Happy (Belated) Birthday Madeline!

Before you judge my lateness for this post, I have actually been really sick the past few days. I have something that's called ulcerative colitis (It all started back in 2002) and I had a "flare-up." That's all I'm going to say for now, but it really knocked me out. I even had to miss the circus and church this weekend and I barely pulled it through Madeline's party. I've had to lean so much on the help of Ryan and my family, I couldn't have done it without them.

I can't believe my little baby girl is 2 already. In some ways she seems so mature because I have to depend on her to help me sometimes with Claire and be independent so I can help Claire. Madeline has been such a blessing in our lives. When we decided to go ahead and have another baby because we felt that Claire really needed that influence in her life, at the time we had no idea of Claire's diagnosis or how likely it was to happen again, so it was really a leap of faith. I remember having to have an ultrasound every month for Madeline because they were watching so closely for anything abnormal. Through the whole pregnancy I felt like everything was going to be okay and it definitely was.

We love Madeline so much. She's such a special part of our family. I just marvel at the things she can do - it's always seemed as though her development was on fast forward because things have been so different with Claire. I love listening to Maddie sing and say her prayers. I love watching her play with Claire and give her toys and help her do things - even when I'm not prompting her to. I love the absolute joy she gets out of the things that she loves. I love seeing her play with her toy animals and cradle them and sing Rock-a-bye Baby to them. I also can't help but laugh when she has her temper tantrums and pouts at us. She has a very strong will but can be so kind and gentle.

I'm so grateful today for a loving family and for a loving Father in Heaven who has given me so much, even though I don't deserve it.

Here are some pictures from Madeline's birthday and from the circus!

We have such great friends! Here are the Tribigers (except for Abby and William).
You couldn't ask for nicer neighbours!
They got Madeline the coolest shoes for her birthday!
Luckily Kathy, Peter and Christopher could come too! It was so fun to see them again.

We had most of our family come and also our friends the Jensens.
We love having Beatrix over!

Here's the two girls together. Claire was having kind of a sad night so we kept her out of the spotlight for awhile to keep her calm but she came to help sing "Happy Birthday" to Madeline. Madeline even sang it to herself.
Here's Maddie blowing out the candles.
It took her about 10 tries to get them out but it was fun to watch her.

She did very well at opening her presents.

She even thanked (almost) everyone before running to get more.
I was proud of her.Maddie mostly got fun toys for her birthday which means
we might have to purge our collection again.!

Here's daddy and his girls. They had a blast at the circus and stayed up super late.
Party animals!
Ryan has been a saint lately - he's taken on so much while I haven't been feeling good.

You could pay to ride on the elephant but it's a little expensive and apparently the line was very, very long. So they went down to take pictures beside the elephant - the next best thing.

This Dad spun his two kids around. What a life that must be.

I can't imagine having your family business be circus performance.

If you look closely there are two dogs underneath the horse on that little platform!

Thanks so much to Greg for going along to the circus!

This is my curly hair after I got to play model at Marvel College for Natalie's midterm.
It was so relaxing and I found it very fun to be all curly for a couple of days.
Natalie is awesome!

P.S. Only four days of school this week until Spring Break! Woo Hoo!

When will it be Spring?

Because of all my ranting and raving in the last post, I neglected the mention the fun things we'd done in the past little while. There will be a lot of pictures in this post so bear with me.


We had a fun Sunday out in Wetaskiwin on March 8th to celebrate Mom, Rob, Natalie and Madeline's birthdays since they all fall close together. Here are some pictures from that day:

Rob is 14! Yay youth dances! I remember how excited I was to go to those.
The excitement did not last long. So I say, enjoy it while it lasts!

Natalie is 19! That makes me super old. I love the camera hog in the background.

Maddie gets to blow out candles twice -
once at Grandma and Grandpa's house and then at our house this weekend.
She loves it. She keeps asking for presents and singing Happy Birthday to everyone.

Claire had a blast with this balloon until we discovered that it was turning her fingers black.

Grandma and her sleepy babies.
(Somehow I missed getting a shot of Mom blowing out her candles - sorry!)

Self-portrait. Ryan is so good at taking these.
I always get the angle wrong or cut off someone's head when I try to do it.

Cute couple - Greg & Steph. Married almost 2 years now.

Here's a few pictures from around home last last few days.

Claire loves being in her standing frame. It serves several purposes:
It gives her another position to be in to change things up,
it helps her joints and bones and muscles by weight-bearing (since she isn't walking on her own) and it helps get the bowels moving, if you know what I mean.

Speaking of bowels...(gotta love sentences that start that way)
Auntie Stephanie and Uncle Greg got a first hand look at explosive diaper trauma the other night while babysitting. They handled it like pros so I think they're ready to have their own kids now.
They've seen the worst of it. Hopefully they will still babysit for us again.

Madeline got some money in the mail from Auntie Sheila for her birthday and
so we had fun going to the store to pick something out.
She picked a mermaid Barbie and loves to brush her hair. She was very pleased with herself!

Ryan's been doing this trick with Claire lately and I don't know how he does it.

She loves being up there though. They make one super-tall mega person.
Maddie loves all things princessy and fairy-like.
Here she is, in full get-up, dancing to the fairy dance song on our Wiggles DVD.
She's blurry because she doesn't stand still.

We spent some fun time outside during that warm weather spell.

The snow was sticky and just perfect for snowballs and snowmen.

Ryan and his creation. He did all the hard work.
Maddie and I gathered the bark chips and twigs (which made it look really creepy, but oh well), and Claire supervised the operation. It was lots of fun.

I'd been trying to get a good picture of Madeline the whole time we were outside
and hadn't been successful. I asked her to smile for a picture and she leaned up
against Ryan and posed - she stayed still and waited for the picture to be taken.
Uh, maybe you had to be there - it was funny at the time.
It made for a good picture though.

I love this picture of Claire - just pure joy at being outside and enjoying the world.

You can see our little snowman in the distance.

On a side note, sometimes I feel like cleaning my house is nothing but damage control.

Here Maddie found my box of cornstarch in the pantry and dusted the house with it.
It's never dull around here.
Do you ever dream of having the house to yourself for an entire day...just so you can clean it? This is what my life has come down to! :)

Just chalk it up to experience

I like the old saying: "It never rains but it pours." I believe that it is true sometimes. We'll be toodling along (yes...toodling along) minding our own business when all of a sudden our apartment building floods or we have an infestation of cockroaches on the top floor or everyone gets sick, etc. Things seem to happen in groups, especially when they are bad things.

Today wasn't super bad but it got me a little riled up when:

Funding for an expensive (but fun) program we have lined up for Claire got cancelled. Now we have to come up with $350 out of thin air or not enroll her.

A medical consultation appointment we've been waiting 1 year for just got cancelled and moved to an indeterminate date in April. We rescheduled our physio and OT appointments this month so they could accompany us to this special appointment so now we probably won't get either of them to visit us this month - so it kind of feels like we're flushing a month's work of PT and OT goals for Claire down the toilet. Thanks Glenrose!!!

Our GRIT programming for March 20 is cancelled due to medical issues with our Developmental Specialist. Of course that happens to be Madeline's birthday, the day when I will have tons of people coming over for supper, the day when my house should be spick and span and I have to whip up an amazing meal but it's also the day that I will be at an AACL Conference until 4:30. I was really counting on the help for my mom and for me.

There was a misunderstanding in our new financial agreement with FSCD so the receipts I submitted for February did not get paid in full and I can't seem to get our worker on the phone to explain what has happened.

An old lady was blocking the drive-thru (or through?) car wash this morning for almost 15 minutes because she wasn't pulled far up enough so the sensor could detect her car and open. I also almost got hit because someone who was supposed to observe a merge felt the need to speed up and then lean on the horn to let me know I was the rude one.

Claire has been on a screaming kick the past few days. She has a very high-pitched, high-volume scream and lately has been blowing my eardrums out. She wants to be chewing on something all the time, but she's so worked up that I can't get her to hold onto her Chewy Tube for more than 1 second and it's not like I can sit beside her and hold it in her mouth 24/7.

And sometimes when all these worries start piling up, all the regular worries of life (like a clean house, doing laundry, money problems, instilling values in your children and teaching them the joys of life, etc.) seem even more daunting.

But luckily, I have a great husband who comes home and comforts me and really makes me feel like everything is fine. We ate a quick (and tasty) dinner and hopped out to the library where Ryan and Maddie looked at books on tape for his daily commute and Claire and I walked outside, enjoying the sunset and the warm weather (we were outside because her screaming was a little much for the other patrons of the library). The rejuvenating feeling of a family outing with no pressure or deadlines (or spending money) helped me to regroup and feel ok again.

On a side note, a little snippet about Claire, the GRIT program and the Hope & Harmony fundraiser was in the newspaper today. Here's a link for it.

Our musical number for the concert went well - although I was the only accompanist who didn't get a spot light put on her and who didn't get her face up on the video screen. I'm not sure whether to be insulted, or relieved. :) Claire's framed fingerpainting auctioned for $125! It was a fun night and it was nice to be surrounded by supportive people. Thanks so much for Natalie and Travis for braving the cold weather to come be with us, and for all the others who sent donations! We love you!

Anyway, Ryan just finished his report cards and now we are going to bed. Late as usual. But better late than never, right?


(WOW - a post with no pictures)