Easter Weekend

Happy Easter!

We had a nice long weekend with friends and family. Everyone (except Steph and Mel) came up to our place for an Easter dinner on Sunday since we had to get up early to go to the hospital for Claire on Monday morning. Here are some Easter pics.
Grandma and Grandpa tag-teaming to give Madeline some ice cream. She walked around the living room begging for food like a little puppy dog, even though we just fed her!

Here's our best attempt at an Easter bunny ears picture. The girls would only keep the ears for for approximately 3 milliseconds so this was a lucky photo shot.

Here's Grandpa cuddling with sleepy-head Claire. She was tuckered out from nursery.


Both the girls enjoyed their baskets. No candy this year, just a movie and some toys - but still lots of fun.

On Monday morning we had to be at the hospital at 6:30am for Claire feeding tube change. She initially had a PEG g-tube placed in December and we had to deal with a tube hanging out all the time and it was a pain. Now she has a little button (called a MIC-KEY) that we can attach the tube to.

Here's what her old tube looked like. We would tuck in the tube under her diaper tabs to keep it in place.


Here's Claire this afternoon just a few hours after the switch. She's totally happy and it was a relatively easy procedure. Now she doesn't have to wear undershirts all the time and it's a lot easier for everyone!

For more info here's a website that tells a bit about feeding tubes:
http://pedsurg.ucsf.edu/conditions--treatments/gastronomy-tubes.aspx

A birthday and a holiday

Madeline is 1!

Madeline did not enjoy the Happy Birthday song. It actually made her cry! But she did enjoy eating her cupcake and tried to fit it all in her mouth at once.

Here's Maddie's first ponytail on her first birthday! She hated it and kept trying to pull it out. She got a cool walker from Grandma and Grandpa Patterson and has been motoring around with it ever since. She really liked opening all her gifts, especially the ones with tissue paper.

She loves her Noah's Ark set that Val gave her and Robbie made the girls a cute puppy puzzle. Natalie and Claire were twins with their outfits that day!



Here are the pictures of Madeline's "new" room.



Ryan did the old switcheroo with our car seats and now both girls face forward.
They both look so grown up!
We took a holiday "field trip" to the Muttart Conservatory today since t
hey will be closed for 10 months to do renovations.
The girls really enjoyed it and Ryan took some great pictures with our new camera.

Funny faces and adventures at home

Here are a couple of pictures from one of our many trips up and down Whyte Ave. What a weird place!
Getting all hooked up in our sweet stroller.


I have no idea what this sign was for - it was pretty freaky.


Hilarious - I guess I am welcome there. It's good to know.


The girls love to be in their high chairs - here are some funny faces





Here's Claire and Daddy snuggling. Claire is just waking up from a nap and Ryan is wishing that he could've had a nap!

Madeline's favourite thing to do is unpack things, her favourite place to practice this is our bowl cupboard. She usually empties it out 3-4 times a day.

Auntie Nattie's fibre optic lamp has been a big hit at our house - here's Claire enjoying it. She'll lean forward and it will tickle her face. It's fun to watch her!

Here's the cake that my mom made for us and Ryan put his elbow in it when he leaned out the window to talk to Steph. I told him that he has to eat the "elbow pieces." I just had to take a picture of it because I was laughing so hard.

Here's what happens when Daddy is on hair duty.

Claire does very well in her standing frame. Her hair looks so long here!
This was our last week in a nutshell and a few pictures. It was fun!

Our week...

My mom bought this book for me and I'm so excited to read it. It's a prequel for the Anne of Green Gable series of which I am a huge fan. Hopefully I'll have time soon to sit down to have a good read.







Every couple of weeks we go to the Millwoods Rec Centre to use the sensory cart. It's a therapeutic device with lights and sounds to stimulate the senses. It's a really fun experience. Claire responds well to light and Madeline loves it too.

The cart has a bubble tube set against a mirror, a bundle of small fiber optic cables, a patterned light panel and a disco ball that projects lights on the ceiling. We turn off all the lights, turn on some rockin' tunes and have lots of fun with the sensory cart!

















This weekend we went out to Wetaskiwin for the Big Band Dinner Dance. Greg & Steph were our brave babysitters at home and everything went well. Natalie sang wonderfully and looked beautiful and we had a great dinner and good conversation.








On our way home we noticed the Northern Lights in the sky and they were so bright and beautiful that we even pulled the van to the side of the road, turned on our hazard lights and stared up at the sky. They were multicoloured and formed a circle directly over our heads and were dancing like crazy! None of us had seen Northern Lights so bright before. We tried taking pictures but they didn't turn out.



We attended an open house at GRIT this week. It's a program for kids with delays/disabilities to help them prepare for school. We just found out on Friday that Claire has a spot in the program for September and we couldn't be more excited! You can visit their website if you'd like more information (www.gritprogram.com). Basically we're assigned a developmental specialist who works with Claire every morning or afternoon (like a preschool class) and will take her to community classes, play groups, etc. and work with her at home to maximize her potential. I can't wait for September!