MTM Family. The William Whiston Family Journey: June 2013

Friday, June 7, 2013

Summer Kick Off

One of my goals for the summer is to take the kids places. To see and do fun things!

William will be 2 years old next month and in those two years we have had long hospital stays, countless doctors appointments and almost daily therapy sessions (physical, occupational, developmental & speech). I have decided that it is time we get out and explore! So far we have checked out two different parks in our subdivision. I posted a video of William driving his power chair in a previous post. We attended Mason's birthday party and this week we went to the Cosley Zoo in Wheaton and the Pride of the Fox Riverfest in St. Charles!

Cosley Zoo: Wednesday, June 5 2013

Cosley Zoo is a small local zoo that is part of the Wheaton Park District. It is less than an hour from our home so we decided to check it out! We picked up Juliet from her last day of Pre-school and went to the zoo. Juliet loved it. Her favorite animal was the peacock. We circled back several times to see if the peacock was showing their feathers and finally we saw peacock's beautiful feathers. William is a cautious boy and had to process the day. He defiantly was unsure of the situation, but I saw him checking things out. Later that evening I caught him playing peekaboo barn app on his ipad. It is a simple app that has animals hiding behind a barn and when you tap on the barn it says the animal name and has the animal sounds. I have not seen him play with this app in a really long time. I would have to think it is not a coincidence that he came home from the zoo that has lots of barnyard animals and then selected this barnyard app on his ipad.

William and Juliet see a sheep

William checks out the horses

Juliet poses by the birds

William looks at the birds

Pride of the Fox: Friday, June 7, 2013

Second adventure of the week, Pride of the Fox in St. Charles! They had lots of children's activities. First we started with the bounce houses. Juliet jumped and William took in the sites. Next we headed over to the face painting tent. Juliet decided that she wanted her face painted like a princess and we picked out a dog temporary tattoo for William's arm. William was funny. He sat patiently like he always does watching all the kids. I do not think he realized that he was in line too. As soon as he got up to the front and saw that he was next he started shaking his head no. We convinced him it would be ok. We then visited the animals at the petting zoo and Juliet went for a pony ride. William watched all the animals and had lots of smiles! He even smiled for the picture in the below photo!!

William smiles for a picture

Juliet rides a pony

Juliet pets a baby goat

Juliet's princess face painting

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Birthday Party Fun

Jenn and birthday boy Mason

This past weekend we celebrated a special birthday with family! It was Mason's first birthday!! Mason is Dan's cousin Jenn's little boy. Mason is pictured below with his smash cake!

Mason and his smash cake!

Up to this point, we had never taken William to any family events. Our main concern has always been his health. We have tried to limit his exposure to illness especially during cold and flu season. When we got the invite in the mail for a party on June 1st, we wondered if maybe this time we could take William.

William with his talker

William has been great lately, so the day came and we decided to take him to Mason's birthday party! We loaded the family and all of William's medical equipment into the van and we were on our way. The trip to Jenn's house took around 2 hours, so the kids watched Elmo in Grouchland. (One of William's favorite movies.)

William and me

When we first got to the party William needed to warm up to everyone and all of the excitement. We gave him his iPad and talker. He took turns playing with each and would regularly glace around at the balloons, people and activities. We found a comfortable place to sit down with him, where he could see the party and family could come and say hi. I tried to be as comfortable as possible, but I too needed to warm up to the situation. (It is funny really to be nervous about a family birthday party considering that have taken him to appointments all over the Chicagoland region.)

William in his new hat!

William did great! By the end of the party, William was getting into the spirit of things and began acting silly. Dan's Aunt Noreen (Aunt Nonie) started asking him all sorts of questions. All of which William would shake his head no to with a grin. He was having fun! Thank you Aunt Nonie for getting William to act silly with you and all of these fun party pictures! William even got a new hat! Thanks Uncle Den for the cool new John Deere hat!

And most of all thank you Jenn for throwing such a wonderful party. It was a perfect first family party for William! We look forward to many more Whiston parties!!