Beaver Buggies

Nick has been in Beavers this year.

The had an event this weekend making beaver cars and racing them down a ramp.

Nick was very excited about his Beaver Buggy.

Katheryn got right into it as well. Getting right in with the other Beavers and making room for Nick in his walker.

They had some crafts for the kids. Nick likes to explore and take his time with the crafts, and Katheryn just jumps right in.

It was fun night for both of them. I sometimes worry about Nick's social activities and friends. Making friends and participating in activities with other kids his age. And hope they are accepting about his walker and being different from the other kids that way.

But it makes me feel better when I actually see Nick out with his friends. Yes everyone still plays by themselves, but Nick is still included in everything. And he wants to be involved in the activities and will be.
Nick is really enjoying Beavers and I'm glad we were able to get him involved.

Accessiblity and snow

This winter has been cold and we've gotten a lot of snow in the last couple of months.

This isn't anything unique to Nickolas or our family. But it is newer for us (I wrote about it last year as well)

The snow and the cold brings up some issues for Nickolas and his ability to move around outside.

It means loading everyone into the van for even little trips. Some days it is because it is minus a million degrees.

But then it is also for reasons like this:

Everyone knows they are supposed to shovel their driveway. Not everyone does.

But I can actually push Nick pretty well through slush and moderately unshovelled driveways.

Except for someone who doesn't actually have any idea about mobility challenges. Just knows they need to shovel the sidewalk. Don't acutally shovel the end of the sidewalk so that there is street access.

It was left like this for over a week. I did contact the city, and the next day it was shovelled.

Of course with snow and parking lots.

Because why do you need to park in these spots? They need to put the snow somewhere?!

I can't wait for the snow to melt

Easter Seals

Nick got accepted to Easter Seals camp!

We are so excited. Family camp again. We are going to Woodeden (which is the same camp we went to last year). I know more what to expect this year and the kids are excited to be going back to the same place.

Now I just need to make sure that I get the week off of work to go...

At the same time that we got the response about camp I also got an email about the annual Easter Seals telethon. It is coming up in April. They have sent requests to Easter Seals families looking for participants. I saw the email last year, but Nick was not ready or interested to talk to anyone.

But this year, I talked with him and he said that he wanted to talk to the Easter Seals people.
So we will be in the upcoming telethon April 12th!

And they said that a local news station looks for families to interview and would we be interested in having our family put forth.

So stay tuned, because you might see this face on your tv talking about Easter Seals!

Boy-humor

"R-E-S-E-A-R-C-H, Mommy what does that say?"
"Research"

"I-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-E, what is that?"
"Institute"
"haha, you said toot"

A couple days later...

"Mommy, do you remember that word I read that was on the wall behind your head?"
"Research Institute?"
"haha, you said toot"

The minds of boys

Walking with crutches

This Family Day Nick decided to show off. I have been trying to get him to use his crutches.

I keep hearing how well he is doing with them, but I really wanted to see for myself. We keep getting his crutches sent home from school and Nick keeps stubbornly refusing to use them. So this family day I got them out and I had a mission.
Nick will show me how he can walk with them.
He is much more comfortable with them than he has been a month or so ago. But he is still nervous. He wouldn't try them unless I was behind him and holding him. So that is what I did... at first.
I stood behind him, holding his hips and he started walking. And I started pulling less and less pressure on his hips. He kept looking behind him and saying "mommy you have to hold me". We did a bit of walking, then turned around and walked back. I knew he was ready to do it without anyone holding him. So once we got everyone watching... the pressure is on... I pulled out my video camera

 

 And he did it! Family Day strikes again!

 At one time he does look back and say he wants someone to hold him. But he just kept on going. I'm not sure how functional he will be with crutches, but you have to start somewhere.
Even with the smaller base I think he found it was more supportive than the smaller canes we have for him. Now we need to continue to motivate Nick to want to walk with the canes and I think he will. We were all so proud of him!