Month: November 2015

After school Madison headed to Nana’s for the afternoon. After lunch she played with her new Christmas puzzle, her baby and practiced finding her letters on the keyboard. When Mommy and Daddy picked her up after their appointment, Madison saw new pictures of her baby brother. Madison was very excited to show Nana and Mommy and Daddy were happy to report that baby #2 is doing great and is 30 weeks today!

After dinner Madison spent some time with Emily. Madison had been asking about her all week so she was very excited when Emily arrived. They worked on all kinds of things while playing with her babies, kitchen, food and books in the basement. Monday nights are always a highlight for Madison.

After a night at light up the beach with Grandma and Grandpa Ambos, Madison headed home this morning for a special photo shoot. Mommy’s good friend Andrea visited and took lots of great pictures of Madison with Mommy and Daddy and with Mommy’s baby bump. It was so great seeing Andrea and having photos of our family before we expand to a family of 4. It was also great for Mommy to have some baby bump photos as they didn’t happen before due to how early Madison arrived. Thank you Andrea and thanks to you and Evita for these beautiful flowers!

Madison spent the rest of her day hanging out with Daddy and Emily playing, doing a grocery shop, helping Daddy buy new shoes and then picking up Pizza and wings to watch the Grey Cup.

Auntie Em also helped Daddy with the Christmas lights…they are up and ready for the holidays!

After a good sleep in, Madison spent the day with her Aunt Emily. They visited the mall to do some shopping and to visit Santa’s castle. She ate lots of Timbits and liked looking at all the giant reindeer. After the mall they went home to play while Mommy and Daddy worked on the nursery. Madi loves her Auntie time and down time on the weekends to veg and do whatever she wants.

Side note…the “terrible twos” are upon us. We dare you to say NO to our peanut.

After school today, Madison headed to Nana’s. She had a super long nap, a big lunch and then was off to physio at VV with Stephanie. Madison continues to impress everyone with her progress each week. Today Nana and Papa watched her practice her walking, squatting to standing, walking on the treadmill and independent standing. Madison loved the background music of jingle bells that Papa played for her. The most exciting activity was watching Madison independently go from sitting in her chair to standing up all by herself! She did it several times in a row and everyone was very proud of her. Mommy and Daddy were especially happy to see this skill developing as they are also seeing the transfer of it in other environments like at school and home. Seeing specific skills worked on at therapy being naturally transferred into real life situations is so rewarding.

Madison had a great day! When school was over her teacher and volunteer were very excited to report on her progress with standing. After sitting in her chair during quiet time she stood up out of her chair all by herself and stood for a few seconds! They were very proud of her and we were excited to hear all about it.

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Madison was very happy to spend the afternoon with Pam and Medford. As soon as she got home she went over for some lunch, had a nap, watched Elmo and played. When it was time to leave she didn’t want to go home. Pam’s daughter Nicole gave Madison some very special stickers that she LOVED! A pack of Elmo stickers and Bubble Guppies stickers that she played with for most of the night.

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Madison ended her day at VV for a swim with Ryan. Tonight was her first lesson she was really excited for and had no issues at all. She was loud and bubbly and talking up a storm.  She was very silly which Ryan had not seen before so he found it pretty funny. They worked on floats,  bobs, walking up the ramp and trying to use her arms to pull the water while floating on her back. She did a great job!

Today Mommy visited the last part of Madison’s Conductive Education class. It has been months since seeing the class and Madison did a fantastic job. She has made so much growth and is doing so well with all the different exercises and activities. She worked on her balance, independent standing, walking, core strength and fine motor skills. It was very exciting for Mommy to watch and see all the progress that has been made.

Madison and Daddy left for school at their regular time just like any other day. The problem was that most of the city had not put on their snow tires as of yet and with many road closures and icy roads they decided to head back home after driving for over an hour and only getting about 6km down the road. That meant a snow day! When Mommy woke up everyone went to the mall to visit with Santa. Madison was a little nervous but did much better then last year. No tears!

 

After her visit with Santa, Madison headed home for a long nap. Later in the day she went to visit Kate at Grandview for some physio. She worked for an entire hour non stop and did a fantastic job. She worked on wall standing, walking up and down a ramp, walking on the treadmill and using the Kaye walker.

Madison using her Kaye Walker

Madison reading with Mommy in the bath. She loves to finish each sentence in her baby book about being a big sister.

Today was a marvelous Monday and Madison had alot to celebrate and be thankful for today.

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Madison’s day started bright and early with a DNA swab test. As mentioned in a previous post – Madison is taking part in a research study with Sick Kids, Bloorview and Grandview. Part of the study is collecting saliva from her and her parents to look at family DNA in connection with CP. We had to collect the samples prior to eating or drinking anything, so the swabs were taken at 7am this morning. We are hoping from the study they will be able to know more about possible causes for CP, risk factors and other treatment options to help other families that are on a similar path as us.

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Madison then ate a big breakfast and was off to school for the morning. Funny enough, the theme at school this week is Doctors! When she got home we headed to Grandview for a visit with Dr.Hunt who is a Developmental Pediatrician on the research team with CP-NET and the research study. We handed over the saliva kits, our many pages and packages of surveys and forms and got ready for Madison’s assessment. Dr. Hunt did a variety of physical tests with Madison including vision, hearing and joint reflex ‘ s. She asked a bunch of questions of Madison’s journey dating back to birth and watched her play and move. She said she was able to submit many notes from her observations and after 40 minutes Madison was done. We now have a few more forms to fill out and to transfer her MRi results once those become available and then we will be back in front of the research team when Madison turns 7.

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After Grandview was a quick dinner and then Madison’s new friend Emily popped by the house for some physio fun in the basement. They practiced sitting to standing and throwing balls at Stitch, walking with the push popping toy, stepping up and down off a stool while playing with the play kitchen and lots of other fun activities including practicing with her walker. Madison loves her time with Emily and we are very happy and appreciative to have the help and more time put towards her different physio goals.

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While Madison and Emily played together, Mommy attended the final meeting for the Mike Gregoire Memorial Golf Tournament. Tonight was the presentation of the cheque for Madison’s Rehabilitation Fund. Mommy was so overwealmed with the generosity of the cheque she balled her eyes out and was in shock. Madison is very lucky to have so many family and friends who care so much about her and her well being and we are extremly grateful for the oppertunities that the golf tournament will provide for Madison.Thank you again to Lisa, Jessica, Pat and the entire organizing committee for thinking of Madison and helping us give her whatever she will continue to need to be successful and continue making progress. In the short term- the generous donation will help Madison receive her botox next week, allow her to expand the amount of physiotherapy following the botox and to look at accessing a new walker and continuing with all her other therapies this year. Thank you again to everyone who participated and attended the event and to everyone who made donations to the event, silent auction and door prizes. We are very blessed to have so many amazing people who continue to cheer on our little peanut.

Madison had lots of fun at Nana and Papa’s at her sleepover. When she woke up this morning she played and pretended to phone Mommy and Daddy. She then went to brunch in the beach. Madison loved reading stories while waiting for her food. She ate lots of bacon, eggs and everything on her plate.

After brunch Madison, Nana and Papa went downtown to check out the Christmas windows at The Bay. Madison told us she saw Santa, a mouse, a horse and toys. It was a bit chilly but everyone bundled up in the snow.  They also went to look at the giant tree at the Sheraton Centre and the big Toronto sign at City Hall. It was a fun downtown adventure to get excited for Christmas! Mommy and Daddy want to say a big thank you to Nana and Papa for the much needed break.

Madison went to bed very late lastnight but got up around 9am, so she spent the morning in her PJ’S.  We didn’t disturb her – we just let her do whatever she wanted to relax and take it easy. Mommy’s friend Lisa came over for a visit and to deliver food and snacks from all of Mommy’s friends at Branksome.  It was a lovely treat – thank you everyone!  After a nice visit with Lisa, Madison had a good nap and so did Mommy. Madison then visited with Pam and Medford and all of their family at their open house. She loves going over and did not want to leave. Mommy and Daddy needed a much needed rest after yesterday so Madison went over to Nana and Papa Gregoire’s for a sleepover. She played, had spegetti for dinner, played in the bath and then was off to bed after watching the leafs loose. It was a very laid back day which was much needed by everyone.

Photos of Madison visiting with Pam and Medford

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Madison’s teacher sent us a picture of her in a new walker she is trying at school