We are going to camp! How Fun!

We got our confirmation!



 

We are all going to camp this summer!

Not only is it just camp. It is a fully accessible, family camp.

This is one camp where I won't have to worry about the 'how'. How can Nick participate? How can Nickolas participate when he isn't able to move the same way the other kids can?
No worries this year.
Accessible camping fun.



They even have an accessible tree house! How cool does that sound! And an accessible climbing wall! High ropes course! One thing that I have always wanted to try and thought would be fun for the kids is geocaching. But again the 'how' question comes up.

That is on top of swimming, arts and crafts, pottery, music, drama, life skills and sports such as sledge hockey, archery, wheelchair basketball, lacrosse, badminton, and a nature trail. I don't know how we will fit it all into 5 days!

Not only are there activities for kids, but there are time for parents as well. They actually have scheduled children activities so that parents can rest or do parent-only activities! Wow a vacation for mom and dad too!

I wanted to get some idea of what the camp actually looks like. So I googled some pictures. All of these pictures come from http://www.camps.ca/easter_seals_ontario.php

The high ropes course - I think that might be a bit too high for mommy!

 

A real tree house! Yes please!

 

And of course a camp fire.

 

I'm so excited! Only 5 months to go!

Standing up straight

It's all about standing today!

One of the that came out of the NDT classes was that Nickolas is leaning forward in his walker. And we don't want him to lean, we want him to stand up straight when he walks.

On my ever growing list of things to follow up on...

 Have the walker adjusted so that he stands farther up, so that he doesn't have to reach farther forward.
Luckily when we were at the bike fair yesterday we got Bill from Durham Medical to make the adjustments (no problem, he had all the tools there - AND he made the adjustments to Nick's wheelchair as well!)

So much better!

Nick is doing great standing up straight. His favorite thing to do is to balance against the couch, the tilt forward so he is standing all by himself!
7 seconds!

 Who knew that this doll house would have been so great at getting Nickolas standing, and playing together with his sister.

Katheryn of course is working on her balance as well!

Testing out some bikes

Grandview Children's Centre had a bike fair today.

The kids were very excited to go and buy some new bikes. We had to explain to them that we were not actually buying a bike, just looking.

We weren't really sure what it was that we were looking for.

Nickolas has really enjoyed riding a bicycle in physiotherapy.

 

 

The bike that he has been riding in PT was the right size, with some of the right features that he needed, but also had features the were not needed.

Some things that we felt were important were:

• direct drive - this makes it easier to Nick to pedal by using momentum and not working so hard to start to pedal, he can also go forwards and backwards without the brake
• pedal plates - he needs help to keep his feet on the pedals to be able to use
• seat - he needs a bigger base, not necessarily full trunk support
• parent handle - gives us a bit of help and control, and so we don't have to bend
• training wheels (instead of the large tricycle model he was riding in)
  

 

So that was where we were when we walked into the bike fair.
We looked at some of the adaptive tricycles, brought by Durham Medical but everything looked like it had more support than Nickolas needed. And of course they are significantly more expensive. So we kept looking.

And Nick liked this bike.

They had Bay Cycle Sports to help with modifications and pricing and ideas. Everyone was extremely helpful and eager to help

Nick really liked that this was a big-boy bike. He loved turning the wheel and wanted to get going.

We didn't buy anything, that wasn't really the point. This wasn't to buy, it was to look and see what was actually out there and what can be done.

To make some modifications to a bike

• direct drive seemed to be an easy fix and the Bay Cycle guy could modify it himself (hopefully) about $20
• pedal plate, we need something at the front and back. We tried just the front support and his feet kept slipping out and making him upset. So we need something that will hold his foot at the front and the back. Moulded plastic with velcro about $100
• a seat upgrade. Something that is wider so he is more stable. We don't want anything with full back and side support, but more stable than a regular bike seat. $30-$50
• seat belt. Bay Cycle said that because of liability issues they do not actually add seat belts, but that we could add something ourselves.
• Training wheels. If we are looking at a 2 wheel bike and not the larger tricycle then we need to have wider training wheels. It was suggested we look at fatwheels, which run about $180 + S/H, except that it looks like this company just ran out of business and these wheels aren't available (either ebay, amazon, or a google search). Amazon has wide training wheels for $12.75 though...

A larger bike with the handles reversed would also give us some more room to grow.
This red bike is 14" wheels, we tried him on a green bike but didn't get any pictures. The actual bikes cost about $130. But they said we didn't have to purchase the bike from them and Bay Cycle would still make modifications.

The approximate total for what we are looking at is probably $300 at it's least expensive and up to maybe $600 at the most expensive.

Nickolas was very excited to see the bikes, but once that excitement finished he was much more excited to race Katheryn around the room.

And crashing into her as well. The number of times we had to tell the kids "don't crash into each other!"

Katheryn enjoyed showing off her bike riding skills, and of course making us aware that she has outgrown her bike that we got for her last year.

So we are hoping to have some bike riding kids this spring and summer.
We just need to investigate for some funding to try to see how we can afford a bike for Nick.

Passport to School

I'm getting ready for Nickolas to attend school.
Grandview Children's Centre offered a program called  'stepping stones to school'. It is a 4 part series to prepare your child (and yourself) for school. I was somewhat concerned that it would take a month of 2hour classes to make me comfortable withing getting ready to send my kid to school, I still signed up.

The first week freaked me out a bit. Which is usually the case when you are in a group with a bunch of other parents, some of who have been very proactive and you realize that you weren't as ready as you thought you were!
After a quick visit the next day to Nick's future home school I was feeling much better that I only filled in a 5 page document and not a 20 page document about Nick's special needs.

One thing that came out of the first class was to make up something, a passport, to have at the school and classroom teachers to allow them to see your child as well as a quick resource to understand needs, strengths and some medical info.

This is what I came up with.

School Passport by

It was actually pretty easy to do.
Once I got the format down. I picked what pictures I wanted (and I wanted to show lots of pictures). And what colours go where.
I want to show that Nickolas is a fun little boy, with a great imagination and is happy and healthy. Sure he comes with some extra's in the classroom. But he is well worth those extras.

I had no idea that this would be such a good idea, but I am so glad that I did it.
It was fun and creative. I posted the document here as a pdf, but I have the work document. If anyone wants to copy and use it for their own child, please email me and I can share it.

Change

Change is good.
Hopefully.

Because change is going to be coming to our household.
I'm starting a new job.Which is very exciting.
The kids are excited, Kyle is excited. I'm nervous.

I love being a nurse. I am a labour and delivery nurse, and I love what I do.
But I also love to teach.
The opportunity came up for a position in my hospital to be a nurse educator on my unit (otherwise known as clinical practice leader in hospital-talk). Covering a maternity leave for 1 year. I applied, and I got it.
The kids are very excited that I will be taking a day job, no weekends, no nights.
Especially since in the last 3 weeks I have hardly been home. Between nights, and various hospital activities I haven't been spending much time at home.

Not that this new job is going to be easy. I'm used to leaving work at work. I haven't actually started yet, but I know that there will be work I'll be taking home.

Shift work has some definite negatives that I will not miss. But also some benefits; working 12 hour shifts means that you only do 7 shifts in 2 weeks, which gives you time off during the week to do therapy, shopping, errands.
We are currently trying to transition what we have to do, what we need to do into the time available.

I have been telling everyone who is trying to schedule appointments with us, that I will have to get back to them because I have no idea what my schedule will be. Kyle is helping to take over appointments as well, but I will fully admit that I like to know first-hand what is going on.

So Change is coming to the Ridding house.
It will be great. I start on Tuesday