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