Ok, I have to say it...

I didn't want to be one of 'those' parents that is always saying how adorable their children are, but with Sterlings' new 'loaner' wheelchair, how could you not agree?

I went to Children's today and Sterling got fit for his new wheelchair. I have never seen a wheelchair this small. The vendor who came to fit Sterling said this was a little big but they don't make them smaller than this. Yeah, super cute!!! The top of his head now sits at about 2 feet tall when he is sitting in this chair. He gets to borrow this one until his comes in or another child needs to try it out.

We put Sterling in this midget wheelchair so he could take it for a test drive. He was all over the place. It was incredible and seriously made me so happy because Sterling was having so much fun. He has never been able to get anywhere real fast and he was cruising up down and all around the halls at the hospital. The vendor (Al) told me that he has seen children that have had their wheelchairs for three months not be as good as Sterling is now and that he would love to see him in a month to see how crazy good he is with his wheelchair. Oh yeah, my son is a natural at the wheelchair. SO FUN!!! Now that I am done bragging I will conclude with a video of Sterling a couple minutes after getting his first wheelchair!

What the ...

So I leave the house this morning in my little sweater for work because at 6am in the morning it is 0 Degrees Celsius out, and of course I am way too lazy to watch the news because that means that it is 5 minutes earlier I have to wake up and I am pushing it as it is. I am soooooo not a morning person. I am grouchy and unpleasant to be around. At 2pm the head honchos at work decided it is pretty crappy so they let everyone go home early. Yeah...got on train. Train sardine packed. Barely fit on train. Train goes 10 feet and then stops for 20 minutes. "What the heck?" Train starts again and more people just keeping piling on in downtown. "How many more people can fit on already full train?" Apparently more can. So now the train is so full that no one can move to get out on their stops. Haha.....That part was kinda funny actually (but only because I am the last train stop in the NW at crowfoot). So I get to crowfoot at 3:15pm. That should have only taken 30 minutes not over an hour, wow! So, yeah it is really snowing out there. Barely make it up the Crestmont hill to get Sterly beans and then slide right back down after he has been picked up. I finally make it home at 5pm. "Is it really 5pm, I left work at 2pm?" It really is 5pm. I park in the 3 foot snow drift behind our house because I have no other options. Get Sterling out of the car. Walk to the door. "Oh Crap!" There is a snowdrift on our porch that goes almost all the way up the door. If I open the door, I will have a huge pile of snow in my kitchen. Instead of doing the smart thing and walking around to the front door. Grab and shovel and shovel porch. Get in house. Home at last! And it is supposed to keep right on snowing all night and day tomorrow. Sounds fun, really excited to have the corner house as all the snow creates a huge drift right at my house entrance.

On other news: Sterling is getting fit for a wheelchair on Tuesday! I am pretty excited for him to own his own little moving mobile. But I do believe that I am only going to get stopped 'that much more' when I am out with him (which isn't a good thing because I am pretty anti-social).

Lastly: I really need to think of some way to earn money from home or my own business. I am not made to be an accountant and sit at a desk all day. Plus I super miss my Sterly. I am trying to think of a way to take what I love, refinishing furniture, painting, interior design and photography in order to make some fundage but not getting anywhere. I wish I was one of those people that wasn't so responsible and have enough nerve to just go out and start a business. Maybe one day! Anyone have any ideas for me? Probably not, but worth a try!

-Alauna

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