Wigglin' And Gigglin'

Sophie and I have been going to a playgroup called Wiggle, Giggle and Play.  Anyone that knows Sophie knows that she has the wiggle down pat. She is the queen of the wigglers.
We have been to this playgroup before, about 3 years ago.  It is a fun group where I can chat with other mom's of special needs kids and get new ideas for playing with my girlie.  Sophie loves watching the other kids and playing with the new-to-her toys.  Mostly she wants to watch the other kids, but what can you do. 

This is Sophie at wiggle, giggle and play in June 2007

And here she is last week..when did she get so big?????

We have been working on her bearing weight and she has been a star!  One of the physio assistants has been helping me out at the playgroup which has been awesome.  It is so nice that we can get out to these things with her being healthy.  We start an active learning program soon too, can't wait for that.

Days of Summer

We had such a great summer!  I am missing summertime stuff all ready.   It was our first summer that Lucas wasn't in daycare so it involved alot more juggling of our schedules, but Sophie had a fantastic summer healthwise.  No hospitalizations for her seizures and she stayed pretty darn healthy, for her ;)

We had lots of visits to the cottage, a record number for us since Sophie was born, maybe ever!  The weather was so awesome and I had lots of chances to take photos.  We found some accessible trails and spent lots of time hanging around at the beach.  I figured I would show you some of my pics of the wilderness that we explored.  I hope you enjoyed your summer just as much.  All of the pictures below were taken in Bruce or Grey County.  

Our new little guy...

At the N'Amerine friendship centre

Some giant hogweed we came across there...this was 7 feet +

 A slimy guy we met at our beach

 Outside our cottage back step...

Weaver's Creek falls

 A surprise along the highway...

Isn't lochness in Scotland????....

Some awesome sunsets this year...

Chantry Island....

Indian Falls...

After the storm...

 The end of the summer entertained us with the best sunsets yet....

  Gotta love Lake Huron in the summer xo

Go Wild!

African Lion Safariiiiii.  Don't you love that song ;)  It's been in my head for days, so I thought I would share the love.  We took Sophie for the first time last weekend.  Lucas has been a couple times when he was little but he had a great time again.

On the bus

The 8 month old star, Chuck :)

The elephants are soooo rough!

Sophie loved the elephants and the talking parrots

Lucas loved that he has the wingspan of a Red-tailed hawk

The Kookaburra - don't you love that name?!

Highlight of the day for the boys...

Getting tired on the train

We had a great day at the safari and then spent a really nice evening at Jason's mom's.  His Oma (Oma Oma to Lucas and Sophie) was there too so it was nice to get that visit as well.  Sophie and Lucas fell asleep in the car after about half an hour of driving - which never happens, so I know they were worn out.

That will be our last big adventure until we close down the cottage in October.

What a great summer!!!!!!!

Hmmmm, that doesn't feel right.

Lucas and I were running a bit late this morning and we hopped in the car to get him to school.  I got him all buckled in and noticed it was 9:01.  Crap. O.k. Not a great start.  I figured we could get there before Oh Canada started and no one would be the wiser.  As I backed out of the driveway I thought the car was making a bit of a strange noise, but whatever.  I put it in gear to go and we kind of made a phump, phump sound.  Double crap.  I looked to the hood of the car and the right side was seriously almost a foot lower than the left.  We had a flat tire.  This was my first flat tire - like flat as a pancake - ever.  So I pulled back up into the driveway and we got out and looked. 

Yup, pancake

Lucas was quite excited by it, me, not so much.
Lucas really suprised me though.  I told him we would take the other car and leave the Jeep with daddy.  He said to me "What if Sophie gets sick and has to go to the hospital?????"  It really took me offguard, and in that split second I realized our reality is very different from most families.  And he is always thinking, that Lucas of mine, it is quite amazing really.   I assured him that if Sophie had an emergency (ie seizure - I am sure this is what he was thinking) or got really sick in the next 10 minutes before I got back that daddy would call an ambulance.  He was happy with that so we switched cars and off we went.    Lucas got to school on time and I came back to get Sophie to daycare and Jason had the excitement of waiting for CAA to come.  I ended up being late for work, but I don't think anyone was overly shocked by that lol.

A Trip to Wonderland

Last weekend we we had an amazing day at Wonderland.  I have discovered, as I always suspected, that my children are rollercoaster lovers like me.  Sophie would swing the highest and fastest that you can swing her.  And Lucas found one of the biggest rollercoasters and didn't stop talking about it until we were ON it.  We started out slow in Kiddieland and found some great coasters, like the Ghoster Coaster.

It was a great start.  But he wasn't satisfied until we were in the adult section.  You see Lucas is 48" tall.  Basically the height that gets you on all the rollercoasters they have.  Try telling the 7 year old that mom says he can't because he is too little.  Ha.  Well, he gave up on the Bohemoth, but we ended up on the Great Canadian Minebuster.  We waited in line for a while and I could tell Lucas was getting nervous as we watched car after car take off.  Finally it was our turn and we were off. Now I went on this when I was in my 20's.  And truth be told I loved it.  But now that I am a little older, it was not quite the same, it was actually insane and I couldn't believe I was riding it with my 7 year old!    I must have blocked out how fast and crazy this thing flies.  Kind of like childbirth, if you remembered everything no one would have another, right!?  I was terrified he was going to fall out and I could tell he was getting lower in the seat with every crazy turn, so I was holding on to him with one arm and trying to keep myself upright with the other.   We must have gone about 500 km/hr, well maybe not quite, but it felt close.

You would think this would be obvious....I wasn't about to see what happened if you did

As we got off and Lucas saw Jason waiting at the bottom he was jumping and yelling "wicked!!!"  "that was soooo awesome".  That's my boy. 

                     All thumbs up

We continued on with our amazing day and tried out Thunder Run and The Fly and some others and went home exhausted.  Lucas walked for 9 hours and didn't ask to be carried once.  He found his happy place :)

This kind of summed up the day for all 3 of us....

 


One more thing ticked off Lucas' to do list :)  I know Sophie would have been begging for the Bohemoth as well.  Maybe we'll start off a little smaller.....

You have to start somewhere...

So here it is, my first blog.  I have been feeling the need to do this for a while.  I have been enjoying writing on Miss Sophie's caring bridge page for the last few months but felt I wanted more creativity.  I didn't want to make people read all my thoughts and ideas on life if they didn't want.  The caring bridge page will continue as a place for me to update everyone on Sophie's health.  This is where I can have some fun!

I have been spending some of my time cruising other people's blogs lately and I have learned alot.  I have found some blogs of other moms who have a child with special needs and I have found one or two that are about photography, they have all inspired me.  I am going to put an effort into posting pictures here,  I hope you enjoy them. 

I fiddle around with my camera alot and I wish I was a better photographer, but we are what we are I guess.  I feel I never take enough pictures, my dad makes fun of me that I take so many!  I have to admit that after Lucas and Sophie were born they must have just seen stars from all the flashes.  But now looking back, I see all the photos I didn't take.  So now, I try to remember to do more.  Lucas usually gives me a stuck out tongue mixed with crossed eyes but Sophie will give me a big smile if she is up to it.  Thus I have lots more of her lol.  Now that we have Riley, he is a good backup victim for my addiction :)

I am looking forward to fall and am excited to share our days with you.....