November | 2013 | Lessons from my daughter

I am trying to write once again! I miss it terribly but can’t force my brain to heal faster than is required.

I am also hoping to be able to do a full week of work soon, I miss being on top of my game.

I miss my healthy brain!

Enough about me!

Emily has had a desire to be a cheerleader for years. We have gym mats on the floor in her playroom. In her world, she is a cheerleader!

She has the high school musical cheerleader outfit. She has many pom poms.

Even her American Girl Dolls are cheerleaders.

We tried to put her in a team last summer. They wanted to accommodate her but had no idea how to do it. It didn’t work out. Emily was overwhelmed and the solution proposed was to put a 14 year old 5’5″ tall with the younger kids… Like that wouldn’t make her the center of attention.

We refused that option, Emily was disappointed but got over it. We all did.

This past summer, another cheerleading club took a couple of kids with special needs and practiced the basics of cheer. It went well!

My bestie’s daughter and Emily’s best friend was one of the coach. I got updates here and there about how it was going.

When they decided to open it up to more kids this fall, we decided to give it a try.

Currently, there is only 3 kids registered and 4 or 5 coaches…. That’s great. More kids would be more fun but right now, Emily is getting the attention she needs to learn basics and build self-confdence.

I have promised Emily a trip to Lululemon in Halifax if she keeps going! I know I am bribing her but this is some serious exercise for her! After 40 minutes, she wants to call it quit and after the hour, she is sweaty…. 🙂

As Emily is struggling with some basic things like jumping while holding her arms up in the air or basic summersaults… I am thinking about adding yoga to our life… yoga for kids, Emily and I could do it and daddy would help with Emily’s balance… slowly, it should help stretch Emily’s legs and build more balance!

If you can suggest any program, please let me know. Wii or Kinect games are not necessarily good because they ask the person playing to perform up to a certain standard otherwise you are “not good enough” which is really upsetting for Emily. Programs on DVD would be better!

More to come on this project and how Emily is doing!

But before I go, please enjoy this 5 seconds accomplishment from my amazing daughter!

Here we are, November 2nd.

A month ago, Emily elbowed me by accident and I assumed for a bit that the discomfort would go away.

It’s been a month and I can’t use my brain to its full potential yet.

It’s been a tough month of me realizing how much I use and need my brain.

I have good days that are normally followed by some really bad days. Headaches are now part of my life.

I am going for a head scan this week and will make an appointment with an ophthalmologist to see if my left eye was impacted by the blow.

To be a parent is an adventure, to be a parent of a child with special needs is an awesome ride with the fun and the scary parts. Emily never meant to hit me and I am thankful she doesn’t realize the stress this is causing me as I would hate for her to feel guilty about this.

This was an accident!

I will continue my rehabilitation slowly and will continue to be thankful that its not worst. It’s far from being ok but it could be way worst.

So… I’m taking a page from Emily’s book. Slowly but surely, I will
keep trying and I will conquer this concussion. Soon, I hope, this will be history.