I tend to feel a bit nostalgic the last few days of the year, and really think back over the year to remember what we did and if it was a good one. It wasn't until November or so that I finally got used to writing "2011" - and now I have to start fresh with a new number tomorrow!
This year has been a potporri of everything - from incredible joy like the birth of our beautiful boy, to heart-wrenching moments like the passing away of my beautiful Auntie, I can look back and say we are blessed and God has been with us every step of the way.
The challenge for myself in this blog is to come up with twelve wonderful moments from the year to share with you:
January - I had a terrific visit with my Aunt & Uncle when I took them some meals. It was such a blessing to visit with them both one more time before my Aunt's bone marrow transplant.
February - our beautiful boy Willem Bruce joined the family.
March - Mark was home with me and the new baby for a month.
April - We were able to fly to Vancouver and celebrate the wedding of one of Mark's cousins. We were also able to see Mark's folks and sister and introduce them to Baby Will! (they live in the USA and UK respectively).
May - Will started sleeping for 8 hours at night - glorious! I got to say good-bye to my Auntie one more time and introduce her to my son.
June - We celebrated the achievement of my Bachelore of Management degree as a family - even though it was a year late, it was wonderful. We also celebrated the life of my Auntie who passed away at the end of June.
July - Life continued to settle into a routine, I got a new client, was able to attend a scrapbooking workshop, and watch my little family grow.
August - We experienced two asthma-related trips to the ER with Ellie which included an ambulance ride to another hospital and an over-night. This event made me start to push for more tests and investigations into her health and development.
September - Probably the darkest month for me/us - we had test results early in the month to know that her chronological age and developmental age were significantly apart. We also were told that there was an issue with her bones - waiting for the next appointments was like standing on the edge of a great chasm of blackness. We had no idea what was coming or what to expect.
October - Ellie was diagnosed with severe speech and language delay and we were able to get her into a special needs school. While it was difficult to experience this instant change without having time to think, for me, it was good that we had a plan.
November - We went to Edmonton as a family to celebrate the wedding of one of my cousins. Mark and I also went to Banff for the weekend whithout kids!
December - We enjoyed a week-long visit from Mark's Mom, Christmas, and more developmental advancements from both of our kids - Will's cut two teeth (#4 and #5) and is taking a few nervous steps here and there; Ellie's singing, dancing and walking on her tip-toes!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Jasmine the Chipette
I've been thinking about blogging for a few weeks now, but last week was brutal as the whole house came down with the latest-and-greatest flu. What made this so brutal is that it took out each of us one by one, and while we aren't all back to 100%, we are on the mend and for that I am thankful. We spent last Christmas in the ER with Ellie's asthma, so it has been a fervent prayer that we are healthy this year.
Ellie got glasses about a month ago now, and while it was yet another "thing" on our list of growing "things" we are dealing with and getting taken care of, we realize it's really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme. But, like anything, you have to pause and go "hmmm, this is not what we planned for our 3-yr-old". Since there are many generations of glasses wearers in our family's, we knew our kids would eventually get glasses but we hoped it would be at age 5 or 6, not age 3.
The optician's at our eye doc's office were great, though they did make me nervous (ok, and a little ticked) with all the dooms-day predictions of how Ellie would trash her glasses and we'd be in every weekend, and how it's so much easier explaining to a 5-yr old kid the need to wear and protect these things, blah, blah, blah. Ellie is my fearless kid - everything she has ever done since birth has been without hesitation, so I knew that as soon as she could see the difference glasses made, there wouldn't be a problem.
I think we had her wearing them most of the time within three days, and her teachers at school had her wearing them without issue the first day I sent the glasses to school. Slowly, we have been increasing the "venues" for wear, so that Ellie gets used to having them on in the car, grocery shopping, church, etc. A few weeks ago, we had a kids Christmas party after church with a potluck lunch and a visit from Santa - I thought this was the perfect opportunity for Ellie to wear her glasses at church - she'd be in a new crowd but still under my care (as opposed to the Sunday School teachers care).
What was amazing to me was how shy she was with them! When people would say "nice glasses Ellie!" she would whip them off her face and not be interested in wearing them for a while. That hurt my Mommy-heart because I knew that she knew something was different for her than the rest of the kids.
So then I ramped up my search for a cartoon or character in a book that wore glasses - surprisingly, there are none! I have been watching and looking for a while, and realize there are many cartoons that meet the various aspects of a child's life - absentee parents (where are Max & Ruby's parents?), younger siblings (Caillou and Dora), etc. but there are no kids that wear glasses (at least none that I could see in the times of our Treehouse TV viewings).
Daddy Pig is the closest character I found. He's from Ellie's favourite British cartoon "Peppa Pig", and thanks to her Auntie's who live in the UK, we are huge fans. While Ellie can relate more to 3-yr old Peppa and her baby brother George, Daddy Pig often gets admired (by me) for wearing glasses in hopes that Ellie would see them as normal.
Then today's miracle happened. We went for a treat for lunch and got a McDonald's Happy Meal. Alvin & The Chipmunks is the current box and the toys, and when you order a Happy Meal they just ask if you want a girl toy or a boy toy. Usually we don't bother with the toys but today I said a toy for a girl - to my amazement, it was a girl chipmunk named Jasmine. Ellie was playing and playing with her and then all of a sudden, we both saw that she was wearing glasses! Ellie said "hey, I wear glasses too!" to Jasmine, and has been inseparable from this little toy (even taking her to bed at nap and bed time).
This has been my miracle today, and while there are miracles every day, I had to write about this one. God has blessed me with a cartoon character who wears glasses! God is so good!
Ellie got glasses about a month ago now, and while it was yet another "thing" on our list of growing "things" we are dealing with and getting taken care of, we realize it's really not that big of a deal in the grand scheme. But, like anything, you have to pause and go "hmmm, this is not what we planned for our 3-yr-old". Since there are many generations of glasses wearers in our family's, we knew our kids would eventually get glasses but we hoped it would be at age 5 or 6, not age 3.
The optician's at our eye doc's office were great, though they did make me nervous (ok, and a little ticked) with all the dooms-day predictions of how Ellie would trash her glasses and we'd be in every weekend, and how it's so much easier explaining to a 5-yr old kid the need to wear and protect these things, blah, blah, blah. Ellie is my fearless kid - everything she has ever done since birth has been without hesitation, so I knew that as soon as she could see the difference glasses made, there wouldn't be a problem.
I think we had her wearing them most of the time within three days, and her teachers at school had her wearing them without issue the first day I sent the glasses to school. Slowly, we have been increasing the "venues" for wear, so that Ellie gets used to having them on in the car, grocery shopping, church, etc. A few weeks ago, we had a kids Christmas party after church with a potluck lunch and a visit from Santa - I thought this was the perfect opportunity for Ellie to wear her glasses at church - she'd be in a new crowd but still under my care (as opposed to the Sunday School teachers care).
What was amazing to me was how shy she was with them! When people would say "nice glasses Ellie!" she would whip them off her face and not be interested in wearing them for a while. That hurt my Mommy-heart because I knew that she knew something was different for her than the rest of the kids.
So then I ramped up my search for a cartoon or character in a book that wore glasses - surprisingly, there are none! I have been watching and looking for a while, and realize there are many cartoons that meet the various aspects of a child's life - absentee parents (where are Max & Ruby's parents?), younger siblings (Caillou and Dora), etc. but there are no kids that wear glasses (at least none that I could see in the times of our Treehouse TV viewings).
Daddy Pig is the closest character I found. He's from Ellie's favourite British cartoon "Peppa Pig", and thanks to her Auntie's who live in the UK, we are huge fans. While Ellie can relate more to 3-yr old Peppa and her baby brother George, Daddy Pig often gets admired (by me) for wearing glasses in hopes that Ellie would see them as normal.
Then today's miracle happened. We went for a treat for lunch and got a McDonald's Happy Meal. Alvin & The Chipmunks is the current box and the toys, and when you order a Happy Meal they just ask if you want a girl toy or a boy toy. Usually we don't bother with the toys but today I said a toy for a girl - to my amazement, it was a girl chipmunk named Jasmine. Ellie was playing and playing with her and then all of a sudden, we both saw that she was wearing glasses! Ellie said "hey, I wear glasses too!" to Jasmine, and has been inseparable from this little toy (even taking her to bed at nap and bed time).
This has been my miracle today, and while there are miracles every day, I had to write about this one. God has blessed me with a cartoon character who wears glasses! God is so good!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)