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Hello Everyone, Has it been this long already! Sorry for the delayed post! Spencer is doing really well. We had his hearing tested on New Years Eve and it was inconclusive as he had a cold at the time, so he had a lot of pressure in his ears. We will re-test in the near future. That being said...his balance seems to be improving daily! He is walking quite well without his AFO's (leg braces). He is even able kneel and do so many more things now (even without is AFOs) as compared to a month ago. So we are experiencing some pretty exciting times. Just as an example, when Spencer was taking swimming lessons in the fall, was not able to walk in the water without any assistance. Last week he started lessons again and he was doing most of the moving about in the water himself...without any assistance!! His speech is improving on a daily basis as well. We are very excited with what we are starting to see. Will try to post more often! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year! Talk soon!
Hello Everyone! Sorry it has been a while since the last post, but we have just been settling back into normal life and enjoying it! Now that we are all back on our normal schedules (ie. sleep, work, daycare) everyone seems much happier! Not too much to report yet on Spencer, except that we continue to think that his hearing has improved. On New Years Eve, Spencer is going for a hearing test, so we should know then. He is walking well without his braces on and his speech continues to improve daily. Between work and the lack of the urge to travel, Christmas is going to be just the three of us at home this year. It will be nice just to relax and enjoy the time together. Spencer is SOOOOO excited for Christmas! He was looking for Santa this morning, as we told him Santa was coming today. So now he is not too impressed that he has to go to bed tonight before Santa comes, but is very excited that he gets to open his gifts tomorrow! We will report back next week once we hear about the hearing test results. In the mean time, we would like to once again thank you all for your support as our Christmas is a little more special this year! Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you and may you have a healthy, happy and prosperous 2010!Â
Okay last blog before I get back to the business side of it. So we made it up the ramp at the airport. We were actually able to use the moving walkway this time since we got our luggage down to one cart so it was much easier than walking up! We checked our baggage & made it through security with no trouble at all. Then we headed in for a bite to eat so we didn’t starve on our long trip. After we were done we still had a bit of time before boarding so we decided to let spencer play on one of the pathetic play structures there before heading to our gate. He was only able to play for about 15 minutes before we had to get moving. Once we got there we sat & sat & sat. Finally I noticed the pilot & crew walking out with their luggage. Great, what is going on now. So I decided to head up to the desk. That’s when I overheard someone saying the plane had mechanical problems. I checked with the staff as to what was going on & they confirmed that there was a water problem & they didn’t know how long it would be until it was fixed but if it was not done in 3 hours they had another plane landing that we could use. Wow how considerate 3 extra hours on an already long journey with a 4 year old, AWESOME! It would have been really extra great of them to actually make an announcement to the airport so people knew what was going on before we got there. So as it stood with my luck the flight was delayed the 3 hours & of course we missed our connecting flight. We tried fighting numerous times with the staff to change us to a different airline so that we could head straight to Vancouver instead of through the states but with language barrier & who knows what else it was a flop. We had my parents meeting us in Vancouver & no way to get hold of them to let them know what was going on. Chad finally argued enough to them so they confirmed us on the next flight out of San Francisco at 1:04pm otherwise we would have been there until 7pm which would have been even better for Spencer! The kicker was that they were able to confirm Spencer & I but put Chad on standby! (they didn’t want to confirm us cause they didn’t know our arrival time, let me tell you if it would have been later than that flight there would have been something going on there!) Once we finally got on the flight it was decent. Spencer slept for about 6 hours (not a good sleep of course but at least he slept) He woke up in a great mood & was excited to get onto the next plane to see grandma & grandpa. Customs seemed to take forever, I am assuming cause most of the people in the line did not speak english so they had to gesture everything. Once we got through there & grabbed our bags quickly we had to head through the part where they ask you if you have any food, they didn’t check anything & just let us go through (thank goodness) We ran to the United counter & the guy was super nice, he asked if we wanted to try to make it on the 1:04 flight (it was only 30 min away) we of course said yes so he quickly tagged our bags, was able to confirm Chad a seat on the plane & we ran to make it through security. Thank goodness we had Spencer in a stroller, had we not we never would have made the flight but because we did they brought us over to the side of the line & let us in right in front of everyone else!!!! We ran to the gate & made it about 3 minutes before they started boarding. They had been paging us to the front (guess they cant see that you just got in from China & just got tickets on the flight?) That flight was nice & short compared to our last, we were all fairly hungry since it was now the afternoon & we had not eaten in about 6 hour (& Spencer in about 12 hours or more) We made Vancouver on time & made it through customs in a matter of minutes. We were able to get all our baggage quite quickly & just got outside to meet our shuttle bus to the hotel. Mom & Dad were waiting there for us, I was able to phone them from the Vancouver airport so they didn’t get too worried. Spencer was so excited to see them & had a great time with the short amount of time we had. We were able to hit Ikea in the morning before our flight left so that made the welcome home even better. Then came the last flight. Air Canada....We got to our gate & sat down when all of a sudden a nice young man appeared to come sit down escorted by a mountie while wearing leg & arm shackles. I tell you life just gets better & better. A while later 4 other mounties including an officer showed up to the gate. I was even more nervous to take my 4 year old on the flight at that point. The mounties left shortly after that, thank goodness, & it ended up being 2 shackled prisoners on the flight with us escorted by 2 people not in uniform. The flight was uneventful , Halleluia! The airplane was awesome, it was either brand new or just re-done. The seats were great & they had tv’s on all the seatbacks that were touch screen. You could watch whatever you wanted to & if you had earbud headphones you could watch it from gate to gate without having to take your headphones off. It was so cool. They even have a spot for games on there (it wasn’t working though on our flight) We made it back to Winnipeg around 7pm, Chad went to work & got the van while I got the luggage, we picked up some supper & headed home. Spencer was in bed by 9:30 & us by 11 but with the jet lag Spencer was up by 2:30 am & Chad then got up until 6. We all made a big mistake & slept until noon. Tonight is no different. it is now 3am & here I am with Spencer in my bed. Alarm is set for the morning. Still haven’t unpacked everything yet but as soon as I do I will post the website links for you all to enjoy as well as the pictures. Oh & by the way, my old crappy bed now feels like I am sleeping on a cloud!
Well what a great day today waking up knowing in a couple of days I will be home, home, home!!! Never thought I would miss it that much. Although Chad has brought to my attention that he is not sure what I am going to do when I do not have my little Spenny with me 24/7 anymore. I am not really too sure either, guess it will be hard for the first while but we will get back into it. As I said yesterday we were off to the great wall today. We decided Juyongguan section as the internet said it was a little bit easier than some other sections in the area. Well holy crap, if that was “easier†than the rest of the sections OMG. This thing is absolutely incredible. I can see why they call it one of the seven wonders of the world. I have no idea how they could have built that. I wish I new how long it took cause it seems like it would be forever. Our guide was telling us that it was made by “volunteersâ€Â The prisoners were voluntold to build the wall to keep the Mongolians out of the southern part of China. I will of course eventually post some pictures & video of what we did. I seriously can not tell you how crazy it was. The stairs were almost straight up and down in some portions. The stairs were so uneven that some of them were only about 2-3 inches high then others were up to the height of my knees. They have put railings on now but I don’t know how the soldiers would have got up there without them. We planned to walk up 2 steep sections to 2 separate guard towers & then across an easier section to a nice temple looking thing so we could look around. Yes we had good intentions. Chad had Spencer on his shoulders & I had a light bag with some water & things in it. I thought I was going to pass out or get sick by the time I got to the first section. (which let me tell you took me a long, long time. I had to keep stopping to get my breath!!!) Chad & Spencer went at a fairly good pace, Spencer walked a fair bit on his own but was a little slow for the other people so Chad carried him at times. Spencer absolutely loved it. Once we got to the first tower we decided that there was no way we could make it up any further. We went to the top of the tower up some stairs that were almost to my knee, about 3 inches deep & not real wide. I am not sure how they could have got up there with anything on their person. Getting down from the tower was rather interesting but we made it. By that point we could have walked a bit farther up the wall but the guide had already called the driver. While we were just looking around Spencer grabbed one of my gloves and threw it over the edge into some bush on the edge of the cliff by the wall, some guy decided to go get it for me. It was quite funny cause I told him to forget it since it was just a glove but he insisted. When his friend saw him jump over he started freaking out asking what he was doing (with a little bit of color added in there!!) In the end the friend told me he was so afraid of heights that it freaked him out, the other guy made it back safe & sound & I got my glove back. We are not sure but they seemed like they were some kind of sports players from the states. The way down was easier but hard on the knees especially for me since I had such a long way down to get to each step. I guess that’s what happens when you spend a month laying around not doing too much exercise!! I recommend if you are heading to the great wall that you do a lot of exercise before you come!!! Since we didn’t spend as much time at the wall as anticipated we had time to hit a jade factory, man the stuff in there was so amazing. They had a huge pirate ship (pictures to come) & lots of other huge pieces that have been carved out of a single piece of jade. We learned there that you can not be a jade carver just because you want to. The only way you can become one is if your parent was one, the art is passed down from generation to generation & taught to each child by the parent. We ended up buying a couple of symbolic pieces for ourselves. There was a restaurant in the factory as well so we had lunch there since the driver & guide get a cut of the price from the restaurant. When Chad was done he went to the bathroom, while he was finishing at the urinal a bathroom attendant came up to give him some toilet paper. He wasn’t sure what to do with it so he patted his hands then threw it out. When he went to wash his hands the guy said “oh you wash your handsâ€Â (obviously the just dry them off when they are done!!) He then gave Chad some toilet paper to dry his hands again, when Chad just patted them dry he was given more!!! When all was said and done the guy patted Chads stomach & said “you eat lots!!â€Â I guess it was okay cause Chad said that he was expecting to have that done a lot sooner than it had happened!! After the jade factory we headed back to the hotel to go swimming & pack up for our trip home. Some other fantastic news, we were just quickly checking one of our friends blogs, their son Keiran is in Qingdao because he is blind (SOD) before he came he was able to see some light in both eyes & count fingers from fairly close in his right eye. He just had a VEP test done which is showing that things are starting to improve, he has also found out that he can now count fingers in his left eye & his mom & dad have been able to teach him some letters that he had begun to read for the fist time!!!!!! Very exciting, I am sure within a few months he will have gained some great improvements & I am sure that they will begin to do some fundraising for a second trip over as soon as they arrive home! We are going to see what happens with Spencer over the next couple months & then have so far planned to go a second time as well. Depending on when we go it may not end up being China that we go to as they have begun to open other countries up.  The plan as of now for the blog is that I will update when we get home for those that are interested as to how our overall experience was with regards to the stem cell therapy was. I will add the links for some other blogs to our website in case their situation is similar to someone you know that is considering stem cells (or just for curiosity sake to see what miracles can happen with this amazing treatment) After that I will update at least once or twice a month for the next year with Spencer’s gains (we are hoping there will be many). Thank you all so much for your support, hope you enjoyed the blog & will continue to read it. I will add some pictures & video in the next few days once we get home & organized. I am very excited to get home & sleep on my own bed. Not sure what Spencer is going to do cause since we have been at the hotel he has been asking to sleep on the floor. May have to put some plywood on top of his matress!! We are now on to our next challenge, the ramp at the Beijing airport & taking Spencer on another long plane ride. Â
Finally a little bit of a break from reality & time to tour around Beijing. We decided to hit The Forbidden City & Tiananmen square today. Once we were done breakfast we headed out to grab a cab to the 2 pieces of history. We hit Tiananmen Square first. From the second we stepped out of the cab we were mobbed by people trying to sell us crap, they would not let up either. I finally bought a book about the Forbidden City to get rid of one guy & then he wanted me to buy 2 more plus some post cards! As for Tiananmen Square & the Forbidden City I think it would have been much better if we knew the entire history behind them but I guess I can read all about it when I get home. We have lots of pictures & if I ever get a chance I will start posting them all. Spencer was not happy the entire time, he kept crying & wanting to go to sleep, we laid the stroller down but for whatever reason he couldn’t fall asleep & just kept crying. Once we finished Tiananmen Square we figured out how to get across the street. It was crazy busy & no way anyone could walk or run or play frogger across that one. There ended up being an underground tunnel over to the Forbidden City. We were lucky there cause apparently Steven Harper is in the city, he headed out to the great wall today so we were able to get in, unlike Ang who couldn’t cause Obama was there the day she went. They were flying the Canadian Flag beside the Chinese one all across the outskirts of the Forbidden City. Once we made it through the mob of people, peddlers & “tour guidesâ€Â you would not believe how big the place is. I can see why they call it a city! I am sure that it is bigger than lots of the small towns in Saskatchewan & Manitoba! We walked for what seemed like forever only to find out that we hadn’t even really entered the main part yet. There was lots to see inside but it really meant nothing to us, guess we should have thought twice & hired one of the guides, I am sure it would have made the tour much more insightful & meaningful. The buildings to us all looked quite similar & there was so many people gathered at the ones you could look inside that you really couldn’t see much. Spencer was crying the entire time we were there & finally we decided to just get a move on & get out. Good thing I bought the book I guess I can still see some of the things I missed in there. So for anyone planning on hitting either of these places make sure you learn the history behind them & hire a tour guide at the Forbidden City. The actually had electronic tour guides for you before you got into the Forbidden City. They had a GPS thing on them & you put a earphone in then it told you stuff as you walked to different places. Of course we were too cheap to do that! The one thing that was pretty spectacular was the garden, it was really nice right now so I can only imagine what it would be like in the summer, definitely something to check out that’s for sure. When we were done our amazing race through to the other side we were once again bombarded by people trying to sell crap to us. I of course was suckered in but I like what I got. I ended up with some really nice ornaments. A Dragon, 2 Lions & 6 Budda’s for less than $10 Canadian. They don’t sound that nice but you will have to come check them out sometime! We managed to finally get a cab to pull over for us & we headed back to the hotel to take Spencer for a nap & then swimming. Once we got back to the hotel Spencer would not sleep, we listened to him crying & whining & wanting to sleep all morning then when we brought him back to bed he wouldn’t go. We finally just decided to hit the pool. We ended up there for over an hour & were just about to leave when we started talking to some americans. By the time we left we were shrivelled up little prunes. We decided to hit the subway & head to the Olympic sites & were going to grab supper at the TGIF the americans had told us about that was somewhere near the birds nest. The subway was really easy to use & super cheap. Spencer loved the fact that he got to ride on a train! About an hour later we ended up where we wanted to be. We were able to take quite a few pictures of the birds nest & water cube but I am not sure yet how they turned out since they had to be on a night setting & we did not have a tripod with us. They were quite the sights, the birds nest is quite amazing looking & the water cube looked super cool. They also had this really tall tower that changed colors & had the olympic rings on the top. We never did find the TGIF on our adventure but along the way we saw lots of neat things. Different statues, people rollerblading around cones, a group dressed up & dancing (that was really neat & funny) & another group doing line dancing or exercise? Spencer was ready to head back by this point so we headed back to the subway. Supper ended up consisting of room service for Spenny & Chad ventured out to find a take out place for us. He did pretty good & brought back some decent chinese. It was no Qingdao chinese but not too bad for the first try! By the time we all ate it was fairly late so we called it a night.Â
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