Family, Friends, & Food

What a wonderful Christmas Holiday season we have had to date! The best part is that Alistair decided it was time to move forward on his progress. Yeppers best Christmas present ever. The last week Alistair has not stopped talking, plus he is just that much more alert to his surroundings.

It made Christmas that much more enjoyable for us just to beable to snuggle up to him and have a giggle come out of him or to have him chirp away at us. I bought these balls on MasterMind Toys and he just loves them. I highly recommend them. O yes and as you can see I "tormented" Alistair (as Jason would say) by putting him in these little felt elf shoes i found at a local store.

This is one of our most common sites around the house now. Alistair still needs assistance but its minimal in regards to sitting. As you can see i'm just applying a tad of pressure with my leg to his hip and it gives him enough reassurance to stay upright. Over the holidays he sat for at least 2 minutes totally unsupported. Another happy moment for us.

My buddy Colleen came back from Calgary for the holidays. Alistair got a ton of attention from everyone that stopped by and were thinking this helped his progression as well.

Hayley "Bailey" came down with her parents from Taylor, B.C. as well and had fun educating my mom on paper dolls.

Checking out the sites on Christmas Day

Hangin out with Nana's elephant

Having a crokinole tournament with close family friends

Alistair's Muscle Shirt from Nana. I did a 11pm to 7 am shift in Emerg and came home and got people motivated for Christmas. The motivation lady had a noon snooze later on.

O Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree

The Lady of the House! (Crazy Lady of the Valley! : D)

Pops loving being a Pop

So there you have it! Christmas in a nut shell was all about family friends and food. I'm sure we've all put on a good five pounds but happily did so. I did have great intentions of sending out Christmas Cards as I absolutely love receiving them. However, the cards are still nicely packaged ready to be used for next year! LOL So thank you all for the wonderful pictures and cards. All the pics are plastered all over the fridge door. Have a wonderful and safe New Years and we'll chat again soon.

Love Julie, Jason & Alistair

Enjoy the two videos! Unfortunately the are a little on the dark side but cute all the same! : D

How to....

Hello hello!

So I've heard from a few peps that they have difficulty posting a note to my blog and its always fun for me to get your posts SOOOOO here is a how to session. At the bottom of my latest post you'll see the word "comments" or "5 comments" in a yellowish color. You click on that and you'll see everyones comments. Scroll to the bottom of the comments and you'll see "Post a comment" Write your little diddy in there AND finish it off with your name. Then there will be a drop down menu and pick "anonymous" and then click "post comment! Easy peasy!

Hope all is going superb your way. We are loving some mild weather mind you i'd love a tad more snow just to make it a winterwonderland!

Cheers for now!
Julie

Tis the season!

Alistair & Santa's First Meeting! Gorgeous day up on Cranbrook Hill

Surprise attack from Santa Claus : D

One of the two sleighs full of members with the
Northern BC Children and Families Hearing Society

Jason loves getting out the outdoor Christmas lights

and what a great tree to decorate! I'll tell you what though

that was a challenge. Lets just say PVC pipe and lots of luck! LOL

Enjoy the videos & pics ~ Cheers Julie

CDC Seating Clinic

Wow another humbling/crazy busy day yesterday. We started by heading to the audiology clinic to get a new fancy smancy bone conductor 1) as his last one died on us and 2) the new version BAHA is in! This one is actually going to be his loner after the one we order comes in...and then we will actually have our very own and it won't be a loner anymore....makes me nervous as the bloomin things are $4000.00! Yeppers nuts hey. Luckily through the BC Early Hearing Program our parts, maintenance and even one replacement is available until April 2013. Then we're on our own. So ya I've already started a little hearing aid fund that I add to here and there so the shock of having to buy hearing aids won't be so financially drastic when the time comes along.
Our next stop was the Child Development Center (CDC) where a team of people who came up from Vancouver to fit about 16 kidlets over two days with various contraptions to help them sit, stand, and mobilize better. K this was the humbling part! Look at all those people ALL working together to make the PERFECT fit. You wouldn't believe how much they focus on the details. Move this an couple millimeters here and that a few there....Just amazing. The neat part to is this is the stander which which will hold Alistair into position so that he gets the sensation of standing through his bones and joints which also helps immensely with development. I'm sure the more I understand it the more I'll share with you. Anyhow to my utter surprise after a good melt down session to start with I think Alistair ended up playing with some toys on his little stander table for about 15-20min. The last time we did this with Alistair I think we made 5 min!
But look at the contraption hey. Its like something out of the movie Matrix or I Robot! Anyhow it was just beautiful to see my little man stand and actually get to a point of enjoyment as I have been wondering if he has pain with standing as he just doesn't put his feet down and has been super teary about the whole process.

This is pretty cool too. Unfortunately I can't remember the mans name but this fella built this whole blue chair with the straps right there as we waited. When we arrived all the chair was was some plywood and foam thats it! Amazing hey! AND Alistair loves this too. Plus I can put it right into our stroller So he can sit up nice and straight and see the world go by. Prior to this he had to lay right down due to his floppy torso!

Ya i love this picture too...Look at these people. So dedicated to these little helpless people that wouldn't go nearly as far without their fantastic abilitities to create such wonderful support. YAAAAA Seating Clinic People! LOL

ANYHOW...after this it was back to the audiology clinic for a new ear mold for his air conducting hearing aid and then to the Ministry of Children and Families to meet up with our Social Worker. Unfortunately there was miss communication as she was away on holiday when I came for our appointment but still they are there to support. So why do we have a social worker? Well from what I gather Alistair was assessed to be a part of the "At Home Program" which is followed by the MCFD. Basically (and I'm sure I'll write more about this as I get to understand it more ) they are going to pay for the equipment Alistair needs as above as some of these contraptions ie the green one I was told was around $4000.00. So ya another phenomenol service for little munchkins like Alistair. Again without it we'd struggle LOTS financially but he'd have the equipment and this way we don't struggle. We can continue to live in our normal lives! Yahoo At Home Program!

SO thats why I think I'm a bit of an emotional basket case today. Ya FINALLY I get to stay home for the first time in 10 days. So brain break time for Julie. I'm a little bit on the overload side of things: new job (caotic but friendly staff), not playing soccer (crazy late schedules 930 and 10pm games) which is unfortunate as it was so good for my mental health!, house renos that I can't help the poor hubby with BUT its coming and looking so sweet!, physio, speech therapy, courses as I'm new to the hosptial and blah blah blah blah. SO I'm trying to get the good ol ZEN back and get things D-cluttered at home and perhaps get the man to bring me home a bottle of Shiraz! Mmmm K peps thanks for listening! : D J

Happy Halloween

We had a great halloween. Alistair and I dressed up as clowns ie retired and up and coming clown! LOL We had a busy day with the PG Deaf Children's Society heading a social group at a haunted house and then we calmed the nerves over hot chocolate and whip cream and learned some halloween words in ASL Then we dropped by one friends home for our first ever and only trick or treat. AND we topped it all off by heading to our new home in town and handed out some candy to about 20 kids that knocked on our door. Always love handy out candy to the kids. Hope your day was spooktacular too! hee hee hee BOO

Some Goodies

Flip its almost like I dropped off the face of the earth and then I turn around and blog three times in a week! Anyhow I just wanted to add these cute videos....well the one is just of Alistair eatting but the other is of him reacting to a Native American drum that i bought at the UNBC craft store this weekend....I also bought him this neat little rattle that was made out of streched moose hide and the rattle part was bee bee pellets....he loves them both...and as you all know i'm always looking for some new thing to introduce him some new sounds. Anyhow if your in PG this old Native fella has some neat little and big drums, rattles, and even baseballs! Mom also bought Alistair these neat black boots made out of wool. The lady makes these big booties and then washes them and dries them purposefully to shrink them... Anyhow thats the latest little expenditure and it was fun to go check out a good craft sale!

The Little Things!

I finally got a good picture of him (not so great of me LOL) lying his head on my shoulder. You know the average mom takes this for granted ie the tummy to tummy head on your shoulder cuddles. Well my little kidlet until very recently NEVER would put his head on my shoulder. Actually his favorite position is his back to my front. Its funny ALL people try to pick Alistair up and put him in this position and generally he goes into what I'd call the Peter Pan pose....toes pointed, arms straight back, and head hyperextended! So when I get the pleasure of this cuddle of love I absolutely LOVE it. Slowly but surely we get more and more little tastes of what "normal" is all about.

I also am floored regarding how much Alistair suddenly wants to be a little chatter box. I was having a mummy moment in the last week concerning myself with his lack of verbalizing and then he must have felt my stress because he's chatting morning, noon, night, midnight, early am,...and on! : D So i'm delighted and he seems to be holding his mouth a tad different too which is creating all sorts of new sounds to come out of those little lips.

Anyhow thought I'd share my delight! Enjoy the chatterbox video. Julie
PS I should just mention about my previous blog...one can still become dependent on that laxative its just the least likely of laxatives to cause dependence and for Alistair at the moment the benefits far outway the risks of being on the low dose. The pediatrician actually mentioned that since he has hypotonia (low central muscle tone) this low muscle tone could transfer to his gutt as well. So I'm hopefull that its mainly due to his lack of mobilization and fluid consumption and that the word laxative will become a thing of the past just like his regurg has!

My three favorite things!

Yeppers these are our three favorite things these days. Why well object number one the "ThickenUp" can be used in hot or cold food or beverages to make things not so fluidy. AND since I've found that Alistair is not drinking because fluids are too liquidly VOILA this is my answer to all my problems. Plus to my surprise I found out that some thickening agents change are not necessarily good as they totally change the make up of the fluid. I guess this stuff doesn't so basically he still gets the benefits of the liquid even though its thickened! Does that make sense? Anyhow the next one RestoraLAX yes you guessed it this helps the poop not become rabbit pellets which for some reason makes Alistair very very happy! LOL I've also been told by the pediatrician that he won't become dependent on it like some laxatives so super bonus. The other great thing about this stuff is you just sprinkle it on to whatever you need him to consume. ...Anyhow last but not least this is the first drinking cup that Alistair has stuck with for more than 2 days! whoop whoop. So in goes the thickened and diluted apple juice and we are all happy. I'm sure mom has bought Alistair every possible drinking contraption out there but anyhow this was the winner!

Alistair is still in heaven listening to the Rankin Family, Harry Belafonte and Natalie Cole. Basically thats the tapes we have so thats what he listens too on his tape player. Hes even getting into the cooing with the music and playing with his feet.

Everyday lately to my delight Alistair seems to be acquiring more and more torso control. Here he was able to sit for a good minute with only my legs supporting his sides. He seems to be at his best early in the morning when it comes to the torso control department. Its also obviously that he gets enjoyment out of sitting as he coos and smiles away.

As for me and work I am so pleasantly surprised up to now. Everyone is incredilby welcoming, friendly and supportive. Basically they just seemed thrilled that I took a permanent position even if its only part time. WOW they are short short staffed. Its really unreal. So far its not surprising if you miss breaks and i guess thats the norm here. So the little feeties are pretty darn tired after a 12 hour shift! But anyhow ya its a totally different ball game down here then up north. Not worse or better just different. Here we have our four beds allocated to us and we know thats our responsibility but the waiting time here is a good 6-9 hours! But there is just no movement as there is long waits for lab work, a lot of the beds are constantly held up with admitted complicated patients, and its just darn busy. Where as up north we were doing everything from triage, trauma room, cast cutting, iv therapy, ECG's, basic care etc and the waiting time in ER there was an hour at the worst and we had ANGRY people up there in FSJ as they had to wait SO LONG! LOL Gaud if they only knew how good they've got it!

K well the leaves are gone but the grass is still green here. Jason is busy working on the electrical in the house and is optimistic we will be getting in there sooner than later. We'll keep you posted Cheers Julie

Beautiful BC All Aglow

Wow time flies when life is busy! Again another significant lapse in time since the last blogging occured. I guess that can be taken as a good thing...which it is apart from the fact that life is BUSY. So ya since the last time I was on this thing Jason, Alistair and I jumped in Jason's truck and headed south through Jasper/Banff National Park for Lise & Troy's Wedding. (click on the highlight to see more pics!) Lise and I've known each other since we were just itty bitty three year olds as our mothers met taking our brothers to kindergarden and happened to both be Danes! So the connection stuck.

(Us cute and three)(Us still cute and in our 30's! : D~ Staggette)

Anyhow they got married at a stunning resort/location right in the mountains ~ Emerald Lake Lodge. We as a family pampered ourselves for a couple days. I got to see my best bud get hitched, I reconnected with a bunch of old school mates, and we got to eat great food in a incredible location and to top it off the weather was a scorching 20 degrees!

(Lise & her Pa)

(Us just prior to the big moment!)

(Emerald Lake)

After this we headed West to Golden and caught up with my cousin Eden, her kidlets, my Aunt Rosie, and Cousin Chris. It was short but sweet and we were happy to see Eden on the mend. She just got a silicone implant in both her eyes for partial detachments. The lucky lady went to renew her contacts and they demanded a reassessment prior to giving her a new set. Lucky for her as it sent her through a whirlwind of experiences but with two eyeballs on the road to recovery rather than a white cane! So if you ever think about B#%ching about an eye exam think again! The $90 once a year is worth a lifetime of sight....and trust me I've been irritated having to go and pay that monthly fee.

(Isla~Edens daughter, delighted Alistair woke up)

Anyhoo...we headed back north through Blue River and McBride to get back to PG. Alistair and I had a couple of days to recoup (literally) and then we were back in the truck heading North to FSJ. I just couldn't believe it when I drove into ol' John that my throat got tight and I chocked back some tears! All the feelings that I had when I was 7 months pregnant heading south to make Vancouver our home until Alistair came into this world came flooding back to me: leaving Jason and the pups behind, heading south for the unknown to live on my own, having this kicking bundle inside me oblivious to what his future may hold ie will he live or die, leaving my comfortable network of friends and family, and so on. How bizarre! Basically I told myself not to be so emotionally silly and then everything was alright. LOL Anyhow, the first night we spent with my cousin Valerie and her clan. As usual Valerie and I solved all the worlds child based problems in one night. Then the next day I bunkered in with Sandra Whitney and her family.

She (forth from the left) held a Meet & Greet for me which was great. It was so nice to see all the familiar faces and it felt like I had never left. Obviously there was some good solid ties made up in the North for that to happen.

( 4 months, 15 months, 8 weeks )

Some extra kidlets that weren't in the picture when I left came along as well. Lucy (on the left) is only 4 months old but in the 90th percentile where as Alistair is 15 months old and in the 5th percentile. I found that quite entertaining. Its amazing really how once you have kids of your own other kidlets become interesting but prior to that they are basically noise machines that are cute for a allocated period of time! After that great social we headed an hour north to my Uncle Walts and Aunt Vals ranch for their 40th Anniversary.

What an achievement. It makes you wonder where life will have taken you when you reach 40 years! One guarantee (well as long as we remain above ground!) is I'll be 75, Jason will be 76 and Alistair will be 35! My age now! Yikearoosy. Another bizzare moment. Anyhow we had lots of great catching up with all the famdamly. I attempted to head home the next day but it just didn't happen. I got to the town of FSJ and turned back into Sandra's place for a strong coffee and never left till the next day. All the going ons finally caught up to me. One thing I haven't even mentioned yet is how incredibly gorgeous the whole drive was. Everything was just one big GOLDEN GLOW and made the already incredilbe drive that much more spectacular. Anyhoo to top it all a day after I got home I started my first day orientation in PG Emerg......but I'm going to stop there for now and save that for another time..... : D

(PS! Alistair's eye contact is coming along nicely and surprisingly he doesn't mind wearing all his apparatus's although he's free of them in this picture.)

Little Harry Potter

Yes this mama finally got her butt in gear and got some glasses on his head. I say this as I got the perscription for them back in early July when I was down to see the specialist. I just didn't get too motivated as I figured my little man wouldn't keep them on his face for more than 5 seconds if that! Well of course he proved his mom wrong and now I think the poor little guy could have been seeing that much better for the past two months. Ack! Anyhow I guess I can add that too my list of little guilt trips I can give myself. So yes he does keep them on his face until of course he decides he has enough. But sometimes we can go for a good hour or more before he reaches this point. Its obvious that he does benefit from them as he is a bit more interactive and purposeful with his approach to things.

The thing I find really funny though is sometimes Alistairs ability to use his hands and arms are limited. His arms can be quite stiff and he doesn't utilize his fingers and hands like one should. BUT that being said when its time for the glasses to come off hes able to hook his little finger right under the left arm of his glasses and he just keeps pulling until they pop off! But I've always found that with Alistair if there is something specific that he wants to do with his hands he will.
We've also been taking our physio sessions with Lynn at the rehab pool in the hospital. Its lovely as the pool is like a warm bath tub. Right now there is just another mom and myself who come to the sessions. Alistair and Kale (the other boy) both seem to quite like it. Mind you Alistair has always loved the bath. If you remember thats where we headed when he had that month of what i call colicy spells. Anyhow we just spend 20-30 min helping them to interact in and with the water whether its splashing their feet and hands for them, or floating about on their tummy on a big foam mattress. Whatever we do it seems to be a good fit for Alistair and I have to say I like that we are changing it up a bit. Plus it gives me a chance to meet other moms whose kids have challenges as well.

Well these next two weeks are BUSY! Tomorrow Jason, Alistair and I are driving southeast to Yoho National Park where my friends Lise and Troy are getting married at Emerald Lake Lodge. The nice part is its taking place over a whole weekend so its like a little holiday for our family as well! Then we're going to drop in to see my Aunt Rosie and Cousin Eden and her kidlets who are all hanging out in Golden and then we'll make it home. Shortly after that Alistair and I'll pack up again to head North to Fort St John. My friends kindly holding a Meet & Greet up there for us as it makes it so much easier to have people come to you then only get to meet up with 2 or 3. So that will be fun as I haven't seen most of the people up there since I left in May 2009 when I left for Vancouver to be monitored and have Alistair. Yes thats right I never did get back "home" to FSJ after I left so it'll be a nice visit. But we aren't only going up for that we also are going up for my Aunt Val and Uncle Walts 40th anniversary. So another nice get together with family. Then we will finally come home and I will jump right into my first orientation shift at PG Emerg on Oct 5th. Yes its hard to believe but my mat leave is officially over! : ( But hey i was fortunate enough to have an extended mat leave as it didn't begin until Alistair was discharged in Sept and then i had some vacation pay saved up! So bonus for that!

Anyhow the world hear is absolutely gorgeous and golden. Hope you all can enjoy it as much as i am! Cheers Julie
PS I just had to add this picture. I so laughed when my father-in-law Rod MacMillan took off his sandals and walked into the house. Lets just say that in the summer he is one dedicated sandal wearer! LOL

Busy Busy Busy

Three Generations of MacMillans

O my goodness one plans and plans for things and then all of a sudden all these plans have been experienced and become part of the past! All last week we got to enjoy having Grandma and Grandpa MacMillan with us. It was such a treat to have them here as they live all the way over in Nova Scotia. Good ol' Cape Bretoners! : D You could tell they enjoyed themselves and so did we. Grandma Polly couldn't get enough of Alistair and he definitley enjoyed her attention. Lots of chatting, smiles, and even the odd giggle!

Grandma MacMillan & Alistair

The last night they were here we decided to have a good ol' weiner roast. It was a nice mellow way to spend our last evening and I found out the the baby monitor will pick up all the way over at the fire pit. Its got to be a good 500 feet away from the house! We're hoping that we can make our way out East next year prior to Alistair turning two so he can still ride the jet as a freebee!
Anyhow, Friday morning we said our goodbyes to Grandma & Grandpa MacMillan and then I ran around with my head cut off getting organized to assist with our Adventure Camp weekend out at Ness Lake Bible Camp. This is the second year that the PG Deaf Children's Society has had this particular camp for the kids and what a success it was! We had a total of 37 individuals of which 16 were kids, 4 were profoundly deaf adults, and 2 adults with severe hearing loss. We had gorgoues sunny weather for most of it. Saturday was jam packed with canoeing, kayaking, rock climbing, archery, ultimate frisbee, a scavenger hunt, sign language games, tons of crafts, and lots of time around the camp fire watching sign language campfire stories by Greg Warren who had us all roaring with laughter! One of our meals was out at the campfire. I had never done this before but you roast bannock on a stick. Once its cooked you pull this cylindrical bun off the stick, fill it with condiments, and then shove your weiner in it and voila you have dinner! It was definitely a fun and yummy process. But you did have to be patient cooking that bun.I had full intentions of bringing Alistair out with me but at the last minute Jason and I decided he was better off staying home with daddy for the first night. Well they ended up coming out the next day and once again we decided he should stay with dad for another night. It was actually a really good thing as it gave me the opportunity to really get to know the deaf and hard of hearing community up here in the north. So kuddos to dad as it was the first time it was just Alistair and Jason home alone together and you know at the end of the weekend Jason said "you know that was the best weekend of my whole summer!" Now thats one incredible dad! As my mom says "he's definitely a keeper!" I on the other hand had a bit of a hard time the first night going to sleep with out my little guy. Not that I was worried as I knew he was in good hands but I just didn't feel complete. I lay there thinking I should be in my glory at the moment enjoying the solitude and uninterupted sleep but alas that was not the case. I probably woke up more that first night then I do with Alistair. Anyhow to keep my mind busy I repeated all the words I learned in sign language that day. By the end of the weekend I had learnt over 50 words. There is definitely a lot of incentive to learn when there are people present who solely communicate in this language. I just love learning it! I find it amazing that even though I have a limited amount of signed words, all the people at the camp who primarily sign can still get their point across. You know I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this but its a lot like charades....and I've always loved charades! Anyhow most signs make sense to why you use your hands that particular way to interpret that word. Actually, if you want to check out a few signs go to Signing Savvy. Anyhow it really was a fantastic weekend and this camp solidified for me the reason why we have the society and the positive impact we can make.

One last bit of news before I head off to bed is that one of Alistair's little chiclets FINALLY broke through! Yep at 14 months his bottom left incisor came in. Actually it was while I was gone for the weekend....Sept 11th. Another milestone. You know I laugh as you think is he ever going to get a tooth? With everything you just wait for your kid to reach these milestones and if i'm not careful he'll be 18 and i'll have forgotten to really enjoy these days!

K time for bed...hope the fall is as gorgeous where you are as it is here! Cheers Julie