Adaptive Dance

Hope you enjoy Elizabeth's dance recital she had this summer (she is the smallest one in the class). Her adapted dance class has been one of her favourite activities where she can be herself and have fun. With assistance from her helpers she is working on new skills and building her strength. Her helpers are the most amazing young girls who are so talented and who give time from their busy schedules to help Elizabeth. We are so thankful to her teacher for giving children with disabilities and opportunity to dance and to shine.

Hooray for Snow

Finally we have snow, it has been miserably muddy until now. Elizabeth continues to LOVE the snow; she loves to eat it, roll in it, to eat it, climb in it, to eat it, build with it and eat some more. Have established how much she loves to eat it? She grazes so much that her face is a chapped mess and we have had to develop guidelines with snow eating.
I too love the snow, there is so much to do and I enjoy shovelling the driveway (no I am not nuts)I just love being outside getting exercise. We have been out as often as we can to go tobogganing at a local hill and Elizabeth has a ball. I love that she is getting an amazing workout by walking up hills. It is nice to see each year how she is improving as last year she needed lots of help to climb up the hill and this year we just need to hold her arm.
Elizabeth continues to be a daredevil and loves the 'jumps' and now can hold herself upright on the toboggan during bumps. She even held on tight enough to knock a man out of the way as he was in her path. She also learned from her Uncle that donuts are not only the ones you eat and they are now added to her daredevil list. Hopefully we can keep this white stuff so we can get out more and enjoy winter.

Anxiety

This cute little fella in the picture is capable of causing emotional breakdowns filled with crying to the point of vomiting for Elizabeth. A visit to a department store 3 years ago and me pressing his tummy has permanmently etched a traumatic memory in Elizabeth's little head. This is not the only creature that upsets Elizabeth you can add Wall-E, baby alive and baby toys that play music.
At her last appointment with her Developmental Pediatrician a toy went off in the hall and sent Elizabeth into an emotional meltdown and the rest of the appointment Elizabeth would not look at the Dr. and was very anxious. After a long conversation with her and talking about some other concerning behaviours (chewing on fingers and clothing, highly excitable) she feels that she has anxiety and all the new changes this year have caused her anxiety to increase. I had been blaming her new behaviours on sensory needs but after seeing how these behaviors stopped over the Christmas holiday I am in agreement.
Our new plan is to work on desensitization with the objects that cause her so much fear and to teach her coping skills to use when faced with an anxiety provoking situation. This week she has conquered Baby Alive and has declared that Iggle Piggle can wait until she is 7. I think Iggle Piggle is coming sooner than next year but we will do it together (and on an empty stomach).

Merry Christmas

We hope everyone had a good Christmas holiday. Of course our time off has flown by and one more day until we are back to work. Despite some sort of influenza virus that ravaged both Elizabeth and Daddy for a good week each we still had a good time. We kept to our tradition and went to Christmas Eve mass with the girls and they enjoyed the children's service and learned about why we celebrate Christmas. Elizabeth had a great time Christmas morning she woke up at 2:00 am and proceeded to open her stocking therefore was pinned down by me and we all slept in until 8:00 which was a real treat. She received the Tangled hair braider princess that was top on her list and as soon as she came in the living room despite being wrapped in heavy paper was greeted by a yelping puppy in a box (one that requires batteries we are not going there with a live one) once unwrapped she discovered GoGo the walking puppy which she loves.
We had a great Christmas breakfast with Grandma Ellie and Grandpa Boris and was spoiled by them. We ended our day at Grams and Gramps house with her cousins Madison and Danica and once again was spoiled again with her Video Girl Barbie (a total change from Rocky the talking dump truck last year). Of course there were some dragons, hot wheels cars and dinos as gifts but I am loving the fact that Barbies were top of her list for Christmas. As usual we have spent a large portion of our holiday trying to find room for all her new goods and I think a trip to IKEA may be in the future. Mommy and Daddy shared a gift and we now have a better camera so improved pictures will be in the future.