In Which Connor Is Way Too Big And I Get Ready To Hang Up My Skates For A While

I'm really tired for some reason tonight, so I'll make this a quick post!  Connor has his preschool graduation party tomorrow, and I'm probably going to cry because it's been such a fantastic three years for him and I can't believe he's going to be in first grade!  It seems like it was only yesterday that he was pint size enough to fit in the crook of my arm.

We've got some summer plans starting to come together; my parents are coming up in July and in August my sister is going to come visit.  It will be lovely to get the chance to see them and have fun exploring more of the Pacific Northwest with them. 

My roller derby championship bout is coming up at the end of June, and if you are in the area and want to see me skate and fall down many, many times in creative ways this will be your last chance for a year or so; I'll be taking next season off so that I can focus on Ellen's arrival and helping her settle in.  I'll still be practicing a couple of times a week (as opposed to my current four nights a week) for stress relief and to keep my skill level up until I go active again, but I won't be bouting.  So all you folks who keep telling me you'll get around to coming-- this will be your last chance for a long while. 

Anyway, that's about all the news I can think of for today.  I'm off to bed!

~Jess

In Which Connor Has A Field Day

Our school district had their preschool Field Day today, and all of the preschool students from this year (along with some upcoming students for next year's classes) turned out for an hour of fun!  The vast majority of the kids there were typical students, but a few of Connor's classmates came too.  There was an obstacle course, a parachute, face painting, coloring, sidewalk chalk, a sensory bin, a bubble blowing area and probably a few more things I missed. 

At first Connor didn't quite know what to make of the whole thing.  I think he assumed that we were going down to the Rhododendron Botanical Species Garden for our walk, which we usually do on Wednesdays.  He was a little taken aback by seeing his teachers out of school, and also all of the surrounding noisy activity.  After a bit of pondering, he apparently decided that the biggest issue was that his teachers and I were both there, so once that was fixed things would be okay.  So he started waving "bye bye" to me!  I think he wanted me to just leave him there with his teachers and come back in a couple of hours. 

Oh well.

Since most of the students in Connor's class didn't make it, he got the undivided attention of his teacher and the three paraeducators who made it for quite a while, and I'm pretty sure that was his favorite part of the festivities! 

After he got over the whole idea that I was sticking around but that he would still get a ton of attention from his teachers, he actually ended up having quite a bit of fun!  First we tried out the bubbles, but the wind was blowing a bit hard and they got away too fast for him to really see them.  So then we did some coloring, tried out the rice table and played "man in the middle" of the parachute.  The little guy started getting a bit overwhelmed, so we took a bit of a break while we waited for Connor's turn to get his face painted. 


This was the first time Connor had ever tried face painting, because he's a kid with sensory issues and those brushes tickle.  I figured trying something small would be best, and in a color other than red so if he immediately smeared it all over his face it at least wouldn't look like he was bleeding all over the place.  It took the face painter only a couple of minutes to dash out a quick spider on his face.  Connor did a great job!  He held still pretty well, and after checking himself out in the mirror he left the spider alone until we got home, when he promptly tried to smear it all over the couch and I had to wipe it off.

The Field Day only lasted about an hour, and that was the perfect time period because by the end of it Connor was exhausted.  Here's a picture of the little guy just before we headed home (with his mostly intact spider still on his face) and you can see just how tired he is.  All the noise and hubbub really wore him out, but I think he had a great time and I'm glad we came!

~Jess

In Which We Make Plans To Hit The Trails

Connor and I drove out to Gig Harbor today so that we could stop by the pharmacy and do a bit of shopping.  The view out over the Narrows Bridge is just lovely, and it made me think about some of the things we did together last summer.  I've got a book called Accessible Trails In Washington's Backcountry that has a lovely list of trails all over the state we can take Connor to without any difficulty, and I think it's about time to pull it out and get ready for an outing or two! 

I took a good look at the book today, and apparently there's a lovely accessible trail on the shore of Lake Washington only about half an hour from our house.  They have a swimming beach too, but that's not something we'll take advantage of because of Connor's g-tube-- the lake water can leak in around the tube site and there's a lot of bacteria in there that he doesn't need to have in his digestive system.  I think the boardwalk and beach area would be pretty fun to explore, though! 

This will be the last summer that we'll be a family of three, which is strange to think about.  Next summer we can revisit so many places that Connor's already seen and rediscover them all over again.  I can't wait to see what Ellen thinks of all of our favorite haunts! 

~Jess

In Which Connor Takes A Stand

Thanks for the suggestions on bubble bath and chewy things, folks.  I'll have to go shopping and try out a few brands.  I'll let you all know if we find something that works particularly well!

It was lovely outside today, so after school I took Connor out in his stander and set him up in the shade while I did some work out in the garden.  He has a little tray in his stander with a well you can put things in, so I picked a bunch of different herbs and put them in there for him to explore.  He carefully felt each of them, and seemed to especially like the fennel and the borage.  I had to move him every ten minutes or so because my shade kept retreating; one of these days we're going to have a permanent shelter in the backyard that Connor can hang out under so that he doesn't overheat. 

He was doing really well, so when the sun slipped behind the clouds for a few minutes I decided to take him on a trip to the mailbox in his stander.  I don't normally roll him around outside the house in the stander, but he thought the trip down the ramp and the bumps in the sidewalk were so tremendously funny that I may have to make a habit of taking him around the neighborhood more often.  The stander is a little awkward for me to push because I have to hunch over a bit and there aren't any convenient handles, but hey, I'll do anything for that little squeaky bicycle wheel laugh!

Connor has finally worked up to consistently doing two full hours in his stander, which is really exciting!  Two hours five days a week is the minimum he needs to be doing to help his bones develop properly-- many kids in wheelchairs end up with spontaneous fractures because their bones are brittle due to lack of weight bearing.  So we can head off a lot of problems by sticking to a standing routine!  The trick is keeping Connor's attention for two hours so that he doesn't protest being in the stander-- towards the end of the time if he's bored he starts focusing on how tired he's getting and he begins fussing.  So a daily trip down to the mailbox or around the block in good weather may be just what he needs to distract him long enough to finish off his two hours! 

~Jess

In Which Connor Continues The Daily Grind

Connor has still been grinding his teeth like crazy, so I went out and got him a variety of things to try chewing on.  The one that seems to be the most effective thus far is a plastic fish teether.  Though I'm not thrilled about him having a teether-- which isn't exactly age appropriate-- and wish that I could figure out something a little less associated with babies for him to chew on, it seems to be helping.  Cues haven't been working, and if we can't get him to stop he might eventually have to have a mouth guard to wear during part of the day, which we'd rather not have to do.  I think Connor would really struggle with that, and we hate to do anything to cause him distress if we have an alternative.  So I guess a teether isn't the end of the world in the scheme of things.

I figured the pool would be a little crowded today and Connor needed a bath anyway, so I filled up the tub, put on a swimsuit and the two of us splashed around for a while.  I brought in some bubbles, which went over surprisingly well.  I don't mean bubble bath-- I mean I brought in a tub of bubbles and blew them over the two of us in the bathtub.  Did you know that bubbles bounce when they hit the water?  Connor thought it was pretty cool, and he's not normally a huge bubble fan. 

I would love to give him an actual bubble bath, provided I could find a bubble bath that wouldn't make his eyes burn horribly if he got bubbles on his hands and then rubbed them in his eyes, which is likely.  Oh, and also doesn't cause him to have an allergic reaction, of course.  There are a ridiculous number of bath products out there with lavender in them!  If you've got any recommendations, let me know.  It won't be too much longer before he'll be too big to get in and out of the bathtub safely, and we'll have to stop our at-home miniature pool sessions and switch to strictly the shower chair.  That will be a pretty sad day for me!

~Jess

In Which I Have A Sort Of Wet But Really Fun Day

I think I slept on my neck in a funny way last night, because when I woke up this morning I discovered I'd pulled a muscle on one side, and turning my head to the left felt like I was driving a skewer through the base of my skull.  Does anybody else ever do this, or is it just me?  I have no idea how I manage to pull muscles while I am sleeping.  At any rate, I've been taking lots of ibuprofen today, which helped, and I'm thinking I may hit the hot tub at the YMCA tomorrow to help loosen it up a bit-- at least so I can turn my head enough during roller derby practice to see both sides of the track.

I spent most of today out washing cars to help raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation, which is to my mind definitely a worthy cause!  Despite multiple reapplications of sunscreen and overcast skies I managed to get a bit sunburned, but otherwise I had a great time.  Washing cars is a surprisingly good workout; I think it's all the squatting to get the wheel wells and whatnot that does the trick.  We had a decent turnout too, so we kept pretty busy.

Then afterwards we all went over to a teammate's house for a big barbecue.  While I adore my little guy and love being a full-time mom, sometimes it's really, really great to spend some time with other adults!  It always leaves me refreshed and ready to spend more time with the little guy.  Sometimes I can get a bit lonely; when Connor's having a rough stretch I can literally go days without seeing another adult besides Jer.  So I like to get my social time in while I can!  And of course I had a complete blast hanging out with my roller derby ladies.  Even though I've been playing for almost two years now I still feel like I stumbled on the cool kids' club in school and somehow managed to sneak my way in!

~Jess

In Which Connor Is Almost Done With School And I Prepare For Some Scrubbing Bubbles

Today was Hawaiian Day at school for Connor, so I sent him off in a tie-dye shirt and sunglasses, which was about the closest to Hawaiian I could scrounge up.  After two days of multiple-hour long naps and solid sleeping through the night, I think the little guy is fully recovered from his ear infection-- just in time for our night nurse's weekend.  He's squealing and giggling his little head off in his bedroom right now.  Looks like it will be a long night!  Luckily my kitchen is stocked with an ample supply of chocolate sour cream cake to help keep me going.

Connor has one more week of school and then he's finished with preschool and moving on to summer and then first grade.  He's come such a long way in his three years of preschool, and I'm so, so proud of him.  I'm also really not ready for him to a first grader, but I have a few months to come to terms with that.  In the meantime I can spend the summer in glorious denial.  Until September, every time someone mentions the words "first grade" I'm going to stick my fingers in my ears and go "La la la la la la!" because I am a mature adult and that's how mature adults handle things. 

Tomorrow I'll be pretty busy-- my roller derby team is raising money for the Make A Wish Foundation by washing cars as part of their Soaps It Up! Car Wash event, and so I'll be playing with water and bubbles all day.  Make A Wish has done some amazing things for a lot of Connor's friends, so I'm excited to be helping them out!  Stop by if you're in the neighborhood-- we'll be down at Hi-Tech Collision in Spanaway. 

Of course it's supposed to rain tomorrow, but I'm hoping it will hold off so we can get a good turnout for the kids!

~Jess