FTEA Ride A Thon

This winter Sara embarked upon a new journey.  Truthfully I wasn't sure if I should even investigate local riding centers for her, becuase she is terrified half to death of animals.  When I decided to put a call in, one of the things they told me is that the riders must be wearing pants.  Now you might be thinking....of course she has to wear pants, but this is Sara and she has worn pants very few times in her life and barely ever gives up the tutu and tights.  But I decided that we would give it a try.  It was the therapuetic recreation specialist in me itching to make a come back, reminding me the wonderful things that can happen with rec therapy without the kids even knowing that therapy is occuring.

So I held my breath, we showed up, I prepared for the worse, and she fell in love.  If you are not familiar with therapuetic riding, it is great.  They use the horse in a purposeful but fun way to benefit children and adults with disabilities.  For Sara, it helps her with her core strength.  Having a brachial plexus injury, her overall alignment and strength has been affected.  The gait and the movement of the horse helps with rebuilding her strength as well as her balance.  When she holds the reigns she has to hold her hands in a half way supinated position, and supination is something that all kids with BPI's have difficulty with.  When she pulls the reigns to steer the horse she works on the motion of pulling the arm back in a bent elbow position, but when she hugs the horse and helps with the taking of the horse she works on elbow extension which is something she struggles with.  The Dr. felt that it would also be really good for her shoulder.  She continues to work on confidence and communication skills as she says in the cutest little voice "Walk On" to get her horse to move.  There is nothing she can't do at riding.  She is the most adorable little three year old on I swear the largest horse ever, and she has even added her own flair to the riding when she goes every week in leggings and a tutu....who said that leggings couldn't be considered pants??.....

On May 19th Sara is going to be participating in a ride a thon to benefit FTEA and it's riders.  This experiance has really been an empowering one for her.  For the last three years Sara has been in and out of therapy and Dr.'s appointments where she has had no control over being there or not and what was going to happen at them.  But for the hour she is at therapuetic riding she is not only in control of herself but also of a very large animal.  If this doesn't empower you, I don't know what does.I am so happy she is able to have this experiance at such a lovely place and as a family we look forward to participating in the Ride A Thon.  If you would like to make a pledge please let me know. 

~Betsy

http://www.ftea.org/

Winding Down

I don't know where the time has gone.  Here it is mid April, and I feel like the school year was just starting, that we were just celebrating Christmas, and now here we are at the end of the school year.  I am so proud of the girls and how much they have grown, changed, and matured in one year.  I look back at the pictures from a year ago, and I can hardly believe it is the same child.  Tonight we were going through the old bins of clothing, get ready to purge out, sell, garage sale, donate....and anything else to spring clean.  It is shocking to see how small they once were.

Paulita has become quite the school girl.  She entered school, embraced it, learned how to read, write, add, and subtact.  Much more then I ever imagined from kindergarten and the remembrances of what my kindergarten year was full of playing school, house, blocks, and art projects.  I have smiled at each new discovery made, friendship formed,  and world problem she has taken on.  Paulita remains today, yesterday, and always my free spirit.  Miguel and I just love her to pieces and smile everytime we are reminded at how much she is completely him.  She loves nature, art, camping, planting, science, learning about other countries, and American Girls.  She has become quite the ballerina and has started tap dancing this year.  She says ballet is her favorite activity.  In judo, we have watched her inner tiger emerge, we know that she is not about to let anyone walk all over her.  After Christmas she started taking piano lessons, and tommorrow is her debut in her first recital.  She loves memorizing music and composing her own songs.  We are very proud of our little lady.

Sara is and will always be an inspiration to us.  She has grown leaps and bounds and we are completely in awe with her.  This fall she said goodbye to the days of parent tot ballet and emerged as a passionate ballerina.  One ballet class a week was not enough for this serious little student, so she began taking two days a week, and learning to tap dance.  She fell in love with the stage, the lights, the flowers, and the audience by appearing as the youngest cast member of the Nutcracker preforming at a local university with proffessional dancers.  Not a day goes by when the little princess doesn't beg me to take her to dance and to see her ballet teachers.  She wants to know when she can preform on the big stage in Chicago and every table top, hand rail, and bar that is waist high becomes a ballet bar.  She is soon to make her debut in her first recital, and the countdown has begun.  When she is not dancing she is watching movies about ballerinas, video clips on youtube about proffessional ballerinas, reading biographies about dancers from the library with Mommy, and watching the movie of the Nutcracker memorizing every part she aspires to be and how and when they enter and exit the stage and the positions of all the dancers on the stage......and yes she is only 3. In February she started participating in therapuetic horseback riding.  She quickly fell in love with this also, and the best part it is so good for her.  She continues to make slow and steady progress with her arm, and we couldn't be happier.  She has brought a light to our life, an appreciation of what we take for granted, and is truly in every way my little buddy.

As summer approaches, we look forward to spending time as a family as Miguel is off for the summer.  The girls love being able to spend time with him, and I love having help with the kids!! We hope everyone has a wonderful end of the school year and many fun filled summer adventures.

~ Betsy

Up Cycled fall skirt

I had wanted to create a skirt for Paula out of cargo pants that still fit in the waist but didn't fit in the length.  It has been an ongoing project as I adjusted to my sewing machine "baby pink".  I was happy to have it done, and now we are waiting for some cool weather for her to wear it.  I also made her a matching shirt and a pretty headband.  Can't wait to see her in it!

The Skirt

The shirt with the skirt.

 The Headband

Welcome to Fall

Today is the first day it really feels like fall.  We welcome some cooler temperatures but feel hesitant to welcome winter weather just yet.  We took the kids to the swimming pool last night for the final time of the season.  It had already started cooling down to low 70's but with a cool wind.  Miguel and I let them swim, and happily watched from the side as did the few other parents that were crazy enough, like us, to bring their kids.  After about 40 minutes, both of the girls were ready to come home.  So what are we doing today to welcome fall.....

Harvested homegrown pumpkin gourds.....

made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, decorated the house with the gourds in anticipation of Halloween (only we are 2 months early), we all came down with our first back to school colds, Miguel did a fall cleaning of the yard and put wood chips and I did a fall clean inside the house,I made a great "fall" meal and ate it mid-afternoon...I love doing that on fall weekends....and Sara had a fall snooze.....

We also watched the Polar Express today....but we don't want to wish for the holiday season just yet.  We hope everybody had a nice holiday weekend, and welcome fall........

First Day of Kindergarten

Today was the day, the day my baby went to kindergarten.  I was both excited for her, but yet sad that she is already big enough to go to school.  I felt gracious in the special time that her and I have shared together during these early childhood years.  The opportunity to stay home with her, has been a very special gift.  I never in a million years imagined being a stay at home mom, but Paula was truly love at first sight, and now I could not imagine anything but.

I held her in my arms when she was moments old, I took her to her first story time, and her first playdate.  I witnessed everyone of her temper tantrums, her first pee pee on the potty, and the day she gave up sippy cups.  I took her to her first day of 3 year old preschool as well as stood in awe at her 4 year old preschool graduation.   I remember struggling over the ABC's, sweating over her skipping the number 7 when counting from 1 to 10, pushed her to learn her sounds, and taught her to turn those sounds into reading words.  I saw her dance her first recital, learn to doggy paddle, and do her first throw in judo.  I watched her free spirit, knowing that our world would never box her in, cryed when she pushed the boundries, watched in awe when her independance taught her something new, and could do nothing but say "only MY Paulita!". 

And what could I do but embrace this very special moment.  I told her Paulita...today is your day, and you are going to MOVE MOUNTAINS!  Today is just the beginning.  I felt a little bit nervous, but I told Paulita that there were three very special angels watching over her for me, Mommy's Grandma and Grandpa, and Papi's Abuela.  And what do I hope....I hope that she will have a very special teacher who can see her beauty, her spunk, and her uniqueness.  Who will embrace her challenges, foster her love for learning, and push her to learn more.  I hope her teacher will celebrate her bilingualism and biculturalism.  And I hope she will have fun.

So my Paulita...today is your day, you ARE going to move mountains.  We are very proud of the baby you were, the toddler you were, and the child you are going to become.  The world truly has no limits for you.  I hope you never loose your free spirit.  Here we go......

BPI Clinic Day

On Wednesday we made the trek downtown to Children's Memorial's BPI Clinic.  Going into the appointment, I hoped the Dr. would be happy with what they saw and I hoped that based on her progress we wouldn't have to go back for another year (it had been 8 months since our last visit).  We got the girls all excited about going to Molly's Cupcakes, the novelty cupcake bakery across the street, and the adults excitement was in a restaurant called Sultans Market which is next door to CMH. 

We absolutely love Sara's specialist.  She has such a nice way with the children and families.  We have always appreciated and trusted her expertise and kindness.  The clinic nurse is wonderful as well, but unfortunately we didn't see her this time.  My hopes proved to be in the right place because the Dr. was happy and said she wouldn't be a candidate for any surgeries and that we should come annually from now on.  She also told us that Sara no longer had any restrictions except for something like football where there is an opportunity for strong impact in the shoulder. 

At the moment I took everything for what it was and was very pleased, and I still am.  But when I started thinking about no restrictions, my mind went flying.  NO RESTRICTIONS!  I didn't know if I should laugh, cry, be shocked, seem surprised....no restrictions.  Although she hasn't had complete recovery, this is my girl, and it is her moment to fly.  She will always be in therapy to keep her muscles loose and to continue to stretch her range, but this is who she is and will always be.

Sara has always been very in tune to her BPI and we have always felt that there is no reason to keep her injury a secret from her.  We wanted her to understand why we were going to so many therapies and why we were doing home exercises.  She is also aware of her vascular birthmark on her BPI arm, and she takes people aback when her little two year old voice exclaims that it is her hemangioma when she is asked.  So I began to think about the importance of reminding her in our daily conversations that she can do and be anything she wants to be.  And when I asked her what that would be....she said a tap dancer.   Of course she understood my statement at a very 2 year old level.  But I hope that when she gets to be an adult, that she never has felt the feeling of road blocks or my nervousness with her arm as something that held her back.  So today, and I am sure for her whole life.....we will be telling her that she has the whole world at her fingertips.....and today is her day to fly............

~Love Potion~

Happy Valentines Day!  Today was a pretty quiet Valentines Day in our house, marked by Paulita having strep throat.  I swear we never get sick like this...time for some spring cleaning to get the germs up and out!  When we went to get Paula's prescription, each of the girls could pick a Valentines Day treat.  Sara picked a little princess box of heart shaped chocolate, and Paula a Mickey and Minnie in love lolipop made of marshmellow, to which she didn't like.

I had to get creative with Miguel...becuase I just felt like it wouldn't be Valentines Day without doing something for him.  So....we bought a little candy bar of chocolate at the drug store, but I still wanted to do something more.  At 3:45 it hits me....just moments before he got home from work.  With our new juicer, to which I love and am completely fascinated with....I would make him some "Love Potion", basically a fresh natural juice of strawberries.  Sara preferred to refer to it as a princess pink drink...hey whatever floats your boat!  So I whipped it up and mixed it with some fresh oranges as well for sweetness, and gave it to both girls.  Sara drank it and liked it, but Paula I had to give to her in a medicine dropper to get her to take it.  After I asked each of the girls who they were in love with and they said Mami. 

So we were super psyched with our Valentines Day Love Potion.  Here are some pictures, I wanted to have the photos with out children, but Sara just couldn't wait to try it.  Thought the one was pretty funny becuase you can see her sticking her tongue in it!

I guess all of what I consider "winter holidays" are behind us, and now it is on to spring.  Happy Valentines from our home to yours!

~Mama Betsy