You would talk about it too....

Should anyone ever want to question why I have a collection of these dogs these pictures might illustrate a little better than any inept explanation I could come up with.  Pink dogs have now made their  way to our newly opened Target stores.  Unfortunately though quick to complain about the lack of products I was hoping would come to our Canadian Targets I was less on the ball to print a retraction when I they brought them in weeks later....

During this last year the child always has two of these dogs in her hands at all times.  Currently it is one pink and one brown.

Now before you say to me "Listen Lady, don't you think you talk about this Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Dog far to much?" ( if you are new here you won't know how technologically pathetic I am so I am unable to link to the number of times this gal darn toy has been mentioned).  In response I say "If your child's emotional well being therefore yours is dependant on something you would talk about it too"  BAM!

Stuck

Still stuck

Brown dog imitating a basketball

Brown dog Pink dog aka audience to the girl's magnificence 

Brown dog learning to fly

Pink dog failing to fly

And so it begins

"I wish I could just stop being blind"

Oy and so it begins.

The child has kids divided into two groups at her school.  Braille readers and print readers.  When I talk to her about how school works i.e. advancing to different grades she will say "Room 7 only has print readers.  There are no braillers in grade 4" etc.

Breaks my heart.  Because she has enough vision to read print and her ability to read was sort of bestowed upon her if you will meaning she just knew how to read with little to no teaching learning braille has been very tough.  Though she can read print the eye strain will eventually be too great to consume the volume of material that needs to be read as she advances in grades.

Unfortunately on top of things the child...how can I put this delicately?  The child is not the most compliant of children or even that amenable to the strategies that are effective in dealing with the obstinate.  Right now she has such a wall up about braille that even mentioning it can set her off.

I'm thinking that the teaching staff are spending their summer vacations at one of those "resorts".  You know the kind.  Where the movie stars all go due to "exhaustion and dehydration".  This I'm sure will assist them in their detox from the drug and alcohol addictions they likely developed after this year of Grade One.

State of Emergency

Our city is in a State of Emergency and has been since last Thursday due to unprecedented flooding.  We are fine and incurred no damage but many areas of the city and outlying communities have not faired so well.

School has been cancelled leaving kids confused and missing out on the closure that comes with year end activities.  Malia has been the most confused.  Although we suffered no ill effects our routine has been changed and activities curtailed.  It has also caused some anxiety for her as illustrated by her questioning how water gets into a house and could it go all the way up to the roof etc.

All I can do is reassure her that we live no where near the river and we are fine.  I have also told her and all of the kids that it is our responsibility in having been so lucky to be spared to be the helpers.

Everybody needs to be a helper.

We have focused our energies on assisting the two First Nation communities that have been terribly affected.  Many have lost their homes and the evacuation centre was in great need of the most basic of necessities.  As I have eleven people following me around everyday I do not make a good labourer but I make a great delivery person.  One of the teens has been spending upwards of twelve hours a day helping prepare meals at one of the centres.  She has been a welcome presence and a great help and I believe that to definitely be true.

Everyone needs to be a helper....

BAM!

Teen to the six year old "move your head I can't see!" 
"Ya well I'm blind so WHATEVER!" retorts said six year old

Recital night

The six year old participates in a dance class with five other kids with cerebral palsy.  The class also includes non disabled dancers who support the kids.  M has really enjoyed herself.  Tonight was the recital.  Unfortunately only three of the dancers showed up but the helper dancers were still on stage and helped make it a beautiful experience. 

Waiting her turn to dance

malfunction in the junction

I am having some malfunctions on the blog but hopefully will be able to be up and running again with photos soon.

I am open to suggestions as to why my photos are loading sideways and upside down with no way to change it that I have found.

I can still post but it will then require all those interested to turn their monitors or bodies sideways or upside down.  Think of it as developing new skills and muscles that you never knew you had before.

I could actually be helping you really.

I only live to serve....

it rages

Went to another child's funeral today.  Seven years old.  Just barely.

Pretty as ever laying where no child should ever lay.

So quiet.  So still.  So cold.

I stood for a while stroking her hands, her face.

As much as I grieve for the family and their new loss and how the day was about this special girl I thought about my own.

In touching what is now only the shell that only days ago held the beautiful essence of a miracle I remembered that my daughter felt the same the last time I held her.  Stroked her face.  Kissed her forehead.

I would give most anything to hold Ailish one more time whether it be how she was in life or after her heart took its last beat.  I would take holding her physical self any which way.  Feeling the weight of her in  my arms, against my chest would be the most awesome of gifts.

It is an aching that has quieted itself during some days over the last 26 months though never ceased.  It rages today as much as it did the moment her casket lid was closed its final time.

If only wishing made things so....

I doubt it

It is possible I suppose.

It could be.

 I doubt it.

I'm way too young.

Not even middle aged really if you take into account I don't plan on dying until about 110 years of age.

The textbooks do in fact say that it might be the case.

Who uses textbooks anymore anyways?

Google said it could happen.

There is so much misinformation on the internet.

Hot flashes?

Me?

I think it's probably typhoid.

Fingers crossed

A dreadful tale

It's a dreadful tale.  Luckily....all ended well.

Pink dog went missing however no one knew but Phoenix that Pink dog was missing.

Poor child came and found me to illicit my sleuthing skills.  Problem was...I didn't know what I was sleuthing for.

Into her room we went.  She took me to her closet.  Nothing in there looked like what she would need to ask me for.  I had seen Brown dog on the bed so it did not occur to me that the toy that is attached to her hand morning noon and night was missing.

Finally it dawns on me that Pink dog is no where to be seen.  One dog is acceptable to the child while out during the day.  Two dogs are a necessity where ever else possible.

The big guns had to be called in.  Donovan knows where everyone's shoes and Phoenix's toys are at any given time.

Within minutes order was restored.  Donovan quickly saved the day when asked if he knew where Pink dog was.

Could life get any better?

Can I just say however that from my point of view that dang dogs be they real or plush are out to steal what remnants of sanity I may have had?

everybody helps

I give up!  You will have to look sideways.  I have spent way too much time with my limited capabilities to right these pictures so they will have to remain as is!
The six year old likes to be helpful so when the teens need the perpetual letter excusing them from gym ( I really should just write one and copy it to pull out every other freakin day that they ask for one) she likes to write it for them.

This one says "Please excuse Journey from gym as her stomach and her back hurt"

We all contribute around here

I blame the school

picture has nothing to do with this post but I like it

"You should exercise Mommy" says the "helpful' six year old.

"Oh I should, should I?  And what makes you say that?" I query.

"You should do bending and stretching.  You never do that ever" she says ever so innocently.

As I realize the child is not making a personal attack on my fitness level nor my abundance of loose flesh I do not tear into her by saying things like

1. "are you kidding me?!  Do you not realize how much bending and stretching I do in a day, picking up yours and everyone else's crap off the floor, balloons off the ceiling, scraping 'stuff' off of very high places on a wall that 'stuff' should never be on?!"  or

2. "take an hour in my shoes Sista and see the bending and lifting I do!  Next time you bend and lift a fifty odd pound wheelchair and chuck it arm pit height into the back of the bus!  You pick a ninety pound noncompliant child off the ground and 'encourage' said child to head in the direction away from the cracker drawer that will lead me to more bending and stretching to clean up the godforsaken fish crackers!" or

3.  "Exercise you say?!  Do you know how much power walking, bending and stretching it takes to make my way through Costco and any of the other three grocery stores I frequent on a weekly basis to get my shopping done in ONE hour so that I am not pulling a cart and pushing any number of your siblings who don't want to be there?!  Let me tell you Little Lady no one can clear a shelf filling a cart faster than yours truly ensuring that your bellies are all full of whatever the desired food of the week is!" or

4. "Do you know how quick on my feet I need to be to dash from a sitting position to the table to clear all projectiles from the path of a seizuring sister?!   You do because you have seen it and have also seen me lift said 100 pound seizuring sister in full clonus to a place of safety.

I say none of these things because the child had no ill intent and was likely repeating what she heard at school as to the importance of bending and stretching in a fitness regime.

No, I will not take it out on her.  I will however take it out on the school.

Makes sense to me....