Month: May 2015

Madison spent her morning with Nana & Grampa Gregoire listening to music, reading books, going for a walk, going to the Beecher for brunch and climbing stairs.

Poor girl is very stiff at the moment. Even though her AFO’S are hinged to allow for more range of motion, her tone is preventing  certain movements. Lots of banged knees, shins and bruising. If you have my Dad on facebook, check out his page for videos of Madison dancing to music and climbing stairs.

Madison then spent her night celebrating her Daddy’s birthday with Auntie Emily and Grandma and Grandpa Ambos. She used her popper, read books and ate lots of cake!

Wow! 100 days…100 posts!  Thank you to everyone for following and cheering for our special cutie. This blog has been very therapeutic and special for James and I to experience with all of you. We feel very blessed to have so many people involved in Madison’s life and helping us every step of the way.

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This morning Madison got her hair cut. We went to Melon heads in whitby and Madison drove her plane while getting a trim. The women was very kind and patient. Madison had a tough time holding her head up and sitting up straight with the angle of the chair. I ended up having to hold her so her bangs would be cut straight. She is growing and has been tighter then usual so I think that also contributed to her difficulty sitting.

At the end she got to ride the horse! It was pretty funny because she was laughing…but it was more of a nervous laugh. I was proud of her for holding on and using her core strength to not fall off.

Later in the day after her nap she sat in her highchair to have a snack. She lifted up her shirt, smacked her diaper a few times and said “Mommy pee pee” I laughed so hard, mostly because I was caught off guard and shocked. ..so of course she said it over and over to get a reaction from me. We were going to start potty training in September at her new daycare, but I think we will be starting it sooner. Most potty’s have no back support, so if anyone can recommend a potty that is supportive for sitting please let me know.

The adventure continues….

Madison now loves going shopping because she is now able to reach to a shelf, grab something and throw it in the cart. She loves putting everything in the cart- which makes check out fun having to sort through everything. I love watching her do this because her core is so strong and she has gained so much confidence with herself in determining her abilities of her own movements.

Madison ended up choosing her own birthday gift for James this year, which was very exciting for him. Before Madison, he always talked about how fun it would be to take our kids to the store to shop for gifts and have them pick out the most random gifts that mean not much to us, but means the world to them that they picked it.

I took Madison to the dollar store, put her in the cart and walked her up and down all the aisles until she picked something.

She picked out a ball of twine! Haha so amazing. Perhaps she had Stitch in mind when she was picking.

Madison also mastered another skill today that we have been working on for a while – drinking thicker liquid from a straw.  Her OT gave us some good exercises and activities for her to learn how the straw works for drinking. We went to Booster Juice and she loved it! Sweet Very Berry drink that we use to get regularly at TGH when my Mom was in the hospital. But the joke was on madi…it was jam packed full of greens!

Our day ended with Madison sitting on the front lawn blowing bubbles and watching all the Vroom Vroom’s that drove by.

Happy Weekend!

Today Madison celebrated her Dada’s birthday! The day started with her not quite cooperating. James could not get her to wake up. It was a flash forward in time to the teenage years of sleeping in and completely ignoring parents requests to wake up.

Madison had a great night with Nana and Grampa while Dada and Mama went out to celebrate! She played with bubbles, had races with Carter, bath and a snuggle with the birthday boy before bedtime.

Happy Birthday to the best Dad and Husband we could ask for! Thank you for all that you do for us everyday! Xoxo

Wednesdays are busy…but the best days ever!

Today started with another fantastic morning at March of Dimes. Madison has already improved her balance with walking in the ropes and today she tried walking using tiny canes. She loved the water play and using the bars to cruise.

She then had an awsome afternoon playing with Buddy in the backyard and had a restful 2 hour nap! She works so hard, I was so happy to hear she slept well today.

Her swimming lesson with Ryan went great tonight! Ryan was able to dunk her a bunch of times and work on bubbles and she was happy and able to follow along. Nana also surprised Madison with a visit! She was very happy to see Nana at the end of her lesson.

Madison had a great session with Kate today. We are teaching Madison “nose over toes” to go from sitting to standing. We also worked on attempting independent standing. Madison has one more session with Kate next week and then we are on a break until the end of June.

Another Step in Madison’s journey.

Madison has been approved for the Disability tax credit.

After spending the morning with Nana and Grampa, Madison had some family & friends over this afternoon to explore more about the world of essential oils. Madison has some more oils on the way that we are excited to incorporate into her treatment. One is wild orange that we will use as hand sanitizer. Perfect timing now that we all have the cold germs hanging around.

Madison had so much fun with her cousin Nate and friend Charlie, while the moms did some shopping.

Yesterday Madison spent some time with our neighbours Pam & Medford while we ran some errands and prepped for Moms party.

Here is their guest post:

“Madison loves to take off the window deflectors we use to avoid birds flying into our patio door windows .
I put these deflectors on with scotch tape. Madison loves to take these off. She first takes off the paper cut out , turns it over and takes off the scotch tape. When the scotch tape sticks to her fingers and she can’t get it off , she then asked for help. She is just so intent in getting the scotch tape back on the glass so she can then put the paper cut on. Madison then as a diversion puts the tape to her mouth and I say, nonono , she laughs a great big laugh and thinks this is a great game. She is a special cutie. We love her.

Madison had a great night celebrating Nana ‘ s 60th Birthday! 24 family members joined us at Papa’s Grill on the Danforth for dinner, drinks and dessert to celebrate 60 amazing years. It was a wonderful night celebrating.

Thank you to everyone who helped organize it and for everyone who attended.

With the help from Dadda, Madison was determined to sit on her stool and read her book at the same time. She is still wobbly when not holding on to the stool, so with a helping hand she was able to do both.