Recap: Abilites Expo 2013 Part 1

This was the third year in a row we made a visit to the Abilities Expo.  It seems that each year we have a reason to attend.  Year 1 - we were looking for a new wheelchair for Emma.  Year 2 - we were looking at power wheelchairs.  This year - we looked at wheelchair accessible minivans and some new standers and walkers.  Let's hope that if we go next year our focus is on getting cool 3E Love t-shirts and gear because that would be MUCH better for our budget!  :-)

The most wonderful thing about this Expo is that any piece of equipment you could dream up is likely there for you to see, touch and ask questions from the vendors about.  It can take months to get our local clinic to bring in a piece of equipment we want to test if they don't already have one but if we go to the expo we can see them all at the same time and notice the pros/cons of each in real time rather than relying on our memory of what it was like when it was in the clinic.  That means a lot to us since Emma's needs are generally NOT cookie cutter.  Usually equipment - even (especially?) special needs equipment - needs some modification to work for our little angel.

Like last year, Emma and I hit up the Expo by ourselves and while there we saw a few people we know.  We wheeled in and out of most of the cars on display and continue to think the rear entry wheelchair van is our preferred configuration.  There is an option for a long rear entry or a short rear entry.  The long rear entry changes the configuration of the middle row of seats in the car to allow the wheelchair to roll between the two middle seats.  You can then add an optional rear bench seat that can fold down for more passenger seating.  The short rear entry only cuts out the rear of the car and leaves the middle row intact.  The wheelchair will not roll between the row but it allows use of the regular bench seats and standard leg room for the passengers.  I'm not sure what style we will end up with but it will probably be chosen based on price and availability.  We will wait until we actually take possession of a power wheelchair before we will buy a van.  We are currently in the appeals process with insurance for them to agree to buy her a power wheelchair and let me just say it is NOT fun!  Fingers crossed they reverse their decision....

Our other top to do while there was visit the vendor for her mount.  Blue Sky Designs was there with the Mount 'n Mover mount system.  I have to say that this company continues to blow me away with their customer service!  I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact they are located in Minnesota?  When I travelled the USA for my sales job MN was always my favorite state to visit because I found the people there to be the friendliest of the 38+ states I've visited.  I've always thought if it wasn't so cold it might be a great place to put down roots.  Anyway......we wanted to see the iPad mounts.  I had emailed the company this week letting them know who we were and what we wanted to see while at the Expo and Nick responded to the email letting me know he would be at the booth and would look out for us.  When we got there Nick totally took care of Emma!  He noticed right away when that her mount wasn't incredibly secure on her chair and wouldn't even put the iPad mount on it until he gave it a free "tune up."  I knew it was in need of service because I lost a lot of the screws over the last 6 months and *substituted* them with different ones (don't judge, us Moms do what we have to do)....it was on my list of things to ask Nick but he addressed the issues before I brought it up.  He noticed it was a bit wobbly and immediately set about securing it.  He fixed the attachments with screws from his demo parts, adjusted the tension on one joint (and showed me how to do it for future reference), made a couple suggestions on post height changes and added screws to another part.  Now that everything is up and running correctly (I didn't know about locktite and some other items he showed me to take care of the issues we experienced) it shouldn't need any further adjustments for a while.  I think the mount is very durable and we are all set for years of use.  We found the iPad mount with the bungee system to be exactly what we wanted so Nick took down our information and will send us one when he returns to the office.  This mount is slightly different than the one shown on their website that uses velcro.  Velcro won't work for us as Emma is not known to be gentle!  Luckily the bungee mount seems Emma-proof and we can get a quick delivery.  After all that flurry of activity I thought I had a photo of the bungee iPad mount but I don't so you'll have to wait for a photo until ours is delivered.

Before we left we met two men from the Hip Hop/Rap group 4 Wheel City.  They were really great to talk with and even though Emma was sick today (I had no idea she would spike a fever while at the Expo!), and we met them right before we were heading home, she perked up at their booth and even smiled.  The duo 4 Wheel City uses hip-hop music to spread a positive motivational message to people with and without disabilities and gives presentations at schools and other venues to reinforce the message to stay in school and never give up.  They even created a song and PSA with Snoop Dogg!  We bought one of their CDs and are excited about their mission and success and hope the positive momentum they have developed continues to bring them new opportunities to spread such a positive message!  Emma posed for a photo with the guys known as "Rickfire" and "Tapwaterz".  See that smile?  It was one of the spare few she gave out today.  If you are that the Expo be sure to stop by and talk with Rickfire and Tapwaterz and be inspired!

Irish Dance Competition

Julia has been in Irish dance classes since the fall and just had her first Irish dance competition - known as a feis - this past weekend.  She is a young beginner so she was in the first group to compete at 8:30am.  Lucky for us the feis was held about 1.5 miles from our house so our morning routine was similar to a school morning.

Julia loves a stage!  She loves to perform and since we arrived early she decided to practice on the "stage" - a roped off portion of the stadium hall - where she was dancing first.  The more she practiced the more she seemed to only want to dance her jig.  We kept trying to have her leave the stage and relax a bit before the competition started but she didn't want to leave the stage area.  It was actually quite funny to see her so into it all.

The reel was her first competition.  I reminded her a few times that she was doing a reel and only focus on the reel before she went on stage.  When her time came to dance she made up a couple of steps.  It seemed like she was mostly doing a jig but was mostly making the steps up as she went along.  She kept perfect time to the music and her footwork was really nice but I have no idea what dance she did!  When I asked her what happened she told me she was nervous out there and forgot what she was supposed to do. Even still she placed 4th in the dance and received a medal for it.  She is thrilled with her win!

Waiting for her group to go on stage.  She seems a bit bored but she told me afterwards that she was nervous.

Waiting for her turn to dance and smiling nicely.  Some children were crying and didn't want to dance but most of the little ones didn't mind it at all.

Emma LOVED watching all the dancers and cheering for Julia!

Once she finished her reel she had about 20 minutes before her jig, plenty of time for her nervous jitters to work their way out of her system.  Her jig went perfectly and she seemed much more at ease!

Overall, Julia's first feis was a huge success, she is very proud of her 4th place medal, and we were so happy to be there to cheer her on!

Last day of Summer

Tomorrow is a pretty big deal in our house.  It's such a big deal that Julia is having a hard time getting to sleep tonight.  All the excitement is over Julia's first day of kindergarten tomorrow!  It's time for her to start her journey into lifelong learning and navigating her way a bit on her own.  Not too much on her own - not just yet.  She will go to the school where Chris works and right now that is very exciting to her.  I imagine that as she gets older it might be less exciting....I'm thinking it might not be such a selling point to her come the teenage years.  But for now, now the idea of riding into school with her Daddy is EXCITING!

To celebrate her last days of summer we went on a Mommy Daughter date last night.  Julia chose to go to Friendly's for ice cream.  Mint chocolate chip ice cream with m&m's please, Mom.  After ice cream we walked around the local mall.  It was our first time there since we moved and we were happy to see it has some of our favorite stores.  In a strange turn of events Julia was happy to walk around the mall and browse a little and was so excited to find a little area rug for her new bedroom.  I was excited to find it on clearance along with one for Emma's room.  It was a great way to spend some quality time together and it was much needed.  It can be hard to be the "typical" sister and it's nice when you get some time alone with your parent where the focus is 100% on you!

Today we celebrated by making it a national Julia day.  From the time she woke up until late this afternoon our day's happenings went along with Julia's ideas.  There was a half hour of tv in the morning and then we headed upstairs for a while.  Julia made Emma's bed - something she enjoys! - while Emma cheered her on and then I helped Julia make her own bed.  After that she decided she needed to clean up her closet, line up her shoes on the floor and then select an extra change of clothes and blanket to pack for school.  Finally, the real fun began.  Barbies, barbies and more barbies were on the play agenda today.  I love Julia's imagination and found myself in awe as she paints the different scenarios we should play with her barbies.  The way Julia can express herself is not something I take for granted - ever!  

Emma loved watching all the silly situations the barbies managed to get into and pretty much laughed all day.  In addition to barbies, we had a fun-filled game of hide and seek, a picnic on the floor, some swing time in the wingbo and finished the afternoon off with a show.  All in all it was a wonderful way to wrap up Julia's time at home before she embarks on her full day, full week kindergarten adventures.  I truly have cherished the time I've had staying home with her and love seeing the confident, caring, curious little girl emerge from my precious baby.

Julia tells me "Don't worry Mommy, you will have me on holidays and weekends and Daddy will have me for school."  Sniff, sniff.  Emma and I really will miss you but are so excited for your new kindergarten adventure!   Enjoy your time in school, my sweet Julia.  We know you are going to love it!

Dancing Queen

Julia had her dance recital last weekend.  It was a fairly big production with a dress rehearsal on Friday night and performances on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.  Chris took Julia to the Saturday show while Emma and I went to my niece Elizabeth's communion party.  For Sunday, Julia had a whole fan club in the audience including me and Emma and both sets of grandparents!  What a lucky little girl!

The show was great!  The children are really talented and Miss Amanda and Miss Morgan did a wonderful job preparing the dancers and choreographing the songs.  It was a two part show with a brief intermission.  Julia performed her jazz dance in slot #6 and her ballet dance in slot #25.  I know I am biased but I will still say that I think Julia's class gave some of the best performances.  They were mostly dancing as a group and remembered their moves - better than expected for 5 year olds!

There was a group of darling little 2ish year olds that was just beyond adorable.  Those little girls in their tutus were just precious even thought they didn't even come close to following the dance routine.  I think everyone was smiling after their performance.

Julia's group performed to The Boys are Back (in town) for their jazz routine.

They performed to You'll Be in Your Heart for ballet.

Group curtain call.

There was a group curtain call followed by a presentation of trophy's to each student.  Julia is over the moon with her trophy!  It's her first one and she didn't let it out of her hands for the first couple of days.  We took some photos after the recital and headed home for a good meal with everyone.  Chris even had the table set and ready for us despite having run a full marathon that morning and not really being able to move too quickly.

We will miss the Elkton Parks and Rec dance classes next year.  We won't be moving close enough to keep attending and so we are now considering Irish Step Dancing for next year.  Julia's not sold on the idea yet but there is plenty of time between now and the Fall to decide.  I'm also going to try and look into a dance class for Emma.  The lovely Chloe did a dance program (click here to read about it) this year that had the children with disabilities dance with a partner's help.  I'm hoping that we can find a similar program around here for Emma because she just loves to dance and loves and audience so a dance routine on stage seems like a great fit for her.  If anyone knows of one in the greater Philadelphia area, please let me know!

I'll leave this with some more photos of the dancers.  How blessed we are!

Julia and her best dance buddy Katie 

The girls and their sisters

Julia with her fan club!

Posing with Daddy at home

Tutu Fun

Julia has been taking a fantastic ballet and jazz class at a local rec center.  Miss Amanda is the teacher and she has so much patience and makes teaching a group of rambunctious 5, 6 and 7 year old look easy!  The recital is coming up in May and everyone is excited about dancing on the stage.  Julia constantly makes me laugh and I find it funny that my girl can be so shy at school while always looking to put on a show and strut her stuff on a stage!  

This weekend we had dance photos and Miss Amanda picked the ballet costume for the photos because it is much fancier than the jazz outfit.  The kids looked adorable!  The costumes reminded me a bit of Tinkerbell and since Tink is such a hot fairy for little girls these day the girls just loved to prance around in them and play with the tutus.  So cute!

Here are some photos I took of our photo outing.  Julia is in class with her great friend Katie so I had to get some photos of the two of them together and of course a silly face is one of their favorite poses.  Enjoy all the blue and purple and five year old silliness that abounds in the photos.

Julia's Dance Recital 2010

June 13, 2010

This was your second year dancing with Victoria's Dance Stars and you were so excited for your recital. The dance was set to On The Good Ship Lollipop and it was a tap routine. You knew all the words and sang them with the song. You are a born natural on the stage and love to perform for everyone! MomMom and PopPop Sheedy and White came to see the performance with us.

You also practiced a ballet routine to Animal Crackers in My Soup and were a bit sad you did not perform it on stage. This was not the large recital year and so you only had one dance to perform. However, you gave us a private performance of Animal Crackers and we were thrilled!

Moving Forward

It's been a while since I've written about all the things that are going on here and, well, the girls just seem to be getting So. Much. Older! Really, when did the get so big? Emma completely lost whatever baby look was left to her and, at well over 3' tall is almost as big as Julia. In fact, they can pretty much wear the same clothes. When did my baby grow up?

Julia is getting so big now, that I'm amazed that she can do everything "myself!" She gets herself dressed, complete with shoes, each morning. She has such adult conversations with me and has taken to going everywhere with her purse and make-up. Then, she asks me why I'm not wearing make-up! Her favorite song is Just Dance by Lady Gaga and asks us to play it for her frequently so she can dance and strike poses that makes Chris go crazy then she laughs and laughs and does more poses. I find this entire routine quite funny, so that just eggs Julia on and Chris finally leaves the room. Julia has also taken to telling me that I'm her girl, calls me Sweetie, and tells me Awww, you did such a good job. Really? Are you 3 or 53?

Here is a video of Julia dancing around one night before bedtime (mind you, she doesn't look a bit tired but I can assure you that I was exhausted).

Other things to comment on:

• Julia has a favorite imaginary cat named Connie that also has a sister. Julia is the therapist for Connie's sister and writes notes about her progress. She is very busy traveling to see all the babies and doing therapy sessions. Julia has the biggest heart of any 3 year old I know.
• Julia loves camp/school and is upset every Thursday and Friday morning when she finds out she doesn't go to camp that day. It's great that she loves camp and I've really seen a huge difference in Julia since she started in that she isn't as shy anymore, but I miss her on the days she is at camp or school and look forward to the days when "just us girls" get to hang out together.
• Emma ROLLED OVER! from her back to her belly - twice. The first time was July 20th (Mom, add that to the book) and the second time was on July 30th. Both times she did it like she's been rolling from her back to belly her whole life rather than us working on it for well over a year! GREAT JOB, Emma!
• Emma has recently showed a huge interest in crawling. She is making progress on comando crawling when I put my hand at the bottom of her foot so she can use it as leverage to push her foot off and move forward. When she is laying on her belly, she can bend her legs at her knees and keep her feet in the air and even try and reach for items. What progress! We'll continue to work with her and hope that she becomes mobile and we have to childproof the house - can't wait for that!!!!!

Dance Recital

This weekend mostly revolved around Julia's dance recital.  This is her first year in dance and I found out quickly that the year end events are planned for starting in November for the June event!  The studio that Julia takes lessons in does a recital every other year and this was the year for the recital, so I just had to put her in it.  Just thinking of the little ones dancing on stage makes me smile.

Julia had two routines - tap and ballet.  This required two different costumes, hairpieces and shoes.  It also required a bit of a time investment with the dress rehearsal on Thursday and a recital performance on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon.  I was a stage mom on Saturday night so I was able to see the performance on Sunday with our families.  The kids did really well!  All of them showed up on-stage and most of them danced.  This is no small feat for a group of 15 three and four year olds.  Actually, all the routines in the first act were fantastic and the time just flew by.  What a great way to finish up the dance season!  Until next year.....