Camp Hope

Last weekend Courtney attended Camp Hope, which is a bereavement camp for children ages 7-12 sponsored through Niagara Hospice, where Grandpa Les bug spent his last couple of days with us. I know every time I talk of them I say how great they are, but they really are! They are solely run on donations, as is this camp. There was NO fee what so ever and that do amazing grief counseling with the children and get them to open up. I tell Mike all the time that someday I'd love to be able to give a sizable donation to them, not just for camp hope, but for the great care they gave to Les, and emotional support they gave to us, his family, and still do to my mom to this day. What a wonderful facility! (makes me want to live in Niagara County!) Anyhow. Courntey spent from last friday to Sunday at Camp hope, which is homed at YMCA's Camp Kenan in Barker, NY (about 1.5 hours from us) It's right on Lake Ontario as you'll see from the pictures. On sunday morning the families are invited to a family breakfast and following that they do a closing memorial ceremony for the children. Each child is given a butterfly (the hospice sign) and anytime they want to talk or send love to those who have passed, they speak to the butterfly and the make the wings fly. By making the butterfly "fly" it carries your message up to your loved one. Very emotional and heartwarming. The kids also have a reunion in the fall so where they get a DVD and a yearbook of their camp experience. There were only 24 children at camp, which is perfect when dealing with this type of situation. Each child gets the attention they need. The children were also able to write letters to the loved ones who passed, and then it they got to throw it in the fireplace, the smoke also then carries the words of the children up to heaven. Grandpa Les was sure busy last weekend recieving all those messages! .

I had quite a scare with Colin a few nights ago as well. He was in the bath tub with Caden and slipped under the water...I wont' get into detail too much( I am still shook up) He couldn't get up and once I got him (Thank GOD i was of course in the room with him)his little wet body slipped out of my arms and back under water. I did get him out, struggling for breath. It was the single most scariest time of my life. Mike wasn't home, he was at the Y with Courntey. I thought to call 911- but just wanted to hurry and get him breathing again. He ended up gagging and taking a breath, then burping, thank god. I still have a hard time dealing with this, since it happened in my care, but am coming to terms with it. He is fine now and I can't help but wonder if Les was watching out for us that evening. Needless to say I've now signed both Mike and I up for an infant/Child CPR class at my Lactaction center next month.



Sending Grandpa Les bug Love
The memorial closing
Caden now does and Army Crawl!?
Courtney and her new friend TJ who lost her Papa
Aunt Karen & Mom
Courtney with Colin
Just seeing us.
Daddy Skipping rocks
We Left Colin up at the tops of the stairs.
meema teaching Caden to skip the rocks

Hi Caden!
Lake Ontario
The Pool

The campgrounds

I hope he'll be this excited in 10 years!

We go for a walk around the neighboorhood as often as possible when it's not too hot out. Well Caden has been bringing his mower with him, and then puts it in the back of the stroller when he gets tired. Everytime he hits a rock, or gets stuck in a rut between the concrete and driveway, the mower in Caden's world stalls out (like daddys) so he has to pull the "cord" and "prime" it too get it started again. He had me laughing so much last night, I am so glad I had my cell phone on me to get a picture of it!

Where is the Camera when you really need it?

This past weekend while Kym was out shopping with mom, and Mike was doing Laundry, Caden thought it would be fun to paint with Courtney's arcylic white paint. yes.... I am sure he had a BLAST, painting.... painting himslef, the gargage floors & carpets and a naked Colin. Yes he sure did! Colin had on only a diaper since it was close to 7pm to begin with (and he soaked his clothes playing w/water) and his bath would be soon. Thank goodness we left him without clothes. Needless too say I got a call from Mike at 7:22 saying that Caden has painted our house white. :) he painted all of Colin and even rubbed it in his hair, what a good boy- he thought he was shampooing him! Colin climbed downstairs in the laudry room, and began "talking" to Mike, who never turned around at first. When he did fianlly turn around he saw a "Colin as white as a ghost!" I can SO laugh since I wasn't home!! :) Needless to say, since he crawled downstairs, the paint began in the garage and went all the way down the stairs and into the laundry room. Little white foot & handprints. Too bad Mike didn't get a picutre, I would have LOVED to have seen the whole thing. I got home as the boys were in the tub. I am still picking white out of Colins hair. Caden who was clothed, didn't get it quite as bad, since he was the one doing the work..... I will have to throw out his shorts, or use them as painting ones in the future anway, since the paint stained them well. Only my Caden! :)

Updates

I have tried to upload these a few times- and keep losing them, I am so relieved to finally get them up here ~ only a week later- which is pretty good for me! :)

Family Update- all is very with everyone. We have begun the transition for Caden from our bedroom floor to his bedroom floor this past Friday evening (2 nights ago) It's been OK. He manages to fall asleep in his room and a bit into the night he wakes becuase we are so far away. I figured this would happen for the first week or so, so I still left a blanket on our floor as well. He manages about 3-4 hours in his room alone before he wakes up to come into ours, so thats huge progress. We'll keep doing it as planned and hopefully in the next month or two we can try the transition back up into his bed. Keep your fingers crossed. I think once school starts around here we'll try the potting training thing full force as well, just a plan for now. Caden also thought he would give himself his first shave in the bath this past week. He took a nice piece of skin off of his heal. He'll learn for his mistakes!

Colin has began signing!! I am so excited. He only has one down so far- but that's all it takes to start flying though them. he now signs "more" anytime he wants something. I love it!!

Courtney has finished summer school and done very well. She is beyond bored with summer and more then ready to go back to school. She has her summer girl scout meeting this thursday, so that means school is right around the corner! Only 2 more weeks left of vacation left for her. This coming weekend she will attend Camp Hope for the weekend. A bereavement camp for children sponsored though Niagara Hospice. I think this will be wonderful for her and coming to terms with both Jen's and Les's death.

Mike and I doing fine as well. Busy as usual with the 3 kids, the house and work. It's expected. Kym is going for a nice relaxing massage with Mom and Aunt Karen this coming thursday, then dinner. I can't wait!

So that's the quick lowdown on us for now!

A great shot of Courtney

Bounce House Preview!

Colin wasn't too sure of it, and not feeling well to top it off
Caden on the other hand was loving it with Courtney!
It's all blown up now!
This is just after we've unrolled it and it's starting to blow up.

We thought we give the kids the chance to bounce around tonight, before the rain and party tomorrow. We got about 5 mintues inside when the rain came.... but it was fun well it lasted! We hope for NO RAIN tomorrow!!

Did you want a bath?

We were in the process of giving Caden a bath. Colin was standing guard watching and playing, when all of a sudden, he thought he would dive over the edge and get in too!? The kid is crazy! Under water and all, he comes up laughing and saying "uh oh". Guess he wanted a bath too!

It's Caden's Birthday today!!

Yeah!! Happy 3rd birthday to little man Caden :)

Saturday is the big party for both boys! We have between 30-40 people coming. We are really excited and hoping the weather holds out for it. Supposedly were supposed to have thunderstorms all day. lets hope not, or else everyone will get wet, becuase I can't fit all of those people in the house. AND it would really ruin the fun of the bounce house if we can't be in it (OR would it make it more fun??) Ha!!

Eden Corn Fest

We went to the Eden Corn Fest this evening. here are just a couple pictures of Courtney and Caden on rides, that I had to take with the cell phone because of couse I left the camera at home! Caden loved the rides, until we bought him the ride all day pass (figures) because it was a wrist band it had to be worn on the wrist. Well because Caden and his autism/sensory disorder, he doesn't like anything touching him, or on him that is foreign. Needless to say, we ended up putting it on his ankle, over his sock, so he wouldn't realize it was on him. yeah right! Once he saw it, he flipped out and it was pretty much impossible to get him on many rides after that. Basically we ended up spending $60 on rides, when in reality, had we never bought him that wrist/ankle band, we would have saved ourselves and extra $20. My stupid thinking I guess. You know though had we NOT done the ride pass for him, 5 rides would never have cut it. I guess you can never win. Anyway, we all had a good time. We spend about 4-5 hours there, and it was HOT! Had our usual chivetta's chicken dinner YUM!!

Tomorrow we have a family picnic at Caden's old service coordinator house. We are really excited about it. Katie and I have always gotten along great when it came to caden and advice, only because of her position, we could never have a "social" friendship so to speak. Well now that Caden has transitioned out of EI and into CPSE, she is no longer he coordinator and friendships are allowed! yeah!! We are really looking forward to the party and spending time with Katie and her family/friends on a "non professional" level :)

Stayin Cool!