Last night we did something I never thought we would do in Florida - go to an outdoor skating rink. Sure, we didn't actually skate on it but we were there.
The University of Central Florida (UCF - - one of my Alma Maters in fact!) this year started something called "Light Up UCF" in which they have an outdoor skating rink, 75,000 synchronized lights set to Christmas music, outdoor movie theater showing Christmas movies, and Santa Claus. It was pretty chilly last night so we were bundled up and you could sortof pretend just a little bit that you were up north. The skating was $10 and the ice surface was very poor (no Zamboni in sight) and of course, we had Calleigh so we opted to just walk around and enjoy the ambiance. Calleigh did like the light show very much and naturally had to go to the trees and touch the lights many times. Afterwards she excitedly talked about the Christmas trees and lights. David, Julie, Shannon, Megan, and Tiffany (Shannon's cousin on the other side) were there too. 
On Friday, Calleigh was, quite thankfully, in a better mood so we were able to go and get our groceries. Following that we met Shannon for a cheap lunch at Subway. While we were there, I got a call that my camera was ready. Rejoice! Unfortunately since it was almost nap time, we weren't able to make it there to get it but I'll be there on Monday for sure. I can't wait to get the video feature back. And as I tried to snap pictures last night, I kept thinking how junky my old camera is. It would take like 20 seconds just for the flash to recharge after snapping a picture.
Church was a challenge once again this week. And we had made such progress last week! The problem was that we weren't in the last row so there were distractions behind her and then a couple with a baby sat next to us and Calleigh went bonkers trying to get to the baby. I kept whispering to her to talk in her quiet voice and all she would do is repeat, in her loud voice, "quiet voice." I thought for sure the older couple in front of us was going to turn around at any moment and shoot daggers at me with their eyes so I had to get up and leave. Because the mother's room is still out of commission and there isn't much place to go, I decided to just take her to the Sabbath School that was going on during that church service. Calleigh immediately zeroed in on another baby on the floor and made a beeline for her. She was probably about 8 months old. Calleigh went right up and started hugging her and then kissing her on the cheek. She was smitten although the baby didn't know what to do. The baby finally crawled over to a little boy and Calleigh, apparently upset that she was being ignored, walked over to the baby, and hit her on the back of the head. Ahhhh! I hate trying to know what to do in these situations. Do you try to get her to tell the baby that she's sorry? Does she even understand what those words mean if you can get her to say them? What if she isn't sorry - - do you still make a kid say it?? I need to do some more research on this, clearly. At any rate, I took Calleigh aside and told her that we never hit the baby that we should be very gentle with the baby. I know Calleigh knew she did something she shouldn't have because she wouldn't look at me. Sortof reminded me of Marlee.
This morning we went to a Family Festival at Lake Lily Park in Maitland. They had a bunch of booths with things to buy or things to do (face painting, temporary tattoos, etc) and then had inflatables for kids to bounce in. They had one little area called "Toddler Town" that Calleigh spent time in playing with bubbles, riding a little truck, and other stuff. We were only there for about an hour but it was a good time. From there, Ron picked Duncan up so they could drive down to meet Allen and Adam to play golf. Allen had gotten some free passes at a nice golf course.
With Duncan and Terry and Toni (they left for up north on Friday) gone and Shannon and David both working, that left just Megan and me to watch the Patriots. It was a pretty stressful game since of course, I wanted the Patriots to win but not only that, it was a crucial game in our football league. I'm tied with Elaine for the lead and she picked the Dolphins and the guy one point behind picks the Fish too so there were several implications to this game. Thankfully it worked out in our favor. But to top the day off, Megan had made brownie delight and brought it with her and it was extremely delightful. My mouth is watering just thinking about it now.
My brother left a comment on my previous post about Calleigh's vomiting by asking if she had any shots at her doctor's appointment on Tuesday. The answer to that is "no" so there is obviously no connection. Incidentally, we are believers in shots unlike some folks who are convinced they cause Autism or the like. We just haven't seen the research out there to support a connection yet.
Tomorrow starts Week 15 of the pregnancy for me and here is a profile shot from Sabbath. There's something there but how much of it is what's left from Calleigh's pregnancy and how much of it is the new bump, is a reasonable question. I need to try to take more shots like this because as I'm working on Calleigh's scrapbook, I realized I didn't start taking these kind of pictures until like Week 33.
6 comments:
Corey,
I found out later on Sabbath that Rotavirus was going around last week - Zachary and Blake Bergherm both had it - it is throwing up, diarrhea (although Zach's was mild) and no fever. Even though they are innoculated for it, apparently rotavirus is like the flu in that there are a lot of different strains so your child can still get it.
So, there is another option of what Calleigh had last week! Amy Z
Well,
Just to let you know. I think we're both convinced that we will not be immunizing our child. I know that the research is pretty conflicting, and it's hard to know what the truth is, but there seems to be enough compelling evidence to me that very little good has resulted from a lot of these vaccinations.
See the above comment for Exhibit A.
Shawn - More power to you. However, I'm not sure all the kids with the measles that have broken out from the lack of immunizations would say that "nothing much" has happened. Measles can be deadly. And I'll remember not to have my munchkins around yours until mine have their immunizations so I can be sure they won't catch anything :) Maybe I need to look more but I haven't heard of kids dying from the actual symptoms of autism. However, kids can and do die from the flu, hepatatis, etc. But that's the great thing about living in the U.S. It's a free country and you can do as you wish.
A comment about the "I'm sorry" thing... Speaking from a lack of expertise, and after much conflict of conscience through "those" similar times, I still think the old adage, "practice makes perfect" applies. We teach them to say "I love you", "I love Jesus" until it just spills out at the appropriate times...why not "I'm sorry". Also, I think a child that does not become comfortable saying those words may have more difficulty actually saying them.
All my children had their vaccinations with zero side effects. What I do remember as a child are friends who had measles, mumps and whooping cough. It was not uncommon in those cases for there to be additional serious side effects. Hearing and vision loss, lifetime respiratory issues and sometimes death. Having visited a friend on the "iron lung" suffering from the effects of polio and have a friend return to school wearing leg irons I tended to be very thankful for an opportunity to protect my children, and subsequently other kids from those same outcomes. Parental decisions are often the most difficult to make and today even more so. You all have to be comfortable with your choices.
Please explain the young lady with David!!
Perky-
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