Party was Fun, Oatie's first bowling experience

Today Oatie went to his big Sisters party, she had a great time, we demolished her 2/3 cake. She had a great party, they had fun bowling and all the food was demolished.

Oatie had a surprise, my best friends 14 year old daughter came too and totally took care of Oatie, she held his hands and walked him to the lane for his turn, Oaties brother moved the ramp in place which Oatie held and his brother put the ball on the ramp and voila!!! Oatie we think got the highest score in his lane and they didn't have the bumper lanes either...

A fun day enjoyed by all, kids and parent helpers included x

The Pox and Eye Graze...Sleeping Beauty and... the Royal Wedding

Well, Oatie unfortunately didn't make it to School today.  He felt slightly warm got a new pox...  and yesterday we noticed he'd scratched his eye somehow, fortunately it's in the corner... so he's not happy about having the drops to hopefully make it better.

My very own princess, is having her very own birthday party tomorrow... she's having a bowling party.  So apart from having one cake already (chocolate cat head), she was so sweet about choosing her cake, she actually said, "mummy I've already had a cake, and Oatie's bench is really important.... so one Cake is enough".  Who actually says that at age 6?  Well I thanked her for her love for Oatie and thinking of others, etc... but I said I'm making a cake for you to share with your friends.  So she chose the Wilton Enchanted Castle, more of a comic castle... and then was like, no... Sleeping Beauty Doll... no.... Enchanted Castle...  so I made the Enchanted Castle first.  And then realised how I remember Prince William's Mum getting married and shortly after we visited her families stately home in Northampton and accidentally bumped into her dad.  I loved Princess Diana even then, and she was already married and asked her dad where she was and he said in the Bath lol!  Princess Diana's dad then stated that there were too many stairs for my little feet and carried me up the stairs.  With the fact that Princess Diana's son was getting Married today... I though cor, time has really flown... and that time amount again, my little girl will be all grown up... and well, I made her the sleeping Beauty Cake too.  As you can tell from the photo, I really enjoyed making it and she designed how it would look.

Last night, my fabulous Canadian Friend who is a Die Hard Royalist... persuaded me to watch the wedding live with her.  I wasn't going to, as much as I respect William and Kate... after Princess Diana's death (which I have strong feelings about) and the marriage of Charles and Camilla,  (not because he was divorced but because their original dishonesty), well anyway, I did really enjoy watching and sharing the experience with her and explaining all the pomp and ceremony... and enjoying looking at the outfits... I am very happy for them and regardless on peoples view on the British Monarchy... apart from we throw a good party... with the world consumed in Doom and Gloom, natural disasters and violence etc.. broadcast in the media 95% of the time if not more...  It was nice having 1/3 of the world actually all sharing in some Joy, to see people in love, the basics of life.  And both of us being mum's of 3, really enjoyed the quiet peace of that time of day, and we had a mini English Tea Party, I took my Union Flag and well definitely a flashbulb memory. 

Oaties feeling better... Will he make a whole week of school?

Well his iPad arrived, but the Otterbox case to protect it, isn't ready for sale yet.

This is Oatie during our Egg hunt.

Oatie playing with his new playdoh

Well today he managed to pull up his own trousers for the first time, he stood up in open space and pulled them up all by himself... Look...

Today we got on 2:10 as me eldest had a choral concert ... It was lovely.

Easter Bunny, Parites and Chicken Pox...and.... and.... double test day! YES DOUBLE!

We've gone a bit A.W.O.L recently... I've been having a blog vacation like my dear friend Phil lol!

Well the kids are tucked up in bed. and I'm about to mix a scratch cake (home-made cake) depending on which side of the Ocean lingo you like... for my daughters 2/3 birthday cakes.

She is having her Birthday over 3 weeks, it sounds quite regal really.... Well with the upcoming UK Royal Wedding lol... She not intentionally but has 3 names, all of which were once English Queens lol!

She had one cake on her actual birthday, she was competing... and next Saturday she is having her party 2 weeks later... and she today chose a flat Castle cake,... and couldn't decide between a dolly pick cake and that.. so depending on time, she might get both lol!

Our Skating Season is officially at an end, or it will be after our round up party.  My eldest brought a lot of metal home.  And my daughter... well she's at the lower end of the level my eldest competes at... and although she didn't place but twice.  She actually, learnt not to really care if she got a medal or not, to be a good and nice competitor and she learnt to win and lose with grace.  She made a point of high-fiving all the girls who did get a medal (my son does the same).  And she's finally realised that these other girls who do get medals are all my eldest's age.... and that she only came last once.  She beat 7&8 year olds... she actually got 4th lots... which was brilliant!

And.... we had double test day.... My eldest tested the next dance... it wasn't his best skate of the dance,... but he PASSED!!!  My daughter, PASSED her Dutch Waltz... which we found out from another mum/mom that the dance partner used to a few years back insist that they were 8 years old... so that was another honour for her...and she passed it.  I did feel rather sorry for him, having a 6ft+ guy, having to skate in a almost 90 degree squat...with a 6year old and 5 days she told me!!!

I have been running and swimming and actually lost some pounds... would you believe... ! lol! my throat lump thing is still annoying me... but by not shouting and changing how I speak or how I swim, it's much more manageable... the worst bit was not being able to cheer the kids on at their comps... in the end I asked some other parents who didn't know me at all, if they wouldn't mind cheering on the girl with so much sparkles on you're dazzled!

Oatie had has his chicken pox vaccine... it knocked him for six, so we were a bit late in doing his assessment video... but him hacking up his guts, wouldn't have been a good video...  We go in a few weeks time for our next ABR visit.... his illness has really knocked our hours quite badly....

My daughter went to an "educational 6th birthday party today" I don't object to museums, but this was at the little girls house.... and we did manage to persuade the mum to put the Mensa brain quest cards on the side...

Well I had better get mixing that cake... and hopefully if the Easter Bunny comes and after the hunt, if he does... I might get some bench in watching some Pooh Bear Eastery films which are Oatie's favourites...

And.... just in case you're wondering... there are Still no buds on our trees, not a single one, and we still have a garden full of snow!!!

The older kids did a beautiful Easter Bunny Murals in Chalk on our drive...  Huge WELCOME... they wrote the bunny a song this evening and sang at full volume and in different languages so he could hopefully understand one of them.

Sweet Dreams, and hope the Easter Bunny leaves you an Egg hunt...

Snowy Monday!

Well, if you don't believe me, it's been snowing lots at the weekend, apparently people have seen Geese re-migrate south again! lol!

Oatie still looking wiped from flu and then his vaccine

Our trees have no signs of buds and well it's all rather odd really! I think Spring has been cancelled.

The disabled ramp had 8inches of snow, so Tina Turner biceps for me today lol!

Well since I've given up coaxing the kids in the car, we've been late, as my voice can't take it, but today, the kids actually self motivated themselves to get in the car, so we were on time, my eldest is always on time, but it's my daughter who's the one who's late. Oatie doesn't start till 8.45. My eldest is meant to be at school at 8.35am, and 12km away, my daughter is meant to be at school at 8.25 and Oatie 8.45 same place as my daughter. So I drop my eldest off first, his principle gave him permission to be early early, and the I drop the other two off after.

My ice princess on her Birthday during warm up doing an arabesque- spiral

My little girl turned 6 on Friday, and had her birthday wish, to be an ice princess. When she fell asleep, she woke in the hotel room to a huge banner and lots of balloons and her presents. I smuggled a homemade dairy free chocolate cake with icing that she didn't know about, it was a cat head of her cat. She so didn't care where she places, she bounced and high fived all the girls who got medals... I bought her a new sparkle comb for her hair to skate in and and then we went for a shop, and she got some girly things and had a nice meal in a restaurant and then they served the chocolate cake. She was so happy, she fell asleep with a huge grin on her face.

Her hair, it twinkled as she skated! lol!

Oatie meanwhile has got a renewed appreciation for rinks, he claps for ALL the skaters and cheers them all on and likes watching it, and is very sweet and now likes taking photos too.

My eldest came away with a medal for each of the events he skated in. He's near the top of his level and My daughter is just starting out. She placed well she got 4th and 5th out of 8 and the other girls were 2-2.5 years older than her so she was really pleased she did as well as she did.

Oatie Babysitting her cuddly toy... he's wiped from cheering

Today we got in 3.5 if not 4 hours of ABR. Oatie had a great day at school and my older two had their last practice before DOUBLE TEST DAY - yikes!

The last test day, I was fairly sure that my eldest would pass and he did. This test day, I don't know, if they do they do and if they don't they don't. I just said as long as you did your best and try your hardest and you fail then I don't care. If you don't practice/try and then fail then I would. All you can do is do your best, and you have two options to try and risk failure, or not try at all. The second isn't really an option in my book, to me that's not living.

So my son is testing the second dance surprising his coach with one of the new tops I made, he's looking forward to that. My daughter is wearing her new princess dress. The dance partner joked with her saying now your 6, I won't have to bend down as far. The poor guy is skating a dance in a squat with her!

The day after is the last competition of the season for us. Huge flights (groups to skate against), for my daughter, and for my son it will only be 2, he likes it when there is lots of guys to skate against, more of a challenge and more exciting. The next level up of boys will be exciting to watch, they competeded against my eldest when he first started out, and then they moved up... and the same group will be skating against each other and we haven't seen those four boys go head to head for 1.5 years... so that should be fun. My daughter will be skating against 7-8 year olds and lots of them... as the almost nine year old from our club is in the next group.

Well I had better go and fix dinner, it's home-made pizza today and the kids are decorating mini princess chocolate cakes with the dolly picks in.

I'm back, had a mini vacation?... not!

If I was wearing a hat, I'd take it off, to anyone who started their family in their late 30's - 40's. I have been totally wiped with the recent competition, the start the new school term and before that the flu and making 6 pieces of clothing! Maybe it's more the fact that as well as the other two Oatie physically is like that awkward inbetween stage of an 8-10 month old being mobile but not walking....

My ice princess (who successfully batted her eyelids at her daddy,) persuaded her dad, to let them compete this coming weekend as she wanted to spend her 6th birthday on the ice in a princess dress. I did ask one of the 15 year old skaters who's birthday is in April too, if that still happens at 15 and she said no.... so we said ok, and well I made the dress and she got to try it out last weekend.

Well I've never been to Edmonton, and lots of friends have raved about the Mall. I miss shopping in England or the US. Shopping in Montreal is good as the clothes have more flair and colour than here. This morning the kids had early morning skating, on the ice at 7am... and I'm thinking maybe that's why I'm wiped this evening.

Tomorrow, after more skating... (they have a test day coming up) we're driving to Edmonton, and there is the threat of MORE snow. It was either drive up tomorrow, or get up at 3 or 4am... which didn't sound appealing. lol! So today I baked and iced a simple cake that will keep and travel well. (I usually like to make hugely elaborate ones).

On the way home from this weeks' comp, I'm meant to be at Scout camp.... and then it's Double Test Day on Wednesday I have two testing arghghghghghghggh. My then 6 year old + 5 days. will be testing a dance that usually 7+ test and well, being so small, and the dance partner having to be in an almost 90o Squat due to the height difference... and so far my son who's testing the next one... told me today how his feet get in a pickle should he be worried...? (Oatie then pipped up... and said ohhhhhhhhhhh Maaaannnnnnnnnn) well that made me roar with laughter... the fact that he fully understood the whole exchange, something out of context as we're talking about skating in our kitchen. So I have told them it's better to do your best/try your best and risk failing than it is to just not even have a go. Passing or failing has no reflection on their skating "career" and they can always retest in Summer. They have 3 more practices to nail it. My eldest tends to pull things out the bag on the day. My daughter said she can't concentrate when she's partnered with him, as the dance partner is just sooo handsome, she said he looks like Prince Charming from Cinderella... I'm like oh no...!

The occupational therapist, came to school on Monday to assess Oatie. and she is meant to phone us to relay her observations! Well I'm not surprised,... but nothing so far! Meanwhile all the people who have special needs or work with, are giving me a list of people and organisations to phone. So I think I'll save that joy till Monday.

Oatie had his chickenpox vaccine yesterday and tollerated it well and told me how he wanted more injections... lol! Well he needed to be "adjusted" to the Canadian schedule. He needs one more tetanus style booster next Month and then its the can of worms of the MMR. Our other two had single vaccines, and here in Canada you can't get one of them, our GP said if we could get it imported, he'd inject him... I know that many of you might say that it's perfectly safe.

The thing for me is, you would never say get mumps, and then be out in society to be exposed to measles and then have mumps and measles and then all at the same time get rubella. It just wouldn't happen, you'd be sick and in bed. In the UK, at our toddler group, my eldest was the youngest of the pregnancy cycle, I say that as the time between baby 1 and 2 and or 3... fairly equally spaced... lol so a lot of ours were all similar age and then our seconds were all similar aged.... etc... I saw 4 kids over a year who were fine before the MMR, and then the week later when I saw them, they were "different" one stopped babbling/chatting. One started to look past people or through them and it was just odd, like a total change of personality it was like a switch. then there were the ones who looked like they never even had an immunisation.

Oatie's never had any MMR and we're having to toy with the idea of, letting him have the single vaccine now now he's nearly 4 (more developed immune system than a 1 year olds) or go for the singles but it would be a huge endeavour to do so.

Well we've got our ABR in not quite our 3 hours per day but near two each day this week.


Well it's 11pm and I'm totally flaked, so goodnight world...

Love Oatie's mum
xxxx

Day 3 Done

Today, my little girl skated her introductory freeskate and came 4th which was fabulous, she had a great skate, one of her personal bests and lovely technique. The dress I made her and finished it on Weds, I saw fir the first time today she looked sooo cute, she always skates and practises her best, she skated against kids who were 1-2 years older than herself, and still 5 till this Friday. She came off and the other parents were all worried whether their kid got a medal... I said I don't care, she came off the ice with NO brain injury.... I don't care if she places... She was fantastic.

My eldest skated this afternoon and all 3 of his coaches were there as 2 of them finished at the other arena and came to cheer him on. He was so pumped and excited he went out and had the skate of his life, to the point all the blood rushed to my face (never seen him skate so fast ever) landed his jumps and his spin at the end he just kept going...) the speed he skated at there was not a single split hair margin for error...he's quite shy but today he really surprised me, how while going at that speed worked out near the end he'd have to slow it down and build up the "tension" to his end spin, so he showed his landings off... And wow! He ended his spin with a heel dig, which just made his spin stop... He said he invented the idea near the end.

None of us including him cared where he placed, it was the "skate of his life" he wanted to cheer and watch two of his friends who skated after... Who closed the comp, the organisers came to find him, as he got Gold. He was so pumped and on fire... That 30 mins later he was still roasting from skating 1minute and 34 seconds.

I just remember being totally gobsmacked mouthing to my husband OMG did you see THAT!!! He skates so fast now that I kind of feel sick before he goes out (fear of brain injury).

Why I let them do it? it was his passion since he was 4 well the idea of, he didn't start till he was 5...

Why? Well, they HAVE to LIVE too, the coaches I have trusted with my life, they've taught me, I trust them totally, never push beyond the kids capability. They need to be able to live, risk take and have their own destiny. If I have to sit there and feel sick for 5 mins once in a while, than so be it. Not that they aren't great skaters, they are it's just that wrapping them in cotton wool would be so easy/tempting to do.

Day 2...Team

Today, we had a lazy day, looked around town and in the evening they had the team event, our team got Bronze, which was super. We had a nice Indian meal and everyone is snuggled in bed for day 3.

Day 1 done

Today my little girl was in the first group to skate, and she got her first medal... It was Gold. Before she found out her result she said she had a great time and didn't mind if she came last.

The boys in the same category all age ranges skated against each other, usually there is an age split. So there was a 5-6 years of age between the youngest and eldest. Which when your kid is 6/7 its a big gap... Well my eldest had a great skate and came 4th which was brilliant...

What I admire is his sportsmanship he went and shook the hands of the guys who got medals and said well done. I was very proud of him.

Day two tomorrow, it's a team event with one of their friends.

And here is the cheerleader...

Week one of three

Well today, we have 3 weekends of skating, before the kids enter, we take a vote if they want to or not.... What I really like about our club is that apart from having fit kids... Is that from the earliest age, they are taught to: self manage, organise their time, speak up, self motivate and self goal set. Their ice sessions are open, apart from 30 mins in total where they do "stroking" which for non skating folk is doing edge work (actual footwork technique) and their 10-15 minute lesson a session The rest of the time the kids have free reign to Ora tide what they want and do all the above. I love it, as I struggled with that as a kid, funny enough a lot if adults can't do it either.



Well my little ice princess is "opening the competition" youngest there, first out on the ice... She's a brave little warrior she'll go out do her best with total devotian, knowing she's unlikely to place as the others are about 2 years older. My eldest is excited pants/trousers that ate ling enough and the amount of boys have doubled in the past year, so actual competition so halved his chance of placing (I love it! he's jumping up and down shouting more boys... Yippee)...

I had my cotton wool moment earlier thinking what about brain injury, I had to tell myself they have to be able to LIVE too. Didn't stop the tears though, wasn't quite quick enough to grab an onion for an alibi... My eldest came and gave me a bear hug (yep Richard, I've been training him well).


My Oatie and I got to 2hours of ABR when my phone went all funny, I've taken some ABR tools with us for the weekend.



Oatie insists on eating his Banana with a fork.

Can of worms or swim through treacle? Bureaucracy is Bureaucrazy!

Today we got an email saying that the OT that we didn't think we'd get to see (about to go on Mat leave) will come and See Oatie on Monday at school.  Bit of a surprise, a nice surprise but, I was like Oh....  especially as I was just looking into the other avenues (the conventional route).

The conventional route, seems to be a HUGE can of worms, where you try and tap in to the service that you want and not to quote government documents, but it pretty much stated that THEY decide what you need, after THEY have assessed your family and after THEY decide this they then decide that.  I don't want much, just someone to ensure that we're on the right progression for speech for him and just someone who has more experience in potty training a chap, who doesn't feel secure on a "normal" potty.  (Normal in quotes, I have always raised eyebrows at the multitude of designs of potties, all flawed in one way or another, considering humans have been doing this for a while now... you would have thought the design would be perfected! lol!).  Or should he be using a rubber pen grip to encourage him to hold a pencil properly at home/school.

I don't want their physio (no offence, I have nothing actually against physio, it has it's place, it's just not the best thing for Oatie), Oatie's mum however, could do with some physio... lol!

I would prefer to have a SANE human to deal with rather than ridiculous bureaucracy that like a nanny-state!  Fortunately I now know a few people that we might be able to go in the "side door" (I don't want to queue jump, I just don't want the above).  Oatie isn't some lab-rat that people can just prod and poke for no solid good reason just to tick a box! and then the next person has to come and remove his nappy, so he can be weighed again, poke and prod and weigh, and I'm like NO!

I don't know about you but instead of bureaucracy, it should be bureaucrazy!

Well I've just added bureaucrazy to my dictionary as I think it's a word worth coining!

Let's hope that Monday goes well, and I can leave the can alone, the Monday route (school) is like swimming through treacle, but at least the treacle tries to mean well and does love Oatie... and might be worth the challenge.

Wigs and politics

Dusted the dust off our Swiper DVD...

Well, today we managed just over 1 hour of ABR, which wasn't as much as I had hoped but it was better than nothing.

We dusted the dust of Super Spies Dora and much to my pleasure we watched Dora on loop.  Although as you know I do like Swiper.

I now have a wifi headset so no wires so while I'm doing Oatie's ABR we don't have the tangled wire frustration either so that's really nice.

I can't remember if I mentioned I was going to donate my hair to my Friends friend, I donate my hair anyway and the lady who has cancer, was going to use her, her daughters and my hair (my hair and her hair were almost exact shades...) and I found a few more people with similar colour who would donate too.  The thing is that hair is very lucrative money-wise especially if you have my ethnic origin hair..., last time I donated two wig lengths my hair grew another inch, while I investigated and found the actual charity, not some charity who SOLD it (to a non cancer business) and then donated the money to a cancer charity....

Well, this evening, I found out that my friends friend has just chopped off her hair, before it falls out, she found out how much it would cost to have the wig made and it was not affordable.  So her and her daughter are going to have to donate their hair to charity, (her daughter's is already chopped) so some "wealthy" cancer person can have it, and the person who donated it going through the same plight, can't have any hair, because they don't have the 0000's in their bank balance.  

In my outrage, I did email a wig making company that is local 15 minutes away, that  (supports people fighting cancer) I came across last year, and asked if we could barter hair for a wig or something as this just doesn't seem fair at all.

Ok you can probably tell I'm feeling a bit better, getting all fiery again...  I'm hoping to hit the 3 hours tomorrow with Oatie.

Love Oatie's mum
xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hopefully back tomorrow...

Hopefully Oatie and I will be back to ABR tomorrow. I got a mild version of what he had... I say mild as the fever was for a day... Lol!

He's still wiped, but hopefully we can get back to our routine.

I do love how he lines up his cars

Oaties been Sick... But he's on the mend

The poor love has been fighting off his parting gift from preschool a week ago, he's finally turned the corner and is feeling much better. He decided to stay in bed and refused to get out unless it was a drink of easy to eat food. Lol! Maybe he's more sensible than an average 3 year old.

Today I bumped in to my friend who's an OT, at the pool today, and I asked her for the lowdown. She was fabulous and I think I now know what I need to do to get what Oatie needs, once I've checked the facts I'll post more details then.

Thank you to everyone who's signing the petition, lets change one province at a time, I really feel that the choice of inclusive education should be the norm-standard. Each family should have the choice of what type of school is best for their child.

Love Oaties mum
Xxx