Ipad love

Sophie is rockin the Ipad.  She is amazing me everyday with what she is doing!  I don't have many pictures because she is usually sitting on my lap with me holding the Ipad, but I am hoping to get a stand soon so that she can have it on her tray or beside her on her mat without me having to hold it.

Mommy brag.... I have been noticing an incredible change in the fine motor use of her right hand.  She is purposely moving her wrist to move her fisted hand off and on the ipad screen.  I was so excited to see her using her hand this way.  This is so huge because Sophie has very limited use of her hands as far as fine motor skills, to me it is like Lucas taking his first steps.  It was one of those take your breath away moments as a mom that you will never forget.  It is a milestone.
She has learned how to swipe at the screen in order to change the page as she needs to.  It is often Sophie style, so the arm flings way back behind her and then comes swinging forward with abandon.  But it is actually very purposeful and she hits the screen as needed.
 I would say that she has definite favourites as far as apps.  She is definitely telling me when she could care less about an app (by ignoring it) or when she is intrigued by one.   I have spent most of my evenings over the last month searching for appropriate apps for Sophie to use.  Luckily, there are lots and I have found some great ones, and I haven't paid for one yet.  I know that there are a few that I will definitely upgrade to the paid version soon.

Some of our favourite Ipad Apps so far:

iLoveFireworks lite
Peekaboo Barn lite
Awesome Xylophone
Look Baby
Zoola Lite
FartPianoFree (enouugh said lol)
ABA flashcards - Actions
 - (all the ABA flashcards series is free for April)
Talking Dodo HD
Scratch A Sketch lite
Art of Glow
Baby Finger
GuitarNeck lite
iBeams lite
iComm lite
Miss Spider #2 lite
Glow Draw
Sound Touch lite
Baby Piano HD lite
cosmic top
Elmo loves ABC's
Animal Sounds

Sophie has been having a little congestion lately and tonight she had a seizure.  It wasn't a big one and lasted only 3 minutes.  Lucas came to let me know that she was having the seizure, Jason and Lucas had been sitting with her in the living room.  After the seizure Lucas asked me if people who don't have other medical problems have seizures.  I told him that yes, there are people who have epilepsy and they may not have any other problems.  He is always asking interesting things and I wonder if he was asking because he is unsure if he will start having seizures.  Sophie's seizure disorder has been scary for everyone around us and I think that it is good that we keep talking about it.  Hopefully no more seizures tonight.

A magical bunny

Lucas wasn't too sure about the Easter bunny this year.  He is thinking that it is not true.  But, I told him, why on earth would I buy a whole bunch of chocolate and candy and hide it all around the house.  Only a crazy mother would do that ;)

Sure enough, Easter Sunday morning we discovered that the Easter bunny had arrived and we heard alot about how great he was.  Lucas wanted to look in his room for eggs, but I said how would the bunny hide stuff in there when you are in there all night?  Lucas told me "because the Easter bunny is magical."  Duh.  What was I thinking!

Lucas and Sophie had a wonderful time searching for their goodies.  Sophie received a glow bubble machine and Lucas got a giant chocolate kinder egg.  Bliss.

Sophie had so much fun motoring around looking for eggs.  Well, I think she was just trying to keep up with Lucas but she had fun nonetheless.

We always have an outside hunt as well, this year at my parents house after church.  It was a beautiful weekend with lots of visitors and we had some delicious meals with our families.

Spring has sprung.

 





A Good Friday

Good Friday was, as always, a rainy day. 

But in the evening I noticed that the sunset looked like a giant Easter egg had exploded in the sky.

This was the view from our front porch..

An amazing start to the Easter weekend.  You know what they say -  pink and purple sky at night, bunnies delight......

Girl vs. boy

Girly girl

Now that Sophie's hair is short again her hair has been developing these adorable little curls again.  How cute is that?!!  I have the lock of hair from her first cut and it is a perfect little curl as well. 
Sophie is my girl in pink.  She loves spending time reading together and singing songs and curiously watching everything that is going on around her.

Crazy boy

And at the polar opposite end of the universe I have my boy who can be a tornado of activity, who had his first injury of the season quite early this year.

We were running football patterns in the backyard (yes, I do that lol) and he landed on a stick.  It left a pretty good gash but he was fine.  Lucas is one of those boys that lives for sports.  He wants to be out in the backyard every night until you can't even see the ball coming  for your face.  We are gearing up for another fun summer of soccer, he can hardly wait.

Lucas has been wearing shorts to school for the last week, he is a hot blooded animal that boy of mine.

The dirt is almost at the point of being stained on the skin for another season, not quite, but soon.  ;)

Xena Beena

 Xena (otherwise known as Xena Beena) is Jason's mom's dog and Lucas loves her so much.  We have always called her his dog and she has been in his life since he was born.  This morning we had the awful job of telling Lucas that his doggy had died.

Xena has had a rough few months and had gone completely blind and was having an impossible time with walking anywhere lately, her legs were literally not working anymore.  We think she may have had a stroke or something similar that caused all of her recent health problems.

 One of the first photos I have of them together, Lucas is about 4 months old.  Lucas was not too sure what to think at first.

 Xena was never far away when Lucas was getting into something messy, they were definitely partners in crime.

Xena and Lucas spending another lazy day at the cottage.

Xena, Lucas and Brutus posing for the camera.

Lucas is going to miss her terribly, she was his first puppy.  She was definitely an important part of our family and luckily we will have lots of memories of fun times spent with her to remember her by.

HOPSA time

Sophie has been using a HOPSA dress for a few years now.  She loves it so much that she throws a little tantrum if her friends get to go in it before she does.  I love that, because she is showing what she wants.

I think this is the first picture of Sophie in the HOPSA.  She was just over 2 years old.

Is she not the cutest thing?  She was so proud of herself and did move her leg to try to take some steps.

These next pics are a few months later when she was 2 1/2 years.

Going for a walk with Lucas :)

Last week.

My big girl can saunter around the room and in and out of the ball pit as she pleases.
O.k, it isn't as easy for her as that sounds, but she certainly picks and chooses where she wants to go or who she wants to stand by.  She really moves around the whole floor area quite quickly and with alot of determination.

The HOPSA dress was invented by Dr. Lilli Nielson, she developed active learning as a way for children with multiple disabilities to be able to interact with the world on their own terms.  Sophie has been involved in many active learning sessions and many of the large equipment pieces she uses are invented by Dr. Nielson.  I posted a while back about the active learning session she was in where she used a Little Room and Essef board and other items that allows Sophie to decide what she will play with.

Giving my girl the chance to learn and play as she chooses is such a wonderful thing.  It is a choice that typical children get and I want her to have that same experience.

I hope that one day we will have a HOPSA dress in our home.  Once we get a track system installed it will be on the top of my shopping list.

The Parade of Swans

Last weekend we took a day trip to see The Parade of Swans.  A city nearby has a whole group of swans that they bring in for the winter and then in the spring they release to the river.  My sister told me that it was happening so we all headed out to spot us some swans.

We waited along the parade route for the swans to pass us on their way to the river.  The kids were cold and anxious but they survived lol.

We finally caught sight of a little guy coming around the bend.

We were thinking we'd been duped!  That's a flippin' goose!

Then the band came...

But the goose was just the teaser show.  Suddenly around the bend came the whole group of swans.

And before we knew it they were gone and the crowd swallowed up the road.  We followed along and waited to see them in the river.

They really are very beautiful.  I didn't get a picture of him, but the swan at the front of the line was a black swan.  I had never seen one before so it was great to see him up close.

This guy was all puffed up because he was in fighting mode with another swan.  They attacked each other's wings viciously and I really thought a swan was going to be drowned with hundreds of kids standing on the bank of the river watching.  Luckily I didn't have to explain that.

Thanks, swans, for all swimming away just as I took the photo :p

We had a fun day out, can't wait for more days like this as the days get warmer and the sun starts to shine.

A gift, with love

Sophie got her birthday present a couple days ago.   :)

This was a joint present from us and many relatives and we are so grateful that our girl can have an Ipad to learn with and play on and maybe, one day, communicate with. 

Hoping for great things.

Look at that open hand and great eye contact.  Love it.
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The Haircut.

Sophie always gets her hair cut shortly after her birthday,  I have done this with her every year since her 2nd birthday.  I like to have her hair nice and long for all her birthday photos and then we cut it to a short little bob and it grows for another year until it is a matted mess that has to be tamed again.

I often think about what Sophie's hair would look like if she was a typical little girl who was running around and didn't have her hair worn away at the back because it is always rubbing on her wheelchair headrest.   Or if she didn't have her little baldspot from the pressure sore she got in the NICU. 

When her hair is first cut it goes into these beautiful little curls or ringlets and I know she would look so cute with it really long, but I think she is pretty darn cute with it short too.