Dreaming of baseball

When Gavin asked me if he could sleep with his glove at nap time today I said sure. Sleep with whatever you want as long as it will keep you quiet and in your bed! When I went to check on him a few minutes later I found him like this!


My collection of amusing pictures of him sleeping continues to grow! Ha! I already have the one of him sleeping with his firetruck, and another of him sleeping with a big, plastic garbage truck. I think this one is pretty funny though. His arm is at such a weird angle. It looks like he is really ready to catch the ball. I wonder if he is dreaming of baseball...

Fingers are like roses

I was just browsing through the SuperHands kids website and the first kid I clicked on was a little baby named Brandon. And in the little write-up about how his parents found out about Brandon's limb difference, it mentions that the doctor told them,

"Fingers are like roses. Some bloom and some don't."

Don't you think thats a good way of explaining it to kids about "baby fingers" as Gavin calls it, or "nubbins"? I like it! :)

Book Reviews

I would like to update the post I made last year called, BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!!!. It has been over a year now and some I don't think are available now, unfortunately. There just doesn't seem to be a high demand for most of these and I have had a hard time finding them in book stores. I will do a bit more looking and see what I can find and then I will update the list.

I need your help! If you have read any of these books or any others that you recommend, please let me know! I would love to hear your reviews and suggestions! :)

Story Teller

I just love seeing the bond develop between Gavin and his baby sister. Growing up, I always wished I had a big brother and I think Eden is so blessed to have one!

Today she was laying on her play mat and he decided to read her some stories. She was staring at him the whole time and he was saying things to her like, "Oh, you want to read it again Eden? OK, which one you like? You my sha-sha-sha-sha girl!" (whatever that means...I'm pretty sure it is a term of endearment though!)

Miah the cat

Today Gavin told me that his friend Shalom touched his arm. He told me, "I no want to say no thank you." (We have told Gavin to tell people "no thank you" when he doesn't want them touching his arm.)

I asked if he wanted Shalom to touch his arm and he told me no. I told him, "then you have to tell him no." He said he didn't want to.

I asked him if a lot of the kids touch his arm.

He said, "No, just Miah. Miah the cat."

(FYI: Miah is my parents' cat. He is obsessed with her every time he visits. We were just there last week but I was unaware that she was bothering him by touching his arm. I guess we will have to give her a talking to about personal space! She has a bit of an attitude as you may be able to tell from the picture...)

I CAN BE ME!

Last year we participated in Holland Bloorview's first filmpossible contest. It was a huge success! Gavin's video, "His Abilities" made it to the finals and was even featured in a 1 hour documentary about the contest on Rogers TV.

The theme of the contest is "bringing visability to disability" and it definiately achieved that goal!

The second filmpossible contest is starting today and we are so excited about it! This year my awesome friend Jen put together this super cute video of Gavin and Gabby, the adorable duo!

Please show your support! You can register your email and then log in every day to vote. Cisco will donate $1 for every vote!

Contest details

Back Catcher

We all know about Gavin's hockey obsession. Well he LOVES to play goalie. He loves to save the puck, he loves to fall, and most of all, he loves the helmet with the full cage.

He has recently become a baseball fan as well. And what is his favourite position? The back catcher!!

My guess is because of the big helmet with the cage that goes along with the position. He loves it. He wants one. He also wants a batting helmet.

He loves to copy the back catcher by squatting down with his glove in the air. Now he just has to learn how to catch the ball in his glove!

His Abilities

How To Survive Being Stared At

Most of the member's of the Sammy's Friends group are parents of children with limb differences. But the great thing is, that there are also members who are adults with limb differences themselves. I always love hearing things from their perspectives.

Like Ryan Haack, a 33-year old dad who just happens to have one hand. Check out his blog: Ryan Haack Does Stuff: And he does it all one-handed.

I love his recent entry, "How to Survive Being Stared At".

I love this part. Its SO TRUE!

"Kids don’t know any better. I’m not saying kids aren’t smart or anything, I’m just saying they’ve (probably) never seen somebody like me and their brains are still in that stage where they’re like, “HOLY CRAP. THAT DUDE IS MISSING HIS ARM. I MUST KNOW WHY. I WILL ASK HIM IMMEDIATELY.” "

At the CHAMPS seminars, they mention the same kind of idea when talking about how to handle staring and questions. Brian likes to tell the kids to think of themselves as a beautiful, rare butterfly that no one has ever seen before. Of course they want to look at you and ask questions! Just as you would, if you saw a space ship for the first time or a pink giraffe with polka-dots. If you've never seen one before, wouldn't you find yourself staring in curiosity and wanting to find out more about it because its SO COOL!? :)

Filmpossible 2012

I just got this email today about the upcoming Filmpossible contest! Just wanted to pass along all the info for people who are interested in submitting a video!

Hello!



Filmpossible 2011 is right around the corner and we hope that you are just as excited as we are! With just a few short weeks until the contest launches on June 20th, now is great time to start taking pictures or getting started on your video entry this year. Get your photos and videos in early to increase your chances of winning a Cisco Visibility Award (awarded to the three entries that receive the most public votes in round one).



You can also find more contest information by clicking HERE to visit the filmpossible page on the Holland Bloorview website. Looking for inspiration? Check out the filmpossible playlist on the Holland Bloorview YouTube channel HERE to watch some of last year’s entries. Regrettably, not all of the filmpossible 2010 videos could be transferred to YouTube due to differences in file formats. If you don’t see your entry here but would like to have it added, please let me know by email and we can try to fix that!



We are excited to see the creative new ways that you will bring visibility to disability in 2011 and we encourage you to spread the word about filmpossible via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, email and conversations with family and friends.



Don’t forget to visit filmpossible.ca on June 20th to upload your photo or video and vote for your favourites!

Crawling

Aww I just came across this little video clip of Gavin as a baby. I just love the way he crawled at first! xoxo

Baby Gavin (8 months old)



He is soo cute! I love you Gavy! Even as a baby he was always so determined to get where he needed to go and he didn't waste any time doing it! And he always had such a big smile on his face :)

Copy Cat

Gavin is at that stage where he loves to copy. EVERYTHING. He copies things we say which has caused us to be extra careful. We have even heard him say some choice words which we know he didn't hear from us. We can censor what WE say, but not what other people say.

When I'm looking after Eden he will pick up his doll and mimic everything I do. My favourite is when he puts his doll to his chest when I'm nursing her. Haha!

He loves to watch sports and copy their actions. Several weeks ago we stopped at the park on the way home and there were some older kids playing baseball. Gavin focused on the back catcher and copied EVERY move he made! This has now turned into a weekly routine and he loves to stop and watch the baseball games.

But Gavin's favourite thing to copy is other kids. Especially Gabby! We went to the zoo a few weeks ago and I swear there was an echo every where we went! It is pretty hilarious at first, which quickly turns into annoying!

These two just love to do whatever the other one is doing...especially if it is rolling down a hill! :)

CHAMPS in Ottawa!

Last weekend we went to Ottawa for Gavin's 3rd CHAMP seminar. It was a highly anticipated trip because Gavin knew for several weeks that we were taking the train! It was our first time on the VIA train and it was a success! I wish we could take the train everywhere, instead of driving. It is so much easier with the little ones, not having to keep them confined to their car seats for several hours. Janelle and Gabby were with us and it was lots of fun!


The train ride was 4 hours and the kids were amazing. It helped that Janelle had lots of tricks up her sleeve to keep them entertained. And little Eden slept most of the way and didn't make a peep.



At one point they even put a blanket over the table and then looked at books in their fort!


It was a great weekend. My favourite part is always seeing all the kids playing together. I love how everyone is instant friends, whether they haven't seen each other for a year or it is their first time meeting. We always meet some awesome parents too!

This year Janelle and I were asked to do a little interview together for the "Matching Mothers" program. They asked us some questions about how we met, how we feel about coming to the seminars and how far we have come since finding out about our babies' limb differences. Miss Eden even got to make a cameo in the interview! She kept crying when I tried to leave her in her stroller and then we would have to start the interview over so finally, they just said I could hold her. After the interview they wanted some shots of the kids playing together. There were multiple hugs, which eventually ended in tears, since Gavin's hugs tend to involve tackling Gabby to the ground. We are working on that...

I think the most fun was when the amputees took over the hotel's swimming pool! Ha! I love to see the looks on other people's faces when kids start jumping in the pool with their swim legs on and swimming around like nobody's business! :)

We have been working on getting Gavin to wear his "mighty machine arm" more frequently so it helped for him to see other kids with their prosthetics on. (Although I still don't think he really cared). But he is doing well with it when we can get him to leave it on. (Tough love!)

I didn't get many pictures because my camera was acting up. But I love how proud he is in this one! He was showing me how he can hold the bus with his mighty machine arm. I am so proud of our little CHAMP and I can't believe how big he is getting!!

It was great for him and Gabby to spend the whole weekend together. They were inseperable and so cute together! Janelle got them these Sammy's Friend's T-shirts and wrote on them with fabric markers. Gavin's says "Gabby's arm buddy" on the back and Gabby's says "Gavin's arm buddy". Then she wrote on the left sleeve "God made me this way". I love them! Sorry this is the only picture I have but trust me, they are super cute!


If you are interested in your own Sammy's Friends shirt, you can purchase one here!