therapy | Lessons from my daughter

Today was the day!

Emily’s first cheer competition!

She woke-up at 1am feeling nervous and wanting her phone so she could listen to music!

I truly don’t know if she slept again but at 6:30am when I went in to wake her up, she was awake!

Before her performance, I went out back to see how Emily was doing, one of the other mom told me how Emily gave an interview to our local newspaper. Apparently, when the mom told Emily she did good on the interview, Emily replied; “Well, that wasn’t my first time!” LOL, that’s my girl!

The videographer (Jonathan) was a little shaky but here is our team’s performance! Keep your eyes on Emily at the end of the video, she wipes her eyes, I think the emotions of what they just did in from of a big crowd got to her. 🙂

Emily’s team’s performance on YouTube

And here are some pictures, these smiles tell the story better than I can.

We got there around 8:30am, left for lunch than returned. Awards were at 4:30ish

Emily got an award!

Look at her and B. holding their banner!

Our girls were so happy!

Thank you again to our coaches (Megan, Chloe and Celine) and to Julie who’s always there to fill in and help with the routine.

Thank you Cheer Olympia

Thank you for creating this opportunity for our girls.

One of our girl has epilepsy. She was nervous this morning and by the time she got to the coliseum, she already had 2 seizures and had another one while waiting to perform. Her mom calls them mild seizures. I don’t know how familiar you are with seizures but in my mind (someone who doesn’t know much about seizures), I can’t fathom going to compete as part of a cheer team after having 3 small seizures. That’s dedication! This girl, is one of my heroes!
Another one of our girl had 2 years of physio therapy before she could walk.
This is also true of Emily, doctors and therapists agreed she would never walk. She started to walk independently just before she turned 4.
One of our girl who is full of spirit, really flirty and sassy, needs one of our coach to hold her during the performance but this doesn’t stop her. She is a huge part of this team.
Another girl, who’s becoming a real friend to Emily, has attended her younger sister’s cheer competition for years… Now, her sister is there, cheering for her. She loves cheer so much that she joined 2 teams! How’s that for dedication!
- Emily and B cheered super loud for her when she took the floor with her other team. The smile on her face was awesome when she saw her teammates cheer for her.

Our girls are amazing and I am so glad they have found their cheer club!

Next competition is in 2 weeks and it’s away! Our hotel room is booked and we are getting excited for a road trip with our team!

Is this how the hockey mom and other cheer parents feel? It’s like we’ve entered an alternate dimension where our girls are integral parts of a team? Where they contribute, chat, share meals and now go on a road trip?!?!

My eyes are tearing up, just writing this, which makes it hard to type!

The motherhood thing has really turned me into a crying mess.

We have a facebook page: If you want short updates and timely pictures of the little things that are happening in our life, please like and follow Lessons from my daughter’s page.

You can also find me on Twitter at @plebrass

I am on Pinterest too: Lessons from my Daughter

Find more about about Cri du Chat syndrome at 5p- Society

Recollection

Emily woke-up tired this morning… It might have to do with her being awake at 1am looking for her phone. She went back to bed without it than she was up again at 2am to use the washroom. I don’t know if she was awake between 1 and 2am but she wasn’t waking up at 6:30am.

All that to say that I finally got her up and moving along but we are not getting any extra out of her today. That means no writing so instead, I will tell you something you might not know yet about Emily.

Emily’s power of recollection!

Emily loves toothbrush, at any given time, she has anywhere between 5 to 10 toothbrushes and in cup in the bathroom. Why so many? She loves them and at every visit to the dentist, she gets a new one and opens it right away. She buys them at the drugstore and sometimes at the grocery store, she LOVES them.

Yesterday, I needed a small brush to clean one of my ring so I went in that bathroom and grabbed the oldest looking toothbrush there. I couldn’t grab mine or Jonathan’s as we both only have 1 toothbrush each.

I grabbed a toothbrush that was ready for garbage, I cleaned my ring than tossed the toothbrush.

At bed time, Emily went to the bathroom to get ready and from across the room I heard… Where is my orange toothbrush?

I couldn’t believe that she knew the orange toothbrush was missing. Someone could argue that she was emotionally attached to this particular toothbrush but she recollects/remembers things like that regularly.

It is as if even way back when she couldn’t talk, Emily has been learning and remembering than now, she tells us things, she recollects events, toys, people and places. Sometimes it is recent, like last night while other times it is things from years past.

You know, this is the girl who wasn’t supposed to recognize us, show emotions, she wasn’t supposed to understand the world around her and wasn’t going to talk to us.

Take that Cri du Chat Syndrome

A to Z Challenge 2016 – Lessons from my Daughter (PR) #801

💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

We have a facebook page: If you want short updates and timely pictures of the little things that are happening in our life, please like and follow Lessons from my daughter‘s page.

You can also find me on Twitter at @plebrass

I am on Pinterest too: Lessons from my Daughter

I just discovered StumbleUpon but I have no clue what to do there: I believe you can find me under plebrass but I need to spend quality time there.

Find more about about Cri du Chat syndrome at 5p- Society

Emily has a her own page in the family stories , you can find it here: Emily