NORMAL!!!!!!!

Well the 21st was a pretty heavy morning. I got myself down to Women's & Children's from PG here for my 945am ultrasound. Now of course the tech can't tell you want they are seeing but they can tell you what they are looking at. So I got to see the little bambio bouncing around and of course over anaylze why they are spending so much time looking at this, that, and whatever. Thankfully, I had to only wait until 1130 to see the genetic counsellor for the results but that just felt like the world slowed down and forgot to turn. Geeze thank goodness I didn't have to wait any longer than I did. So waiting patiently in the genetics room Patricia came to the door and said "I have great news" Well I just burst into tears. One doesn't realize how much pent up angst one has until these moments. I just couldn't stop crying to the point that I even had Patricia get all teary eyed. Anyhow I got ahold of myself and basically felt a tad in shock. But basically to the best of their ability they can tell me that this kidlet is going to be NORMAL. (thats my favorite word!) Plus to top it off I had received the quad screen blood results a week earlier and was told that came back all negative as well. That created another great melt down to the point the doc called me at home to make sure I knew negative results were a good thing! O course I had but again it was just a HUGE release. I've also always dealt with my pregancies with the idea of "Expect the worst and HOPE for the best" So ya life is incredibly lovely right now. I was so strung after receiving the ultrasound results that I felt I needed to get out and walk for a bit to blow off some steam. Luckily the weather was brilliant while I was down and I ended up walking from Women's and Children's to my buddies place right down by Stanley Park. On the way I bought myself fancy smancy drinks and goodies, window shopped, took in the environment and ended up walking a total of 6km. It was great. Since I had planned for a possible amniocentisis I didn't book my flight home till late the next day. Fortunately, we didn't end up needing to take that route and my buddy Kim and her family opened their doors to me and we hung outfor the rest of the time. We headed to Granville for some breakfast and in the afternoon we hit up all the fancy hotels and checked out their decorations. One of the hotels had a gingerbread house competition and it was truly stunning what people had created. Kim and Grady are standing in front of a life sized Gingerbread house. Yeppers thats real gingerbread! This gingerbread display was the most amazing of all. It was done by one of the culinary schools down in Vancouver and the detail to it all was stunning. It was quite bizzare to be down there at this time of year as the grass is green and the temp is hovering around zero while everyone is completely bundled in huge parkas! One fella even had a beaver hat on...not sure what this lot would do if it truly got cold! Anyhow this was just a lovely Christmas gift for our whole family and now we can proceed with this pregnancy as a NORMAL average pregnancy......JUST BEAUTIFUL! Have a wonderful Christmas everyone ~ Cheers Julie Jason, Alistair and bambino to be!

Santa's in Town

So we went to the mall and decided to get pics with Santa ...... it took a couple of takes and I wish I had a video rather than a still....Alistair literally tried to rip poor santa's beard off! It was quite funny but luckily Santa was quick on the draw and kept his beard to his face....not sure how it would've affected the other kidlets in line if he hadn't!
We also got to see Santa again at the Northern BC Children & Families Hearing Society Xmas Party. This time Alistair was enthralled by his slinky rather than Santa's beard!

For the past couple of years we've gone to the local store and bought a tree. We always missed the actual day of searching for our Charlie Brown tree so Jason and I went for a walk about on Mom's farm and found a couple of Christmas trees that would work perfectly. One for her home and the other for ours. Jason did all the physical work and I did the cheerleading.

Alistair is quite taken by all the shiny objects on the tree.

Alistair also loves reading the paper with Dad....actually he loves to attack the paper as Dad attempts to read it and Dad loves it!

Well I'm off to Vancouver tomorrow for another Ultrasound so hopefully all is well and we can experience the life of a plain old average pregnancy! Have a wonderful Christmas!~ Julie

Amazing MAMA

If I can be even slightly like my mom when I grow up I'll be thanking my lucky stars....I aspire to have her contentment, insight, as well as her positive outlook on life. She's truly amazing!

So in my attempt to spoil her on her 29th bday (tee hee hee) Jason and I cooked her a nice Greek dinner which included spanakopita, a juicy roast of lamb, and some roasted lemon potatoes. For dessert we got to sink our teeth into a rich raspberry cheesecaske that I had thrown together and I have to admit it was absolutely delicious.

One of Mom's latest favorite sayings these days is...
"I don't mind getting older as the other option isn't too good. "

LOVE YOU MOM! ♥ Pickle (Mom's nickname for me growing up)

I also added a little video of Alistair attempting to figure out his little switch toy. Its all to help progress his communication. If he is capable of getting a handle of the switch toy in this context perhaps in the not too distant future he can start to use the switches to get across what he'd like or not like... Whatever the case he's pretty darn cute in it! ~ enjoy

3 + 1 = 4

Thats right folks we've made an addition thats brewing away and is already 16 weeks in the making! We're so super excited/nervous but I've already made my way down to St Pauls Hosptial in Vancouver to see how things were progressing and the radiologist said that all looked well. Actually the ultrasound tech really took her time as she knew I was a nervous pervous and showed me where the heart was, the diaphragm outline, and even the stomach. It was very lovely of her as it put me a bit more at ease with it all as of course we've heard all the statistics in the book telling us the chances of this that and everything else and to be honest I'm bloomin sick of hearing statistics because statistically Alistair is the only one of his kind on this planet as they don't know why he is the way he is! LOL So ya don't talk to me about statistics. Anyhoo I'm feeling great. I've passed my bitching, emotional nauseous period and now life is just skippity doo so lets hope it stays that way. So I figured with all the changes coming our way I should give the blog a new fresh look that goes hand in hand with this pregnancy. I picked the jelly beans because unfortunately I can not get my hands on enough candy! I especially love the good ol' sours that are all dried up at the corner gas station. I am preventing myself from totally gorging on them but yummers! So life is good all around for this family at the moment. Jason remains busy as a self employed carpenter which is pretty nice at this time of year, I'm continuing to work part time in our crazy emergency department, and Alistair continues to surprise us with the progress he makes. He's now rolling on his tummy, maintaining that stance and playing with a toy momentarily! Love it. OOOooo and the gluten free diet ROCKS. We have decreased Alistair's laxative to half a tsp from a full tsp and I think we're going to beable to take him right off it. Plus now when he has a toot he doesn't cry and he doesn't spend three days attempt to have a good ol' BM. Now he's regular schmagular....so nice nice nice... We've also stuck him on a low dose of melatonin at night to help him with his sleep and it does seem to help but I don't think it removes the terrible two attitude he has a bed time. However the melt downs have become less and less which is lovely with this upcoming babes on the way. So ya life is great...so lets hope it is the same for you on your end...cheers till next time ♥

Two Week Challenge

So after endless nights with random awakenings throughout I've decided to attempt a gluten free diet for Alistair. My friend Lisa has just started doing the same for her son and raves how much better he is in just a week. Considering Alistair already has low tone which includes his bowl perhaps this change for his system will be beneficial in many ways. I've decided to give it my best for two weeks and re-evaluate the situation after its all done. To my surprise most of the products I was looking at buying were cheaper in our local health food store rather than the big box grocery store. This wouldn't have been my first guess. I am going to try making some bread as the stuff I've bought is so dense and heavy and Alistair just wouldn't beable to consume this stuff. The little munchkin has a full set of teeth but hasn't realized the benefits of using his little chompers to break things up. So we can give him textured stuff but it does have to be just right for him and the bread just doesn't cut it. To my relief though there is all sorts of hot cereals we can give him which is what he loves for breakfast. So I bought a selection: rice, quinoa, and oats which all get to a palatable consistency for him. I'm also going to start giving him some high fat shakes too beef him up a bit as his metabolism is so high. I've been told its due to his high resperation rate due to the funky lung. Anyhow, I don't think I will stick so strictly that I worry about the odd sauce but overall he'll be a gluten free kid for then next couple weeks! Wish me luck : D ~ Cheers Julie

Spooky Times

Halloween is always good times for this family. Instead of buying a full costume at the store we still get a kick out of making things work with what we have in the house. So Jason dressed up as my husband in ten years. Giving himself a big belly, black eye and he was wearing a "bald head" as well. Alistair was a little scarecrow and I was thinking werewolf but came out too friendly so I got told I looked like a character off "Cats" or the Lion off "Wizard of Oz". I got to wear Mom's old furcoat which was delightful when we headed outdoors for the bonfire and fireworks.
Alistair once again looking too cute.
My buddy Lise or Cruela held the party out at hef farm as its her favorite holiday of the year.
It was good times out around the fire

Plus she went all out with the decorations....

...making it all spooky in the night

Totally aside from Halloween I've added a video of Jason and Alistair in our hot tub! Yeppers Jason found us a nice deal and set it up. Alistair just loves it and well so do we of course.....nice just as winter starts up.

Holidaying on Niatross

We finally all got down on Niatross for a good week and the weather was glorious.
We started off with the first couple of days moored right down town Vancouver and Jason and I took the opportunity to go for a kayak in the harbour.
Uncle George played endlessly with Alistair to his delight
On the trip Alistair decided to grab a piece of candy and happily suck on while holding it himself! Whoop whoop this made mama happy. Now he's holding a healthier option, a wedge of pear, and feeding himself several bites!
We used the rough sea bed as a perfect crib for Alistair while he contently slept to the gradual rock of the boat.
The weather was so beautiful out at Gambier Island that we didn't get any actual sailing in but we readily used the kayaks to investigate the surroundings. We kept saying "if only we had these when we were offshore!"
There is nothing quite like BC's coast. With all Dad's sailing around the world the BC coast remained his favorite.
LOVE IT!
Alistair loved hanging out in Grandma's arms. The change of scenery and daily pattern seemed to be really good for Alistair.However, his sleeping patterns totally got messed up. He was basically an angel by day and a little devil by night....mind you he looks pretty darn sweet here! Needless to say this trip wasn't about a good nights sleep for this mama. Mom got out in the kayaks too
She loved it so much that she might just get a kayak for Christmas!
Mom and I drove back with Alistair over a few days and in one of the hotels they had the perfect chair for Alistair. I'm now on the look out for a straight back chair for him that we can casually get him to sit in.

We got to see Uncle Bent and Aunt Jean en route back home.
It was so nice to catch up with them.

Now to our surprise the only "wildlife" we saw the whole drive up was this single cock at a rest stop miles from anywhere. He obviously new that if he came to say hello he may just get a treat or two so we shared an old apple with him which seemed to satifsy his hunger.

It was a great trip south but as always its great to get home and get horizontal in your own bed!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful feast this evening with a bunch of close friends and family. There is nothing like sharing a meal, a laugh and great conversation around ones own table. I think that is something we've lost in todays society.

Just a gorgeous time of year. I hope you're all able to get out and enjoy the beauty that surrounds us these days. This is up at my friends farm and the place is just golden.

This is looking down our street and its stunning right now.

Alistair having a snooze on his Dad's shoulder

Music & Water Therapy

Wowzers time has flown by once again since the last blog! Life has been busy as usual. I've been desperately trying to get the exterior of the house painted before winter sets in but the rain just seems to keep coming and preventing me from getting any further. I'm hoping in the next week there will be enough breaks for me to get it done! The shed if pretty much finished and I love it! I'm going a dark red called "Chipolte Paste"! I was a tad nervous at first but now its all good. : D

Alistair has been enjoying life. We continue to work with him to help with his progression and he continues to love two things .....water and music. So I added a couple of videos showing just that. We found out lately that the local pool allows us to go for free since he is "special needs" and I'm his "aide" So hey why not! So we've gone several times and he just gets tuckered out which is great. Lots of sensory input for him which is nice as well and helps me change things up a bit but continue to work on his physio. As for music he just loves the stuff. Always lots of smiles and knee kicks and just pure enjoyment. So he continues to have a good hour of music every day while he lays in his crib. His favorite song is by Sharon, Lois & Bram, ♫ One Elephant went out to play upon a spiders web one day.....♫ I can sing it to him and he grins from ear to ear!

We also found out just recently that our hearing aides and FM system is all going to be covered by the Ministry of Children & Families. I believe its until he's 18 which is a huge relief for us finanically. As his hearing aides alone are around $6,000 every 3-4 years! So again another humbling experience of what is available to us out there. Very nice indeed!

Well I must header and get some more things off my too do list.

Hope your all getting better weather then we are! At least its green here!

Cheers Julie

REALLY...In This Day and Age!

So we went to D'Lanos to have a nice Sunday family breakfast. The first thing out of the managers mouth as we rolled in was "you'll have to leave the stroller at the door" (no good morning, no smile, no nothing)...I explained the situation with my two year old son Alistair being low muscle tone, special needs and needing the stroller......His response "We don't have any room" He left to have look and returned with ....."We don't have any room" He was not apologetic at all, actually seemed quite irritated with having to deal with us while the girl at the front desk was cringing. She tried providing suggestions but he wasn't accepting any of her ideas. We decided to try holding him while eating. Although I'm not sure why we even tried to accomodate! I expected the spots left to be really congested. We got to the very back of the restaurant and there was plenty of room to bring the stroller. Even the server thought so. Actually with our stroller in place a couple could have walked past hand in hand I'm sure! Anyhow, Alistair wasn't coping even after we tried the high chair but as usual he slipped out of that one. So I went and talked to the manager again about needing the stroller. His response again was "There is no room" So I said "Are you saying you won't accomodate us ?" He didn't respond, he didn't look at me, there was absolutely no attempt to accomodate us or apologize. The server was extremely apologetic. I couldn't believe it! I definitely let him know I wasn't impressed and that everyday I live with having a special needs child and the fact that he couldn't accomodate us would prevent us from ever returning again. He didn't look at me, didn't respond, didn't do anything.....and I even stayed polite yet curt with my response. As we left, the girl at the front desk apologized profusely saying she had a special needs kid as well....... So lets just say we had a fabulous breakfast at De Dutch. They were very accomodating and there was much less room there than at D'Lanos yet they still were able to squeeze us in. I just can not believe in this day and age that a manager of a restaurant would act so inconsiderate. There is so much awareness with disability and special needs that one would think that there would be some level of attempt to accomodate.

The FIRST Haircut

Ahh yes here is my little man with is drenched locks ready to get them chopped. It was getting to the point that he was starting to create dreads in the back and was a tad frizzy so ...chop chop

At first he wasn't too worried about the whole manner.....

Ooops and then he was! LOL Luckily this was momentary!

It was so convenient as my friend Mandee is a hairdresser and she came to Lise's home and cut all our hair! LOVE it! She was so good with him.

AND he still has lots of curls....just a tad more controlled....

...and by the end he was googlin at Mandee .... tx Mandee : D

Therapeutic Trees

As always everyone in our family feels better in the head once they've gone out for a beautiful walk in the forest. The other day we decided that we should go check out the "Ancient Forest" which is about 90min east of Prince George. So glad we did! The little hike took us about an hour which wound through an impressive stand of ancient cedar trees. Although it poured the whole hike it made the stand of trees appear all the more impressive.
Since the center of the trees start to rot as they naturally develop it makes it difficult to determine the age of one such as the majestic cedar above. However, with a 16 foot circumfrence and estimated core samples they figured this one is at least 2000 years old. Isn't that incredible what its stood through! To our amazement Alistair calmed down after a 5 minute melt down during the start of the hike and calmly allowed us to enjoy our hike about this beautiful forest. He took quite an interest to the umbrella that Dad held overhead which I think helped to distract this not so familiar form of transportation for him.

Talk about distration, thats what it is all about in regards to getting Alistair to put weight on his feet. As soon as standing becomes his main focus he generally decides to flop down on his butt. However, if we can distract him as Lynn is above with a cool vibrating toy he seems to tolerate and even be quite content weight baring.

I don't know if you remember but our first real successful distraction was the cedar tree out in our front yard. Well all summer I have been using it to encourage Alistair to stand and its worked incredibly well. But like anything kids get tired of the same old thing so now that my flowers have bloomed he loves picking the heads off them! Definitely a good weight baring distraction...he loves my geraniums especially! LOL

Well as always its a bit of a roller coaster ride. I get so pumped with the different developments that Alistair reaches and then he plateaus. We've just joined a playgroup at the Child Development Center which I'm really keen on since Alistair gets very little interaction with other kids. Unfortunately, its right at his sleep time so its not ideal at the moment but I'm hoping to see some changes in his sleep patterns soon now that his teeth have all finally popped through. I have found the playgroups a tad tough as all the other kids are younger than Alistair and so much more advanced. Likely another reality check for me. But I have to admitt I do find it heart wrenching to see where he techniquely should be and isn't. However, reality checks are good and deciding what to do with them is really whats important. As advised by the speech therapists I should always keep one step ahead of Alistair to assist with advancement. So a good example of what we did the other day was set up a bunch of toys on the couch and he got so focused on them that he didn't realize we weren't there supporting him! That definitely made me feel all warm and fuzzy all over. He's our very special little man and he's taught me so much....patience, acceptance, and perserverance just to name a few!

Well now that its August we are finally getting some summer weather! So enough of this typing stuff I better go catch some Vitamin D while its available....Cheerio Julie