Dear Daniel

My dear Daniel;

I don't write about you much here on this blog, but that does not mean that I love you any less than I love your brother.  You are kind and sweet and so full of personality. 

You and I have a very special bond.  I think back to those days when I was the only one who could feed you as you struggled through every feeding...

You are my thinker.  My builder.  My little architect.  I love watching you as you play with your legos and blocks....not even knowing that I'm there....you are that engrossed in what you are doing.

And when you smile, the whole world smiles with you.  You have the best giggle and I love it when I tickle you just right and I am rewarded with that sound.

There is something about how you reach up and hold my hand when we're walking together that makes my heart do a cartwheel...I can't describe how much I love you in that moment.

Never change. 

Love,

Mommy



Playgrounds make me emotional

There I said it.  Playgrounds make me emotional.  And you know what?  They are everywhere.  Taking your kid to the playground is pretty much at the top of the "this is what normal parents do" list.  There is a playground just down the street from our house.  We drive by it almost every single day.  But we never take our kids there.  Never.  And every time we drive by it with the kids in tow, one of them will almost always say "I want to go to THAT playground Mommy".  And I just say "someday sweetie".

You see...when you have a physically-challenged child, playgrounds are a completely different experience.  No "sitting on the bench and chatting with the other moms" for me.  Nope.  I'm either helping Ben "climb" or catching Ben at the bottom or I'm on the friggin' thing with him.  And if there are a lot of other kids there, well, we usually hang back and watch or just decide to go home and try another time.

So we drive around neighbourhoods and find playgrounds that work for Ben.  And we've found a few.  Playgrounds with lots of steps and not so many ladders...because Ben can climb steps.  Playgrounds with just one big play structure instead of many small ones so I can keep an eye on both Ben and Daniel.  And most importantly, playgrounds that aren't very busy.  Because bigger kids seem even bigger when your main method of transportation is crawling.  And Ben gets easily intimidated by bigger kids.

So yeah.  Playgrounds make me emotional.  They make me sad, angry, and frustrated on occasion.  But sometimes, they make me happy...like when we went to the playground with "Sarah", Ben's CE friend.  And it totally worked for THEM.

Father's Day Paintings

I absolutely LOVE the paintings that Janet Harrold at Painting for Hailey has done for me in the past.  The first painting that she did for me now hangs in my family room...you can read the post about it here.  Because I loved that one so much, I had her do 2 more paintings for me that I could give to the boys' grandparents as Christmas gifts.  I blogged about them here and here.

After our family vacation to Florida in May, I emailed Janet right away to see if she could do 2 more paintings for me...for my husband for Father's Day.  It was a quick turnaround but she did it and here they are!  I do have to say that the pictures of the paintings don't really do them justice....the colours are so much more vibrant in person.

Ben walking with Daddy at the beach

Daniel - in his own little world

As usual, Janet has placed a CP awareness ribbon in each painting...see if you can find them!

And if you would like a painting of your own child, Janet would love to do it for you...all proceeds go towards her grand-daughter's Conductive Education Fund.

Glasses!

The boys got their new glasses today!  Mommy is a little torn on the whole thing...they are so adorable, but I really wish we didn't have to deal with glasses.  Oh well...in the grand scheme of things, glasses are really no big deal.

Check out how cute they are!



The only way to get one of the 2 of them, was to get them to do funny-faces.

Daniel - who obviously must not have been seeing very well...his prescription is STRONG!

Ben - I couldn't get a good one of him looking directly at me.



Happy (Belated) Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day Everyone...I'm one day late, but we were just so busy having such a great time that there was simply no time to blog about it.

We are in Ontario visiting my husband's family for a week.  We went to a Canada Day Parade in the morning.  Here are the boys with their Canada shirts and flags!

We even managed to get a family photo of all four of us!

After the parade, we went down to the lake for an hour of "throwing stones in the lake"...a favourite activity.  And then had hotdogs, sausages and fries from a local take-out.  YUM!

After big afternoon naps, we went back into town to check out all the antique cars on Main St and then down to the lake front to wait for the fireworks to start.  Here are all four of us waiting:



It was actually the first time the boys saw fireworks and they LOVED them!  Absolutely loved them.  Then it was time to go back to Grandma's house for bed.

We had such a fantastic family day!