Fall Overview

Today is the first day of Fall.  It's my very favorite season.  I just love the chill in the air, the cozy feeling of a sweater in the morning, the availability of pumpkin spiced coffee, the changing leaves.  I don't enjoy the shorter days or the hectic schedule that comes with the back to school scene. 

This year both girls are in full-time school.  Julia started third grade and she is getting so very mature.  She is turning into a bookworm and devouring books at an astonishing rate.  It makes my heart sing to catch her cuddled up on the couch with a book in her hand or have her beg to stay up a few more minutes so she can read just a little bit more.  She still has a silly side and is allowing that to come out in public more often.  It's nice that she is letting the world see a bit more of her captivating personality instead of saving it for home.  This year she continues her Irish dancing and is adding in violin lessons at school.  Seeing her leave two mornings a week with her backpack and her violin makes me smile - it's a seriously cute site!

Emma is in first grade at our local elementary school.  She has a great team helping her succeed in a mainstream setting.  Some days are going great, some days she isn't interested in participating.  That is our Emma.  With the exception of her speech therapist her entire team is new.  Emma takes a LONG time to adjust to new people.  I'm praying that she starts to settle in soon and show them what she knows.

I continue to focus on getting myself in the best shape of my life and that means I've been running and taking classes at my gym more often than not.  With the girls back in school it leaves me some free time each day to get in a workout.  I'm even strongly considering doing a triathalon with Emma in May.  That gives me more than enough time to prepare.  Emma loves joining me in my workout sessions.  She is a great little motivator when it would be easier to cut a workout short.  I also have a neighbor who joins me for the evening and weekend workouts.  I love having a partner to workout with as it pushes us both to go a bit further or faster or workout on a day we would rather skip.  

We purchased a new bike trailer for Emma and she loves it!  I'll do a review on it soon, but for those who are wondering it is the Chariot Cougar I and a link for it is here:  http://www.rei.com/product/867690/thule-chariot-cougar-1-stroller-with-strolling-kit. The verdict is still out on how long it will be before she outgrows it, but it is working for now.  I'm planning on doing a 20 mile bike ride to fund raise for Cystic Fibrosis in a few weeks and was hoping to trail her behind me but the lawyers associated with the even aren't keen on that idea.  Luckily, the triathalon I'm training for is all ability friendly.  For more information on it, check the details out here:  http://gotthenerve.org/race-information/

With the girls back in school and *mostly* settled in, I've decided to look for a part-time job with flexible hours so I can still be available to drive Emma to appointments and therapy sessions and consult at school as necessary.  I found a few positions that really interested me but I might not have interested them enough.  I am confident that when the time is right a job will come along.  We are also still navigating the real estate market.  We put our house up for sale a few months ago when our tenants moved out but so far we haven't had any offers.  We will likely put it up for rent again if we don't get any offers soon. 

And I'll leave you with a photo I snapped last week after Emma's horse lesson.  This was at the end of the half hour session.  She did the best riding I have ever seen last week and after a full day of first grade at that!  My girl never ceases to amaze me.

Back to school and other musings

The end of summer flew by and we've been busy ever since.

These walls are so FUN to touch!!!!

I was happy to get in a few final field trips with the girls - it was our very last Field Trip Friday until next summer.  Our girls Field Trip Fridays started about 4 years ago and consisted of me and the girls exploring our community.  We visited places big and small - anything from visiting museums and parks to walking around our neighborhood looking for different types of leaves.  These days were the highlight of my week where I just had fun with the girls and let the housework and laundry pile up.  Emma had off on Fridays in pre-school so our tradition continued while Julia was in school, but this year Emma will be in school full-time Monday-Friday so our Field Trip Friday will take a hiatus for the school year.  

Look at me!!

A brief rest

Since it was our last Field Trip Friday we made it a super cool field trip and visited the Magic Gardens where everything is covered in mosaics.  It isn't fully wheelchair accessible but we were able to make it work for us since Emma is still so little.  She loved touching the walls and the mosaics and the artist even stopped over to say hello to her and thank her for visiting.  I had no idea he was the artist at the time, though, so I didn't get a photo but I'll try and get one next time if he is there.  Afterwards we visited Chris at work and Julia took a peek at her 2nd grade classroom and got really excited for the start of the school year.  It was a perfect Field Trip Friday!

Julia is such a good photographer

We finalized Emma's initial IEP and placement.  Our district has half-day Kindergarten and we decided to send her for a full day instead of only the 1/2 day that she would normally attend. She will be in a Multiple Disabilities classroom (MDS) - I want to go on record that I HATE THAT NAME!!!! - for the morning and will receive all her therapies during that time and will attend the mainstream afternoon Kindergarten class with her one-on-one aide.  She gets many therapies - PT, OT, Speech, Hearing, and Vision and fitting all them in during the regular 2.5 hour Kinder class would be too much interruption in my opinion.  Emma doesn't like to get pulled out or work with therapists when her friends are around!  So we decided to give this set-up a try for her first year at elementary school and see how it goes.  

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Kindergartner

The feedback so far is that she is doing really well and LOVES the mainstream Kindergarten class!  She appears to be keeping up with her classmates and is fitting in just fine.  The pace of the class seems to hold her attention better and she is less distracted than in the MDS classroom.  Wow!  That is a pleasant surprise!  I went in to talk to the class for 10 min. one day about all things Emma and to answer any questions they had and I was told "I think Emma is so cool!" and "Emma is my best friend!"  sprinkled among the many questions they had so I think she is fitting in just fine with the children!  And, the other day I picked her up from school (she typically takes the bus to/from school) and when her class walked by for dismissal I heard so many of them say "Hi, Mrs. White."  It really caught me off guard because I still forget that I'm Mrs. White {most of the girl's friends call me Ms. Kristina} and I'm not used to Emma's classmates actually talking.  It was such an eye-opening and wonderful experience for me.  So many things about Emma in the mainstream classroom have shown me the positive impact inclusion in our schools makes to our community.  The last few weeks have made it crystal clear to me that we made the right choice for Emma's kindergarten year and all the work we are putting into the mainstream setting is completely worth it!

You're new.  Let me check you out.  Ok, we're friends.  Did you know the bus ride is my favorite part of the day??!!

I'm ready to go.  Don't worry about me, Mommy.  I'm not a bit afraid and don't need to give you a second glance :-)

Julia started back to school and is now a 2nd grader.  How these girls are growing so quickly is beyond me!  I love to watch her grow and mature and I love hanging out with her.  She is just so amazing!  I love the way she is connecting her world together and the conversations we have at bedtime.  The time when the girls arrive home from school is my favorite part of the day with bedtime cuddles and chats with Julia a close second.

A friend I met through this blog - LOVE how this blog has introduced us to so many wonderful families! - told us about some local swim classes for children and siblings.  It's held in a heated pool at a semi-local facility/house for adults with cerebral palsy and it's something our children can do together and they really love it when they can take classes together.  This summer Emma made huge gains in swimming with a float ring (the $1 floats you can get at the drug store) around her body and she loves to swim "laps" in the pool.  So we figured it is a good time to start lessons again.  Julia is a strong swimmer and has been for a while but she loves swim lessons so we enrolled her to work on her technique a bit.  Both girls love the lessons but I think they enjoy the last 5 min. in the hot tub more :-)  Who wouldn't want to end a swim lesson with a soak in the hot tub?  I just might sign myself up for the next session...just kidding.

______________

Here is a photo I just have to include.  I took it on Back to School night.  Emma's artwork is circled in yellow here.  I just LOVED seeing her art alongside her classmate's work.  Such a proud moment for me!

Emma's artwork hanging outside her classroom.  She said "I hope that I learn to read" when asked what she wanted to learn in kindergarten.  

Endless summer fun

It's unheard of that we would get a 3 week stretch of temperatures in the the 80s in August but it is happening!  So, while we have it we're taking full advantage by hitting a lot of fun outdoor events.  It feels strange to be able to do so many outdoor activities in August.  Emma doesn't tolerate the heat too well so we usually wind up finding indoor fun options in July and August.

We continued our field trip fun week with a tour of the Herr's potato chip factory.  This place is actually farther away from my house than I expected.  And we hit more construction delays and traffic than I expected.  So I wasn't surprised when we showed up at 10:10 for our 9:50 appointment and didn't see any of our friends there.

When we went to the registration desk after much discussion and flipping through papers I found out that my girlfriend had, indeed, changed the tour from Tues. to Wed. due to the crazy rain we had but I somehow missed the message that our tour time was changed as well.  I thought we were too late to enjoy the tour when, in fact, we were about 1.5 hours too early!  What to do, what to do?  I haven't really ever had this problem before as we tend to run on the late side of things.  The factory is in the middle of what appears to me to be nowhere although I'm sure the people that live there would be able to set me straight.  I was banking on that when I asked the girl behind the counter if there is anything to do while we wait.  The one girl was clearly too young so she just laughed at me - I immediately disliked her.  The other girl - God bless her - suggested we check out a park down the road and off we went with a stash of potato chips bought at the factory store.  We found the park easily and were really excited to see that it was actually a HUGE, fantastic park and a great place to visit in and of itself let alone as a time-killer before an appointment.  The girls played and snacked and I snapped a few photos before we headed back for the tour that included a short video, a walk through the pretzel and potato chip operation, and snacks.  We even were able to try hot potato chips right off the production line, which was big hit with all the children.

The park would have been better with our jogging stroller instead of the wheelchair.

I sure would have loved exploring the trails a bit more, but the wheels weren't suitable for it.  Emma didn't mind!

A few of the crew that toured.  The rest headed to the great park before heading home so I missed snapping a complete group photo.

We ended our field trip fun week with a trip to a local garden estate for some Friday fun.  We became members in June and are hoping that the wide paths will be a great place for Emma to practice driving her power wheelchair.  We are ever hopeful even though we are still in appeals on the denial.  Still, it's a great place to explore and since lots of our friends have memberships it's a good meet-up destination.

We have 2 more full weeks of summer vacation.  I wonder what we'll do next???  We have a few more fun adventures planned so stay tuned...

Local summer adventures

This summer we had a list of things we wanted to do.  There is still about 3 weeks left to our summer and we are working on completing most of them.  I posted closer to the beginning of summer that showed we started it off with a bang and have done some dribs and drabs posts since then.

Now that our summer camps are over, we reclaimed the month of August for family fun!  Horray - that's my favorite kind of fun!  I seriously can't get enough of hanging out with my little ones and I feel like they are growing so quickly.

Last week we went to the science museum.  I am a scientist by training and I really miss playing with things in the lab.  Hanging out there made me realize just how much I miss it and I wonder if there is a chance I might be able to find some part-time work that is only during the school year (lots of us stay at home Mom's dream about this perfect schedule) that includes getting my hands dirty in a science lab.  Doubtful, but I'll look into it.  I might just have to rely on our yearly membership to the museum to fulfill my science side :-)

GLOW was the special exhibit geared to hands on exploration.  There was a section with costumes and you could dress up as fireflies and jellyfish.  We decided to forgo the costumes and stand in the firefly capture jar to check out the view - this made the girls all giggly!

Butterfly room is always a favorite stop for me.  Julia finds it a bit warm but was up for it and Emma is happy to check it out as long as there are other people in the room she can watch.

Digging for dinosaur bones

Fossil Prep lab had a learning session.  They told us about a dinosaur they are currently working on that was found in MT.  How did we never see the fossil prep lab before on all our visits?

Panning for shark teeth.  Cut out for a wheelchair is quite nice, but it falls short in being truly accessible unless you have super long arms.  

Starring in their own dinosaur movie.  

This week we took advantage of the *slightly* cooler weather to visit a park we'd never been to before.  I had won tickets to the carousel and mini-golf at the silent auction fundraiser at Julia's school so Chris met us there the other day after work for some Monday evening fun.  It was a fun place to visit.

The park had the oldest remaining original fountain in the city was up and running, a small-ish playground with an accessible swing and monkey bars, a snack shack, a carousel and mini-golf.  The park is in the historic district so everything was USA themed.  The carousel even had a bald eagle instead of a horse in one slot and that is what Emma rode.  Julia rode a dolphin, although I'm not exactly sure how that made it's way onto the national themed carousel?  The mini-golf had obstacles made out of local historic landmarks and I just loved it!  I have a feeling we'll be back.

When did you get SOOOO BIG???!!!!  Emma is staring right though me to the campers running all over the place!

Sisters swinging next to each other.  Melts my heart they can swing next to each other and it's not something we take for granted!  Emma is also much stronger this summer because she was never able to sit in these swings before without added attachments.  Both girls are nosy as ever and watching the campers again!

Such a cutie pie!  This girl melts my heart.   

Is that a hole in one?????

Emma was interested in mini-golf for about 3 holes.  She reached out for the club and even helped swing and hit the ball.  Surprisingly, she did quite well!  Then she decided she had enough and wanted to people watch everyone on the course that did NOT include anyone in her family.  Her stroller was thus positioned for optimal non-family people watching and she was smiles the rest of the night.  Silly girl!

Girls Rule!

Boys....need we say more??!!!

Wildlife in the city.

We have about 3 weeks before the start of school.  The fun will continue.  How blessed and lucky our family is!!!!

Juggling summer camp

We are busier that ever this summer and it's been with mostly VERY fun activities.  Our whole family really settled into a new summer routine that includes late night bedtimes and more relaxed mornings.  This week, though, camp started for Julia and Emma started back to school for her summer session - both things the girls were looking forward to and love by the way!

Lazy morning earlier in the summer.  PJs on all morning and plenty of time to do science experiments!

I didn't realize how crazy adding in camp/school would make our schedule.  Since we aren't traveling as a pack like we were earlier in the summer it seems everyone has a different place to be and a lot of it is at the exact.same.time.

Here is how we kicked off our life with camp on Monday:

• Get girls up and fed and out the door by 8:15.  Drop Julia off at camp at 8:45 and head to another town for Emma's 10am PT appointment (more on that later).
• Drive Emma to yet another town to drop her off for school.  Try to feed her a bit of lunch in the parking lot but she is too busy looking around for her wonderful one-on-one aide, Erica.  She really missed her!  She told me so on her talker several times over the break.  When Erica arrives Emma decides it is time to immediately head into school and lunch can wait.  
• Leave Emma at school and head back to my town for a chiropractor appointment.
• After my treatment head to Julia's camp (if you guessed it's in another town you would be right!) to pick her up and head home in time for Emma's bus to drop her off at school.

We left the house at 8:15am.  I returned home with Julia ~3:20pm.  I drove just under 100 miles and went pretty much nowhere- ouch!  Luckily that was the busiest day of the week for me with it getting a bit better each day.  I'm happy to say I'm not contributing to global warming nearly as much now :-)

There are 3 days/week during camp that Julia and Emma need to be somewhere at 9am and they are in completely different towns or states.  One week it will be easy since there is a before care option that opens at 8am.  The other two weeks we've figured out a way to get everyone where they need to be on time.  

Who knew summer could be so crazy??!!  It sure will be nice in September when Emma goes to a school in our local school district.  Having her closer to home will be a very welcome change from the 35 minute drive to her current pre-school.

You might ask:  Emma starts school at 11:50am so why does she have to be somewhere at 9am?  Well, we decided to have her change PT places for about 6 weeks so she can use the Biodex Unweighting System that is housed at a different location.  What we do is suspend Emma with a harness over a treadmill and work on her walking.  The tone in her legs is just so very high that it makes it very difficult for her to walk in a gait trainer and she wants to walk so badly.  We thought we could try and train her muscles if we unweight her a bit to help her learn the movement without as much effort.  It's a pretty interesting concept and we're not sure if it will work but wanted to give it a shot.  She has a lot of tone to overcome so we're going to try and go 2x/week for 6 weeks and then evaluate the effect.  What we are seeing so far is that she starts out really tight and it's hard for the PT to help her bend and move her legs but that she gets better during the session.  And it's clear to everyone that she LOVES getting in the harness and walking on the treadmill.  She is one giggly girl!  

Here is a video of her using the Biodex unweighting system for the first time:

In about 3 weeks our schedule will settle down and we'll be back to summer without camp.  We will travel as a group and enjoy lots of fun activities together again.  Until then, I'll keep up the juggling act!

SUMMER Fun!!

This summer we've been doing so many fun things that it leaves little time for me to document it.  This fact really just makes me smile!  After all, isn't life all about participating in it ;-)  Here are some photos from our adventures.  Enjoy!

• Mommy/Julia date day to pick strawberries.  

 I just adore her!

• Daddy/Daughter fishing fun

Julia LOVED fishing!

Emma was more interested in the people watching than the fishing or the fish

Chris had a bit of fun by chasing Julia with the fish he caught!  I LOVE this photo!

• The girls had some fun on a recent rainy day

Playing some computer games

Emma figured out how to move the screen door open and closed.  It took my breath away!  Love how she is using her arms a bit more even if it is to try and bust out of the house into the rain :-)

• Swimming.  I'd say lots of swimming while the girls would say there is never enough swimming!  My girls take to the water like fish.

Julia's underwater handstand is getting really good!

• Sleep-overs followed by sidewalk chalk art

Note:  Emma was in the wagon while I took photos.  When not taking pictures I held her in a sitting position on the blanket so she could join in the fun.

• Boardwalk and beach adventures, where Julia proudly helped Emma on some rides even though her arm was sometimes crushed and hurt proving yet again that she is the BEST BIG SISTER EVER!!!!!

Softball season winds down

My favorite softball player strikes a pose

Julia's first Softball is coming to a close.  Her team had a bit of a rough start but rallied half-way through the season.  Their standings at the end of the regular season was 6th out of 12 teams, so they finished in the top half.  Playoffs start this weekend and we are all hoping the girls win and continue on  through the playoff series but our first priority is that they have fun.

Keeping her eye on the ball.  Her pink sneakers always bring a smile to my face!

It has been a fun season!  This is Julia's first year playing ball and she loves being part of the team.  The girls are from all different schools and range in age from 7 to 9 so many of them didn't already know each other.  Most live close to us and it's fun when we run into her new friends outside of softball practice and games.

The girls huddle under the beach umbrella for a bit of shade.  Julia's number is 2.

Julia started out quite timid and afraid of the ball.  She didn't want to hit the ball - when she did she said it hurt her arms/hand/wrist.  At this age they use a pitching machine so it does come at them rather fast.  She eventually got used to the feel of the ball hitting the bat and it no longer hurts her arms.  She has had quite a few RBIs (runs batted in) and even scored a few points.  At this age they mostly run one base per hit but can run two bases if they hit the ball well into the grass.  That rarely happens and so it's mostly hit the ball and run to 1st base.  Many of her teammates have been playing t-ball and/or softball for a few years and Julia was able to solidly hold her own even in her first ever softball season.

It's great when an at bat results in a run to 1st base!

Each game is 6 innings long.  Sometimes that can go by quickly, but when it is a 5:45pm game on a school night it can seem like an eternity to those of us on the sidelines.  We were scheduled to played each team in the league twice but some games were cancelled due to thunderstorms.  Each team had a different jersey - Julia's is red and her team is the Dragonfly's.  The team they were playing when I snapped this photo just happened to have red shirts, too.  It was funny to see so many red shirts out on the field!

Julia played field positions in most of the games and is interested in playing catcher in an inning.

There is a snack shack that is a top destination for the kids after (during??!!) games and practices.  It's funny to see all the children negotiating with the parents for more money for some snack they just have to have.  Parents are assigned one turn each season to work the snack shack and I was surprised at just how busy it is - even the 9:30am Sunday morning shift that we were assigned!  It would appear that more than a few kids hit their piggy banks before game day and the siblings of the players were often over to make a purchase or two or three while waiting for big bro/big sister to finish their game.

Water ice is a perfect treat after a long game in full sun.

Chris pitched in to help out the coach as needed.  A few parents commented to me about how he should be a coach next year since he is so upbeat and positive with the girls.  I agree - he has a wonderful way with children.  Emma made it to all the games and everyone knew her and greeted her by name.  No surprise there!  My little charmer is always remembered for her huge smiles.

We are so proud of all your dedication and hard work this season, Julia!  We hope you have a winning playoff season and look forward to seeing you play again next year!