Earlier in the week I did a bit more of an emotive look back at the year. On a friend’s blog (can I link to it C our J?) I saw more of a real review and I thought I’d join in! I sometimes struggle to remember all we accomplished as a family, the great experiences we had and this seems like a good way to see the beauty that happened so often in our lives! I think I’ve forgotten loads, but maybe starting this tradition will make me remember more next year!

January 2012

• We began seeing an excellent Pediatrician and the world’s best nurse at the local children’s hospital – this helped get us the medication required and support we needed
• I began the year-long fretting about what to do about the children’s education

February 2012

• Enjoyed a lovely walk and became determined to somehow live in the area we now live
• Genetic testing came back confirming neither child had a severe genetic condition their bio sibling was just diagnosed with (though they do have a genetic condition which causes developmental and speech delay, though we’ve been told we may never know a name for it)
• I attend an educational meeting with educational psychologists, special education experts and administrators and realize how much people want to help, but policies/procedures and the system makes it very hard for children with special needs to truly have their unique needs met.

March 2012

• We celebrated my eldest’s birth.day in a low key way as a family (because her brother was in hospital – see below), then a couple of weeks later we enjoyed a lovely afternoon seeing the Lorax with 1/2 of the couple my children think hung the moon
• We welcomed frogs into our life via the godparents
• My son was hospitalized due to severe bronchitis (at the time they thought he had meningitis). As I had to be with him, my daughter stayed with the couple who my kids think hung the moon (I will never forget feeling so completely overwhelmed, he was so sick, yet I also had another child with me who couldn’t stay and the lady of the couple who hung the moon turned up without my asking, stayed with us for most of the night then took my daughter home with her, kept her while we were in hospital and when my son was discharged let us all stay for a couple of days so we could rest. March 2012 will forever be etched in my memory as a result of such kindness!).

April

• My youngest celebrated his birth. day. Similarly we had a low-key affair (all he was able to cope with at that point) but enjoyed dinner and bowling with the couple my kids think hung the moon
• We welcomed more frogs into our lives via the godparents
• We began attending a 3 month free family chess program
• We became “owners” of a community garden plot!

May

• My daughter was in a lovely, low-key (notice a theme here?), no-fuss, wear what you want, celtic & european style dancing recital
• My son began soccer (was sadly placed with older boys (age 9) and since he is developmentally young it was disastrous – not a single child spoke to him, in fact they went out of their way to exclude him, in front of the parents and nothing was done by the coaches. It was a terrible experience, though he was somewhat oblivious…)
• I received a promotion
• I had to give a talk

June

• Both my children finished school – horrah!
• Both children learned to ride a bike!!!!
• We spent hours each week at our garden plot
• We spend the whole month watching the Tour de France and become a cycling-obsessed family!

July

• My best friend from England came for three weeks – tough aspects to the trip, but we ended on a high!
• We enjoyed our first family vacation in Muskoka – a week gifted to us and oh so needed!
• We had an amazing morning in a ravine riding bikes with the couple that hung the moon.

August

• My mother arrived from the UK
• We enjoyed a 3 day mini-break with her that included picking peaches that made us all very sick (they affected our breathing!)
• We celebrated my daughter being home a year
• The children began kumon after seeing the only way for them to fill in the gaps left by chronic neglect, trauma and pre-natal exposure was repetition, repetition, repetition. I see again education for children with special needs is a very difficult and somewhat fraught topic.

September

• The children returned to school
• I realized my attachment to the children has anchored.
• I had lots of good reports about how well they are doing this year
• My son celebrated one year being home! Yippee!!
• My daughter began art lessons (a long awaited Birthday present)
• I purchased a house (a total shock and surprise)
• Educational social worker tells me that both my children would benefit enormously from home education because they need the 1:1 school can’t give.
• Both children begin swimming lessons

October

• We decided as a family we would only accept fairtrade chocolate from now on
• We visited godmother K and the couple that hung the moon for an alternative Halloween
• My son began acting class and oh my word, he shone!
• We went away for a night over Thanksgiving weekend
• The godparents had baby number 2 – someone else to love in our lives!
• Kids went to the dentist – my wallet survived! : )
• The house closed

November

• My daughter began music classes
• I became more and more uneasy about what to do about their education
• We moved house!
• My daughter finished reading her first real chapter book – Charlotte’s Web!
• My son read the whole of the Cat In The Hat by himself (this of the boy I was told would never be able to read!!)
• We all caught croup and bronchitis
• We foster/adopted two more cats
• We try 1:1 at school for 2 days while the rest of the class is away on a trip and my daughter gains more in that 2 day period than the whole month + previously.
• My son’s teacher informs me he gets nothing at all done at school all day

December

• We all continued to struggle with croup and bronchitis (and for me add in pleurisy, an absessed tooth and some lovely side-effects from antibiotics that women can get!)
• The children have full OT assessments
• The children are home sick for 7 days and we do minimal school work (though they want to do some). They both learn topics/things that they have struggled to understand since September. About 6 hours of 1:1 and they got it!
• My son has a full developmental and behavioural assessment and comes out with a new diagnosis.
• We attended the CBC Open House (we are a family that looooves the CBC!)
• We enjoyed a lovely, relaxed, low-key Christmas
• We spoke a lot about world wide events
• I decided to home educate my children and found a way to do it!
• I think of leaving the children to go to work and cry
• My son reads his first page in a chapter book (a hard one at that!)