Glasses

It's still a bit of a challenge getting Caelan to wear his glasses at home.  We'll take complete responsibility for that though because we don't 'enforce' it.  So when Preschool told us that Caelan was wearing his glasses all day at preschool we were thrilled.  It also got me thinking... hmmm...

Do you think he's wearing them like this?

Or hopefully more like this maybe??

oh, I can only hope it's not like this!?!

All these pics were taken "on the move".

Boy in a box

Where's Caelan?



Here I am!



More, more, more



Give a boy a box and he'll be happy for hours!

night-night baby

I tried to snap a picture of Caelan all snuggled up in bed feeding his baby, but unfortunately the flash forewarned him and he flipped over and caught me.  Still love it!

Green Smoothies

For a while now, they seemed to be everywhere I turned - and I'm not talking about Shamrock Shakes although we did indulge in one on St. Patty's Day!  I had read about green smoothies here and here and a bunch of other places too, maybe I just noticed them because they really peeked my interest.  However, it wasn't until I read about The Novice Chef's wannabe green smoothie that I finally decided that I needed to try one myself.  I whipped one up quickly on Friday morning before work and LOVED it!  Caelan was eager to help me make another one early Saturday morning. 

Caelan put in the pineapple and spinach... and more spinach...

He wasn't fussy on touching the frozen bananas and I added the orange juice.

He helped add the yogurt

and then it was time to whiz it up.  Caelan made sure the lid stayed on.

He's become quite the little helper in the kitchen!

I offered him a taste and he tried it on his finger... The colour must have reminded him of the mint chocolate chip ice cream.  The taste didn't though because he wasn't inclined to take a second taste!

Walking

I've had a few people congratulate me on Caelan's ability to walk ... umm.  Nope.
I guess it's something I blogged and figured I should clarify because he is most definitely not walking.  Not yet anyway.  He is however, showing a lot more interest in walking and is anxious to be on his feet.  He's at the stage where he pulls to stand easily and wants you to hold his hands so he can walk about.  We're thrilled with his progress.  Trust me, when he walks you'll know because I'll be gushing and I'm positive there will be lots of photographic proof!  For now though, we just keep taking it one day at a time...

eyes and ears update

I realized tonight that I had neglected to mention some fabulous CHEO appointments Caelan had last week.

Opthamology, not an appointment I would have ever thought to call 'fabulous', primarily because you always end up being there forever and a day.  In fact, I'm told this visit was no different.  We had what we believed to be one of the very first appointments of the day (8:15am) and still had to wait an hour before being seen!  I digress though; there is good news.  I promise. 

Okay.  In previous appointments Caelan has been unable to communicate what if anything he could see.  However, with Caelan's increased vocabulary through sign language and his growing cognitive ability this was the first first time we were able to get an actual understanding of his vision and it's good news!  Before I get ahead of myself his right eye is still not considered functional.  When they covered his left eye he just wouldn't use or look with his right.  Instead, he would try to move and look around using his left eye, but we already knew that he had limited if any vision in that right eye so this didn't surprise us.  The testing involved four symbols that were presented on a monitor at the other side of the room (similar to when you go for a regular eye exam but these are simple pictures instead of letters).  Caelan was given a card that had all four symbols on it and was asked which one he could see on the monitor (only one appeared at a time).  He did great and was able to identify them all!  Then the symbols got smaller and he identified them again, and this was repeated several times!!  Everyone was really happy with the results.

Caelan's other appointment was with audiology.  Audiology usually goes well as long as nobody tries to touch or look into Caelan's ears.  Believe it or not you can still have a rather successful appointment just by sitting in an room set up to make noises on either side and monitoring his reactions.  Caelan is growing up though and we've been doing that type of testing for quite some time and basically, he's on to it.  He knows there are noises and he knows there will be a bear or a bunny in a box over to one side or the other and it will be playing an instrument and yaddy, yaddy, yah,... whatever, who cares!  So, it was time to move on to the bigger boy testing.  That's where the problem lies because the big boy test involves a piece similar to an earphone that has to be in his ear.  oh boy...  Of course there was some rebellion and he fought while they tried to put it in his ear (they only tested the good one - the right one) but once it was in and he was distracted he did really well!  It was like he forgot all about the thing in his ear, he didn't fuss about it at all and didn't try to pull it out or anything either.  The results were the same and that's good news too!

milk spill

I'm sad to say that milk spills are still a fairly regular occurence around here...
Isn't this one kind of freaky??  I swear, it's totally not staged, but doesn't it look like a mouse?
As Darcy pulled a plate away in her attempt to clear the table the tail was formed and Ryland, my budding blogger dashed to grab the camera!

Darcy, Darcy, Darcy...

Darcy's room is almost always a disaster zone.

We ask her regularly to tidy up her room.

With limited results...

There always seems to be stuff everywhere.

Darcy is definitely feeling better. 

The other night, Damian had just finished telling Darcy to put away the stuff on her bedroom floor, when he took a look in her closet.  He shook his head and in an exasperated voice calmly said:

"Darcy, Darcy, Darcy."

She looks over at Damian and says:

"You don't have to keep saying my name under your breath like that.  How would you like it if I said your name like that all the time?  hmph...  Damian, Damian, Damian."

  She gathered up a pile of clothes off her floor and headed down the hall to the laundry basket shaking her head and quietly saying:

"Damian, Damian, Damian."

Then as she walked back past her room heading to the bathroom to go brush her teeth she was heard mumbling:

"Damian, Damian, Damian"

As she came back into her room and climbed into bed she was still all:

"Damian, Damian, Damian."

So happy my Darcy is feeling better, mess and all!

yum a num num

Oh yah, that's a whole lot of yumminess!

Recipe can be found here and is super easy.

Sounds of Spring

What a fabulous weekend!  Amazing what a little warm weather and bright sunshine will do for a person!!

It was so nice to have the windows open while cleaning house this morning.  It almost made the task enjoyable.  Almost.  You could hear the kids out on their bikes, neighbours getting spring projects underway, motorcycles out for a nice Sunday drive, yard work being done, and geese flying overhead.  You couldn't help but get out of the house as soon as possible.  Then you were hit with the best smell of spring; barbecue!!

Unfortunately, my poor Ryland spent most of today either curled up on the couch shivering or sprawled out sweating.  She's in full blown flu mode on her last day of March Break.  It also happens to be the first day that her sister got her full range of energy back.  Really not a good combination at all.

is it just me?

or does my daughter look like she should be out picking up cans...

no offence intended to all the homeless out there! 

Needless to say that poor Darcy is still not feeling great.  She got out of a nice hot bath on Monday and then got the chills and decided her winter hat was required.  We're all stuffed up and coughing like crazy.  It really is a miserable cold!  Of course we're all sharing because we love each other like that.

Oh, and when Ryland tried to immitate her and show her how "homeless" she looked, Darcy's response was "Ry, you don't even look homeless... you have socks and a watch!"  

Quite the criteria for the homeless don't you think?

Spring has sprung!

This weekend was absolutely beautiful. 

I hope everyone had an opportunity to get out and enjoy some of the warm spring weather.

The girls enjoyed riding their bikes.

Darcy was far from 100% and certainly not in a picture mood. 

In fact she even gave up her bike for a while...

Caelan just had to wear a bike helmet despite riding in the stroller... The one we had was a bit small for him and sat all crooked on his melon.

He was super happy to show me that he had taken his mitts off - Little Rascal!  Who could blame him though, it sure was nice enough.  When we got home our outdoor thermometer read 17 degrees!!

I'm hoping for more sunshine soon.  Unfortunately, it has turned all dreary and rainy but I'm okay with that while I'm at work!  Too bad for all the kids on March Break this week though!

Museum of Nature

Have you been since they completed renovations?  We went this past Saturday for the first time in ages.  The line up to get in was crazy.  Ryland even used the timer on her watch to see how long we'd have to wait before we could get in!  I believe it was the longest 9 minutes in my recent memory..
Despite the hoards of people in the museum we got to ride in this enormous elevator all by ourselves!?!?  We could have had our very own dance party in there!

There was always something hands on to explore... 

Of course, Caelan loved the "animal rescue truck".

We had fun trying to figure out the fossils.

I think we could sit and watch the fish all day.

No visit is complete without checking out the dinosaur bones...  especially since we're big on watching "Dinosaur Train", "Dino Dan" and "Harry and his Bucket Full of Dinosaurs" of late.

I'm happy to say that in typical three year old behaviour, Caelan wasn't satisfied remaining in his stroller and was anxious to get out and explore on his own.  This is a super proud Momma moment for me.  I'll admit to dreading the day when the girls weren't happy in their stroller, but with Caelan I feel like we've been waiting for this moment for an awfully long time!  He's making great progress with his walking and I was happy to hold his hands and walk around the museum with him.

It was a good afternoon although my poor Darcy spiked a fever and lost all her spunk somewhere in the Mammals.  (For the record, the Mammals section hasn't changed much in the past 25 years!)  Darcy is so unbelievably frustrated, angry and disappointed about being sick on her March Break!  It's breaking my heart.  The girls had grand plans of spending a couple days out with Auntie Tam, followed by a few with Poppa and Lolo, and both girls are pretty upset about having to postpone until a more healthy time... Can only hope Darcy makes a speedy recovery!

Twister!

What better way to spend a Sunday morning!

And yes, Mommy did have a turn too...

Mr. Caelan scootching under the bridge

So proud of my boy!!  Look at that bridge!

p.s. These two remind me of each other in more ways than just this...

snow days...

That this past week was the girls' first full week of school of this year.
They've had snow days every single FREAKIN' week of 2012!!

Let's hope we've seen the last of that streak...

You need some toys in there!

ugh

Just registered Caelan for Junior Kindergarten.

This has been a very long and arduous decision.

We have been considering many different options at a variety of schools all offering different things for our boy.  They all meant something different for our family.  For the time being though we've decided to stay put, where we are, and have Caelan attend the same school as the girls for Junior Kindergarten. 

Nursing is guaranteed since getting an education is a right.  In addition to nursing, Caelan should get an EA (Education Assistant) and we're keeping all of our fingers and toes crossed that we get someone fluent in American Sign Language.  This has been a huge sticking point for us deciding where to send Caelan for school.  We know that the odds of getting an EA fluent in ASL in our district are very slim but we're trying to remain hopeful.

We had been considering a Deaf Program at Vincent Massey in Ottawa, a program that focuses and teaches in ASL.  We thought that Caelan would benefit from being immersed in ASL and his language development would just take off.  It was something we were willing to fight for, maybe even move for...

However, today we were advised that he may not even be accepted into that program because he does still have good hearing in his right ear.  It's something we will  have to look into at our next audiology appointment.  In addition, they encouraged us to do everything we could to focus on the fundamentals of the English language, teaching him reading and writing in English before he experienced any further hearing loss.  It raised another point of view that we hadn't considered yet.  ASL and English are truly two different languages and we do feel that Caelan's life will be easier if he can read and write in English, even if his main form of communication is ASL.

I have to admit that it feels like a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I was spending more hours than there are in a day flipping through all the different scenarios in my mind, writing out all the pros and cons of all our options, looking on-line at houses and running numbers through the calculator constantly.  It's been exhausting.

For now though, a decision has been made.

Muah!

Kisses for Momma!

What are you going to do about it Daddy?



Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

We celebrated by having green eggs and ham for dinner and reading a handful of our favourite Dr. Seuss books.

Just be

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