School's coming!

I cannot believe that the summer is almost done! School starts next tues. I am SO excited. Kristen is too! I got a phone call yesterday from her teacher. I was shocked! Just wanting to see if anything had changed over the summer, or anything she should know going in! REALLY serious! A teacher who cares outside of the classroom! How often does one see this?! And the great thing is...she was Joe's Grade one teacher. She's teaching Kindergarten next year, and then going back to grade one! This means, Kristen will have her for two years! A teacher for two years that gives a rats bum for her students! WOW! The principal called me later in regards to the fundraiser that we're doing. Same day!! lol. She also let me know that the SEA for kristen does have level one sign! There's support of a school for a child's success! We are sure blessed. Advice going into school....for those who have children with needs, or really without needs and you have worries. Start with all of the workshops that the agencies you are dealing with have to offer. GO to them!!! They are informative. There are other parents with experience too. Write down your questions. Ask them! Go to the school. Talk with the principal. Get to know him/her. Join PAC/PTA meetings, just to get a feel for them, before you get into the school. Get to know the teacher's. Make yourself seen! They will treat you with respect when they know that you are on board with education! Don't be in their faces either. Let them do their job, but allow them to know that you're supporting them. Try and volunteer in the classroom's with reading. Not too often as to take away from your child's school experience either. Let your children go...they will be ok!!! Happy Summer, and first day of school!

Disneyland

Well here I am sitting in Disneyland. I've been here for four days, and go home tomorrow. I am here for a Tupperware conference and am having a blast. I left my kids at home. I feel guilty about it. But at the same time for my mental health, I really needed this break. I have never left my kids except to give birth...lol...which happened a few times over the last number of years...lol. I must say, I have never been here before. WOW! I am in stimulation overload. I have had so much fun. But I am so ready to go home to hug my babies. I can't say that I won't do it again though. I think that for my sanity, now that I know I have some, I really did need a get away. But I still feel guilty. I know how much my kids would love it here.

Oh well. MAYBE next time. We'll see.

School starts in a week and a half, so the routine will be back to the grind. I'm pretty excited about that. I know that the kids have been asking over the last couple of weeks to go back, and that they miss it. I think that Kristen will be the biggest change. She's talking so much more now, and so much more clearer! Truely, it is amazing. I can't wait to have school start so that I can get back into the classroom's to help out too! There isn't much left to get together. Just a few more shirts for Joe, and away we'll go!

A Gift

I was given the most amazing gift from my best friend yesterday. I was given the opportunity to watch the miracle of life being born. It was truly an amazing experience. Isobella was born at 4:17am. After her poor mommy was in labour for 24 hours...to the minute! She was 6lbs 2oz. The amazing thing was the nurse was having my friend try to push a bit before the dr was called. And there was the head. Second push, and the head was half out. I just told the nurse, let me know what you want me to do? She said here, put a pad over the half born head, and said hold. Ok, no problem. I held, looked at my friend, and knew, baby wasn't waiting. She delivered the rest of the head into my hand. Now some may think this is all weird or gross. But it is the miracle of life, and when in the postion you don't look at things the same way. I was just in awe. At the end of it all, her little girl is just the perfect of perfect babies! And to see daddy's face when he heard it was a girl. You can NEVER duplicate that! Thank-you so much to my best friend. Although she may as well be family!

Renal Clinic

Because Kristen had complete renal (kidney) failure while she was on ECMO and in the ICU, we became a part of a study that BC Children's was doing. They wanted to know if there was long term effects on the kidney's after function resolved. Kristen was the oldest (almost three at the time) and most severe case (almost 7 weeks of failure) that they had. So I agreed to do the study. I wanted to know for my own knowledge as well, as no one had any answers as to whether or not we follow her or not.

The findings were that she was indeed on the border line of being almost mildly kidney diseased. Meaning, if we hadn't done the study, and hadn't done a 3 hour GFR test (radioactive dye put in her and four blood works), we would have never known....until it was too late. She would have been in complete kidney failure. And would have been needing a kidney transplant. Now because they caught it so early, we are monitoring it.

So the plan, nothing has changed too much. She is still stable. Her creatine (sp?) has risen, but she's also grown too, so it should a bit. So in another year, we repeat the GFR test and see where we're at!

Joe turns SEVEN!

Holy moley! My baby boy is now seven! How he's grown. He starts grade 2 in a month. He's so excited!....lol...as am I! He is doing so well now. No one would really recongize that he is on the ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder....he's PDD-NOS) at most times. He's reading now, and doing math adding and subtracting. He's so proud of himself!

It's been a rainy Summer

Since the end of school, we have gone camping, gone to the movies, had the kids playing in the back yard...well when it's not raining. What a pitiful summer it has been! We got the kids a little pool, and they love it....when they can enjoy it that is! I think that mother nature has been PMSing lately.

We leave for a two week camping trip on monday. Well not really a full two weeks. I will be back and forth with the kids through out the first week. Joe still has tutoring and sportball soccer, and Kenny has IDP etc. The second week, I only need to come back once. But the kids are just as happy to go for the nights anyways.

Kenny has received his new stander. He's liking it. We saw the neurosurgeon this week. He's happy with the lack of brain pressures as of now. So we don't have to see him for another year now.

It's just been busy as usual...with a bit of sleeping in! September will kill me with that one...lol!

Kristen, Kristen, Kristen!

Well my little CHERUB is growing up. Last week we had her intergration meeting with the school. And believe it or not, I left feeling good! I feel like Kristen, and myself are going to be supported to the fullest. She is doing amazing things this little girl of mine.

We had a CI mapping today. We were taken into the booth, and she did her listening. She did such great conditioned play. She even hit the button when there was nothing even being presented....well, I figured out pretty quickly it was because I didn't hear it! But she did! Uh Oh, time for mommy to have a hearing test!

She was then presented with an assesment of vocabulary for 5 year olds. She quickly got bored, because she was getting it! And so the audiologist moved up to the 6 year old assessment. WOW. She did really well with that one too! I am just so proud of where she was, and where she is!