Mean people suck....

A week ago today, Noelle received her "magic" shoes. A physical therapist that has been seeing her recommended AFO's (Ankle-Foot Orthotics) to help her progress with her walking. FYI...This is just another sign that she is just like her Auntie! I also had "magic" shoes when I was kid. Recently, Kelly and I were going through a bag of stuff from when we were little and there were my "magic" shoes. They weren't as cute as Noelle's but I guess they make improvements after 30 years. Go figure

Noelle looks totally cute with her little shoes on!!!

The people in this world continue to amaze me! I work with people with development disabilities and see on a daily basis how people with disabilities are treated. The majority of the time I have good experiences and don't run into many people that "make fun of" or mistreat my clients. I really thought that times of changed and people are more understanding and compassionate. But then last week I was reminded that this isn't a perfect world and there are people that find joy in making fun of others. I have never personally had a family member effected by a physical or mental disability but I have always been taught to treat people the way I would want to be treated. Since Noelle received her "magic" shoes a new chapter in my family's life has been opened. Noelle doesn't have a physical or mental disability however it has taken her a little more time to progress with her gross motor skills. Since she received her "magic" shoes a few ignorant people have found joy in making fun of her. Remarks were made like "where's the laidlaw bus" and "what is she retarded". First of all, even if she was "retarded", who cares and why would make fun of someone who was? What kind of comment is that? Second, who makes fun of a small child? Hearing that this actually happened made me sick. I got a sick feeling in my stomach and it made me even more mad that there was nothing that I could do. People are just ignorant and that isn't going to change.... If only I could change the world.

The good news is Noelle has made a lot of progress with her walking in the last couple of weeks. This weekend she walked from the back bedroom at my house to the kitchen all by herself. She definitely prefers to walk on her knees but hopefully in time she will see how much more comfortable it is walking on her feet vs. her knees. I'm so proud of her. She has picked up a couple of words..."Thank You", "Shoe", "Dog" and "That". She also picked up the sign for "eat". I was totally excited about that because I have been working with her for a long time on that one. Now, I need to find a new sign to teach her....

We had a great weekend together. I love having her here with me. I'm really lucky to have the opportunities that I do to see both her and Thomas as much as I do. Here's a little video of her walking. The second one is Noelle trying to put her sandal on over her "magic" shoe. Totally cute.

I can't believe she did it

It's been a long time coming.  We have been working and working and working some more, and up till now we haven't had much luck.  Saturday was a new, amazing, terrific, fabulous day.  Those of you that know me and have met Noelle, know that she is stubborn and she only does things when she wants to and on her own terms.  She has always been that way.  Noelle is now 15 months old and still not walking or standing up on her own.  She will stand up at the couch and take a few steps around the furniture but that's it.  When you hold her hands and try to get her to walk with you, she drops to her knees and takes off.  If you pick her up and try and stand her up she bends her legs up in the air.  She screams bloody murder when you try and help her.  Last night Kelly, Thomas and I were sitting in the family room watching TV.  Noelle was on the floor playing with her toys.  She stood up, like she always does, at the coffee table.  She turned around and WALKED ACROSS THE ROOM right to Kelly.  We could not believe it!!! She acted as if she has been doing it for months.  We started clapping and telling her how good she did and she got the biggest grin on her face and started clapping with us.  Since we weren't anywhere close (at least we didn't think we were) to having her walking on her own we didn't have the camera or video camera near by so we didn't get it on film.  We got the video camera out and she did it a couple more times (bribed by her favorite thing...food) but we didn't get anything video that was very good.  Today she did it a few more times but in typical Noelle fashion she only did it when she wanted to and spent the majority of the time on her knees. 

Regardless, it was amazing and seeing her bright smiling face when we clapped for her was priceless.  She will be with me the majority of the week this week so I hope to get something on the camera and will try to post it by the end of next weekend.  She gets her "magic shoes" tomorrow and hopefully that will also give her some support and they will work miracles. Keep your fingers crossed!!!

I finally finished it...

My Mom got me a puzzle that I really wanted for Christmas. It's been almost 4 years ago now.  I started the puzzle in March of 2007 and finished the puzzle two days after Thanksgiving.  Not to bad... for me.  I was pretty impressed that I even finished it.  After it was done I was really proud of it and wanted to hang it in my bedroom. I went to every store in Stockton that I could think of I could find a frame but no such luck, so it was placed in a garbage bag under my bed until I recently moved.  It was moved and placed under the couch.  I finally found a website that sells everything for puzzles and amazingly enough they had the right size frame and the right price tag.  The frame came in the mail this week and the puzzle was finally hung. I must say it looks perfect! Yeah ME!!!!

This one is for Auntie Wa

Saturday morning when I got Noelle dressed I thought I would try and take of picture of Noelle in her Kings' outfit for Wanda but then Noelle started doing Wanda's favorite "trick" and thought I needed to get that on video.

The real story is Wanda hates seeing the rocking chair and Thomas/Noelle in the same room. When Thomas turned 1 year old my Dad bought him a rocking chair. Wanda hated watching him stand on it and rock backwards. We didn't particularly like it either but would just tell him "no" and take him off. When Auntie Wa was over she made sure and took the rocking chair and put it in the garage. It made her way to nervous.

Noelle got a rocking chair for her 1st birthday also and has just learned how to stand on it and rock.

Noelle also learned how to throw herself on the floor and throw a fit this weekend. It wasn't one of those "tricks" that I spent a lot of time I helping her to improve....

Labor Day was productive after all....

It's been awhile since my last post for two reasons. 1. I'm still recovering from San Diego. 2. My life hasn't been all that interesting the last week or so.  Kelly and I were reading a few of our friends and families blogs this weekend and realized that we are kind of boring. I worried when I started this blog that I would have a difficult time coming up with things to write about. Well it happened and then low and behold something worth sharing happened.

When I moved into the Oakhurst house I was lucky enough to have the living room empty to use as a play room for the kids.  In the Green Ridge house the toys were in the corner of the family room and it wasn't always easy keeping them tidy when people came to visit.  So, I was pretty excited to have a room for the kids and I wouldn't have to worry about the mess the week the kids were here. 

A friend of mine told me that he was getting rid of a table and asked if I was interested in it.  I thought it would be great to have a table that the kids use, so I wouldn't have to worry about getting play dough, ink pens, crayons, glue and paint all over my kitchen table.  Of course I said I would take it.  I didn't bother to ask what the table looked like and was just grateful that I was getting it for the best price around. FREE. 

When he delivered the table to me, I was a little surprised to find out that the table was NEON GREEN.  I don't think I have seen that color since the NEON GREEN chair my great grandmother had at her house.  I quickly remembered that the table was FREE and I was grateful to have it. 

As you will remember from my earlier post, this summer, I had a list of things to accomplish after moving in (cleaning windows, pulling weeds, painting, trim the bushes).  Painting the NEON GREEN table was quickly put on the list. 

I have had the last three days off work and in my boring fashion I didn't do anything all that interesting.  The lawns got mowed, the bushes trimmed (again), the kitchen floors mopped, family room vacuumed and laundry done. Today was planned to be the most boring day of the weekend.  The plan was to sit on the couch all day and play my Nintendo Wii.  That's one of my favorite things to do.  However, when I got up this morning I decided not to be boring.  I decided to check one more thing of the list of things to get done and paint the NEON GREEN table. In accomplishing this task I was also able to complete my weekly blog goal.  WONDERFUL two things accomplished in one important task....

Here is the finished product.....