A month of fun!

Here's what happened in March.

Early in March, our little Claire Bear had a sleep study performed.  Back before her seizures were controlled, they would happen at night, and she sometimes still has problems with wakefulness which leads to being very tired at school.  We wanted to rule out any seizure-related or breathing-related problems but it was quite an ordeal.  They had to hook up so many sensors to her head, face and body and although it wasn't painful, she HATED it and was kicking and upset the whole time - which meant she kept removing the sensors.  Those poor technicians.  I didn't even take a picture because it was such a stressful experience.  Here's a picture I took of the hospital roof while I was outside of the room, waiting for her to fall asleep so I could go back in the room and sleep next to her.  We haven't received the results yet, so I'm not sure if it was even worthwhile to complete, but we'll see what comes of it.

Claire also saw another opthamologist this month who deals specifically with the brain/eye connection in relation to rare genetic disorders.  He'll be following her about once a year to establish a baseline and progression of her visual development.  I'm hoping that the more we participate in things like this, the more they can learn about Claire's condition and it might help others in the future.  She's a good sport, letting me sign her up for all these things.  :)

Madeline came with me to Claire's student-led conferencing.  Claire showed us around her classroom and showed us about some of the things she's learning.

Goofballs.

But you've gotta love 'em.

Madeline was obsessed with eating snow/icicles this winter.

Madeline lost her first tooth this month.  It was extremely traumatic... 

but all worth it the next morning.  I asked her what she wanted to write to the tooth fairy and she said, "Tooth Fairy, why are you so sneaky?"  The tooth fairy wrote back, "Because it's fun."

Claire's old classmates have been spending Thursday afternoons (early dismissal)  with us and it's been lots of fun.

The great fort of 2013, complete with protective spikes...

and slides!

We had a combined birthday celebration for February/March family members at Grandma and Grandpa Patterson's house.  Ryan was in Calgary celebrating his Grandpa Layton's 90th birthday at the same time.  We were sad that we couldn't all do everything!

I can't believe she's getting so big.

Madeline was spoiled, as usual.  :)  Noah was glad to help her unwrap things.

Claire loves being at Grandma and Grandpa's.

The birthday kids, plus one little helper!

The girls finished one round of swimming this month. 

I definitely couldn't do it without Natalie's help!

Claire only likes swimming a tiny bit, as you can see.

Because we had Madeline's party on a different day than her ACTUAL birthday, we still tried to make March 20 special.  She could have anything she wanted to eat, so she had ice cream for breakfast.  We played at the park.  We had Subway for lunch.  We coloured and read stories.

And we built a giant fort and watched movies together.  It was a great day.  :)

Easter dresses!

We had a fun family night at Chuck E Cheese.  I haven't been there in ages but we had a blast!

Claire liked the Fruit Ninja game.

Madeline won 100 tickets on this game!

Ryan enjoyed showing off his skillz.

We attended our very last Big Band dinner dance.  Rob was awesome, as usual.  

The end of an era!

We played at Galaxyland this month.  

It's getting a bit tricky to help Claire onto the rides, but we still managed to have a good time.

I used to ride this boat 20 times in a row without feeling sick.  I rode it once this day and felt like I was going to barf.  Is this what getting old does to you?  How sad.

Other happenings:

Ryan started the DARE program with his students at school, survived Parent-Teacher interviews and presented at a conference in Calgary.

I got to spend some quality time with our little neighbour Amelia and go out for a dinner with my friend Kathy.  I also joined our Community League Board as the publicity director.  I also joined a sci fi book club with a bunch of strangers and it's turned out to be a lot of fun.  I also helped out with the Book Fair at Madeline's school.

Madeline had a fun sleepover at Auntie Olivia's house, attended a birthday party for two of her friends and took part in a bedsheet theatre performance series at her school with the artists in residence.