Month: February 2016

Wow! Madi Moves is 1 Year’s Old!

One year ago this all started. We were looking for a way to share our journey of living life with a child with special needs. We realized that not only was everything new and challenging for us as parents, but that we had so many friends and family who were with us on the same rollercoaster ride – wanting to support us and stay positive side by side. We wanted a way to share Madison’s life so that everyone could be on the same page, feel included and in the know and most importantly to us – to keep things positive.

We never imagined what this blog would turn into. We have met so many new people on the same journey as us, we have been able to keep everyone around us positive and motivated and we have been able to connect with people from all over the world. In fact, other then Canada and the USA – we also have followers in Brazil, Costa Rica, Germany,  Italy, Spain and the UK.

To date, we have had just under 10,000 followers with over 40,000 views!

What has become most special to us is that we now have this journal of some of Madison’s greatest accomplishments and successes and photos to match that she will be able to have forever.

We want to say a big thank you for being with us on this journey and reading along! Thank you to everyone for keeping us motivated to give the best to our daughter, to keep educating ourselves, for all of the help, positive and motivating words and for providing Madison with the biggest cheerleading team!

Thinking back 1 year ago and how far Madison has come is so special and very emotional to think about. Today we took Madison to Canadian Tire to find a toboggan. She walked into the store using her walker all by herself, walked up and down the aisles to find a toboggan and skates, paid at the cash and then headed back to the car. We never thought one year ago that she would be able to be so independent and that we would be able to do things like sledding down a hill by herself or purchasing Bob skates for her to try skating on her own.  We think the Bob skates will work great with her AFO’s. We didn’t think at the age of 2 she would be able to be so independent using a walker. Thank you to all of her thrapists and everyone who works with her, drives her to all her appointments, helps us with equipment and tools for the house and everyone who loves her and makes her feel so special and loved.  We can’t wait to see what we will be writing about on our 2nd year anniversary!  Thank you for following!

Today was Madison’s March of Dimes Stand Up for C.E. challenge. Madison has been working hard over the last few weeks on her independant standing. She has improved so much with her balance,  standing tall and staying still. She has been successful over the last few weeks and today during her session she did such a great job! She stood tall and proud for 10 seconds!! Thank you to everyone who cheered her on over the past few weeks and to everyone who sponsored her to support her sessions as well as equipment and materials for March of Dimes.

Madison had double physio today.

At school she worked with her physiotherapist on standing tall while playing with her friends.  She also worked on walking using a toy shopping cart that went really well and she loved it!

After school Madi and Nana made monkey rolls for lunch and baked cookies for dessert. Mommy, Daddy and Jack then picked her up and headed to Variety Village for physio.

Madison and Stephanie worked on walking with pauses inbetween steps to work on her balance and shifting weight. They also did a bunch of standing activities and Madison stood up tall all by herself for 14 seconds!!!

Today Madison got to do what any other toddler would want to do on a winter day…play in the snow!! Something so simple was a first for Madison today. Last winter Madison was not mobile enough to plop her down in a pile of snow and let her explore and play. Today She was timid and not so sure about it. She was scared to fall forward or roll. But after some time watching Daddy shovel and seeing Carter play she started to touch the snow and roll in it. Her snow fun ended with lots of laughs and giggles and smiles.

Mommy & Madi enjoyed family day fun together!  After breakfast, Jack spent some time with Nana while Mommy and Madi headed to Variety Village. Madi has been stiff latly so Mommy wanted to do some active things to help loosen her up. Madi crawled up and down the obstacle course in the gym, played basketball, bounced on the air mattress and then went for a nice long swim. At the end of her swim, lots of time was spent in the hot pool stretching out her legs. She did lots of walking through the halls with her walker so she was pooped!

Madison had a LOVELY Valentine’s Day! Her day started with breakfast with Mommy, Jack, Uncle Mark, Nana and Papa. She loved eating her gingerbread man from Nana and reading her special Valentine’s books. Thanks Nana and Papa!

Madison then went to visit Great Grandma Gregoire.  She gave her Grandma some heart shaped cookies, visited with Aunt Suzanne and went for a roll in Grandma’s chair. After her visit she went back to Nana and Papa’s for a play, lunch and a nap. She did some math with grapes and had such a great nap she didn’t want to get up. When she got home, Daddy treated Madison to a yummy Valentine’s dinner with presents for dessert.

Madison had a good stretch sitting with her legs straight out in her gator splints while playing on the iPad.  Mommy and Daddy have noticdd that her botox is starting to wear off. In combination with that and her growth spurt she is alot tighter, so stretching has become part of the daily routine again.

Before bed Madi had a nice snuggle with Jack. She loves to hold his hands and sing to him.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

Madison spent her day trying to keep warm by staying in her PJ’S, playing lots in the basement play room and sun bathing with Stitch.

Madison left the house for about 10 minutes to pick up a copy of today’s newspaper to see her brothers birth announcement. She loved seeing his picture in the paper!

this HTML class. Value is http://www.starclass

Madison celebrated Valentine’s Day at school today with her class. She was excited to wear “heart colours” as she calls them to school today. She was even more excited to see a special bag hanging at her locker to put all her special cards from her friends.  She was proud to hand out all her homemade cards and stickers and was thrilled to see how much candy and chocolate ended up in her bag.  She wished everyone Happy Valentines Day. It was a very cute morning.

Madison did a great job with Monika at March of Dimes today. She practiced her walking through her obstacle course, wrote the word Love in rice, built a tower of blocks with one hand and practiced her standing by drawing hearts on a board and reaching for stickers. Madi also attempted her Stand up for CE Challenge for the first time today. Madison did a great job standing for 10 seconds with very little prompting support from Monika. She will continue to attempt it a few more times before the end of February. Thank you for everyone’s support with this challenge and for everyone’s donations.