parenting | Lessons from my daughter

I told you before about Emily’s desire to be a cheerleader… if you recall, our first attempt wasn’t successful and our second attempt looked somewhat promising but didn’t quite made my girl feel like a cheerleader.

You can read a little about those attempts in one of my older post: To be a cheerleader

Over the last year, the same club where we tried that second time, moved into their own gym and added classes. This summer they decided to give themselves another chance at creating a team of kids with various abilities.

Emily wasn’t sure she wanted to try… Actually I believe she said she couldn’t be a cheerleader.

That broke my heart as although I know she might not be a top cheerleader ( I certainly wasn’t cheerleader material at her age) I feel she deserves a fair shot at it. I feel quite strongly that she should be allowed to try and have fun.

Entered the new and improved Cheer Olympia

Emily’s cheer team is 2 other girls with special needs and 3 coaches. All 6 girls are around the same age and they all look like they are having a blast.

Emily feels so comfortable and included that she made a painting for the gym.

Her team are the Pillars and this is Colleen with Emily’s painting! It is displayed at the gym, which makes Emily really happy.

Now that my girl is a happy cheerleader and that the gym has confirmed that they are not only continuing but also expanding their program in the fall, Emily asked if “we” could make cheer bows for her team!

We…

I always fall for the we, when in theory, I should know by now that it means, I will do it, whatever “it” is.

We in our house means me!

We looked-up a you tube video and went to get supplies!

The most important step in making cheer bow, is the first one! Pour yourself a glass of wine and gather the supplies!

Our (my) project was a no-sow project as I don’t sow. And as a disclaimer, I am not crafty!

Please enjoy the pictures showing the steps, including the moment, we officially became just me 🙂

Beginners mistake #1. Verify that you buy enough ribbon. One of our roll was shorter…..

Off to the store we went. Again!

Somehow when we returned, Emily was more interested in her book than in helping. That is the official moment when this became my project!

Beginner mistake #2. Don’t use newspaper, use parchemin paper… paint and glue on thin ribbon ends up sticking to newspaper… I guess I should have known that!

Emily was really happy with the end results and can’t wait to give the bows away on Thursday!

What do you think? Did “we” do ok?

I haven’t written in what seems like a really long time and for that I am sorry!

We’ve enjoyed life!

I promise to update you on everything but in the meantime, let me tell you about board games.

In our house, we play board games following rules we make-up!

The rules on the boxes are normally a little too complicated for Emily. Games for younger kids, she can manage but games for teenagers/young adults are another story.

Some games we don’t play, others, we give Emily more time or play with our cards on the table…

This works perfectly for the 3 of us but enters cousins and other relatives, it gets complicated again.

It’s difficult to explain to younger cousins why Emily can’t do things like they can. I don’t want them to look at her differently, I want them to get to know her. Once you know her, the struggles and challenges are secondary.

First, she’s Emily. Yes, she has cri du chat syndrome but she’s Emily!

Back to our game night.

Last year, we discovered “Headbanz”. Emily’s cousins were all younger than her and speaking French. They were faster than her and understood what they needed to do.

Last week, we played again.

This time, we all had a blast.

Emily knows her Disney characters more than the boys so I picked cards accordingly and helped a little but that wasn’t the fun part.

The fun part was when the cheating started. None of them were subtle about it. All of them did it and the dads joined in.

We played a game! All of us! Regardless of our age differences. From 2 to 42 years old, part English and part French. Some cheating… And lots of laughter.

We played a game!

For most, this is a simple feat. For us, it was amazing.

To see Emily having so much fun was heart warming.

So, we bought another game.

We changed the rules a little.