Horses, Halloween, Holidays, Happy Happy Joy Joy

(Linky link blog entry - click on any underlined word for a link to a webpage)

I've found a new hobby - blog hopping. I find it very interesting to read blogs that deal with new recipes, home decorating, photography, saving money and mom-related dialogues. Some of the ladies whose blogs I check regularly are so clever and creative it's a bit daunting to try and write my own blog!

We've had a lot of fun with horses lately. We've put Claire on the waiting list for the Little Bits riding program that allows children with disabilities to take riding lessons. The wait list is almost 2 years though but maybe that will give her more time to be physically ready to sit on a horse. We went to observe a class to see exactly what it was all about. They have three volunteers that help each child - two on either side to provide support/balance and one person leading the horse. It was such a neat atmosphere and everyone was so kind - I'm looking forward to trying it out with Claire. We also had another Hearts and Hooves activity at the CNIB where the girls had a chance to brush and play with ponies. It was great!

(As a side note - I've realized that one of my favourite and probably over-used punctuation marks is the --DASH--I can't get enough of it)

We started with a new GRIT worker in October and she's great. We loved our first lady, but because of back/knee problems, she was having troubles lifting Claire, especially when we would be at play groups/singing groups where we'd have to sit on the floor. Our new girl, Janelle, is very kind and we have enjoyed getting to know her in the past few weeks. We also have had Claire's first IPP meeting with GRIT which was encouraging and attended the annual general meeting and had some great Greek food as part of the bargain.

Ryan hosted a super-fun EQ activity at our place complete with outdoor soccer, Rockband and 10 pizzas. The girls and I spent the day out in Wetaskiwin raking pine needles and cleaning the garage. It was so fun to be outside all day even though it was a bit chilly.

We also had fun at Olivia's Alberta reception. It was fun to get to know Rob a bit more - we like him! Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the bride and groom since our camera had a little accident and tried to commit suicide by jumping onto the hardwood floor at the Rutherford House. We got a few pictures before that happened though.

Here we are with Lorne and Carrie and Broc - enjoying some chatting and good desserts.

We've had numerous meetings for church things, GRIT things, school things, etc. It seems that we have something going on every single night of the week.

We had a great Halloween. Click here to see some pictures.

Our big news is that Ryan and I are going to Mexico in a week, for a week. We had wanted to go during Spring break in March/April but decided at the last minute to go during Winter break in November. We're staying at the Catalonia Yucatan Beach resort and I'm so excited! We're so lucky to have family who are willing to take the girls so that we can have our first vacation together since our honeymoon almost 6 years ago!

Here are some fun pictures from the past few weeks.

Madeline and her experiments with blue Smarties

Here is Claire wearing her Beetlejuice pants doing some good standing in her standing frame.

Madeline love piling things up and laying on them. Her bed is full of blankets that she lays on top of.

Boxes are the most fun!

Maddie's first shiner. I'm surprised she hasn't hurt herself more because she climbs and jumps off so many things.

Goofy goof

More goofy goofing around

Claire has been so funny lately - this is how she falls asleep every night. No matter how many times we go in and turn her around and flip her over, she isn't comfortable until she is laying like this.

Do you like see-food?

Ah, the joys of managing our apartment building. Raking leaves/garbage/cigarette butts from our side lawn.

Luckily we had lots of help!

Here is Madeline practicing her wrestling moves on me.

Funny bunnies on the floor

Claire's lovely, spontaneous and infectious smile!

Here is the next rockstar drummer. Whenever we are playing, she always wants to hit the drums or the foot pedal. We have to confiscate the drum sticks most of the time though in order to protect our valuables from being smashed.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving. It's a great holiday with lots of tradition and family events. We go to Wetaskiwin to spend it with family and usually have a football game, play board games, eat ourselves silly and spend quality time with one another. Here is a link to some pictures of the fun weekend.

It is also a good time to reflect on what we are thankful for. I'm grateful for a comfortable home that has all the room and comforts we need. I'm grateful for a supportive and hard-working husband who is a great father to our children. I'm grateful for Claire and for her endurance and happiness. I'm grateful for Maddie's crazy spirit and thirst for learning. I'm so glad we live in this country where we are free to vote like we did today and to make our voices heard. I'm grateful for good friends who uplift and support us. I'm grateful for our employment. I'm grateful for vehicles that work (knock on wood), food aplenty, ability and $ for leisure activities, good books, computers, laughter, good music, household appliances that make my life easier and the beauty of the earth around us.

Whenever I start to feel sorry for myself, all I have to do is count my blessings and it makes me feel ashamed for being down in the dumps!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Roaches, FOXG1, celebrity look-a-likes, a mugging and backwards clothing

As usual, we've had a lot going on these past few weeks. Here are some highlights:

(just a reminder - click on the pictures to enlarge them)

Madeline has been decreed as a Suri Cruise look-a-like. We've had at least 5 random people stop us at the park and on walks to tell us that she looks like a famous baby. I think Suri is about a year older than Maddie but they do look kind of similar. Maybe we should take advantage of this and turn her into a celebrity baby impersonator. Judge for yourself. (Too bad I don't look like Katie Holmes!)

Madeline "Suri" Layton

Suri Cruise (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes' daughter)

Claire's new hairstyle really suits her! It took a tag team of stylists (Grandma and Auntie Natalie) to sort through the dreadlocks but Claire looks so much cuter and it's so much easier to manage.

Here's our first attempt at a double bath. Madeline got kicked a few good times by Claire and Claire got buckets of water dumped on her - but I think they both had fun!

Madeline enjoying Claire's collection of stuffed animals....and her soother. I know I should be getting rid of it soon, but I don't have the emotional fortitude to put us all through that stress right now!

Ah....chocolate pudding snacks.

Daddy and Claire playing on the floor. Claire is really holding herself up well on the floor and is even lifting her bum up every once and awhile. First steps to crawling!


Our biggest disaster of the month was that our building got cockroaches! You heard me right. The tenants directly above us two floors up brought a sample of the bugs down so we could call the fumigator and they were cockroaches. So since we're below them and they waited for so long to tell us about it, we saw a couple in our suite and so it had to get sprayed. Luckily my family helped us out by having the girls at their place for nearly a week while we dealt with moving all our furniture and taking everything out of our closets and then having to clean and replace everything. It was SO stressful but they didn't find any more bugs in our suite besides the two we originally saw, so they don't have to spray here a second time. Phew. Here are some pictures of our packed up house.



Ryan built a retaining wall flower bed for my parents with the help of Melanie's muscles, Robbie's tamping abilities and my and the girls' supervisory techniques. It looks awesome!

Cheese supreme.

Claire really enjoyed her time at Grandma and Grandpa's - I don't think she wanted to come back home!

Madeline has recently discovered that she loves playing the piano. I'm just waiting for the day when I leave her for a minute and then come back to find her standing on top of the piano.
In other news...

In a hurry and late for a big Relief Society activity, I wore my shirt backwards for the entire night without noticing. It wasn't horrible - it was just the black shirt I wore under my patterned shirt for layering purposes but boy I felt stupid when I got home and realized. Curse you tagless t-shirts! It made me realize that I should actually look in the mirror before leaving the house. Lesson learned.

Ryan ran to Mac's late at night to buy some pop and almost got robbed by three guys. When they asked for change to distract him, they tried to knock his wallet out of his hands but then gave up when it didn't work. One more reason why we should maybe take some kung-fu lessons if we are going to live here for much longer.

We finally got Claire's mini Lite Box in the mail. We ordered it a long time ago but it took awhile to work out the ordering red tape. A Lite Box is a visual enhancement tool that's basically a tracing table with a bright light. The accessories are the most important part - there are coloured shapes, spin patterns, coloured backgrounds, etc. She responds so well to it that I think it will be a great teaching tool for her.

Another very important piece of information was that we have a diagnosis for Claire. Dr. Bolduc at the Glenrose and U of A hospitals came here to specialize in diagnosing kids who had no diagnosis and Claire was on his list. They did a gene karyotype and found a deletion on her 14th chromosome. Within that deletion is a missing gene named FOXG1. We are in the process of doing tests on Ryan and I to see if we are carriers of the missing gene or if it happened after conception. It's kind of a scary time but it's good to have some answers finally. The only information he could find on this diagnosis were very recent and very limited. That means we don't have a lot of information on what might come later on but it isn't a regressive disease - it won't get worse over time. It's just something she will always have to deal with. It's a little scary reading the papers he gave us because the outlook seems quite bleak based on the two Italian kids they are writing about. Their situation is different because the two kids have the gene but it is mutated. I guess that can be worse than it being missing because the mutated genes can then affect surrounding genes. I really need to go take a genetic research class so I can understand this all better. Claire is teaching us a lot!

We're also really enjoying Claire's programming everyday. Claire's already worn out one developmental specialist (she has knee problems and has been having troubles lifting Claire) so we're doing a switcheroo and getting a new lady. It's frustrating to have to go through all the introductions and instructions again with a second person, but I think it will be best for Claire.

What a blabbermouth I am. I had better stop for now.