Brant's new look!

Notice anything missing???

Brant's Kindergarten Graduation

Actually it wasn't really a graduation, but it was a celebration :) Each of the kids went up on stage and had something to say about their letter. Brant's was the letter T and his "line" was "We liked to play with the Sand Table" Brant had an amazing year that had both it's ups and downs. Of course, a big "down" was when he was so sick from his Celiac Disease from November-January. He missed a lot of school during that time and was so sick that he couldn't even hold his head up. But once we figured out the problem and got him on the gluten free diet, he excelled! His energy was back, he gained back the weight he lost and then some, he gained muscle, his speech, gross motor, and fine motor skills all improved, and best of all he started walking! If you would have told me before how much diet can affect a person, I probably wouldn't have believed you - but Brant is living proof!

As a thank you to his teacher (Mrs. V), his aides (Mrs. "Falen" and Miss Bouwman), and the Spec Ed. Coordinator (Miss V.O), I took a photo of Brant that was taken by my sister Andrea at the Tulip Fields and added to it the "Welcome to Holland" story/poem by Emily Perl Kingsley. I also made a necklace for each of them and thanked them in the card for being such great "tour guides" in Holland :)

Here are some pics from Brant's last day as a Kindergartener!

Both Kindergarten Classes

Brant with his current TA, Miss Bouwman

Brant with his teacher, Mrs. V

Teacher Gift

Close up of the necklaces I made

Owen's Eye

Owen had a reaction last weekend. We think he might have been stung by a bee. In any case, Benadryl wasn't helping so we took him in and got Prednisone (I think that's what it was called) which seemed to clear it up nicely. Here are some snaps of his nasty looking eye

Hippotherapy!

Brant was recently given the opportunity (and the doctor's OK) to participate in Hippotherapy again! (aka Therapeutic Horseback Riding). Hippotherapy is wonderful for developing trunk and core strength which is an area that Brant needs to get stronger. You might recall that Brant tried Hippotherapy a long time ago and never enjoyed it (this was before we knew about his neck anomaly so we think it might have been painful for him but unfortunately the x-rays never showed his neck anomaly and he had been ok'd to ride that time too ... little did we know!) Anyways, this time around he is really enjoying it! He loves "his" horse, Jelly, and is big smiles the whole time! Unfortunately they close for the summer but we are looking forward to starting up again in September! These photos were taken on his last session before summer break and he even got a ribbon :) Oh and Jelly is wearing a funky hairdo with spikeys because it was the last day - that actually freaked Brant out a little at first!

We had a very exciting Buddy Walk this year!

Brant WALKED!!!!!



(that's my Mom and Colin's sister Paulette holding his hands)

He got tired and rode in the "chariot" with his cousin, Elayna, the rest of the way (she is the same age as he is and they are in kindergarten together and she is terrified of dogs so this worked well )



This was before the walk at the pancake breakfast (I made a gluten free pancake for Brant and brought it along):



And I just love this picture of my niece's on the slide of the bouncy castle:


It was a beautiful warm sunny day and we all had a great time. The pancake breakfast was 100% donated by BluStone Restaurant, we had free coffee and timbits donated by the Tim Hortons Community Cruiser, Lunch was donated by PriceSmart Foods (a local grocer) and Costco (hot dogs, chips, pop), and we had about 350 people there! More info is on our website: www.fvdss.org

Here are more pics from the day:

Welcome to Holland

Yesterday we went to the Tulip Fields in Aggasiz so that my sister Andrea could take pictures of the kids as well as a family photo. I took my camera and snapped some pics too!

April already!

Wow, I can't believe it is April already! We had a beautiful sunny Sunday here today and we enjoyed it by heading to Vedder River after church for a walk. Then we enjoyed dinner at Brad and Rebecca's place :)

March was a busy month. I realize I haven't posted since Brant took his first steps! Oops! I should try to post more often but I find myself mostly posting to Facebook these days.

Kristina celebrated her 8th Birthday on March 22nd and I celebrated my birthday on the 17th so we had a combined party with my niece Elayna (her birthday is on the 18th) at our house on Friday the 20th to celebrate with my side of the family. Then Kristina had a friends birthday party on her birthday after church with a few of her friends from school.

Birthday Girls Elayna and Kristina

Kristina at her friend's Birthday Party
Blowing out the candles

With her friends
Showing off the beautiful photo frames they decorated

Brant continues to do well as he learns to walk independently. He now can walk very well holding just one hand, in fact he almost walks better that way now than he does with his walker! He can walk across a room by himself but is still a bit wobbly ... but with Brant we have learned over and over and over again that he does things in his own time and we may as well sit back and wait patiently! But certainly we are encouraged that he is getting stronger every day and we hope to be able to have a "walker burning party" (only symbolically, we do have to give the walker back! LOL) soon! Maybe by the end of summer for his 6th Birthday, just before he heads into first grade? A good date to aim for I think. Oh and as far as his celiac goes, he is doing extremely well on the gluten free diet and has so much more energy now! Along with all that energy we are also hearing a bit of back talk! Not our sweet little Brant! Oh well, kids are kids! Now he will just have to learn what a time out is if he doesn't want to listen ^-^

Anyhow, that's enough of an update for now I think. I will do my best to take another video of Brant walking in the next few days so you can see how much he is improving already.

Happy Spring!

Something Amazing Happened Today!!!!!

I'll let you see for yourself :)

PS - Sorry it's so wide. If you'd like to see the full screen click HERE

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Valentine's Day from Brant!