lots of news!

Ok. Where to start.

THE MOVE

Mike got official approval for time off at Christmas! He gave them three options - they chose option B, which has him off from December 18-28. He's flying here the night of the 17th, then we'll spend the 18 and 19 packing up, then he and John are heading to Dryden in the U-haul. Joan and I have a flight booked for the 20th into Winnipeg - grandparents on the receiving end have been e-mailed our itinerary. If we can finish loading the truck in one day, Mike will head out the 19th, then we'll both arrive in Dryden the same day. Joan and I will be there until the 27th, when we fly out of Winnipeg, but Mike has to leave on the 26th. I was originally supposed to take the train with Joan, but the prices for everything had changed since we looked last time - they actually dropped for the plane. We're not sure how that happened - maybe they switched up to a bigger plane. No idea. It means no stop in Geraldton, which is unfortunate. But it's less travel time overall, which will be nice. For Joan and I, anyway. I know there are some concerns about John in the U-haul, but we think it will be OK. It's split into two legs, and if it's really that bad, we'll get him a plane ticket with me for the second leg. But we think it would be good for him to spend some "quality" one-on-one time with dad and a big truck is a pretty cool place to do that. John has been fluctuating between sad and mad when it comes to dad being gone. It has hit him pretty hard. But we'll play it all by ear.

We had looked into moving with a mover. We got lots of online quotes, and one in-home quote. They were all too high to justify it. The lowest one was $1400, which would have made it cheaper, but it was an estimate of 2,000 pounds. The in-home guy, who actually saw everything, estimated it at 4,000 pounds, with a quote of $4500. And with everything that Vicki just went through, we decided moving ourselves was probably the better plan.


JOAN

Joan had her second physio appointment on Thursday. They were really impressed with her progress, especially considering she had a flu, so we couldn't spend much time on the exercises. They gave me a whole bunch of new stuff to focus on. Lots of tipping her over onto her right side, and forcing her to prop herself up. She doesn't like it - she cries. But they noted that she can actually get herself up from a semi-reclining position on her right, which tells them she has good strength. They said in that case, she isn't crying from pain or discomfort - she's crying out of fear. They compared it to asking someone to get on a bike and ride it for the first time - it's a new thing, with new movements, and it feels very scary at first. But as she gets used to it, she'll start initiating it on her own.

They also showed me how to stimulate her tummy muscles so that she'll pop up on all fours. They told me to keep her up on all fours for as long as she can hack it each day, because it builds tons of muscle, and the "pushing" action is critical for mobility down the road, like getting up off the floor. And if we do it enough, there's actually a chance she will crawl, which is the ideal scenario. They said there are a lot of people walking around that never crawled as babies. But for kids like Joan, it's worth the effort to teach her how, because it builds upper body strength and coordination, which she's lacking. There's still a chance she never will, though. She may just use the strength from these exercises to pull up and walk.

They talked about the braces she'll need. They showed me the hand brace, which is just a soft foam glove, designed to hold her thumb out, because now it's always tucked in. And the harder she works, the tigher she balls her fist, which works counter to the therapy. We may not have enough time ot get one - she didn't have one we could take, because they need to be custom made and fitted to her. But she's going to see what she can do.

The really big news was her foot. She doesn't hold her foot flat, so it's going to be hard for her to bear weight on it. So the physio guy said she's going to need a special orthotic brace. It's a custom-made plastic cast type of a thing, which will hold her leg and foot in perfect allignmnet, therefore forcing the muscles to grow and stretch in the proper way for walking.

The catch? They cost $1,000 each, and because they're form fitted, she needs to get a new one every time she grows. In Ontario, the government will pay 2/3 of the cost. At the time, we weren't sure what Alberta did, if anything, so he rushed around to get us some appointments, but the soonest she could be fitted was January 11. I took it, because at the time, we weren't sure if Mike was able to get the time off over Christmas. If he couldn't, we'd just stay for the fitting. But Mike did get the time off, so I'll have to cancel the whole thing, and have it made in Calgary. Fortunately, we did some looking, and they have a similar program there - the province will pay 75 per cent of the cost, and the cost to individuals is capped at $500/year/family. So it will never cost us more than $500/year, no matter how many of these little braces she goes through. I'll probably do some phoning around to make sure that's really the case. But it seemed pretty clear, so I don't think we have to worry too much. Physio guy said her physio will be covered there, too. They'll set her up through a similar clinic at the Calgary Children's Hospital, so Alberta Health and Wellness pays the tab, which is good to know. The government isn't run entirely by heartless blue robots after all. It sucks that we're moving to the only province in Canada where we even have to wonder if things are covered. But so far, it looks like everything will be OK.

THE HOUSE

Not sure if it's just my experience, or if the entire real estate industry is completely crazy. It's filled with spazy people. We had one showing that our agent didn't even tell us about. I went outside to go pick up John from school, to two men on the porch expecting to be let in. They had an appointment. I didn't know, so the beds weren't made, and the dishes weren't done. It was very embarrassing. We've had agents come so late, that I've left for the showing, then come back, and THEN they arrive. My favourite one was the agent who arrived half an hour early to let me know he couldn't make it, but his client was still coming, so could I please stick around. He even picked out things that I was to point out to his client. I did the whole showing. If he buys it, I expect part of the commission. Hopefully, it will sell very, very soon, because this really, really sucks. We're having an open house next weekend - maybe something will come from that.

Anyway, John wants to play, so I'd better get going!
A note from John:
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