Celebrations

It has been 5 years since Elizabeth came home. I can't believe she came home this small and now she is 5 years old. Elizabeth is smart, articulate, kind, funny and loving. She works so hard at everything she does and never complains when it is time to work. Parenting Elizabeth is an honor and a blessing, it is her personality that makes parenting her so easy. Even on the days that are trying she makes you laugh and smile and appreciate every ounce of her.
We try to make sure we have a little celebration on the anniversary of the day she came home as that day really means the most to us, it was the day she was ours. We asked her what we should sing to her as Happy Birthday was not fitting, Elizabeth wanted me to sing the song from one of her favorite books 'I love you forever' by Robert Munch.
'I love you forever,
I like you for always
As long as I'm living my baby you be'
We love you Elizabeth.

March Break

Last week was March Break here and Elizabeth had the week off. Between having some down time with Grams while I was at work we managed to fit in some fun activities. We visited the sugar bush with Elizabeth's friend Alex and went another time with Daddy; they played in the snow, ate lots of maple sap, maple syrup, maple candy and of course pancakes. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum with her best buddy Owen and his brother Austin they loved the dinosaurs, the bat cave and checking out all the child friendly displays. Of course as things are not good in the tummy department for Elizabeth she had one of her vomits in the museum, with the help of my best friend Amy and Mommy's quick instincts it was caught and disposed of before anyone had a chance to blink (I will discuss these woes in another post when I figure out what is bothering her). We also enjoyed a night away in a hotel with Alex and we took the girls shopping at a very cool mall that even had a racing alley with rides. Elizabeth also had her first real play date with a girl in her class, it was so sweet to see how well they get along and how appropriate Elizabeth was in playing with her. All in all it was a good week and we were lucky to have some nice warm weather as opposed to now where it is miserably cold and rainy.

Trotting

Elizabeth has started trotting at her hippotherapy now and of course she loves it. Elizabeth and her instructor (with much of Elizabeth's persuasion) have worked out a plan, if Elizabeth works hard in her session she gets to end with a trot. It is just a brief trot but she squeals with delight when the horse speeds up. Watching her is like watching a rag doll being bounced around as she still has pretty low tone in her trunk but she hangs an with a big grin. She now is doing most of her session holding on the reins which shows how much of an improvement she has made. Elizabeth has tried a couple times to get her horse into a trot when she shouldn't but so far the horse has not been persuaded. Elizabeth is already upping her requests to begin jumping but for now we will keep with trotting.

Good-bye Winter????

Our winter has been pretty pitiful in terms of Canadian weather. We have had small amounts of snow that melts as fast as it falls. I love winter and all that there is to do in the snow and cold and this year we really have not been able to do too much of it. We were able to go sledding twice, build a very very small snowman, construct a small fort (I had to use all the snow from our road to build half a wall) and Elizabeth got to graze in the snow. On the colder days we have been taking Elizabeth skating at local outdoor park and she really is getting better; she can stand independently for a couple of seconds and with her walker can shuffle a couple of feet.
This past week has been beautifully sunny and warm so we have been out bike riding and drawing on the driveway with her sidewalk chalk. We are not sure if this is a sign of spring or will we still get another cold snap with a dumping of snow, either way we will find a way to have fun outside.

Biting Fast

That is how Elizabeth described the pain in her knee the other night. That night was one of the worst; she was crying, gagging and screaming out 'momma they are biting fast'. It was one of the nights where the only way I can get her to settle is to rub her knee until she falls asleep (after motrin, heating pad and rubbing cream).
We did see the Orthopedic surgeon and he had ruled out a knee injury and growing pains as it is localized. The surgeon's input was 'it must be behavioral, she should not be getting that much Motrin' needless to say I was very upset after seeing him if he knew us at all he would realize that this is not behavioural and that I have gone to great lengths to ensure that this does not turn in to a behavior issue.
The reality is Elizabeth has pain that no one can really figure out and no one can really give us options to prevent this pain. Elizabeth is right now out with the neighbourhood kids and her Dad and has been out for a couple of hours which means that tonight she will be in agony. Do I bring her in to avoid her pain getting worse or do I hope that in time she will get stronger and this will get better? I can't see how this can get better as each time she grows it starts up again as she becomes more unstable and hyperextends more. It really is a vicious cycle we want her to be active but at the same time we want her comfortable. Until then we might buy shares of Motrin.

Mornings

I hate mornings, I am not a morning person and I really like/need sleep. We have a bad habit here and on the days I am not at work Elizabeth sits happily on our bed watching tv while I get a bit of extra sleep, this bad habit causes us to run behind in the mornings. Elizabeth also has a very hard time in the mornings she is often miserable, slow to move and getting her fed is painful. Breakfast is not Elizabeth's good meal, on an average she has 1/2 piece toast or muffin, 2 ounces of applesauce and 1 ounce of juice and this takes an hour at least. This agonizing breakfast leaves us running behind even more. I have tried pleading, feeding Elizabeth, yelling and taking her toys away but nothing works. The above picture I had told her she could not play with her toys before school as she had taken so long to eat, so instead she sat happily reading her favorite book about bugs so much for punishment..
To add to our morning drama a missing AFO or beeping FM unit will be sure to keep us from getting to school on time.