Getting around in snowy Canada

We live in Canada.
It snows.

This year may have given us more snow than we've had in a long time, but snow is expected in the winter.

 

The snow might look really nice and it might be nice to have a snowy winter, but three month snow and snow and snow and get a little tired. If you also add a child who doesn't like the cold and uses a wheelchair and a walker that is difficult navigate in the snow... Then it takes a lot of fun of the winter the end up staying home a lot more than you thought that you would.
Nick doesn't like sitting on the snow or staying still, he gets cold

The picture of Nick inside breaks my  heart a little... But he wanted to go inside, he DOES NOT like the cold. He just wanted his sister to come inside as well.

Even if it hasn't snowed for a couple of days, and thinking of going for a walk outside (even to get to a destination and not drive). This is what you find

Not in front of all the houses, but in front of enough of them. So to walk to the bus-stop (at the top of our street) or go and pick up out mail with Nick, means that we would walk on the road, or drive. Or in the case of going on a short trip with the daycare group - calling a cab (Thanks Jen).
Playing in our backyard? Snow is too deep for any kind of wheels, he can walk with us holding him, or crawl through the snow, or be pulled in a sled.

I know it sounds like I'm complaining. I am.
I really don't mind the snow and the cold. But if I'm working on Nick being independent in whatever form he wants, then the snow does not make it easy.
This is how Nick spends most of his time playing in the snow with us. Sitting down (no wonder he gets cold)

But all the snow comes with accessibility issues.
Parking spots with snow in them (or snow covering the accessible spot so you can't get a chair beside the door), ramps covered in snow or entrances to the ramp not shoveled. Even without snow, there is still ice to worry about. Either the ice that will make Nick slip, or I will slip carrying Nick (always a possibility because I am a klutz).

A lot of our activities have been planned and driven to. We drive to daycare and back every day this winter, even if it is one street over.

There was a quote I heard (that I can't find anywhere) about a father who said he looked out his window every morning to see if his daughter (in a wheelchair) could go outside or not.

It kind of feels like I'm using the snow as an excuse. There are winter things Nick can do. I only need to watch the Paralympics for inspiration. I just need to put the extra effort into finding what works for him.
I'm not really sure what the purpose of this blog post is. Complain about all the snow? Wish for spring and summer? It's March, the snow has to melt sometime right?

He's quiet?!

A lot people tell me how quiet Nickolas is...

How he doesn't raise his voice...

So I took this video to show that he actually does have a life and he does know how to use it.

School News

Nicholas has a fantastic time in his Campbell school.
He has best friend, he has a girlfriend, he has a boyfriend. He talks about his friends all day, everyday. He wants to invite friends over, to the cottage, in the summer... Whatever we are doing he wants to have his friends along.
When he's home from school he talks about his bus drive. What his bus driver did, what they saw, what songs they sang.
We have beans so happy about his experience at school.

 

It is not just the social aspect of the school. Nick is learning so much!
He can read books (with a lot of encouragement), he writes name, he spells his name (all the time). He wants to use his walker (but not his wheelchair - which he mainly just uses on the bus) and move. He wants to be independent.  In the house there isn't a lot of room for his walker, so Nickolas has be improvising, pushing a chair around the house.

He sings songs, he plays and learns and talks about what he learns.
He needs to work on his letters, so we got him a tablet. When I talked with his OT they said we need to work on his pencil grip, so we bought a big crayon for his tablet. Works great!

Campbell's school has been a great experience for him (and us) I haven't been worried about what he is doing in school, what resources he has and what support he needs.

In January we reapplied for Senior Kindergarten at Campbell's, but we also had to register him for his home school. So I got all of the papers to fill out, and put them in my bag... for a couple of weeks. I always meant to fill them out, but I had already missed the original deadline, so I kept delaying. Hoping we would get accepted into Campbell's again, and wouldn't need to register him.

Luckily we found out he's going back to Campbell's! Now I have another year of breathing room. Another year of therapy in school and school routine and learning in a small environment before he is in the 'real world'

One year before worrying about large class sizes, how he will move around the classroom and through the halls. One year to figure out and get him out of diapers, and catheterizing and EA's. Wondering and worrying about how accessible the playground is, what we need to inform the teachers, how to optimize his learning. One more year to figure out therapies and appointments and what we need and when.

School is going great! Nick is having a great time and learning so much!

Creativity

The SB&H had a contest this year for the 2015 calendars. Calling all child artists!

I heard about it in January and thought how cool it would be for Nickolas to submit something.

I've been trying out different create projects for the last couple of weeks, but Nickolas has not be very interested in doing more than drawing a line or just scribbling.

 

So I pulled out our paints and paper, stripped the kids and let them go

 

 

Hands are fun, so we coloured everyone hands first.
Mixed up some colours, it is going well...

Then we were drawing something that was fun to do.
This was Nick's favorite thing to do when we were in Punta Cana. The sun, sky, clouds and the pool. This is the most Nick has ever drawn for me before.
I think it is a masterpiece!

Katheryn had a lot of fun drawing Easter eggs and rainbows.

We didn't finish anything in time to submit for the calendar. I didn't want to pressure Nick and he wasn't all that interested. So when we were done, I put everything flat to dry.
6 weeks of trying and 1 scenic picture by Nickolas was a success (and Katheryn loves any excuse to get out the paints).

Olympics

It's time for the Winter Olympics again.
I have been very excited. But I missed being able to watch it 24-7 like four years ago. But work has been getting in the way.
Four years ago Nickolas was just 3 months old, and there was so much I worried about, that I didn't know I didn't need to worry about. And whenever I think about
I will always, always think about Alex Bilodeau and his brother. Putting things into perspective. Having a role model: his brother.

So here we are four years later and cheering on our Canadian Olympians again.
We had a medal count down on our wall. We talked about the sports we were going to watch and cheered them on!

Katheryn's favorite sport is the skeleton and curling. So we decided to practice...

Skeleton (she's smiling on the inside...)

Curling (she's pretending to hold the broom, and the ice is the curling stone.

I asked about hockey, and she says that hockey is just 'ok'.
But Nickolas really likes hockey. And he wants to go skating too.

 

Nickolas has been wanting to go skating. On skates. Like Katheryn (who hasn't actually skated on skates yet either). So we've been staying away from the skating ring for now.

Right now it's just enjoying the snow (which Nick likes for about 5 minutes anyways)