Spreading our fins!

Nick has been exploring his independence

Swimming/crawling by himself in the lake

Taking a spin in the boat (while docked)

Playing on the boat

But the best part of Nickolas finding his independence - is that he has realized that he already has the tools he needs to work with his ability to get moving.

Instead of crawling to go where he wants - he started to go to his walker, and then walk to where the watned to go!

Chalk it up to a good day!

Cool dude with the sidewalk art!

And Katheryn's favorite design ever (a rainbow)

red, orange, yellow... green, followed by blue, then comes indigo and violet, a rainbow song for you!

Those knee pads sure come in handy with the hard driveway.
Nick loves crawling all over and leaving his mark!

 And because we were in the driveway, we might as well pull  out all of the bikes.
The kids are both still learning how to ride them

Katheryn has started to figure out how to move the pedals to move forward, just working on getting her to keep moving them forward

And Nick has been able to keep his feet on the pedals.
Now we are just working on getting him to move them

But in the meantime - they are still having fun!

Summer fun!

Because I am hopelessly behind in my blogging.

I am blaming that I have gone back to work full time - but really I don't want to sit inside on the computer all day. (Ok well sometimes I do).

I am just going to post some pictures of our start of summer fun!

Is it time to go outside yet?

The kids are co-conspirators who love to try to get outside as much as they can! With or without adult supervision!
Boy are they going to be trouble when they are older!

What we are doing...

We have reached the end of our conductive education semester.

And we have learned alot being one-on-one with Abagail

Nickolas has been learning that he has the ability to use the walker for long distances (he just needs some extra encouragement)

We've been working on some sensory stuff, to get Nickolas to understand what it feels like - for him - when he has something under his feet.
I love watching Nickolas do this.

Nickolas is rolling a roll of play dough back and forth, feeling what it feels like and we are encouraging him to feel it with his toes (he gets flicker of movement in his toes, and more directed movement in his big toe - especially the right side)
Sometimes when we want him to move his foot - he grabs his leg with his hands and shakes his leg and foot. He thinks he is being funny.

There is lots of stuff that we have been working on.
Nick has been rope - walking. And doing well
I really believe that this is what has made Nickolas much more independent with his walking around furniture. If he can walk holding some moving ropes, then he can walk holding onto a couch, or reach between stuff!

We've tried something new in the last weeks. Climbing a ladder!

And Nick is definitely a hat lover! Incentive is the key, and fun
Construction boy!

Every construction worker has some tools
This what I love about conductive education - Nickolas is working on the little things like OT tasks, but he doesn't know that he is. He thinks he is having fun

Even doing his own bending and cleaning up - without encouragement.
Just because he wants to.

We have lots of transition walking with the canes.

I need to find where to get these for a good price. Nick likes walking with them - they give him freedom he can't get with a bulky walker. But we can borrow them for as long as he is in conductive education, but need to give them up when he is done.

Fun, functional, working and wonder.
Cleaning a mirror!
If only I can get him to do this at home...

This is another area that Nickolas has excelled at.
Confidence in cruising and reaching to get to where he wants, and knows, he can go.

Balance and confidence. Balance and confidence. Balance and confidence.
That is really what we have been spending the last couple of months working on. (Have I said this enough yet)
Standing and balancing and then lets just change something and make him work harder (in this case spreading his knees so he isn't pushing them together).

I think this happy boy is glad that we are doing so much conductive education too!

(At the end of last semester he still hated sitting on the peanut ball)

We are going to miss you Abigail!

Kindergarten Katheryn

Katheryn is going into Kindergarten in September.
She is so excited!
She is so ready!

She is miss-independent

We have a whole list of things we have to get used to through the summer; snack time, labelling, healthy lunches, early bed time, indoor shoes and outdoor shoes...
We just need to get used to some peanut-free products

 Last night Kyle and I went to the Kindergarten-information day
We learned more about the full-day kindergarten program in Ontario
And we really liked what school we are sending Katheryn to - it has the same feel as the school that Kyle and I went to.

They showed alot of pictures about the program and what they do with play based learning
And I just know that Katheryn will have no problems adjusting to this new phase in her life, she is so inquisitive!

I'm reasonably sure that mommy will not have many problems adjusting to the new phase in Katheryn's life. I don't think that I'll have difficulty in September on that first day of school.

Beyond of course, that she's starting school! No longer at home, only March breaks and summer vacations to be at home with us so often. A new stage... No turning back. School!
OK I'm good now.

I'm not worried about the actual curriculum, we didn't get to explore half day kindergarten or different types of curriculum (other than many years ago when Kyle and I were in kindergarten - then all I remember was how big people were).
I'm actually excited about it. It looks fun and alot like what Katheryn currently does in daycare - and a little bit like what Nickolas does in conductive education.



 While we were sitting in the library and learning about everything we need to know about kindergarten and all I could think was - what will it be like for Nickolas next year?!
Of course I feel guilty, this is about Katheryn, not Nick. But Nickolas is going to be following next year, and we are going to start kindergarten registration/information in November to get them lots of time to make everything appropriate for Nickolas and whatever additional supports he would need.

So that's what is giving me a heavy feeling in my stomach as we are getting Katheryn all ready and excited for kindergarten. That Katheryn will transition no problem, but I'm just imagining all the problems we will have next year with our next kindergarten registration information day.
And I'm not even getting into the school bus (potential) issues!
I think that will have to be another post. I've been told and reassured that it is fun riding a school bus. But every time we start talking school bus for Katheryn, I still think about what kind of bus will Nick need to ride in?
Where do I have to get him so he can ride the school bus with Katheryn next year...