Inclusion

It’s been awhile since I have written about the kids.  Beyond the fact that we have been busy battling colds/flu constantly, life has been going on.

Bella’s school works on the inclusion policy.  They try to include Bella in all activities that she can possibly participate in, and they probably include her in more than she can really comprehend.  In truth Bella just watches life happen around her.  In order for her to participate in anything she needs an adult to make that happen.  We are lucky that at school she has an adult with her at all times that pushes her to do things and be a part of things.  The kids in her kindergarten class are also doing a great job seeing her as a part of their class, even though she isn’t in the room full time.

Bella got invited to a birthday party for girls in her kindergarten class.  She has been invited to parties before and I always decline them.  This time around I really debated on what to do.  The school makes such an effort to include her and the kids do such a good job seeing her as one of them. 

I’m not sure if the girls asked their mom to invite Bella, or if their mom wanted to invite all the girls in the class, but if I want Bella to be seen as someone who could be a friend, then I need to have her participate outside of class.

That would all make you think that saying yes to the party would be an easy decision…..except as I said, in order for Bella to participate in anything she needs an adult to make it happen.  The party happened to be in the evening after school.  Generally Bella is really tired after a full day of school, and Bella likes to be winding down and going to bed around 7pm.  The party would only be halfway over at that point.  Plus we already had plans that evening we would have to cancel in order for me to take her to the party.

And logistically, I had never been to this person’s house.  I would have no idea if they could accommodate Bella’s wheelchair or have an area that she could lay down, or a place I could try to hold her.  I wouldn’t really know anyone there either, and Bella can’t really help with that part, she wouldn’t really interact with the girls there, she would be watching for the most part.

In the end I regretfully declined the invitation.  At some point I know I need to step it up and help Bella get included in activities, but it still seems like an impossible task, and a lot of hard work on my part.  I really just wish I knew whether she would enjoy the hard work put forth to include her or not?

Happy New Year

This post is a little late.  If you saw the few posts I got done during the holiday season you obviously noticed the never ending sickness in our family.

I wanted to show a few highlights from our Christmas celebration.

Christmas Eve we opened a few gifts from each other.  It was also the time I did the unexciting clothes for the kids which immediately got tossed for more exciting toys.

Santa’s big gift to Oliver was a new train set.  Jesse built a new train table out of scrap wood.  We knew the train table was going to be a necessity when one day I picked Oliver up from Preschool and they had just gotten a new train table there.  He did not want to leave school.  I had to physical pick him up kicking and screaming because he didn’t want to leave.  He cried for the train table all the way home from school.  Then when we pulled into our circle drive and I got him out of the car, he started running towards the street saying he was going back to school to play with his train table.

He finally calmed down but it took awhile.  And building a train table for Christmas became our number one priority.

Remember when I mentioned Oliver had fevers and was very sick Christmas Eve.  That morning he was a little out of it when he first saw the new train set.

 

But once he fully woke up he excitedly played with it all day.  In fact almost two weeks later he is still busy playing with the train set.

Bella’s big gift was getting a swing installed inside so he has something to do when the weather is cold.  Although we didn’t actually get this accomplished before Christmas.  And once we did get it installed she was battling a cold/ear infection so she didn’t feel like swinging.

Besides their large gifts, Santa brought them a few other things.

Bella actually seemed to enjoy grabbing at her presents, but didn’t really care about what was in them.

I would say that is actually some progress.  I have to admit I didn’t get this girl any toys.  She doesn’t really need any toys, so I’m sure clothes, coats, etc were very boring to her.

Santa brought the whole family slippers.

Bella was able to get her slippers off immediately so I came up with a modification that keeps them on.  I will have to share in another post for anyone else that has slippery slippers.

And we actually managed to finally make Christmas cookies on Christmas day.  Oliver helped for a little while and made some train cookies for himself.

We did have a babysitter for New Year’s Eve.  Jesse and I attempted to go out for dinner and drinks with friends.  I had gotten a headache earlier that day, but since we rarely have babysitters we pushed through and still went out.  I say “we”, because Jesse also had a headache.

So we went out to a restaurant and on the car ride there I started to get nauseous.  We made it to the restaurant and the feeling was getting worse.  I wasn’t quite sure where the feeling was coming from.  Was it because I had a migraine, was it because I had taken migraine medication on an empty stomach, or was it because I was now getting the sickness/flu that my kids had?

So I sat there worrying about the fact that at some point I might have to make a run for the bathroom to throw up.  I was even more worried because I was in a nice restaurant and wearing heels.  I thought there would be no way I would actually make it to the restroom in time and instead would throw up in front of everyone trying to have a nice New Year’s Eve dinner.

I can luckily say that I did not throw up, nor did I have to bolt for the bathroom.  Although the cook thought his meal was bad because I only ate two bites of it.  When I didn’t want anything else to replace the meal I ordered, the restaurant was nice enough and took it off the bill.  Our friends probably thought I was being a diva over my meal……that and the fact I felt so terrible I couldn’t even carry on a conversation.  Needless to say we headed home after dinner and instead of staying up till midnight, I found myself heading straight for bed.  We definitely owe a make up to our friends for that evening!

I’m happy to report that everyone is starting to feel better, 6 days later I am finally headache free and Bella is feeling better and enjoying her new inside swing..  And today was supposed to be the first day back to school and work for everyone.  Except this extreme cold weather came and now school is out again.  Yeah…..sarcastically said.

So that was our holiday wrap up.  And as soon as school can get started again, we will be back to our “normal” scheduling.