Our 6th Annual Spirit Wheel Walk Run

The day of our event came. 

And we had a fantastic turn out!

We had 41 people come out as part of Nick's Cheering Squad.

We had families and friends, co-workers and school friends.
And we had 4 families with spina bifida together!

It was about half kids and adults, so we got a kid picture of everyone!
From 2 weeks old to 14 years!

Nick was very excited to start on his walk

We started relatively on time, with Nick leading the way

The weather was nice and sunny but not super hot.
So it was perfect (but I have said that I will walk rain or shine... shine is just preferred)

Everyone took turns pushing Nick, and he had a blast!

We stopped at the look-out and the kids had fun climbing up and watching all of the adults below

and I think the adults were glad to have a rest

The kids were playing a game and didn't want to go back! Except of course that that is where the food was...

We all posed for some pictures while we waited

But for some reason didn't get one of all of us together

I can see how our event has grown in the last couple of years. We used to be walk for the whole 3 hours. Now we walk more as a group together, everyone (almost) makes it to the look out, and then we walk back.

The leisurely pace we made let us all talk as we walked.
And catch up with other families

Katheryn and Hannah were together as usual!

Then it was back to the picnic area for some socializing and food

and baby snuggles

And Nick was doing lifts on his walker

We picnicked right beside the playground (too cold for the splash pad) so the kids all had lots of fun, and the adults weren't too far away

And I even had an opportunity to educate some people who stopped and asked us about our event

At the end of the day we all had another fantastic year of cheering on Nickolas!

Nick passed out soon after we got home...

Always a sign of how well the day went!

We are still fundraising until the end of the month

/https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/nicks-cheering-squad-2/

and I'm still working on some awareness posts and videos.

But you will definately see Nick's Cheering Squad walking, riding and wheeling next year!

Pool Party Reunion

We had a Spina Bifida Family Reunion!

Our group of families who originally met when our kids were itzy-bitzy and we were all just learning about spina bifida. We started going when Nick was 4 months old and went until they cancelled it 2 years later.

After the program was cancelled I created a FB group to try to keep us in contact at least (and the group has grown to include anyone in Ontario called Our Lives, with Spina Bifida in Ontario)

Of course it isn't all about our kids who were born with spina bifida, it's the siblings too.

And the adults.
Katheryn wanted to get a picture of everyone taking a picture of them!

Afterwards everyone was in the pool!

I can't rave about these puddle jumper floaties enough. Nick just loved swimming around everywhere.

Katheryn wore her floaties as well (she doesn't really need them) her swimming is great, she just needs to increase her confidence with the swimming.
She did show off her cannon balls!

They had a fantastic time in the pool, and playing on the 'boat'

Here are all the kids together, and the siblings were around in the pool

Nick's MACE was fine in the water. I didn't cover it, and he showed it off to everyone. 

They weren't that happy when it was out of the pool

We all had a great time catching up and seeing how everyone kids are growing up.
The adults had time to catch up and talk about everyone's new adventure (mainly starting school) and everyone wanted to hear about Nick's MACE and how it was going.

It was great gettting together with everyone, we definitely need to do it again! It's great for the kids to be around other kids just like them... our kids with spina bifida and the siblings. When I talked to the kids about the party I stressed that it was for both of them!

Thanks to Chris and Meredith for hosting! And making all of that fantastic food!

Splish Splash

Baths are a big thing in our house. I have some water babies – am I surprised? I would spend half the day in a bathtub if I could! Katheryn eats dinner then announces to the house “Who wants a bath?!”

I talked about bath time earlier this year. And Nick hated his baths. He had a bath ring to keep him upright. But he's been too big for it for a while now. I've been putting Nick in the bath without the ring, but he just wasn't able to hold his balance in the water.

I talked to the occupational therapist in June about something we can do to help. Because I tried multiple times through the summer to put Nick without the ring and he just wasn't able to keep himself upright. So we had someone out to the house to show us some stuff that was available. (I was also looking for support on the toilet).

This minnow bath support was what he brought to show us.

It looked good, if we needed it. But (and this is a big but) it is big. It would give Nick lots of support so he could have a bath... by himself. There wouldn't be enough room for Katheryn in the tub as well.

So after 2 months of humming and hawwing if we wanted to get this, our insurance agreed to paid for it.

But I really was uneasy about getting something that would interfere with Katheryn and Nickolas play time together.

So before putting an order in for some kind of equipment, I wanted to try keep trying Nick in the tub.

And success!

You'd think I would have had more than just my camera phone!

And he's only getting better!

He is loving the ability to move around in the bath tub!

To be where the action (aka water) is!

Katheryn really likes that Nick is more mobile.

She's also notices Nick's scar on his back, she was kissing it and saying he needs a bandaid. It was a bit of an opportunity to talk about it, but she went on to playing hippopotamus and wasn't listening to what I was telling her.

Hippopotamus? You ask.

See the similarities?

In the meantime Nick has discovered the joys of exploring the bathtub.

And he keeps trying to stand up and reach things outside of the tub

I should mention that he proceeded to fall out of the tub and onto his head immediately after I took this picture!

But everything was good! Mommy was a little shaky! But Nick thought it was fun!

Sometimes I forget I have an almost-two year old on my hands!