Month: September 2016

It was an early start for both Madi and Jack today. Madison was excited to get to school for her friend Ben’s birthday and Jack had a visit with Eric to adjust his helmet.

Jack has been doing really well with his helmet since his last adjustments. More padding was added today to help stop the helmet from rotating and squeezing his ears. 

After school Mommy and Madi got some lunch and did some errands to pass some time before therapy. Madison is doing ABM therapy this week. She will go once a day for 4 days straight to work with Judy. They are focusing on some ‘back to basic’ transitions and positions to increase Madison’s quality of movement. Today they focused on side sitting, sitting in a squatted position for play and walking heel to toe barefoot with her walker. 

After a rest at home, Madi got dressed in pink and headed to ballet! She was so excited that Jack was going to watch her dance this week. She was confident, happy and brave to try a few new things this week. They balanced on one leg like a flamingo, marched like soldiers and walked with duck feet. They also learned to move in a circle when the music was playing and to stop when the music stopped.

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Madison was excited to start therapeutic riding again today! When she got to the barn she didn’t see Joe. She knew right away something was different and asked her therapist “where is Joe today?” Her therapist told her that Joe is getting old and needs to take a rest this session because he worked hard with kids all summer. Mommy was worried how Madi would handle the news. She then said to her therapist “it’s a nice day – where is my new horse?” Her therapist then introduced her to Sassy! Madi loved Sassy! Madi had a good stretch on her peanut ball and then sat on Sassy right after. She had a great session. They worked on taking deep breaths, projecting her voice with commands to Sassy and her therapist reported that she sat tall and had great core stability the whole ride. Mommy was thrilled! 

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Madi and Jack love when Daddy gets home! They play in the backyard while Mommy makes dinner. It’s sometimes impossible to get Madi inside to eat- she is loving her new playground!

All the fresh air from today made Jack have an early bedtime before he was even done his evening bottle. Or it could have been all his screaming from teething…oh well!

Madison had a wonderful birthday celebration with family today. Her and Nate worked in their Cafe making coffee and desserts for their customers. They had a yummy dinner and cake and Madison was thrilled with all her presents. Thanks everyone for making Madi feel so special and loved!

 Madi went to bed nice and early to prepare for her busy week. On deck this week is horseback riding, ballet, Botox, ABM therapy, swim lesson, her birthday party with her friends and Grandviews charity walk! Madi will have lots of opportunity to be active and experience different movements this week which should all help with her increased tightness lately. 

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Madison and Jack had a fabulous time at Ben’s house this afternoon celebrating his 3rd birthday with him. 

MThey ate lots of yummy food, played with all Ben’s toys, sang happy birthday with a super cool super hero cake and jumped like crazy in the super hero bouncy castle. Mommy was so proud of Madi for trying to jump on her feet. She has been working on the feeling of jumping and learning how to bend her knees and then reach high to jump at conductive Ed for over a year. She is always scared to let go when jumping and she tried it today! Check out the video below! 

Mommy & Daddy are so happy that Madi has made such a nice connection with her new  friends. 



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We are loving today’s home journal comments from Madison’s teacher.

“Madison was so excited physio Suzanne was working in our classroom today so that she could walk down the stairs. She kept repeating “it’s my lucky day!”

“Physio Suzanne said she did really well with her. I think it made her feel more confident as she spontaneously left her walker to take 4 independent steps when walking into the story room.”

Madison had a wonderful afternoon with her Aunts Janine and Suzanne. They had a special birthday lunch and Madison loved her new ballet book that she wanted to read more of at bed time. 

Today Madison celebrated her third birthday! It’s crazy to think that three years ago she decided to surprise everyone with an early entrance into the world and she continues to make her mark with her determination, brilliance, humour and beauty.

 Madi is truly meant to do amazing things and continues to inspire and bring joy to everyone she meets.

Madison had lots of fun with her friends celebrating at school. She shared pink cupcakes with all her friends and loved visiting with Tiffany after school who gave Madison a beautiful hand made card and pink giraffe.

After school Madison went to Nana and Papa’s house for her birthday lunch! She loved having pink birthday balloons and cupcakes and played with all her favourite toys.

After a good nap, Madison went to her first movie with Mommy! Madison saw Secret Life of Pets and loved it! She had the whole theatre to herself, was able to pick multiple seats to sit in and even got the volume changed to a quieter level. She danced up and down the rows and had lots of popcorn and M&M’s.

Daddy brought home a special birthday dinner and dessert, she blew out her candles, opened some special presents, visited with Pam and Medford and opened some more presents and then went on FaceTime with Auntie Em before bed. Madison was full of energy all day and loved celebrating her birthday! Thank you everyone for all your birthday messages and wishes, she is a very lucky girl!

Today Madison had her first ballet class! She was so excited to go that she asked Mommy all throughout the day when it was time to go. 

Mommy decided for today that Madison would try wearing her ballet slippers with no AFO’s to let her get a feel for what the teacher was instructing everyone to do with their toes and feet. Madison has better balance and movement when wearing her AFO’s but sometimes it’s the right choice to let her try new movements without. 

Madison followed along with most of the instructions and took her time taking it all in. Two little girls in the class were very caring and wanted to help Madison get in and out of her walker and held her hand or Walker when moving around the room. It was so reassuring for Mommy to see how kind other children really can be. They tried some different foot positions, followed different arm movements to music, pretended to be different animals and sang different rhyming songs. This was one of Madison’s first experience being integrated into a regular class environment and it was a big success! She had lots of fun and Mommy was so proud of her for being brave and trying something new. 

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Today after school, Nana took Madison to a dance store to buy Madison her first pair of ballet slippers and ballet clothes. Madison was curious about everything in the store and wanted to crawl everywhere and look at everything. Madison starts a pre-ballet class tomorrow. She is very excited! It will be one of her first experiences of being in a class environment with the majority of children being typically developing. The purpose of choosing a traditional ballet class over an adapted or modified class for children with disabilities is:

1) preparing Madison for what kindergarten and the rest of the world will be like

2) Immersing Madison in a class situation with LOTS of bodies so she can learn to use her walker in crowded spaces and feel comfortable with her personal space and others space

3) Giving her the opportunity to “feel her body in space” and learn how her body can move without her AFO’s or Walker 

4) TO HAVE FUN WITH OTHER LITTLE GIRLS HER AGE!!!!

Madison picked a pink outfit that she loves! Nana had the brilliant idea to buy two pairs of ballet slippers. One pair that fit her bare feet and the other that fit her AFO’s in case she ends up wanting to wear them for more support with some of the activities. Stay tuned for a report tomorrow on how her first class goes! Thanks for the ballet gear Nana!

Madison started off her Sunday like most other Sunday’s – a play with Nana & Papa! She slept over last night so when she woke up she met up with Nate for a play at Variety Village. Little did she know today’s visit was to keep her busy and out of the house for a special surprise!

While Nana & Papa were keeping Madi busy, a special surprise was starting at the house. Madison was fortunate to be the recipient of a playground from Million Dollar Smiles. The charity builds playgrounds in the backyards of children battling illness or different exceptionalities to brighten their day and provide them with a safe place to play and learn new skills. The organization arrived bright and early to set up registration and breakfast for the volunteers. In the past 4 months the charity has completed 65 builds. They operate by donations from companies who sponsor the playground and are also the ones who complete the build. Today’s sponsor and builders were from Tonino’s Pizza in Brampton. They were amazing workers – very efficient and worked well as a team so they were pretty speedy. Once the build started they asked Mommy and Daddy to say a few words about Madison and then they started. They only stopped once for lunch. It was amazing to watch!

Once the build was finished, Nana and Papa took Madison home for the big surprise. They played music while Madison entered the backyard. She was greeted by family, friends and all the volunteers who did the build. She was shy but smiled and was very excited for what she saw. She wanted to go in the playhouse right away and climb to the top to go down the slide. When she was sitting on the slide for the first time she waved thank you to everyone and blew lots of kisses. Her adapted swing was also a huge hit. She will be able to fit in it and swing safely for many years to come. Once all the thank you’s and speeches were finished Madison had lots of cake, was presented a medal to remember the day and then had a super fun play with her buddy Ben and cousin Nate. Madi played and played until the sun went down. Thank you Tonino’s Pizza and Million Dollar Smiles for Madison’s amazing gift!