Officially Official

This event was well overdue but the wait was worth it. Elizabeth came early in more ways than one and Ivan and I getting married was put on the back burner. Ivan and I are fairly introverted people (except for the blog) and we wanted an event that was intimate and classy. I think we managed to do both we invited a small group of family and friends; had a ceremony at our local church and dinner at fantastic restaurant that we had rented out.
Elizabeth was great on such a busy day she walked down the aisle so proudly, by the time she got down there there was not a dry eye in the church including Elizabeth and her Daddy. She stayed with us for the vows and would say Amen at the appropriate times we were so proud of her. The only mischievous thing she did was trying to undo my dress, my maid of honour who knows her well was quick to intercept.
We had such an amazing day it was so great spend the day with our family and friends. We are so thankful for all the support they have provided us and that they were able to celebrate the day with us.

New Bike

We are super excited Elizabeth's new bike has arrived and it is super cool. Thanks to my amazing cousin who is currently living in the USA she was able to bring the bike here for us. We ordered the bike through my favorite store Target which we sadly do not have here in Canada. I heard some really good reviews about the bike at work and on-line so we thought this would be the best option for Elizabeth. Elizabeth still needs her feet tied to the peddles so a 2 wheeler with training wheels was a cruel and unsafe option. This bike is so cool it will grow with her and can carry up to 220lbs, even Daddy has been having fun riding her pink bike. We do have to make some adaptations as she is still small for it and she needs footplate's to secure her feet but we should have it ready soon.

Not Invited

I was unusually early to pick Elizabeth up from school the other day and while waiting for her a boy in her class was handing invitations to his birthday party. I saw all the kids eagerly waiting for their invitation as the boy handed one to each classmate except for Elizabeth and her fiancée (she is betrothed to a little boy in her class). I would have thought it was fine had it not been that the only 2 children who were not invited were the children who have a disability (Elizabeth's fiancée also has a physical disability) it was pretty obvious why they were not invited. My heart broke for them as their eager faces turned to a look of why not me. They are young right now and will not remember this incident but this will happen so many times in thier lives and it breaks my heart that they are going to feel rejected and left out. It is a shame that parents are so busy to not even notice how each morning Elizabeth greets her classmates and how hard she tries to keep up with the others. I guess as parents we need to teach our children to be resilient at times like this because some people are too involved in their own lives of ignorance to see how hard our kids try to succeed. They are the ones missing out because our kids are amazing little souls who have so much to give and to teach.

The Culprit

We think we have solved the recent no eating / gagging / vomiting spell. I thought just before I pulled out her Prevacid and started her on Miralax I should put her back on Soy milk. Elizabeth has been on cow milk for the past year and from what I have seen has not had a problem with it; she does not have the typical signs of intolerance she does not have exema, loose stool and never has complained of stomach aches. I should really know better by now that Elizabeth being an ex-preemie her tolerance of pain is huge and even if she was in pain she would never have complained about it. That is probably why for the past couple of weeks her eating had taken a nose dive, each time she came to the table her face would change and she would begin to gag and really struggle with eating and those were signs she was uncomfortable which I was thinking was behavior. She has a tendency to get a bit constipated which with a careful diet we were avoiding the use of laxatives but lately she was getting really constipated. Within 2 days of switching her to Soy she is eating, occasionally will ask for food (this is a huge thing) and is eating in her terms faster and I think the major thing which allows her to eat better is she is now regular. I think back to the years of her constant vomiting and wonder how much of it was related to milk and how uncomfortable she must have been. We are so happy to have Elizabeth comfortable now and enjoying eating again.

Happy Easter

We hope everyone had a good Easter. Elizabeth woke us up at 6:30 am, happily eating chocolate she had found from the Easter bunny. Her egg hunt had her following clues to find some treats and it was pretty neat that she could read most of them on her own.
We took Elizabeth to church on Good Friday and she stayed on her own with the kids in the sunday school. I told the Teacher that Elizabeth may need some extra help with walking and he concluded that riding on their donkey was the best way for her to get around so she quite happily rode around on a life sized donkey on wheels. She told me when I picked her up she even had her feet washed, I do see a green hue so I am assuming there was some walking in paint as well, I quickly learned that sending her in white and lilac clothing was not the best choice for Sunday school.
We completed our yearly ritual of taking her picture with the same Easter basket. The photo shoot was a bit difficult as Elizabeth was having a sugar high from all the treats she found at Grams. Sugar and food coloring for Elizabeth really don't mix, it is like kiddy speed, she goes wild.