Chopping down our tree

Another year of our family tradition. Cutting down our Christmas tree.

This year we visited the same farm we went to last year. Spademan Tree Farm.It has nice trees, close to the parking lot, without a lot of hills. They also have wagon rides and hot chocolate.

We have the wagon for Nick to go into the fields with. It has big wheels so go over rough terrain.
Nick seemed happy to be in the wagon at first.

He even got to meet the newest member of our dog-family (Macklyn)

And this year was Nick's year to pick out the tree

Kyle and Katheryn cut it down

 And counted how old the tree was

The tree is beautiful and has a huge and full bottom.

But Nick wasn't very happy. Yes he smiled for the pictures, but the rest of the time he just looked sad. Nothing hurt, he wasn't cold, he said that nothing was wrong.
When we got back to the fire he cheered up

I think he was upset being in the wagon. Not being able to move around on his own. So we are going to have to think about how we will be able to make this happen next year. We'll have a whole year to think it over. And it will depend on if there is snow or not.

It can't be a family tradition if it doesn't work for the whole family.

Nick's new wheels ...coming soon

It is hard to believe but it is time to look for a new wheelchair.

It's been 3 years with the one that Nick has right now. He is outgrowing what he has. And he really, really hates it.

I was reading over my post from 3 year ago and my feelings about the wheelchair and it's uses at that time. Now this post was raw feelings about a wheelchair, as a wheelchair. Not feelings about a wheelchair as a way for Nick to move around.

The thing is, is that Nick doesn't like his current wheelchair. So he doesn't like moving it around himself. I have to beg and plead for him to move. I have never seen him racing down the street or hall in his chair. I have seen him move, I have seen him go places with it, but never racing. Never having fun moving in it. He might have fun sitting in it. 

I feed into this. I know that I do and I still do it. I push it, I treat his chair more like a stroller he can move as he wants to, than a chair he must move around himself. At school they have been trialing a smaller and lighter chair. And Nick has been liking it, and moving it.

This new wheelchair that we have ordered, the Tsunami, is lighter (11 lbs to the Quickie 25 lbs). It is a rigid frame and can't fold up, but I think in 3 years we only folded up Nick's chair once.
It will have lighter wheels (that we need to keep pumped up). It will also have the single handle on the back that can be lowered (or removed).
No arm rails, which keeps it lighter. As well arm rails is something that Nick uses so he doesn't have to push.

There will be a small neck rest. This was brought up for bus rides. When Nick is on the bus he rides in his wheelchair. If the bus were to be in an accident and the seat sits below his shoulders there is no support for his head. Imagine yourself in an accident, whiplash, but if there is no seat (or headrest) there is no support for the back of your head. So we got a headrest (but I think we'll remove it otherwise).

So it will be lighter, easier for Nick to move himself (and I told him that is the expectation). Of course it will be orange. AND most exciting of all. It will be good for sports.
We are still about a year out of Nick being old enough for the adapted sports that are in the area, but this chair will work great for whatever we choose to do.

Sibling Love

These 2 love each other so much!

 

All I want for Christmas

Christmas is coming and it's time for the kids to write their wish list for Santa

Katheryn got to practice her writing

And we decided to try something new with Nickolas.
After Nick's report this month I decided that instead of making Nick spend all of his time writing out what he wants, we would type it out.

So he had to type every single word on his wish list
We spent time sounding out and looking at what was written in the flyers and then he had to find the right key on the keyboard.

 

Katheryn wanted to type out her list as well, so after she wrote it she got to type it as well.



Once that 'work' was done, it was time for play!

 

That ran around the house like this for about an hour!

Hearing the giggles and laughter from these 2 made my wishes come true!

School Report - Katheryn

We got Katheryn's school report.
This brought no surprises to us. Everything was good. Meeting Expectations. Nothing was "Exceeding Expecation", but we get the impression that her teacher doesn't really give out this grade.

Some areas for her to work on (surprise, surprise) was paying attention to her own work and listening in class. Nothing that we haven't seen at home. Katheryn really likes to know what is going on (don't know whwere she gets that from) and helping

All of her work that comes home is correct.
Her reading is fantastic, she answers all of the math questions we give her. She is inquisitive and likes school.

For the parent-teacher interview Katheryn is reading at the top of her class, with only one other boy reading at her level.
Just this week Katheryn completed her level 23 book. But they don't have higher level books. But Katheryn had pretty much read any book she picks up (which is interesting when she is reading over my shoulder)

I'm wondering if the fact that within a week we had 2 parent interviews, one that was great and one that was surprising just made Nick's that much more surprising.