Time

I just read my last blog post and am amazed at how little time has gone by since I last posted and yet so much has happened.

We celebrated Emma's birthday with an at-home party on October 12th and mostly everyone invited came.  Emma loves to be surrounded by people so we planned for a large party this year and were happy that the weather cooperated.  My Dad hadn't been out in about a month since he was recovering from a hospital stay and we were so happy that he was finally turning the corner and feeling good enough to come out.

I compiled the annual birthday video and once it was turned on all the children piled into the living room to watch and were thrilled to find that many of them were in at least one photo in the video.  They then went on to watch every annual video I've made for each of the girls and several other home movies including one of Finnegan when she was a puppy.  Who knew home videos would be such a draw?  Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the birthday girl loved all the extra attention.  Her favorite part of her birthday - or any birthday for that matter - is singing and the cake.  I love watching the joy in her face when everyone sings the Happy Birthday song.  It never gets old for me to see her so happy.

It's seems hard to believe that less than a week after Emma's birthday party my Dad fell and wound up in the hospital.  We thought it would be a few days in to heal and then he would head home, but that was not to be.  He was in the hospital for two weeks and during that time he contracted pneumonia and a staph infection and wound up in the ICU.  He fought so, so hard to beat it and I've never been more in awe of my Dad's strength than in those two weeks.  But in the end it was just too much and we said our final goodbye to Dad on November 2nd - All Souls Day - and the priest that came to bless him commented that if he had to go it was a blessed day to pick.

It's still hard to believe that we said goodbye to the first man I've ever loved.  It's hard to believe he won't be sitting in his recliner and ready for a chat when I go home to visit.  It's hard to believe Mom won't have her constant companion by her side for all the adventures they had.  I'm sure it will sink in eventually but it hasn't yet.

Dad had a wonderful, full life.  We had sunny day for his beautiful service and luncheon.  He would have LOVED it!  I think he was looking down from above and smiling.

Here is my favorite photo of me and Dad from my wedding.  I can't help but smile every time I look at it:

Thank you to everyone who came to Dad's service and shared in the celebration of his life and to those who were not there but showed their love and support in other ways.  It has certainly made this sad time a bit easier.

Unexpected Blessings

"Having a baby changes everything" says a baby commercial and there is so much truth in that statement.

When we first found out that Emma would have some differences the news pretty much rocked our world.  It put us in a spot that was uncomfortable and very much unwelcome.  Our future was unknown.  The only thing we knew was the life we knew and expected would change forever.  For the first year each specialist appointment brought us new information and more and more differences were discovered.  It was a gut wrenching year and some days it felt so lonely.  It was then that I learned about blogs and chat groups and I started to reach out to others.

I remember early on people would share their stories with us.  People with children that have differences - from down syndrome to a mild hearing loss and everything in between.  We didn't know anyone with a child with cerebral palsy until probably a few years into this journey.  But the people we did know seemed to pass along a common message of hope and blessing.  At the time I really thought they were crazy.  How could all these differences be a blessing?  How could having a child that would struggle for even the most minor physical achievement be a blessing?  I didn't understand.  I was angry.  So very, very angry.  At God.  At our circumstance.  With the news that each doctor appointment brought.  With the intrusion from all the therapy appointments that seemed to dictate our daily schedule.  With the stories from people about how X, Y, Z, Q, R, S kids had early intervention and it worked and they were caught up by school years.  I knew that wouldn't be the case for my girl and hearing these stories did not help at all.

Little peanut getting stretched

The early years were hard.  And while each day I fell more and more in love with both my children, I did not see Emma's differences as a blessing.  Nope not even one little bit.  I was angry that my child that I loved more than life itself would have to struggle through her life.  I was angry that Julia wouldn't have the typical sister bond with Emma.  I was angry when we met families with children that had a terminal diagnosis because they shouldn't have to go through the loss of a child.

And after a long time with the anger I finally had to let it go.  I had to move on.  Each day I was seeing this beautiful life unfold before me and there was no time or energy left for anger.  

Walking around the playground

And somehow, sometime in the last six years something changed in me.  I started seeing Emma's differences as a blessing.  I feel blessed to be so lucky to have both my children with all their unique characteristics.  I started to wish everyone had an Emma in their life and I thought of all the people in the world that will never know how totally amazing it is to live our life.  And I mean that - our life is better than anything I could have dreamed.  It might be harder and more physically exhausting (and seriously, I could do without all the health insurance issues!) than I imagined but it is so full of LIFE.  It is so fully of HAPPY.  It is full of friends old and new.  It is a much fuller life than I think we ever would have experienced had Emma not taken us on this journey.

Little girls playing peek-a-boo at the children's museum

I see people looking at us everywhere we go.  Yes, it might have something to do with the fact that we pimp out Emma's wheelchair for all occasions at her insistence - this girl loves attention - but it doesn't always.  Sometimes it's people staring and pitying us and our life.  To them I say, we are not to be pitied.  We are having the time of our life - come and join us!

It's all about the boas, baby!

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.

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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!!!!