It was good and then it was over...

Sterling being a wierdo....Look at his shunt tube on his neck, looks like he is a muscle man!

Wow, I don't remember that whole weekend happening! It happened so fast that I didn't really get to enjoy it, maybe next year. Sterling had a blast at the Banff Springs Hotel. We let him roll around in his wheelchair the whole weekend and he jsut had a really good time. Bad thing about doing this is that it took us about 1 hour to get from our room to the ballroom downstairs. He got distracted so easily and never wanted to go where Trevor and I wanted to go. He usually wanted to go and torture whatever Christmas Tree was nearest him (which seemed to be endless Christmas trees all over the hotel).

Sterls favourite part about the whole trip seems to be the outdoor heated pool. He absolutely loved it! We had to go everyday to the 'bath', (which was what he called it).

This is Sterls outside being grumpy because he was forced into his winter wear. He hates wearing winter clothes and tries like a maniac to get them off the whole time he wears them. He will sit there with a grumpy expression for hours and wont even smile (that is a rarity for Sterling to not smile if you are being silly) until you get his winter clothes off. He instantly is happy again, wierdo baby! He WILL NOT wear mittens. I am not sure what I am going to do when it really gets cold here. It was pretty nice in Banff being 5 degress Celcius but pretty windy so it made it cold....At least there wasn't any snow there.

"I dunno"

He loves his lights!

So all in all a good trip. Sterling had a really good time with the sitter the hotel hired to watch him while we were at the party. She drew with him and played all sorts of games. That was the first time family hasn't watched him, so we were a little nervous but of course he wasn't. No tears and he had tons of fun!

-Alauna

Banff Springs, here we come!

So it is my favourite time of the year! Every November during the last weekend my work, Progress pays for everyone to have a 2-night stay at the Banff Springs Hotel! This is my 4th year going and it never seems to get tiring to have a free vacation there. I posted some pictures for all our American readers that don't know what this hotel is looks like. It is a super rad old hotel built in 1887 (of course it has been expanded and remodeled since). My favourite part is the outdoor hot pool. I could just lounge in there all day long,especially when it is around zero Celsius. They also feed us these amazing breakfasts that I swear add 10 pounds to my frame in just one weekend. Yup, super freakin' excited...We even get to leave work early in order to get there at a decent time.
But on some not so good news. Sterling just started showing symptoms of the cough that I have had for weeks last night. He woke up every 10-30 minutes coughing himself awake and then crying because it hurt so much! I feel so bad for him because NyQuil is the only thing that has kept me sane and helped me get at least a few hours of sleep. He just has to suffer the good old fashioned way. As well, he has an eye infection and is rather inconvenient. When he wakes up from naps and a night of sleep, his eyes are glued shut from all his eye boogies. When I picked him up on Tuesday from being watched his eyes were all red and puffy. Just thought he was tired, then on Wednesday morning he couldn't open his little eyes. Bad news, poor little Sterly beans.

Sterling went to his monthly PT/OT appointment on Tuesday. It took him a little while to warm up but then we was being his normal little adorable self. Well, almost....I think this mostly took him so long because he was starting to get an eye infection and he wasn't feeling too well. This was going somewhere eventually, oh yeah, they are going to set up an appointment with a vendor to get him fit for his first real wheelchair. Not that the one his has right now isn't real, but he will actually fit this one. So cute! I took him to his appointment in his old wheelchair and he loved it! After the appointment he wheeled down the huge hallway by himself. In order to make it so we weren't at the hospital for the next hour I started pushing just a little. His hands were going around so fast on the wheels and he totally thought he was moving himself so fast. He was giggling and wheeling faster and faster. I just couldn't show him that I was the one pushing him because he was enjoying himself so much. We decided we are going to take his wheelchair to Banff because there is just endless hallways and ballrooms and whatnot in the Banff Springs for him to wheel himself around.

Will post some pics. after this weekend.

-Alauna

The great chicken's room is almost done....

I am almost done Sterling's room...I just finished painting his room today. Here is the finished painted project. I think I am stoked with the end results but sometimes I wonder if it is too much. Seems like a good idea to do stripes because it makes it more interesting than just one colour but he won't grow out of them so fast. I haven't put in the furniture and hung all his stuff but I will post more pictures when I am completely finished his room. I am pretty happy because it is twice the size of a normal bedroom, so we were able to give him a play area in half the bedroom. What do you all think?

-Alauna

Halloween and Gettin' Around

Took Sterling to his first non Spina Bifida related hospital visit. yesterday. He was playing and hit his head on a metal toy semi truck and split his head open. It happened at 10am and didn't stop bleeding until they glued him back together at 1pm. What a little trooper, he didn't even cry when they were scrubbing it clean and pressed it together to stick on his little goose egg. So Finally decided to get around to posting some Halloween pics. I was waiting because I wanted to get some of him in the garden in his gnomie costume, but I am procrastinating. So here Sterling is in all his gnomie glory.


I have had requests to post some footage of the Sterly beans gettin' around the house. Here are three different clips showing his different techniques. In the last one you can see how flexible he is at the end when he goes from his tummy to his bums while doing the splits.

-Alauna

Colbert makes me happy!

I saw this awhile back. but Trevor reminded me of this video. I like watching the Colbert Report and this one was such a gooder, especially since I am so sad that the old hockey night in Canada theme is no more.

-Alauna