Like a prima ballerina

The day before Sophie's birthday we had a big delivery.  We had been planning this for quite some time and the day finally arrived, we had a lift system installed.  Doesn't sound too exciting, right?  Well, normally that would be true.  It is a functional piece of equipment that will hopefully save my back from total blowout in the future.  Which is great, but not really exciting.

 First ride at home, on her birthday night

The exciting part is that we not only got a sling with the lift, we also got a HOPSA dress.  I have talked about Sophie using the HOPSA before, here.  It is the most visited post on my blog, viewed multiple times every single day.  Sophie loves using the HOPSA at her therapy centre and we have longed to have one at home for her for a very long time.  That wish has come true!

 Being raised up and playing soccer

It is an amazingly simple walking sling but it provides so much.  Sophie is able to walk around the room without a big gait trainer.  She is able to pirouette around the room like a prima ballerina.  And she does!  This was not something that I ever expected to see my girl do.  I have to say it was a pretty exciting day.  :)

 

Getting ready to be hooked up by one of her awesome nurses

I have so many ideas of things that we can do together now that she has a HOPSA dress.  She already received a piano play mat for her birthday from her grandma and grandpa.  It has been fun to use, Lucas and Zoe also think it is fun so that is a huge bonus because Sophie loves watching them demonstrate!

Playing the piano and textured materials that make noise and feel funny under foot

I have a plan to build a play table, kind of like a sand and water table.  There are sand and water tables for special needs children available, but they are soooo expensive.  Once again, call something special needs, jack the price up 100x.  So I am going to build my own.  I am just waiting for the right table, hopefully I will find one at a garage sale this summer.  It is all planned out in my head, I just need the pieces!

 Trying some supported sitting

Unfortunately Sophie has been quite sick for over a week now, we had to postpone her birthday party with her friends from school which was really sad to do.  She hasn't been to school and has just been recuperating at home.  Because of this she hasn't tolerated the HOPSA for longer than about 5 minutes at a time, but hopefully by next week when her antibiotics are done she will be back to herself and enjoying playtime more.

Birthday girl

 

7 years old today :)

Beyond words

I am sure many people who don't personally know a child like Sophie wonder what other children would have in common with her.  What would they do to play? 

 

She can't talk.  She can't dance.  She can't run.  She can't sit up on her own.  She can't hold a toy.  She can't sing.  She can't play games.  She often can't see.  She can't read.

 

 

It may seem to a stranger that all those things are true, or even to someone that doesn't know Sophie very well.  But those that get to know her, know different.

 

 

Sophie can do all those things, just not in the typical way.  And even the things that she can't do at all, it doesn't matter to her friends.  It doesn't matter.  They carry on and either help her to do it or find a way to do it differently with her or do something completely different.

 

This is friendship.  This is life as Sophie's friend.  It is the child who doesn't see the stereotypes, that adults and children who don't know a child like her sometimes hold. 

And somehow these children in her life know that Sophie loves them right back.  They see how she watches them, learns from them.  They don't need her to tell them, they just know.  It goes beyond words.

This is what inclusion brings to our life, to Sophie's life, to their life.  This is why we believed so strongly that Sophie should go to her home school with her brother, with children from our neighbourhood.  Children that she will grow up with and lean on and give something back to.

 

 

This is what I dreamed of for my children.  To be happy and safe and loved.  To know true friendship and to be proud of their accomplishments. 

 

This is just grade one,  but it's going to be hard to beat.

A sunny getaway

I haven't been taking many photos the last little while so I figured I would share some photos from last month.  In early February we were very lucky to take our second annual trip to Florida as a family to see Lucas and Sophie's Opa and Nana.  We had an awesome trip and none of us wanted to leave when it was time to head back to cold Ontario.  The weather was gorgeous, cool at night and nice and warm in the day.  Perfect.

We loved having the pool steps from the living area, it makes it so much easier so getting Sophie in and out of the pool. So of course we took advantage of that and Lucas and Sophie were in the pool all. the. time.

We had a wonderful rotating team of three night nurses from a company in Florida which made our days fun filled because I was able to sleep at night.  We certainly don't take that for granted so we were so thankful that everything worked out so well.  Sophie had trouble falling asleep at night again this year, which we expected.  There is alot of action and new surroundings, but luckily because we were on vacation she could just sleep in.  And she did!!  :)

We had lots of lazy afternoons going to see the Manatees, riding the SeaDoo, going for lunches and hitting the beach.  We were even lucky enough to see a whole group of dolphins very close, like a few feet away swimming right by the shore.  I did a double take at first thinking there was a shark!

We took a few day trips this year.  First to Busch Gardens, just like last year.  We had a wonderful day and Sophie did great.  She loved the Sesame Street shows again and Lucas and I tried out some new rides as well as lots that we did last year.

A few days later we went to Legoland. I think it was good we went this year as pretty soon it wouldn't be as much fun for Lucas since the rides are mainly for kids his age and younger. But we had a great time and we were glad we went!

It was the perfect getaway right in the middle of winter.  We had so much fun with our family and were really sad to say goodbye.  Hopefully we are going to make the trip happen again next year!

Playing with magnets

I have been on the hunt for thick cute magnets and thick colourful foam for a while now.  They are hard to find.  I have been wanting to make Sophie some really thick magnets to play with on her magnet board.  The fun foam that you can get at any craft or dollar store is too thin for Sophie to be able to get a grip on it and I wanted to make something that she could manipulate herself.

We have a few other magnet toys for her to play with.....

The Leap Frog fridge farm is great fun.  It sings songs when pressed and tells you what your are looking at like a cow or a horse.  We sometimes play with the magnets on her magnet board instead of on the platform that they come with.  We sort them and make funny animal bodies and talk about their colours.

For Christmas my mom and dad bought Sophie some magnetic whiteboard erasers that are really thick, they found them at Scholar's Choice here and here.  There are other ones that I hope to add to our collection too.  We don't use them as a whiteboard eraser, just as a fun thick magnet that Sophie can get a hold of with some help.  We can talk about what the bird and owl is, what colour they are, make up stories with them and on and on.

We also have some magnetic dress up dolls that are really great for Sophie to practice her choice making.  She can choose what they wear or which doll she wants to play with.

Playing with a friend :)

The other magnet set we have is a Melissa and Doug animal habitats set that we use all the time.  I have photos of it being used by Sophie somewhere. :)  The magnet board in all the photos I am posting is from that set.  It is so handy and the perfect size.

Last weekend I finally finished a project with photos on magnets that I had been wanting to do for some time now. I printed some photos, used some old foam I had (since I couldn't find the nice thick colourful stuff) and bought some magnet sheets at the dollar store. It was so easy to make.  (edited to add: I used Gorilla glue to adhere the photos to the foam, it worked great formin a really good bond and didn't seem to hurt the photos at all.)

I am going to try to paint the old worn foam to pretty it up a bit.  I am going to make alot more of these with photos of family and friends.  Sophie loves to look at photos of people she knows and loves so now she can touch and hold on to those photos too.