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.

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.