A Big Surprise

We brought Nick home a big surprise!
It was something that he has really needed. And was another parental-fail over the last couple of months. It was March when we went to the bike fair and found what we wanted/needed. And June when it became painfully obvious that what we had was just not working for him.

We looked at funding, and talked about it, but didn't do anything about it. And the summer is slipping away and still we have no bike for Nick. I didn't want to wait, and I didn't want to pay too much, and I wanted something to work. But it didn't magically happen (I think my fairy duster is broken).

Luckily I have an amazing connection to used pediatric equipment! With Zach's List! (There is a link on the bottom of my blog as well. Because surely someone has a bike their kid has outgrown!
And we found one.
And we got it and brought it home. It has almost everything we were looking for (it's just missing a parent handle)

Nick was so surprised when we showed him! "That's for me?!"

And felt like such a big boy when we put him on it!

 

It is a touch big, which is perfect! But his feet reach the pedals, and he reaches the handle bars. So it is perfect!

 

The next day we could really try it out!

 

 

He was sooooo happy!

We got to ride to daycare and pick up Katheryn! On his new bike!

 

Katheryn's is ready for a new bike too (but I think it will have to wait until next year) she can still ride hers and have fun together on the driveway.

No matter how much we paid for this bike (which was reasonably close to the estimate I imagined), this picture makes it all worth it!
Riding his bike with the neighborhood kids.
Priceless!

Summertime fun



The summer fun continues!

 

With some 'fishing'

 

Some swimming

Katheryn getting braver

 Nick having fun 'on his own'

Playing the in the sand

Having a camp fire

 

Being kissed by your sister!

Playing with your second cousins.

 

 

There were actually cousins everywhere! (First cousins, second cousins, third cousins!)

Playing games

 

 

 

Playing with daddy!

 

 

And of course making funny faces with your mommy!

How'd the crutches work?

Never one to be satisfied with where we are right now, I wanted to look forward and consider the future. I think I mentioned in the beginning of the month that I'd also been looking at some crutches.

I found some at a reasonable price, and so we could have them on hand I bought them.

Doing some measurements he was within the top range of toddler crutches, and just below the lower range of the pediatric child crutches. So I got the child ones.

 

To have some options available to us.

 

So when they came, Nick humored us and tried them out. He wasn't too happy about them.
He can stand with them, straighter than with the canes, but they are still too big for him right now.

He doesn't realize he is standing by himself without the couch.

 

When we tried them out. On the plus side of it, he wasn't upset...

 

 

They will be used, just not right now.
So they are sitting in our dining room right now, there if Nick wants to try them out again, they are small and out of the way. I'm not regretting the purchase, we'll try again in September.

Keeping Busy

We are half way through the summer, and it has not been a waste.

These 2 kids have been busy! busy! busy!

 

With cottages and parties, lots of kms on the car this summer!

My house I don't think is too happy with it's upkeep. But with faces like this... who cares!

 



 

We finished all of our therapies (PT/OT/ST) for now, and it is just waiting for ... gasp ... school to start before figuring out the next step for Nick.

He doesn't really know what school is about. I'm a little more worried for him than I was for Katheryn, I hope he will adjust well. And that stubborn streak (no you say what the letter is) will hold off enough for him to learn and have fun



 

I have 2 fishes now!
When we are up at the cottage they want to be in the water the whole time!
Nick still likes it shallow

Katheryn is starting to get more brave (even thought it doesn't look deal - you still have to walk a fair ways out to get to that level)

And she's so much more interested in swimming back!
We had swimming races, and since the water is so shallow my swimming turned into some really sandy knees

The craziness is never that far away!
The kids are drying themselves with the fan (Katheryn is behind starkers) playing model

I think they are really enjoying the summer so far

And Nick is always on the move - with whatever he can get his hands on!

Those canes were such a great idea!

Our next challenge

So i thought that we were ready for our next challenge...

Which meant a shopping trip!

I wanted to make it a big deal. While hoping I wasn't setting Nick up to fail. But hey! Why can't we explore underwear options! Yes I said Underwear!

 

Nick got his choice, of anything that said 100% cotton (instead of spandex mix).

And they kids were not as excited as I was.

 

The next weekend we were home all day (no running around) and so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try them out. He has been dry all week and clean. I looked at some different options to control the leaks he is still having, ended up with a little maxi pad for a trial

So it was time.

To put away the diapers and have some real underwear on

 

Happy Face!

The diapers don't really bother him (yet). A lot of it is me. And I recognize that.
I really dislike the diaper flap that comes out the back of his pants. I fold them down and around and it works, sometimes. But it just screams "diaper" to me and I don't like it.
See - no diaper flap!

But we live with it, and like I said Nick doesn't really care. He calls his diaper his underwear and no one is allowed to say that only babies wear diapers.

At the end of the day it was a Mommy-Fail.
It was a cleaning the basement day (while the kids played) and the 'I'll only work on one little area' before potty time turned into an overflow and a change of clothes.
Nick didn't really seem to mind/notice except it was no longer a PJ day.

So now I'm hesitant to do it again.
It drives me crazy that pee was never ever the issue. He didn't leak and had a large capacity bladder, but poop was the issue. Now we have poop handled (knock on wood) for 90% of the time, but we have little leaks (or big ones if we go too far past cathing time).
I bought some poise pads to hopefully help, but I don't want something bulky either.
I think I'll try again, but I don't want to set him up so he feels that he failed.
So for now it is balancing the line between diapers and underwear.