Rochester, Here We Come!

Adventure mommy and company are heading to Rochester, NY to take full advantage of Black Friday shopping.  Our itinerary is jam packed - a repeat from the last two years - and full of fun fun fun.  We have shopping, dining, entertainment (the track!) and lots of laughs.

But we always make sure to tell our husbands how much work it is fighting off the 3am crowds, balancing our purchases in one hand and our lattes - I mean our list - in the other!

A great big thank you to Angie who plans, books and chauffeurs Carrie and I around in style.

Last year, Carrie and I had our photo taken in the parking lot of Eastview Mall - and we almost made it into the local paper.  We'll try again this year - and Ang, stick with us!  We want all 3 of us on the front page!

Keep smiling!

Thank You

Thank you to everyone who follows my blog!  Not only do my family and friends check out Adventure Mommy - but I now even have people in Finland and Russia that are checking it out!!
I'll be sure to keep adding new stuff often...
Keep smiling!

Kids say and do the funniest things.  Last night my daughter was dancing around the family room (aka the Naomi Show was on) to some Christmas music (yes, we have the Christmas tunes on already!) and she stubbed her toe.  She's frantically calling out and laughing at the same time "Fill in for me, mom! Hurry up!"  Hilarious!  So I did just that.  I filled in for her on the dance floor - and that lasted for about 30 seconds.  Naomi quickly recognized that I was maybe not the best choice for a last minute change to the playbill and got up and said "Ok - you're off the dance floor mom - I'm back in!"  Sometimes you just have to jump in with both feet - that's what keeps us young.  And kids love to see adults having fun.

We had a PA Day yesterday from school and the kids came with me to volunteer at the seniors home.  It was manicure Friday at the home - and my daughter loves loves loves anything glam.  The glammier the better in her eyes.  Her big job was drying the ladies freshly painted nails with the power dryer (Dollarama is great isn't it?).  Well, Naomi was proud to be helping out - and the best thing was seeing her giving back.  It's so good for kids to be involved in life.  My son Ben joined us also - he was busy creating art and keeping fairly close to mom.  The ladies seemed to really love having the kids there - in fact, the Rec Director thanked Naomi and Ben personally for coming out and helping.  And yes, they are invited back over the Christmas break for more manicures and fun!

As I'm writing this, the kids just presented me with an early Christmas present...a homemade photo book call "All About Ben".  It's a collection of photos that the kids picked especially for me.  It's a beauty.  Life is good.

Keep smiling!

I can handle this

Last week my son had an appointment at Sick Kids Hospital.  He had to have a genetic test done to confirm a diagnosis of OCA that we had received earlier in the year.  Ben has OCA - oculocutaneous albinism.


Ocular Albinism

What is albinism?

Albinism (say: AL-buh-niz-um) is a name used for genetic conditions that cause a person to have no pigment or less pigment than usual. Pigment is what gives our eyes, skin and hair their colour.

There are two types of albinism:

When the skin, hair, and eyes are involved, it is called oculocutaneous (say: ock-you-lo-kyoo- TAY-nee-us) albinism (OCA). When the eyes are involved, but skin and hair colouring are normal, it is called ocular albinism (OA).

Both types of albinism will cause your child to have poor eyesight. Each child’s vision will be affected in a different way. Albinism does not usually cause other medical problems or cause your child to have poor health.

We met with 6 different doctors and technicians - all were amazing with Ben.  This was a very positive experience that we both had.  The last person that we met with was the genetic counsellor - her name was Megan and she was very compassionate.  Ben and I had a final meeting with her and she went over all the details of the information that we learned that day.  I broke down crying when I asked her if Ben will have a normal, productive adult life.  And that I didn't want him to be centered out at school, or made fun of for being different. Megan assured me that he will lead a totally productive and normal life - his abilities haven't changed.  And he may be able to drive.  Our job is to protect his retinas from any further damage - like UV rays.  So we can do all this.  I can handle this (that's been my mantra over the past few days).  


Ben has also been registered with the CNIB - Canadian National Institute for the Blind.  This will be a great benefit to Ben in the future.  And yes Kim, you are right!  He is our big, beautiful Ben. 


Through all this, Ben is unchanged.  It is daily life for him - what he sees today is the same that it has always been for him.  It is no better or worse.  He can still play hockey, construct with Lego, draw awesome pictures - hug his mom.  I'm smiling now thinking about that hug.  And he bakes the best banana bread.  


Keep smiling!

TGIF

I love Friday!  Friday has a feeling of "anything is possible".  It is the end of the week that leads into lots of family time, hanging out with friends and just general relaxation.  Chillaxin' time as Dad says.

I have been volunteering at a seniors residence and my regular day is Friday. We get together and give manicures to the resident ladies.  Sometimes we have 8 or so ladies come down, but today we had only 4.  I love working on these hands...they are beautiful.  And I find myself wondering about these hands, these ladies, these lives.  They probably have some wonderful stories to tell and I look forward to hearing them.  How these ladies look forward to our manicure days (me too).

When I was a kid, my friend Lisa and I had our own beauty salon at the back of nana's house.  We would charge a quarter for various services: hair brushing, curlers (back when curlers were prickly and you had to use a pin to keep them in), and of course, makeup.  This was our favourite thing!  Nana would come into our salon, pay her quarter and sit down on.  She would always smile and say how much she liked having her hair done.  And, on days when we did her makeup, she loved that too!   Sometimes we'd get other clients - like Lisa's big brother or the neighborhood kids, but the only repeat customer we had was nana!  LOL!

I also volunteer at my kids school for hot lunch Friday.  If I think I'll be in my son's grade 1 class, I bring a game along with me.  This usually keeps the kids occupied for the 15 or so minutes between eating and going out for lunch recess.  Most of these games are just made up...they love it!  And I love it too!  Today when I went into Ben's class and said "Hi everyone", Ben called out " Mommmmmmmy!"  That is something that I will remember.  Nothing like having your mom come into your school to help out...that is, unless you're in grade 6 or up!  Then it's "oh gross, my mommmmm is here"!  LOL!

Funny how your kids perception of you changes over the years.   The benefit of being on the parent side is that you know eventually they will come to see how wise we parents really are.  

And, Auntie Jan, Happy Birthday to you!  I'm sending you a big hug!  Love you!

Keep smiling!