My Little Girly Turned Three!

Believe it or not my little lady turned THREE just over a month ago now. WOW how time flies. She's definitely a witty independent little individual with a uniqueness of her own that I truly love.

As all parent's typically say " I can't imagine what life was like without her". Francis continually puts a smile on my face and brings out the best in me. She warms my heart daily with the sensitivity and caring nature she has towards her brother, her inquisitive nature,  and zest for life.

Francis had quite the birthday weekend. It started off with Grandma surprising her with a kitten who she chose to call LOLO. The kitten lives at Grandma's and proves to be a very tolerant buddy to Francis who is more than delighted with this fact. The second thing that happened is she got to have a b-day party with her buddies at Grandma's Farm. I'm getting smarter with each b-day as this one was super easy. Peanut butter and jam sandwiches along with watermelon slices were on the menu. As for activities it was just letting the kids just run and explore! They had a blast.

Plus I did a bit of decorating which was enjoyed more by the moms then the kids I'm sure. We got to just chill out under the mayday trees and solve the worlds problems.

Francis requested a pink cake so that's what she got. Even the inside was pink to her satisfaction. Not sure where she got the love of this colour but it is full on these days. So as you can see in the above picture she got a pink bike as well.

But to my delight she still loves digging in the dirt and feeling worms wriggle about in her hands.

The day of her actual bday which was a Monday she got one of her mothers breakfast creations.

Then she got spoilt with a second b-day party with her family and to her surprise Uncle George made a road trip out for it. So little missy had quite the stimulating weekend and it was fun to see her enjoy every aspect of it. She's just starting to realize that her b-day doesn't land on every Monday. Although it took a few weeks for her to grasp and accept this concept. Little minds are just adorable. Love it.

The Excitement Continues!



You're seeing right....that's a bambino and its in my tummy! Alistair, bambino and I headed down to children's for a slew of tests and stayed five nights at Easter Seals House. During that time I got the piece of paperwork indicating this little one is "NORMAL". Such a sweet relief. Jason doesn't want to know its sex so its going to be a surprise on delivery day which will be late August sometime. The due date is Sept 7th but this little one will have to come by C-section due to past issues with my placenta growing into my uterus like a parasite which is also called placenta accrete. So no I don't take the easy route on anything. But we are pretty delighted and in awe that we are a family of five now!

Francis seems to think it should be a girl and she calls it "Baby Margaret" due to a PBS kids show called Daniel Tiger that she loves to watch. She has asked if I could give her a chance to hold the baby for a bit and since that's not happening she has been telling us she has a baby in her tummy now too. Love the innocence.

   As for Little Mr Man, he's been a total rock star as you can see. I was quite impressed how well he could sit for me in the plane with the CARES harness which is just a portable five point harness that you can attach to the plane seat for more support. But he did so well with all the traveling we did. We went down on a Sunday and didn't return till the following Friday. So considering I was 20 weeks prego and it was a long haul for him we did awesome.
We struggled the first few nights with the sleeping arrangements partly due to some bad regurg issues that are surfacing and also due to the fact there really isn't anywhere that accommodates kids like Alistair when we head away from home. He's oblivious to the edge of the bed. So I have to basically barrier him in at all times that I'm not a roll (off the bed) or two away from him. So the above picture is how I dealt with making him safe while I went for a shower. Not sure how this will work when he's 14 but hey I'll figure it out. It just surprizes me that in this day and age at high end facilities where they have recently built big beautiful facilities like the Ronald McDonald House right beside Children's Hospital that they didn't take this demographic into consideration. I know they were originally for oncology patients but when they expanded and rebuilt so did their focus on who they catered to. Anyhow, this time we tried Easter Seals House. It was much better solely because I could roll the beds right against the walls to make him safe and use myself as a barrier on the other side.

One of the nice aspects of our trip away was the two of us really got to do some bonding. At home one can get into such a routine you forget to stop and just enjoy each other for the simplest little grin, hug or giggle. So we got in a lot of that and I was able to reset myself in a lot of ways which helps all around.

As always we got in our Kim, Don and Grady time which always brings us down to the ocean which of course I love. We got in some good chats solving the worlds problems. Plus as usual they spoilt me with good friendship, transportation and food!


Alistair was in for some much needed of some new splints. Therefore, I was thankful that Serap and Jeff were able to find a way to cast Alistair's feet while he giggled and kicked and wiggled as he does. We also got to pick a new print for his casts and went from Dalmatians to trucks, planes, and tractors. Thank goodness for the At Home Program and Pharmacare as we would have been stuck with a $2800 bill but thankfully due to great coverage we didn't get billed a cent.

Just prior to us heading down to Vancouver Alistair decided to have a 7 minute focal seizure after being seizure free since the summer of 2013. That was disappointing. I had a little wish that he'd come off his seizure meds but not in his near future. Anyways, he had another 4 minute seizure in the bath at Easter Seals while we were down. Our neurologist, Dr Connoly, being the amazing person she is got us in to see her while we were down. Fortunately, I had videoed both events so she was able to visualize what he was experiencing. So that added more medication increases to his daily schedule which seem to have taken effect (fingers crossed) We also started a rescue med to give if his seizures are longer than five minutes so education in the school system and at home has had to take place in that regard.

One thing I was so proud of us for was conquering the bus system. We had never attempted it in the past but thanks for the ladies working at Easter Seals they convinced me to take the bus so that we could get to our apt 1 hour away. It saved us a good $25 as I was going to give in and take a taxi. Instead we paid $2.75 one way and the one bus driver just handed me a free ticket and waved me on with a smile and a nod. I have to say the Vancouverites were more than hospitable from assisting with bags, making way for Alistair, chatting about the day, giving directions, to just being genuinely helpful. It was a lovely surprize as I tend to assume the city peps put there head down and forget about their neighbour.

Anyhow, another one of Alistair's appointments involved a slew of x-rays of his hips and neck. Unfortunately, the ortho doc informed me his one hip is starting to disengage which means surgery in the future. She's predicting between 8 and 10 yrs. old. Definitely upsetting but another reality. I wondered what was the need since he will never walk. I guess once the hip starts to pull out it provides improper sitting along with pain which in turns causes curvature of the spine and more pain. So surgery is in the future and there is nothing we can do about it. Basically this is happening as he doesn't weight bare enough in a day even though we have him in the stander a good two hours each day. So the bones take a different shape due to this fact.

So as you can read it was one heck of a busy week. I'm so thankful that I love/thrive on change as that is one of my saving graces in this life I lead. Dad definitely did me a favour he never even realized he did taking me sailing offshore all those years ago!