My Miracle...

So thankful.

Life Group

In our church we have something called "Life Groups". They used to be called care groups, which is a much more familiar term, but have since changed. Not gonna lie...I haven't been a fan of calling it a life group. However I was thinking about it this week and my perspective has changed a bit.

We joined a life group I think it was just over two years ago with three other couples. We knew one out of the three couples well, and the other two pretty much not at all. It's amazing how quickly the bonds grew and I came to call them all some of our closes friends. One of the main topics of conversation for the first year was babies...who was going to be first?

I was the first to get pregnant with Tyler at the beginning of June. (Competitive much?) Christmas time rolled around Jeff and Jen announced their exciting news. Tyler was born in March and that same night Joel and Dominique announced THEIR exciting news - and were due within 4 days of Jeff and Jen. (How's that for timing??) Then just a few months later Daniel and Alisa gave us their news...baby number 4 was on the way. Since then, Maelle Ava and Isaiah James have been born and we are just waiting for Funk baby due in January.

Since Tyler was born quite a bit before the other two, our friends have spent quite a bit of time getting to know him and love him. As far as he (and we) are concerned, they're family. He knows them just about as well as he knows our blood relatives. However I'm not going to lie, I have been preparing myself for when the new babies were to be born as I assumed Tyler would be lost in the shuffle a little bit. It would make sense as there were more babies to love, and they would be their own. I was so wrong.

It is an amazing thing to watch someone else love your child. I can't quite describe it. It really does feel like our group is our family. The new babies have been born and are LOVED. It actually felt weird how much their births affected me. I was away for Maelle's birth and I cried in the middle of a group of people when I got the news because I wasn't around to greet her. When Isaiah was born I couldn't sit still until I held him. After the first time I held him I couldn't get his face out of my mind. I have watched the rest of our group love each child and continue to love ours. Us girls have started getting together for breakfast once a week and it's so much fun to have our kids together and anticipate the fourth on the way. It doesnt' matter much to me who is holding Tyler as I know he's perfectly happy with any of them. Maelle was sleeping so Jen read books to Tyler. He wouldn't go to sleep so he Alisa took him and played with him.

I could go on, but where I was really going with this post is focusing on the term "life" group. prepare for cheese ball
This group has become so life giving. We were talking about it the other day how our kids better learn to get along because they are going to be friends for life whether they like it or not. But that's just it - family doesn't always get along, but you know you're in it for the long haul. Tyler won't have blood cousins for a long time, but Isaiah, Maelle, and baby Funk will be his family. We are so blessed.

Dream house dreaming

We are getting a new house! It's being given to us along with maid service, yard service, and chef service.

...As long as we win the wish home lottery, that is.

I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life, but Mitch and I decided that since it's a cause we believe in, we may as well support it and have a chance at a sweet house while we're at it. So...October 5th we find out if that new house and chef service is really mine all mine. It's funny though how I let my mind run away with me. I've already picked out which house I would live in, how I would save and spend the rest of the prize money, and how our lives would be infinitely better. Isn't that interesting though, how I could think one moment that life couldn't get any better, and then the next moment be convinced that life could never be as good unless I win the house?

I've been working on my perspective this week. Realizing that while there is a rediculously slim chance that we will have a new house, we are already happier than I could ever have imagined. We already have a house, I'm a good cook if I do say so myself, we have landscaped ourselves an awesome yard, and I have been known to clean a bathroom from time to time. We really don't need anything more. We have been blessed with exactly what we need when we need it.

Therefore I will be content to win second prize - vacation for life.

Pieces of me.

I think I expected to have a rotton child.

Seriously...I think I did. One of the biggest questions that is asked, contemplated, mulled over, and discussed while pregnant is who the baby will look like. You think about traits that you and your spouse posess which could turn out to be dominant, traits which you SURE hope your child doesn't get, and hope that "at least they get my eyes/teeth/hair/whatever". On the personality side, Mitch and I joked for a long time that we were going to have an unbelievably headstrong, bull headed child because, well, that's what we both are. I didn't think much about personality beyond this, but I'm finding myself surprised again and again by Tyler's personality now that he is here and showing himself to us.

He is one happy kid. He is happy at least 92% of his awake time, if not more...I kid you not. However I'm not telling you this to brag, but to reflect. I keep expecting Tyler to, say, frown at strangers. Think about it - he is my descendant. Shouldn't he therefore check others out judgementally first? Shouldn't he be a bit more cautious and a bit less trusting? Nope. He bares his toothless smile to anyone who will give him the time of day, no matter who they are or what they look like. Another example: I will have finished changing his diaper, making him royally mad for some reason or another, but when I pick him up he shows no grudge but rather puts his head on my shoulder and starts to coo. Okay if that was me and I was mad, there would be no way I'd be over it that fast. And I'll probably bring up how I was made angry again in a few weeks.

I'm not really just talking about being in awe of the sweetness of babies (though I am in awe of that, no question) but more about how I think subconsiously the phrase "I hope you have a child just like you" (which was never uttered to me, though it probably could have been) scared me a little. I keep waiting for my bad traits to show up in my child and am surprised again and again with his sweet little disposition. Instead of seeing my temper, I see my eyes. Instead of experiencing my mistrust of others, I watch Tyler reach both hands out to love. It's amazing how much I feel both convicted and thankful when I watch my son. What have I done to deserve this?

A change would do you good...

Ever do something you could never do again, no matter how hard you try?

K so yesterday Mitch and I stuck Tyler in the stroller and went for a walk down by the river. No walk by the river is complete (in my opinion) without ice cream, so we walked down to the ice cream shop. I opened my wallet to pay, opened up my change section in my wallet, stuck my wallet back in my purse, and as the lady went to hand me my cone, tried to shrug my bag further up onto my shoulder. SOMEhow as I did this, it all aligned so that my wallet turned, the change part opened, and my upward shrugging force literally sprayed my whole wallet worth of change in the lady's face. Seriously. There were coins everywhere. I tried to be embarassed but I was laughing so hard that there was no time. Mitch just shook his head and picked up my coins from the surrounding area.

You know how I keep saying I shouldn't be allowed out in public? Yeah...

More appointments, snarky mother.

Took Tyler to is 98874535th appointment today...this time for physio. I don't think I was overly pleasent. Not to the social worker anyway, who when introducing herself to me at the beginning said "I'm the one who spoke on the phone with you a few weeks ago". Ah yes. The lady with whome I have been royally pissed off at for awhile now. Here is the problem:

I was the one who diagnosed Tyler with torticollis. My GP didn't notice it in her visits with him until I pointed it out. She then referred me to a physio place at the beginning of July, which we FINALLY got into today. I was not willing to wait for months to begin Tyler's treatment however, and had phoned several friends and a coworker who had experience with torticollis. The general consensus was that physio was alright, but chiropractic really made a difference. I booked Tyler into a highly recommended pediatric chiropracter and we've been seeing her frequently. We have seen a HUGE difference in Tyler's neck and she has been fantastic. However, most people in the medical profession are extremely leery about chiro, and from what I hear, this concern can be warranted. When this social worker lady from the physio clinic called me awhile ago (and may I point out again - SOCIAL WORKER. Not MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL) I told her I had been seeing a chiropractor while waiting to get in to physio. She immediately questioned me and said I should have waited. I told her I was not willing to wait 2.5 months to get treatment for my son when everything I hear tells me that torticollis needs to be dealt with at as young an age as possible. We had a little argument on the phone which resulted in me throwing things around my house afterwards in tears and anger.

Do not question my intentions for my son. I have spent his entire life trying to do what is absolutely best for him. Unless you can show me your medical certificate, you have zero right to tell me what is right and wrong in terms of his treatment.

Okay. So anyway. Deep breaths.

Physio happened today and I will rephrase...I was very pleasant to all involved except said social worker. She can take her good intensions and shove...right. Deep breaths. Do I sound angry? It's more of my overwhelmed-ness taking the form of anger. We will now be going to physio every week until his neck begins to show forms of improvement. I'm so unsure what to do about chiro. Everyone at the physio clinic told me today that Tyler's condition is not a serious one. I kept telling them that is because I took him to the chiropractor last week and his neck improves every time he sees her. They kept telling me it's coincedence. They haven't seen him when he can't lift his ear off of his shoulder.

So what do I do? Every single person I know whose child has dealt with torticollis says that chiro worked the best on their child. Every single medical professional tells me that it's sketchy. Are there politics involved in why they don't like chiropractors or is it actually as dangerous as they say? I just want to help Tyler hold his head up straight. Maybe even go a few weeks one day without another appointment. That would be nice.

Music List

I think it's time for a list.

Artists whose music I want to buy:

Rosi Golan
Florence and the Machine
The Weepies
Hey Rosetta
Adele
Paul Simon
Mumford and Sons

Every time I go to BC my eyes are musically open. I hear of very little new good music out here in the prairies...

ok ok I realize Paul Simon is not new...but I have gained NEW appreciation for him!