Sunday, January 16, 2011

The adventures of Mommy, Grandma and Cassie: The Pink Hair Caper.

This week included a major celebration in our family. Cassie is finally back at school. This is her first time back since the end of October (right before her surgery). She had home tutoring to keep up with her class, but actually being in the same room with your friends is so much different. She also is being mainstreamed this year so she is in her regular classroom all day instead of being in the "options" class half the day. Progress is measured in small steps some weeks, but this was and is huge. A lot of credit goes to her teacher, Ms. Hunt. She is not only a wonderful teacher, she is a kind and compassionate person. Her first day back included her favorite outfit, Leopard spot long-sleeve T and matching tights (pink with spots of course), matching skirt, bright pink cowboy boots, topped by her faux black leather jacket, and her fuzzy pink vest. Of course this is all set off by her pink wheelchair. Naturally she wanted her hair sprayed pink to match. She loved her pink hair so much she couldn't resist rubbing it on her cheek, which in turn colored her cheeks a lovely pink. Once the boys in her class discovered her hair was pretty much a giant chalk-like crayon they all patted or rubbed her head on the way past her. Pretty soon the entire classroom had pink spots, smears, etc. all over the place. Momma brought a cupcake cake for all of them to share after lunch, and juice for everyone. She was the hero of the day, but Cassie was the star. On the way home Cassie said, "Momma, I want my hair dyed with the stuff that doesn't rub off." So, of course, we acquired the necessary equipment and proceeded to dye Cassie's hair PINK. I have included documentary evidence. ;) We really have no idea how long it will last, but it wasn't all that hard to apply. Cassie was very patient in spite of the fact 6-year-olds don't enjoy sitting still wrapped in plastic wrap for 1/2 hour while the dye soaks in.

My friend Jeremiah, upon reading the title of my post about this on Facebook asked, "ooh.. new RPG video game? I want pre-order info!"

I told him, "LOL, sure Jeremiah!! That'll be $49.95 (isn't that the going rate?) LOL, just check out the photos hun ;)"

To which he replied, "Yup!! can I download it straight from a site? LOL"

So I told him, "Will have to get my daughter and son-in-law to write the code first LOL"

As you can see I take myself seriously, I really hope you will also. Of course Cassie also told me, "Grandma, for my birthday I want to get pink dye and you get purple dye and we will both have pink and purple stripes." She also asked if I could do hers and she could do mine. LOL

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Holiday blur

That is the best description of the past month, a blur, confusion, fun, festivities, family, the usual holiday insanity in short. We planned our family gathering for Christmas eve, with as little last minute cooking as possible so Tess could have a good time, too. She and I made a last minute trip in search of the perfect gift for Cassie. When I say last minute I mean the 23rd, and really a last ditch effort to find what Cassie had asked for. This was sandwiched in between sewing on wild "rave" style legwarmers and kitty ears for the older girls, Athena and their cousin Kat, and making a custom marble pouch for my son-in-law Eric. Tess and I had been trying to figure out where and how to find a "bike" for Cassie. Those of you who read my blog realize Cassie is a paraplegic, so a bike she could ride without using her legs was crucial. We searched hand-powered bike for kids online and eventually found a forum where someone else with a child with Spina Bifida had been told about something called a PlasmaCar. On their website was a link for finding where you could buy them "locally." Well, there was a toy shop listed within 20 miles of us, of course they didn't have one anymore. So the next closest place (roughly 70 miles away) was a cute little toy shop in Albany, Frogs and Pollywogs.
We got lucky, the store had a PlasmaCar available, one, only one. AND they were kind enough to hold it for us after hearing our dilemma. It took us about an hour to leave town, and another nearly two hours to get there, but it was worth the drive. The smile on Cassie's face on Christmas eve was worth all of it.

Was our celebration perfect? Was it a festival of fun, food and family? The answer to that is a resounding YES!!!