Fun December Ahead of Us

It's easy for us to see how different this Christmas will be, there is no denying it. The differences are huge. We are in a completely different world than last December. Last Christmas Ollie could walk around and say "Ho Ho Ho", he could sit on Santa's lap, he could talk about snow and presents. He could ride his roller coaster and eat Christmas cookies. This year, well, we strive every single day just to make him smile.

Although it may seem impossible, we're really trying to only focus on the holiday season we are in right now. We have so many fun things planned this December, starting as early as tomorrow.

The Scotty Fund, who has given so much to our family, is holding a Gala in Danbury. Ollie is going to have a "date" with our favorite nurse while we attend. We're also going to cut down our Christmas tree with Uncle Steve. On Sunday we're attending a Breakfast with Santa with our Dream Come True family (they sent Ollie on his dream trip to Disney). Next week our good friends Suz and Col are visiting. We also have Christmas parties with several great friends including the amazingly supportive Grimes family. (Chris' fellow Bethel track coach) We have the Ciparelli family party, and we'll also be heading to Long Island to see my family. We're going on the Polar Express Train with Santa with Ollie's cousins and Aunts and Uncles. And of course Santa is visiting Oliver on a firetruck. (That's a minimum of 3 Santa sightings if you've been counting.) :)

So while we could easily sit around and cry about how different this Christmas will be for our family, we won't. We're choosing not to. We will celebrate this Christmas like no other. We will laugh, hug, kiss and we will smile. We will shed tears, but it will still be amazing, just like our Oliver.

'Tis the season

Ollie Claus is starting to double-check his list. He hopes you've all been nice this year.







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Santa AND a firetruck?!?

We got a call from Sean at the New Milford Fire Department tonight. Apparently an amazing individual contacted them and told them about Oliver and his love of firetrucks. He called to let us know that on December 16th Santa would be coming to make a special visit to our sweet Oliver on a firetruck! How cool is that? Right now the only thing Oliver loves more than firetrucks is SANTA! All we have to do is say "Ho Ho Ho!" and his face lights up with a huge smile! We are so excited! I hope he's on Santa's "nice" list!

Here's our little sleeping Santa :) Oh and he's wearing his firetruck sweatshirt!




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First movie and great trip

Oliver saw his first movie on Friday, accompanied by almost 20 family members, including cousins, aunts, uncles and his great grandparents. We had a great time! We saw Skyfall. Yes, I know, not your typical first movie for a 2 year old, but you try convincing 20 adults to go to Finding Nemo 3D. ;) Ollie doesn't know or understand anything about violence/guns anyway. He doesn't have the processing capacity for it. His enjoyment came from the loud sounds, the car chases and being around so many people. Besides, he slept through two-thirds of the movie! We brought his cuddlebug wheelchair, but he only sat there for 2 minutes before we took him out and Chris held him throughout.




We had a great 3.5 day trip to Long Island. We weren't sure how being out of the house for so many days would go, but Ollie since birth has been a go-with-the-flow kind of kid, and this trip was no different.

The hardest part of the trip was actually the ferry trip to LI on Wednesday when he had two seizures and two diarrhea blow outs in the new van. After that the rest of the week was much better!

Ollie slept like an angel in his inflatable bed and was held and cuddled by the entire family. Including his Great Grandma and Poppy.












He was alert and awake for most of Thanksgiving except dinner itself. :) Here he is "eating" turkey. I had planned on drawing a turkey on his pediasure bag, but I forgot.




This Thanksgiving we are especially thankful to have the love and support from so many wonderful people. Thank you for being part of Oliver's Team.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!




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Ollie's New Ride

After receiving Oliver's new wheelchair we quickly realized that putting it in and taking it out of our trunks would be no small task. The wheels would have to come off and the chair would have to be wrestled into the just wide enough opening.

So we decided that it was time to trade in Kate's car (affectionately known as "teal flash") and buy a van. We got a really good deal on a 2009 Sienna with only 14,000 miles on it. So far we're really happy with it.

Bye-bye teal flash! You served us well.




That's more like it.




Both mommy and Ollie are comfortable and smiling!




Oliver especially enjoys the leg room and us not bumping his head as we put him in and take him out of the car. In our other car his legs stick out between our two front seats and Kate continuously tickles them, so two thumbs up from Ollie.




Fold down seats make it much easier to bring my chair and wagon to Long Island for Thanksgiving.




We wouldn't have been able to make this purchase if it weren't for the generosity of our friends, family, and surrounding communities. We can't thank you all enough and feel so blessed to be supported by such wonderful people.

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