he's on the potty we brush his teeth, and learn about the different body parts (singing head, shoulders, knees & toes etc) and we comb his hair. The other day I gave him a faux hawk. Haha. Honestly though he's spoiling me with the lack of dirty diapers lately. I love it. He also sleeps through the night and freely gives hugs and kisses, along with big happy smiles. I couldn't ask for a better toddler.


I hope you all are enjoying the weekend as much as I have been.

(P.S. Doesn't he look like a big boy in the last picture?? Where did my baby go?)

Date Night

I just had my first real date since the baby came home from the hospital. My mom offered to watch Skyler since Chuck has done so much for her in the last few months (shampooed and steam cleaned her carpets, upgraded/installed her tv, internet, and phone cables, gave her a newer computer, we also bought her a vacuum since hers was broken). We like to pitch in when we can, and she is very gracious and wanted to repay us somehow and she happens to love her grandbaby very much so she offered to babysit.

Today was a crazy day, we got our new table set delivered. Tried to put it together and uh yeah it didn't want to go. We called the company they said we have to call the webstore where we got it from. Which of course is not open until Monday. So we have a pile of table and chair pieces that don't fit together properly and a store that won't do anything about it even though they are in the city and they were open when we called. We decided we couldn't live without a dining room table for whatever reason and said that we're just going to return it on Monday when the store opens, and we went out to search for a new set. One that would be sturdy and look nice without costing an arm and a leg. We spent the entire afternoon searching furniture store after furniture store.

Eventually we settled on this at the Bri.ck. The only problem is of course they don't have it in stock right now and so we will have to wait until April 6th or 8th or whenever they get it in. Oh well it's a nice table, it was sturdy in the store and they had a huge sale on all furniture (20% off everything) meaning it was only $200. Not bad. Then of course we um somehow decided that we also needed a new couch. In fact, two new couches because we had to have matching ones. You would think that it would be me wanting this. Typically it's the guy complaining about the wife making them buy all this crap. Not in our family, this is why we jokingly call Chuck my wife. He's the one who needs us to have the matching set of couches. So yes we walked out of there with two brand new couches.
They are gorgeous honestly. Looks a lot better than the old hand-me-downs you've seen in many a picture of ours. The only problem is they are not as cushy as I'd like. We're kind of like the 3 bears in Goldilocks. Daddy likes it too firm, mama likes it too soft, and Skyler is just right. Haha. So I'm hoping these firm couches will soften up over time while C says they are perfect right now. Oh well the bed has a super thick pillow top. Ya win some ya lose some. They say marriage is about compromise, I think this one is fair enough.

Anyway having a lovely late dinner all to ourselves tonight was a wonderful way to end the evening. We managed to have a real drink (something we haven't done in 2 years) I had a banana strawberry rapture (It's like some sort of fancy smoothie with some vodka in it. Delicious) and he had a beer. We each got something different and we shared our dinners, and topped it all off with a super tasty brownie and icecream. Which I think the server (who was actually the manager since it was dead in there) gave us two brownies and two scoops of icecream even though we only ordered one just cause he was a nice guy. Totally awesome. It was a wonderful date!

I hope you all are having a great weekend as well! Oh and Happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

New Therapists

Today we had our first visit with Skyler's new speech language pathologist and physiotherapist. They came together as they both work out of the same place and I guess they provide services together which is pretty neat. (We're on a two year waiting list for regular services, but they apparently provide visits while you're on the waiting list. Bonus.) We enjoyed the visit even though Skyler woke up at 7 and didn't go back to sleep until after the appointment which was at 1pm. They were both very nice ladies though I am doubtful we will be seeing the SLP again after next month as she was 8 months pregnant. They scheduled two more appointments before they left, for April 14th and 28th.

The visit went quite well, they brought toys, Skyler of course was tired and didn't do nearly as much as usual especially since he had an audience of two unfamiliar people. He's used to his CNIB OT coming and bringing him toys but these two were new so he played shy a little bit and towards the end he was ready to pass out. But despite all that they were very impressed with him. They said he's meeting a lot of the markers of speech language development (she was very happy about his baby signs, and that he's definitely communicating, she said the words will come!) and the physiotherapist said she's seeing lots of wonderful movement. They were impressed with all the different things we expose him to in terms of activities and learning and experiences. They were pleased of course that we're so well organized and that I have a background in child development.

So next week we have our NP on Tuesday the 6th, CNIB OT on Friday the 9th, then the week after we have the Phsyiotherapist on Wednesday, followed by the SLP on Thursday the 15th, then we'll have them both together again on the 28th. Followed in May by opthalmology, endocrinology, etc etc. The list goes on. I'm not complaining, I love these sessions. First it gives me a reason to make sure the place is super clean, second I love showing off everything our son is doing lately, and third I love that if I have a concern about his development I have a team of people to ask who will be supportive, and let me know if he's on track, and if not they give me activities and exercises to do with him to strengthen those areas.

It does get crazy hectic at times though wondering when I am going to be able to squeeze everything in, and this Spring Break has not been much of a break for me and it's almost over. That's not just because of all the appointments though, there have been lots of other stresses in my life that I just don't need right now. Things that have nothing to do with my family for a change. Sometimes you just have to cut yourself off from others and let them figure out their own problems. I think this is one of those situations.

In other happy news I ordered a brand new dining set a couple of days ago and it's already being delivered on Saturday. Yay! Now to get rid of the old one. We've been looking for a new place for a while now. I'm still not sure where we're going to be in a few months time, but hopefully we'll have a nice two bedroom apartment in a nice area of town. The goal is still to save for a mortgage, but we may have to take a place with higher rent just so we can have our own room. I kind of miss being able to sleep in my $600 bed that I bought while I was pregnant with Skyler. It's just gathering clean laundry right now. Haha.

And now I shall leave you with a glimpse into the future, of my (someday) teenaged Skyler on the phone:

Wordless Wednesday

Ranting & Raving Again

Sometimes I want to fit in, then I think about it for a few minutes and really, no I don't. Take for instance at play group. I started taking Skyler to a play group once a week (not every week, but now and again.) I'm sitting there with these other moms (who are older than me) and they're complaining about their first baby, and how hard it was to be in labour for 20 hours and how the drugs didn't work and it was so traumatizing (it was a normal full term healthy birth aside from the anesthetic not working) and they don't think they want to have kids again because of it. All I can do is smile and nod sympathetically. I don't even have the energy to get into my story, and I don't want people to look at me and go "oh poor you, how awful". I know they can't relate to my 25 hours of premature labour, terrified that my baby is not going to make it, the two months in the NICU and the discovery that my child is "different".

The same way that I can't relate to their normal birth and healthy baby who got to go home as soon as he was born.I hate that I sometimes feel annoyed with them for complaining about it. I want to open my mouth and say "I wish I had it that easy." But really I don't. I don't want to open my mouth and say that, and I don't wish that I had it that easy. I think our life experiences make us who we are. If anything, what I went through with Skyler, what Chuck went through, what Skyler went through, as made us all stronger. It's made us able to take on the world, we're ready for just about anything that can be thrown at us in regards to his special needs. It's helped me become a stronger mommy, a stronger advocate for children with special needs, a stronger advocate for my son. It made me realize that I know best, that sometimes specialists can be wrong. That when those other moms are freaking out and depressed because they aren't sure they're doing it right, I'm holding my baby thinking I can do this, I've been through worse.

And yet again in church on Sunday I had another mommy to an almost two year old (really nice lady) chatting with me. She says "Oh I remember when she was that little," and began to reminisce about her baby being 6 months old. She stops to ask me "just how old is he again I can't remember." Oh you know.. 16 months. Sometimes I am tempted to just say yeah, he's really advanced for a 6 month old, he can furniture cruise and eat finger foods all by himself! And I hate explaining to people that he doesn't walk on his own yet. I get this question all the time when they find out he's 16 months. "Is he walking yet??" Sometimes I just get frustrated and I want to say something less than nice like "No he doesn't let go of the furniture because he can't see the floor, he can't see 3 feet ahead of him, wouldn't you be just a little bit hesitant to let go if you couldn't see?"


But alas, I smile, I nod, I say "He's furniture cruising! He's doing really well, he can't see very far, but he'll be walking on his own in no time I'm sure." I don't make them feel bad for asking, really they don't have bad intentions, but I get asked these questions so often that I'm starting to feel the need to make him a shirt explaining everything, but he's so small that I wouldn't be able to fit it all on there. I suppose it would have to say something like "My name is Skyler, I'm over a year old, I don't walk yet and I'm visually impaired, any other questions?" Of course I'm sure they'd think of some like "Why is he so small if he's over a year old?" And then there are the people who question whether or not I feed my child. Oh trust me, this kid eats more and better than I do. This morning for breakfast he had 2 bananas and 4 huge strawberries followed (an hour or so after) by a teething cookie, ten ounces of milk and a peanut butter sandwich. Dinner is usually chicken breast and vegetables. Or meat and potatoes. He eats a lot.

Wow, okay it felt good to get all that ranting off my chest. Thanks for putting up with me! Aside from other people annoying me, I'm doing great. Skyler is learning so much and is so happy, life is good. I swear he will be walking on his own soon. He stood on his own the other day for a few seconds. And I had a dream about it last night, I'm pretty sure that's a portent of things to come.

Oh last night my internet went down for a few hours, and this is the result of that:

Yay rainbow pillows! They totally brighten up your black toddler armchair. Plus it took me less than half an hour to make, and that included ironing, cutting, sewing and stuffing.

Eventually

Last night I went to my first concert ever. I saw Bi.lly T.alent and Al.exis.onfire. It was amazing. Skyler had a good time at home with daddy, and I went with my friend who got us the tickets for my birthday back in January. Oh and yesterday I finally got my new glasses! Yay I can see again! Of course I am still getting used to them so my depth perception is off and I feel a little wonky wearing them. I'm sure I'll get used to them soon.

Skyler is doing well, he's a very busy little guy who can eat his weight in food. He will eat just about anything you give him. Of course he is still about half the size (or less) of the average size toddler his age. The other day we were grocery shopping and a woman stopped to look at Skyler. She exclaimed "Oh a newborn!" Then corrected herself "Well he must be 6 months." I looked and her and said "Actually he's 16 months tomorrow." She of course remarked about how tiny he was, and then she noticed Chuck and said "Wow you must be his dad, it's like cloning!" before going on her way. I honestly don't mind that he is small if only because it distracts people from the fact that he's not at the same stage developmentally as the other babies/toddlers. He still crawls instead of walking, and he doesn't say many words. He can sign like crazy though, which is a good thing.

I think he will grow and develop on his own time and with help, but I don't feel like being lectured by random people because my 16 month old can't walk yet and is behind on verbal communication skills. He's on a waiting list for a speech therapist, but it will likely take about 2 years before they get to us. It's been almost a year already so one more to go. Who knows maybe by then he will speaking on his own and at the right level for his age. Either way it doesn't really matter, I'm going to love him just the same whether he uses signs or words, we're lucky he can at least communicate using signs. It means he's grasping the ideas and concepts he just hasn't figured out how to form the words yet. It will come with time I'm sure.

Today is the first day of spring which to us is an important day, we're going to spend some time together as a family before Chuck goes to work and we're going to plant some seeds, just as we do every year. I also got a mini rose plant, it's very cute. This year we're not using pots, instead I took some old coffee cans and painted them with some shiny metallic paint and we're going to poke some holes in the bottom and use those. We're trying out some small vegetables this year like baby lettuce and some peas. If they don't grow well inside we'll transfer them to my mom's garden once the frost has passed.

Anyway I hope you all are well, and I leave you with a picture of Skyler getting a kiss from mommy.

??? Continued.

Once again I say WOW. I'm in complete shock right now as I just found out my boss has been "terminated" or something and is barred from the premises, and is not even allowed to call the centre. She was supposed to be working until March 24th. Apparently we have a new supervisor as of Monday. Uh come again? Oh and my position will likely no longer be necessary. So I've already rewritten my resume. I am hoping I will be able to stay until June.. If not I may take a few weeks off to find something once they lay me off. And now to distract you from my insane job life.. A picture of my gorgeous toddler signing for bedtime while he's in the bath.

Friday: A Happy Day

So I almost forgot to mention Skyler had another endocrine appointment March 2nd (yes it's been 3 months since the last one) and they found he has gained a kilo! And a couple inches of height. So no growth hormone tests yet! We were very excited, so of course the (third random) endocrinologist had to remind us that he will very likely need it eventually. She wasn't being mean, and yes I know full well we are just staving off the inevitable for a bit longer, but hey come on lady do you really have to rain on our parade? Oh well, a little rain never bothered me anyway, I am still so excited to see how much he has grown. He's actually grown out of most of his 6month clothes!! Can you believe it? He's even fitting into some 12 month stuff! So very exciting.

Today has been a good, but busy day. I worked this morning as usual, my kids were actually pretty good for the wild spirited little ones that they are. After work C and Skyler picked me up and we came home and the three of us took a nap. It was refreshing honestly though I am still finding myself tired now. After our nap we woke up and C and I went to get our eyes checked. It was odd going to see an eye doctor for someone besides Skyler. Of course the eye doctor noticed Skyler right away and asked if he had been to children's hospital. I told him right away that yes, of course, he's legally blind he has optic nerve hypoplasia, blah blah blah, I rattled it off because I knew he would know what I was saying unlike the lay-people who comment on Skyler's eyes. Anyway my prescription is being tweaked which is good because things have begun to get very blurry for me lately.

C apparently has almost 20/20 vision, he just has a problem with glare or something. So the doc wrote him up a script for a very minor correction. He wants to get coloured contacts. Which I don't understand much as he already has blue eyes. I suppose having brown eyes I find blue eyes to be the most captivating and therefore have no idea why he wants to change his eye colour. Of course he says it's because he wants purple eyes. Go figure.

After the eye doctor we went out to the neighbourhood where I work because one of my kinder's moms said she had a bunch of stuff for Skyler. They're a super nice family and they had a couple of big bags of clothes their little guy had outgrown so they passed them on to us. The cutest thing they gave us though is a gorgeous leather toddler chair with a matching ottoman. It was exactly the kind of thing I had been looking for originally when I wanted to make Skyler's little living room area. And as you can see, he loves it already.

I Have the Best Guy Ever

Doesn't everyone want a guy who will bake them muffins, sort the recycling, make them beautiful pictures, and play music for them? Luckily I have a guy who does all that.

Of course he does like to help me eat the muffins too. Which is quite alright with me. After all he made them.


I managed to get the dishes done yesterday, and the vacuuming and everything else. It was all in all a day of lots of work, tons of cleaning, but it felt good to have a nice clean home. Today we spent the day making things. We made muffins together, we made jello playdough (smells soo good, but don't eat it. yuck!), and peanut butter play dough (which is delicious) and we took a nice walk to the store as it was only -9c outside. He drew with his crayon (he is getting exceedingly close to holding it properly!) and then he painted with his toddler paint, and some glitter paint, took a bath played with (and ate) some peanut butter play dough, and now I am hoping he will sleep.

The jello playdough is the same as the recipe I use at work to make playdough for the kids except you add jello, and the peanut butter play dough is awesome (as long as your kid doesn't have allergies to nuts, clearly mine doesn't). The recipe calls for milk powder, and I picked some up at the store but when I got home I realized we have a quarter of a can left of infant formula that Skyler hasn't finished and I didn't know what to do with it before.. So I decided to substitute the milk powder for powdered baby formula. It tasted great, and had a bunch of vitamins and whatever in it. I also used powdered sugar instead of honey because honey can contain botulism and isn't recommended for babies under 2. The recipes for edible play doughs are here if you want them.

I thought the edible playdough would be a great idea since he really needs to work on his fine motor skills, and it's something he can manipulate. It's also great from the perspective of his low vision because it smells good, and he can put it in his mouth and it has a cool texture. Luckily he doesn't have any tactile hypersensitivities. He enjoys all sorts of textures, even the sticky ones. Tomorrow I plan on cutting up some strawberries for him and hiding them in a bowl of (real) whipped cream. I think he'll enjoy it. I know he likes both strawberries and whipped cream, and being able to dig through the whipped cream to find strawberries will be good for his motor skills too.

Also we've noticed that Brailling everything in the house was an excellent idea as Skyler has started to isolate his pointer finger to touch the Braille. I love seeing his progression. In less awesome news his cold is still hanging on. It's awful hearing him trying to hack up phlegm and knowing he doesn't know what to do but swallow it. He's still having trouble sleeping since he's so stuffed up. I'm glad I took him on that walk today as it allowed him to sleep for a little over an hour and to get some fresh air. I'm sad to say he doesn't get much fresh air since it's winter and it's always too cold to go out, we drive everywhere. If it's nice tomorrow maybe we will go for another walk so he can get another nap in. I'm so excited that tomorrow is my first day of working only the morning.

Anyway I thought it was so cute that Skyler helped me bake today and I had to share it with you. I want to know what kind of cute things your little ones do for you! Or the fun things you got to help your family members with as a kid. Let me know in the comments.

Saturday Housekeeping

Good morning everyone. It's a sunny saturday today. I only have 3 days left of working 3:30-5:30 and then I am done. I'll only be working 7am-1pm. I'm excited for it, honestly it can't come soon enough. Next Friday C and I have a workshop held by the AER (association for the education and rehabilitation of blind and visually impaired people) on independent living skills and inclusion. Our OT will be there as well. It should be a good workshop. Monday there is no school (and no work!) because it's Louis Riel day or "Family Day" I'm not even sure which one it is, but it's a stat holiday invented by a local radio station that they had petitioned and sent in to the government and now we have a holiday woohoo. So Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday are my last days working in the afterschool program.

Today my home is a wreck. Normally I keep it clean in here, I tidy everyday during my 1pm - 3:30pm break. For some reason though it's not as neat as usual. C usually does the dishes and the laundry and that kind of thing, but it seems he's having trouble getting himself moving when it comes to the household chores.. Which means I am stuck doing it since he is working today and tomorrow. I'm not too upset about it though. I'm hoping I can plow through it today while Skyler naps and then everything will be nice and tidy for tomorrow. I'm excited for church tomorrow. We're doing a mystery buddies thing and I'm going to get my code name. I've already written my letter. It just needs to be put in an envelope and dropped in the church mail box.

I am happy that C is working full time again, it means we're going to have more of an income even with me working 6 hours a day instead of 8. I'm going to have more time with Skyler, and he won't have to be passed from daddy to mommy to babysitter to bed anymore. You have no idea how much stress that was giving me. I just want him to have a consistent daddy and mommy routine each day. He'll spend time with daddy all morning, then mommy will come home and he will have mommy all afternoon and evening. The downside is we'll have less time as a family, not that we have very much right now. We will still have Saturdays (hopefully) and one other day of the week, and church every Sunday, but not much aside from that.

I've been working with Skyler trying to get him to use his pincer grasp, but he's still hardly using it at all. We've been doing things like learning how to point to try and isolate the fingers. That seems to be the problem he's having, it's isolating that pointer finger. He will gladly pinch you if you upset him, but he is pinching using all of his fingers, which is more like digging in all of his nails and attempting to remove a handful of your flesh. (Believe me I am trying to discourage him from doing this. Lots of reminders of how to be gentle, and saying OUCH that hurts!) If only he would pinch using his thumb and forefinger I would be ecstactic (after yelling ouch of course).

He seems to be trying to communicate more, he is making the "k" sound more often, lots of ba and ga and his all-time favourite da. He still says ma a bit less frequently, but he does say it. Especially if he is hurt or needs some cuddling. He does cling to me a lot too, I guess he doesn't spend enough time with me, because when I am around he often refuses to go to anyone else, or to be put down (unless I stay right next to him and play with him). I'm hoping this will change a bit when I am home in the afternoons. I want him to know that I am not just going to up and leave him after an hour, like I have been at lunch time on my breaks.

Anyway I must leave you to go and start those dishes and do some tidying. So I shall leave you with a picture of my monster reading the "newspaper" this morning. Which some of you may recognize as a Lond.on Dr.ugs flyer.