I took more images of Niagara Falls today only this time . Not only was it cold but mist rained down on us as I took the photos. But that didn’t make it any less beautiful. Here’s Horseshoe Falls (click the images to enlarge):

Here’s a view of the American Falls.

In this picture I was standing on the overlook beside the falls.

The spots on the lens were from the mist that rose up from the falls. It was perpetually rainy next to the falls but dry a few hundred yards away. Unfortunately, my video camera’s battery was dead so I couldn’t get video of the falls, but it’s charging as I write this and we’re heading back tomorrow.

One of Steve’s Christmas gifts to me was a weekend away to Niagara Falls. We left home yesterday afternoon when my parents arrived at our house to watch the kids and arrived at our hotel around 6:20pm. We’re staying on the Canadian side because there are more activities, casinos, bars, etc. on this side. But our hotel has an amazing view of the American Falls. I took a few photos of the view that we have right outside our window (click to enlarge).

Isn’t that beautiful? We’re far enough away that we can’t hear the falls, but they’ve got to be deafening. This is the view we have of the Canadian falls (click to enlarge).

The view of  Horseshoe Falls limited, but we will get a better view of it once we get out and about today.  One thing we want to do is take a ride up into the Skylon, which looks like this (click to enlarge):

The falls you see behind it is Horseshoe Falls. What an amazing view and there’s a restaurant at the top. We’re hoping to have dinner there either tonight or tomorrow night.

Stay tuned, I’ll have more pictures later.

The more active Little Miss Throwsafit becomes, the more we get to know her and what interests she has. We know she loves to play with her dinosaurs and make them eat each other. She’s picking up the concept of the food chain a little too well, I’m afraid.  Now I’m learning she loves to play catch with Littlest One’s baseball mitt ball.  The baseball mitt has velcro on its fingers and the baseball is made of fabric so when it comes into contact with the mitt it sticks. Little Miss Throwsafit loves to throw the ball back and forth with me.  It brings back a lot of memories of my dad playing catch with me when I was a kid. I was a real tomboy and I can see a lot of that in her, too.

LMT has improved so much over the past year. She walks on her own almost everywhere now. She walks so fast that she’s almost at a run. As hard as she works, though, she can’t yet fully run, jump, or skip and her balance is still a bit shaky. Making things more difficult is that she will have to wear DAFOs (Dynamic Ankle Foot Orthoses) for many years to come to help support her ankles and arches. As the years go by and she grows stronger and advances physically I hope she will be able to climb trees and fences and participate in sports in some way like I did because I can tell she’s a tomboy trapped in a special needs body.

I really enjoy watching my kids figure out ways to solve a problem. It’s common for Little Miss Throwsafit and Littlest One to fight over toys.  One toy in particular that they have a difficult time sharing is LMT’s doll stroller. LMT loves to push her babies around in it and LO loves to run into things with it. When I hear the two of them fighting, ususally it’s about this little stroller.

Well, the other afternoon, I heard the usual bickering and knew right away what it was about. I sighed and resigned myself to being the umpire once again. I gave it a few seconds before heading into the kitchen where the argument was taking place.  Before I got out of my chair, though, the fighting stopped. By then I was curious to see why they weren’t yelling any more, so I went into the kitchen and found that they had solved their problem:

Isn’t that hilarious! I’m surprised the stroller didn’t collapse under Littlest One’s weight, but at least they weren’t arguing anymore. One more problem solved. Sadly, it didn’t last long.  Once they were done playing with the stroller, they starting fighting over who was going to play with the toy dinosaurs.

You can’t win them all, I guess.

My mother in law took photos on Christmas Eve and just gave me this one last week. When I looked at it I laughed out loud. Little Miss Throwsafit’s cousin Maddie is posing in a very elegant and lady-like manner and there’s LMT with her big personality for all to see.

The acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. If you knew both Meredith, Maddie’s mom, and me you’d know that this picture is a good representation of our personalities. I’m am extroverted, loud, and a bit of a goof ball while Meredith is sweet and much more refined. I’ve always wanted to be more like Meredith but as hard as I try to be quieter and more polished eventually my personality always finds its way to the surface. I’m afraid I’m a lost cause.

Do you have any quirks in your personality that you wish you could change?

It fights fat:

Coffee contains caffeine, which helps speed up your heart rate and thus helps you burn more calories.

Little Miss Throwsafit loves to play with her dolls and My Little Ponies but she also has a real interest in dinosaurs, which I’m sure she picked up from her big brother.  When she plays with the toy dinosaurs, though, she loves to make the big ones eat the littler ones, like this (click to enlarge):

Right now I can hear her in the family room making screaming noises that a dinosaur might make if it were being eaten. Hmm. Maybe she’s seen Jurassic Park a few too many times.

At least she’s getting the idea behind the food chain, right?

Earlier this morning, Littlest One opened the pantry door looking for a snack. After perusing the pantry’s contents, he made his choice and showed it to me. This is what he wanted:

I wasn’t crazy about him having so much processed sugar so I instead offered him these:

So, which one did he pick? He picked the grapes. He had a bowl of green grapes and loved every bite.

When I put Little Miss Throwsafit to bed tonight, we read the book “If You Give a Moose a Muffin.” It’s one of our favorites around here. But it got me thinking about the cute email I got a few years ago called If You Give a Mom a Muffin. If you’ve never read it before, I am attaching it. Chances are, if you have a child or two, you’ll easily relate to it:

If You Give a Mom a Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
So she’ll pour herself some.
The coffee will get spilled by her three year old.
She’ll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she will find some dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do some laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over some snow boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan supper for tonight.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook. (101 Things To Make With a Pound of
Hamburger.)
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill which is due tomorrow.
She will look for the checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two year old.
She’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year old.
While she is changing the two year old the phone will ring. (Of course!)
Her five year old will answer it and hang up.

She remembers that she wants to phone a friend to come over for coffee on
Friday.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
She will pour herself some.
And chances are,
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Written by Kathy Fictorie

When you have a child with physical and speech disabilities, some of the most basic milestones require more time and diligence on both the parents’ and the child’s parts. Potty training is one of those milestones.  Because we have knowledge of LMT’s limitations we have not put too much pressure on her to accomplish potty training until we really felt she was physically, emotionally, and intellectually ready for it.

The past few months we have come to the conclusion she is ready. So far, she’s done a good job with pooping on the toilet when we’ve taken her to the bathroom and the past couple days she has even told us that she had to go. It’s been the peeing that has been the bigger challenge. Well, I think we’ve turned a corner on that, too. The past two mornings after getting her up for school she has successfully gone potty when I put her on the toilet, even though she made it clear she was not happy.  And today for the first time ever she peed on the toilet while at preschool! Yay!

I’ve got even more good news. Just about an hour ago she started to cry a little as I got her out of the car after we returned from her speech therapy. I asked if she needed to go potty and she said yes. I got her in the house as soon as possible and got her pants off her as fast as I could. Unfortunately, she was not able to hold it and she ended up peeing in her pull up. Nonetheless,I put her on the toilet anyway to see if she had to poop, and low and behold, she did. Even though we missed the peeing, I still consider it a success because she told me she had to go. This is a huge accomplishment and I’m so proud of her. More importantly, it’s clear she’s proud of herself.