Gingerbread men and Santa on the lightpad

Lucas and Sophie are in for it.  I got a new camera.  They are going to be the subject of ALOT of photos in the next little while, luckily Christmas is on the way so I have a better reason to shoot away than just getting a new camera!  My old camera was having issues with banding and it was going to be too expensive to justify fixing it.  Sooooo, I had to get a new one.  So sad. ;)

I ran out of photo space on blogger though so I have had to reduce the pixels that I upload photos at, I hope it doesn't make the photos look grainy.



As always Sophie has been happy to oblige and is giving me lots and lots of smiles. 

Lucas wanted to do some weird robot dance so I could test the continuous shooting setting.  He was pretty good.

He wore these glasses for 3 days straight, at school and everywhere :)

 

 A couple nights ago I set up the lightpad with a Christmas theme for Sophie.  I had some new gel clings that I found for her in the dollar section at Target. She thought it was great, although she liked trying to grab my new camera strap even more, she was constantly trying to catch it and thought it was hilarious when she did.

 

 

I also found some transparent overlays on clearance at a craft store and I cut them down to the size of the lightpad.  I found blue, red and green and the red and green were perfect for our Christmas setup.  The overlays also reduced the brightness of the lightpad a bit which was nice.

 

And because Sophie wouldn't be Sophie if she weren't a little monkey, by the end of our playtime all she wanted to do was rip the overlay and clings off the lightpad.  She did have fun checking out all the gel clings and we are going to do a winter theme next.

 

 Now I just have to figure out all the settings on my new camera.  It only took me an hour to figure out how to upload the pictures onto the computer. :P

Here comes the weekend!

Into the sling of things

It is amazing what having the right equipment can do.  At school they were able to get a sling for Sophie to be transferred out of her wheelchair and onto her change table in the washroom. 

Up until last week when we got the sling she needed two EA's to transfer her.  Sophie often had to be changed at times that were long after she needed it or when she didn't need it at all, but that was the scheduled time.  Now, Sophie's EA can change her whenever she needs it and there is no waiting for a second person's assistance.  Such a simple thing that has made it easier for Sophie's care during the day.

We weren't sure what Sophie would think of the sling the first time we put her in it.  In true Sophie style though she thought it was awesome and smiled the whole time.  She was ready for the rollercoaster ride to commence lol.

Sophie uses a HOPSA dress at her therapy program and we wonder if she thinks she is going to go for a walk each time she is put in the sling now.   Her EA and nurse has told me that Sophie has been super talkative in her sling, I love that she is having fun at school no matter what they are doing!

Kids on the Block

At the beginning of the year I had suggested to the school that the Kids on the Block puppet troupe would be a great way to teach the kids about children like Sophie, disabilities and about inclusion.  The Learning Support teacher was interested and asked me to get the information for him.  I was so excited that this morning at Sophie's school it had become a reality and there was an assembly for the JK to Grade 3 children.  It was fantastic.

The puppeteers were awesome and they were able to tailor it towards some of Sophie's disabilities.  For example one of the puppets was in a wheelchair because he had CP.  They explained through the puppets that some children can manouvre their own wheelchair and some need to be pushed because their muscles don't work the same as others. 

They talked a lot about inclusion and how it feels to be the one that is left out.  To stand up for your classmates if you hear them being bullied.  They talked about how children with disabilities have many abilities, that they may love swimming or horsebackriding just like other children.

The children at the school seemed to love it, they asked so many questions during the show when each skit was done and you could tell they had really listened to the message being given.  They gave thoughtful insights and wanted to know more. 

Sophie listened quite intently throughout the performance as well.  She was very focused on the puppets and was quite taken with them!  One of her classmates sat beside her while they watched and held Sophie's hand for most of the performance, it was very cute.  

After the show the ladies from Kids on the Block talked with Sophie and I and we were able to get some more photos.  It was such a great experience and we are so thankful that Kids on the Block is out there to spread the message that inclusion is something that everyone deserves.

Weekend fun: sensory squishy bag

A few weeks ago I made a squishy bag for Sophie to play with.  I found the original idea at Play At Home Mom here back in the summer and then adapted it slightly when I found the post by Adaptions4kidz here.  These two blogs are a couple of my favourites for finding inspiration for fun things to make for Sophie.

I loved the idea of putting the foam stickers on the outside of the bag so that Sophie would have something tactile to touch other than feeling the gel in the bag itself.  I had the ocean stickers already so it was a perfect theme.

Sorry the pics are sideways, blogger is being a pain

 I also made a Halloween version.  I had some foam pumpkins and spiders, I found a big googly eye and some pompoms, threw in some glitter and voila, a Halloween squishy bag.  We had played with both of these a number of times but it wasn't until I put them on the light table that Sophie really got interested in them.  It just made everything in the bags jump out and she was very curious about them.

Sophie was a bit of a monkey though at the end and thought it was hilarious to throw the bags off her tray and make me pick them up over and over.

Going,                                                                                              going,

wait for it......gone!                                                                               Now laugh at mommy!

I am so glad that she loved these on the light table, it was a reminder that I need to try more activities with it, I think it helps her CVI alot and helps her focus her attention so much better.

This weekend we also played with the light box with gel clings, used the ipad and did some of her switch work on the computer.

Her favourite app, Awesome Xylophone

She worked very hard with switch scanning and is getting close to mastering the proximity switch embedded in her tray.  Still some work to go with the head switch but that will come.  They aren't using the head switch at school just yet so she doesn't get as much practice with it.

Being a monkey again trying to get the wires :)

Sophie had been quite sick last week with pneumonia and a double ear infection so it is nice that she is happy again and having fun playing.  Hopefully we will be able to put the antibiotics and prednisone behind us for a good long while now that December and all that comes with it are not too far away.

Supergirl and the alien minion

Halloween was a blur.

This year Sophie was Supergirl and Lucas was dressed in a morphsuit.  He was an alien minion along with his friend and another friend was the alien leader.  I know, where do these boys come up with this stuff?

Sophie had a super fun day at school, they all got dressed up for a parade around the block and then had a Halloween party after that.  Two little boys in the class walked with Sophie the whole way, they never left her side.  I love that she has such great friends already, it just melts my heart.  Sophie had alot of fun watching all her friends in their costumes.  She got to hold on to her Super Sophie doll that her great grandma made for her (the inspiration for her costume) and all the kids loved it and asked about it.

Sophie with her awesome new EA and amazing nurse

She was so tired from the activity filled day that she promptly fell asleep when we got home and slept for an hour.  Before we knew it it was time to get into costumes again and head out for trick-or-treating.  We were so rushed I only took about three photos of the two of them!  Urgh!

Sophie was invited to go trick-or-treating with three of her classmates.  I was so excited for her!  Sophie's three little girl friends were giddy with excitement to go trick-or-treating and it was a blast.  The highlight of the night though was that the girls made up a song for Sophie during the day and gave me, Sophie and the other moms a concert in the driveway.  I was almost in tears it was so awesome.  I had heard that they had gone up in front of the class to sing the song as well.  It was called "Super Sophie" and they wrote it themselves.  I WISH I had it on video, it was the cutest thing and they were so proud to sing it for us.

friends :)

Trick-or-treating was freezing and it was pouring rain, so I stayed out for about a half hour with Sophie and the girls and then we headed home so she could help hand out candy with daddy.  I went out and found Lucas with his buddies and their moms and we had a fun time for an hour or more.  Lucas is now all about quantity on Halloween night, those boys were running to as many houses as possible!

Yes, Lucas accessorized with a tie. That's my boy :)

Lucas and his three friends had so much fun and we are already talking about next year's costume!