Apple picking

Last weekend we took the girls apple picking at an orchard near our house. It was a warm but misty/rainy day and we weren't sure we were going to brave the elements, but I'm so glad we decided to go. The girls had a great time picking. eating apples and cider donuts, and getting pumpkins to bring home. Later that day we made a yummy apple pie. All in all, it was a really nice Fall outing with the family.

Terrible Threes

What a misnomer: the terrible twos. At least in our family. The emotional ups and downs, whining, tantrums, frustrations and defiance have not abated since the girls turned 3. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't been ALL bad. Hannah and Isabelle are more and more fun to be around as we watch them become their own individual people with their own individual personalities, wants and needs.

But...

Interspersed with this fun are some moments of misery. And God love her, Isabelle seems to be the one most striken with these fits of "terrible-ness." You could say that she just feels everything in her world with such passion and intensity. Yeah, something like that...

Isabelle's battleground for control often centers around the potty. I'll tell her she needs to go potty, because she really does need to go, and she kicks and screams and refuses to sit down to do her business until I all but strap her onto the seat. Or after she goes when I tell her to wipe, she says she's still going and refuses to get off the potty. Won't get on, won't get off. Pretty much she won't do whatever it is that I ask her to do. It's always great fun when it happens in a single public restroom with a line of people waiting outside for their turn.

We're trying hard to teach the girls to use their words to express themselves instead of hitting, biting, pushing, etc. It's coming back to bite me in the keister now as Isabelle is also fond of telling me, "I'm very frustrated right now, Mommy, so don't do that to me," when I take her away from something she's doing. So I'm stuck: great that she's using her words, but not great that she's using them to get her way. Argh!

A lot of this drama is related to the fact that I can't remember the last time Isabelle took a nap. I think maybe it was last week some time, but I'm not sure. I keep telling myself she is no way ready to be done napping, because we've been through stretches like this before where she doesn't nap for over a week and then gets herself back on track. She is so much happier and easier of a child when she naps, and I'm a much happier mama. But I know many kids drop their nap around this age so I'm preparing myself for this possibility. If it is part of a permanent trend though, I think things around here are going to be pretty ugly for awhile until she gets used to having less sleep.

HELP!

Health care policies and the presidential candidates

As a parent of a child with special needs who depends on the health care system to maximize her quality of life, I found the following report by The Commonwealth Fund to be very informative. It's so difficult to parse through the specifics of each candidate's policies amidst all the spin, but this report and the interactive Web feature make it so simple that even I and my addled brain could make sense of it!

The report, The 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals: Choices for America, describes how each candidate would seek to expand health insurance coverage, improve the quality and efficiency of the health system, and control costs.

The interactive Web feature allows you to compare the Obama and McCain plans side-by-side in 24 different areas.

Check it out!

And then they were three

Hannah and Isabelle turned 3 years old on Tuesday, September 23 at 12:49 and 12:52 pm.

Wow.

Three years old.

How far they have come.

Dodging the botax bullet

Hannah had another appointment with her physiatrist yesterday. We last saw him in July and every time we go, he talks about botax injections being an option we'd most likely explore at some point in the future. So I always steel myself before these visits, expecting him to say "OK, let's go for it." Although I realize it's pretty likely she'll need botax some day, my goal is to avoid it for as long as possible.

Yesterday we learned that we dodged the botax bullet again-horray! Dr. B was really happy with Hannah's tone and range of motion, and the mechanics of her stride when walking with her walker. He said her AFOs were looking a little small so I made an appointment for her to get fitted for a new pair and this pair will be hinged/articulating so she can engage her ankles and feet instead of being locked into a stiff brace. We're going to continue with hippotherapy and regular PT and OT as well as try to get some warm water swimming into the mix for the colder months.

I've been watching Miss Hannah and have known that she is getting stronger, more fluid with her movements and staying flexible but it's great to have "the expert" say the same thing. She continues to amaze me every day with her motivation, determination and spunk. Hannah's personality and our efforts to keep her moving and grooving are definitely making a difference!

Awakening to differences

I think that Hannah is starting to become more and more aware of her differences. In the past week, she has said to either B or I, totally out of the blue, "Sometimes people have trouble walking." The first time she said it, my heart jumped into my throat and my eyes welled with tears. I tried to keep myself composed and said, "Yes, they do. And sometimes people have trouble with other things like seeing, and they need glasses. Or they can't speak so well and they use sign language to talk." She has said it several times since then, and we tell her some version of what I said that first time. One time I also asked her, "Hannah, do you have trouble walking?" And she replied, "Yes, I do." And I said, "And you use a walker and that helps you to walk and get strong. And you're doing such a great job with using your walker." And she said, "Yes, I am," and then she was off to do something else.

One time Isabelle piped in with, "If someone is pushing Hannah in her walker she can just say to them 'No thank you, I can do it myself.'"

Clearly both girls are thinking about the fact that Hannah can't get around like most other people they know. And I'm trying hard to figure out the best way to deal with this. My main goal is to make sure that Hannah has a strong sense of self. I want this for both of my girls and often tell them how proud I am of them for one thing or another, and how they have big strong bodies and big strong brains. But with Hannah, I want to be sure that I also acknowledge and honor her disability and her struggles and frustrations with it, without making her feel inadequate because of it.

Recently I told her, when she seemed to be losing her patience with not being able to get where she wanted to go, "I know how frustrated you are that you can't get over to the table as quickly and easily as you want. It stinks, doesn't it? But you're doing such a great job with your walker and you are getting stronger and stronger all the time."

The other thing Hannah has been doing a lot of lately is asking for her walker so she can walk around. We were at the lake with some friends and she was playing in the sand and she looked up and said, "Mommy please get my walker so I can walk around."

I am so glad Hannah is not afraid to ask for what she wants. I only wish I could give it ALL to her.

Easy riders

Hannah and Isabelle are now the proud owners of their very first tricyles! Both of them came this week; Hannah's is an adaptive tryke from Ambucs.org, a very cool organization which provides these amazing wheels for kids who need a little extra help to get peddling.

With the help of Hannah's PT, Barb, we got them out on our road today, which is a really quiet dead-end road with a slight slope to it so it's perfect for letting them get the hang of it with the help of the hill to give them some momentum. Barb was really impressed with how quickly Hannah got herself moving with the hand pedals and that Isabelle could peddle with her feet so easily. Go girls go!

Below are a few pictures and a quick video of the momentus occasion. The whole time I was watching them, I just couldn't get over the fact that my girls are old enough now to be riding bikes. Where has the time gone?!