Smile-time

Any time there is something to dress up for, I am always hoping to get some pictures of the kids together.

First we had to practice the squinty-eyed smile!

Then the laughing face - everyone say "bunny poop"

And finally success! Two kids, looking at the camera, eyes open, what could pass as a smile on both faces.

 And I think that I matched them pretty well too!
For both family days!

They were actually pretty good posing for pictures this weekend, they always wanted to see how the picture turned out afterwards!

We had smiles all-around this weekend, in front and behind the camera!

Santa Claus is coming to Town

All dressed up, and we need to see a man with a reindeer!

 

The kids distracted themselves in the line up.

 

And there was a play area with colouring and movies

Or played with the Leap Pad (which goes everywhere with us!)

And got a family picture with the big man!

Katheryn was very excited - but still told us she wanted to sit on Daddy's knee - not Santa. Nickolas took one look at him and grabbed me. But no tears or crying.
Katheryn even talked to Santa and told her what she wanted for Christmas!

Trimming the tree

We got our Christmas tree super-early. But that meant that we could take our time getting it all trimmed!

 

Katheryn, as the electrician daughter (and grand-daughter) wanted to help with the lights!

And Katheryn was fascinated when we found our reindeer light glasses!

OK, maybe mommy was fascinated too!

 

Of the good things about having the tree up early is to get those pictures done!
I was very excited!

The kids, not so much!

But they eventually got into it (it's blurry because Nick is trying to push Katheryn in the chair)

Someone might be getting a little loud in his excitement!

After a bit of begging (please! just look at the camera and smile and I won't take any more pictures!)

I got 2 that I was happy with (the above one didn't really count because it was on my phone.)

OK Christmas season can officially start now!

Retouch

I have recently found a great feature in my photo program.
The RETOUCH.
Have an annoying pimple - no problem RETOUCH and it's gone.
That dirty face but beautiful smile - RETOUCH!

Sometimes I photoshop a couple of pictures together - especially when I have 2 kids that like to look and smile at the camera at different times.
I generally use the old fashioned paint program, but this retouch lets me smooth out some of the edges.

Or to put some open eyes on my sister!

But then when I was going through some of my favorite pictures I was retouching other things.
First it was one of my favorite new years pictures - a New Years kiss!

Here is the original picture. I love this picture, but the marker (even 3 weeks later) at the scar just takes away from the picture.

I was going through over 600 pictures on the computer - and these are just my favorites! To run through as a background or screen saver, so I was fixing up the colours and rotating them ect. And of course using RETOUCH to take away those pesky distractions.

That's when things took a wrong turn.
I got to this picture.
It is from last summer, look how happy they are!
(Actually Nick's shirt says my mommy is totally going to blog about this)

And I brought that little RETOUCH arrow down.

Down to that distraction. It's not a pimple, or bits of food.
That ugly, ugly belly scar. I hate it, the back one, I'm good with, but I don't like that belly scar...

And there is his beautiful tummy sans scar.
It felt wrong right away. And I immediately changed it back.

Food and pimples yes, but scars. A definite, definite no!
Scars are permanent, scars are part of who we are (the same with mole and birth marks - I don't want to retouch those).

Because I love this picture. This is my son, he is strong, he is whole, he is perfect.

I don't feel that this retouched picture is more perfect. Where is the scar?! I really don't like this following picture at all. It is flawed. It is just wrong.

I never, ever would have RETOUCHed a back picture, except for the purposes of this blog.

Pictures are supposed to show who we are, they are supposed to show joy, sorrow, laughter, boredom or just plain life. I don't need a RETOUCH button for my life (just maybe for some pimples)

Picture Perfect

Recently another mother Jill seemed to read my mind. If you haven't already seen everyone sharing her post - please take a minute and read it here.

I wake up every morning knowing how lucky I am and how blessed I am to be where I am today. I know that sounds super mushy. And life isn't perfect, anything but some days. Its not supposed to be - how boring would that be?!

The purpose of my blog is to share the great things that are happening in our lives – and the lousy things too. It is to share my thoughts and it is also to become something greater, part of a larger community. When we first got the diagnosis that something was going to be different online sources helped me to realize what life would be like with spina bifida. Yes there are tough times, and happy times but mostly there are just living times.

It's like when you are having a conversation with an acquaintance about something, and then it comes out that you have a child that was born with spina bifida. This happened to me alot this past week when I was doing a breastfeeding workshop and sharing some of my experiences.

I very often have someone say "I'm sorry" or "I don't know if I could do that". No worries, don't be sorry, and you don't have to know you can do something. It just happens, you just do it.

I love writing, I write the blog and I have journals that I started the day I found out I was pregnant with Katheryn. I feel so creative when I'm writing, like I'm actually doing something. And I’ve always wanted to write a book. I enjoy reading other books and I knew I had the material to write something myself. So this month I decided to start.

Reliving and writing my thoughts of the diagnosis, the birth, those first few weeks. It reminds me how very far I have come and how I really wish I knew how happy our life is.

You know how sometimes the best pictures, your favorite pictures aren't the ones where everyone has their best 'cheese fries' face on. It is the grumpy faces, the funny faces, the unexpected true laughing pictures - those are the life pictures.

Well, that's life. Not those perfect moments when everything lines up just how you always wanted it. The best moments are those ones that you don't plan, you don't expect and just sneak up on you. And turn out to picture perfect.

Photo Time!

I was looking over some of my favorite blogs - I have a bunch - and saw some naked pics taken of a 3 month old cutie - and I was inspired!
Out come the sheets, the towels, the camera and the smiles! (Not that the smiles ever go away!)

Here are some of my favorites:

Having Fun! - and look at that tooth!

Happy to be 'free'

ALL SMILES!!!

I wanted pictures that do not hide away from his scar. It is part of who he is - not that I want to showcase it. Wait a minute. I DO want to showcase it. His scar is just one testimonial of the surgeries and struggles that he has overcome in a short 9 months.

A website I've been on, I can't remember but I think it sells SB related jewelry, has a picture of her child sitting on a beach. It is a bum picture and at first you are shocked by the large scar, and then you think, wait a minute. This isn't something to hide.

So here is my baby boy! In all his glory!!!

Favorites

Thought I'd show off 2 of my new favorite pictures.

OK so in one he's naked (practically) but I love these pics! And he isn't showing off anything! Though he might not appreciate this picture when he's a teenager.
On one of my groups there was discussion about showing off your childs Spina Bifida. Adults who recount their parents showing their scars off to strangers. While I hope I don't do that when Nickolas is older - I must admit I do it now - but his scar is looking so good!
I think it's important to realize that these kids may not want their nitty-gritties exposed to the world, in say, a blog. As an infant, I think it is fine, I hope I'm not sharing too much, just normal mundane stuff to keep people informed and show off what Nickolas can do. And as he gets older, who know's what I'll do. I also write for myself, about me and my family, both Katheryn and Nickolas. I started the blog when we found out about Nickolas, but I don't want our whole lives to revolve around SB. It is a part of our lives, but at the moment a small part.
So in talking to strangers and others about spina bifida, I don't look at it as something to hide, I am proud to have a son with spina bifida. I welcome the experience to say, this is what spina bifida looks like. I'm currently trying to work out how to explain it to children, when my cousins kids were down but they did notice his shunt, but they didn't ask me about it.

This week with Katheryn and Nickolas...

There isn't that much to say this week.

The kids have been sick (thanks Kyle) but somehow I was spared the cough and cold. Nickolas has been feeding every 2 hours while he's been sick, and 4-6 hours at night (we had been 3-4 during the day and 12 [yay!] at night). But he getting better. The poor guy would cough and cough and then throw up, so I wouldn't 'fill' him that much.

Of course this makes me exhausted! AND I'm trying to get my MRP [research project for my masters] done so I can graduate in June. Hopefully next week will be better - prob not - I look at the calender for next week and it's pretty full...

 

We got the pictures of our Canadian Baby Photographers Photoshoot - so cute!!! (http://www.canadianbaby.com/) I love them - they are expensive but we were an easy sell, when the guy came to the house we had Katheryn's photos when they did her pictures all over! It is great , they come right to the house, set everything up, and you get a free 5x7 even if you don't buy anything. Of course we always buy something. They have been in business for a long time - my parents have my baby pictures above their bed, from the same people. - OK free advertising over.

Of course we have been watching the Olympics non-stop. Pretty much we put on CTV in the morning and leave it on until we go to bed. I don't remember getting this into the Olympics before (except of course for hockey) but we've been watching ALL the sports!

I also want to watch some of the paraolympics next month - get a glimpse of things that Nickolas can do. Get out of the can't-do mindset. Geez I hope I don't have can't-do mindset. All I really know about is wheelchair basketball and sledge hockey, oh and murderball (wheelchair rugby?) But there must be lots of other things he could do (if he wanted). We've already decided Katheryn will be a hockey player.

Katheryn's new favorite things are to pull Nickolas in his rocking chair (which can't be easy because he is 17 lbs!), but also to feed him. I caught her shoving a goldfish (cracker) in his mouth, and when he wouldn't take it, she was shoving it in!

Last thing. I just found out about something called conductive education. It was through a post at the BabyCenter Spinabifida Kids group - I hadn't joined it before, but it has alot of the same moms as the spinabifida support forum. Anyways, two of the moms posted about their kids being involved in a conductive education center. They were on the news here is the link: http://www.wzzm13.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=68575678001 I looked into it and the March of Dimes in Toronto has a program. I have NO idea what it will cost (the Center in Michigan the news report is about has a 4 week program that costs $1200). But I thought it would be interesting to check out. And if it helps great! I'll talk to the SB clinic about it. They should have some more info.
 

OK apparently I had alot to say about this week...

Oh Yeah GO CANADA!!! The women athletes have been amazing! Now it's Men's Hockey going for Gold!!