Zoe's great grandfather

This is a kind of sad post. Zoe's great grandfather (Gavin's grandfather) died this last week at the age of 98. We were lucky enough to be able to visit him in Scotland when Zoe was about six months old, and we got a lot of footage of Zoe with her great grandfather. His funeral was today, and as a sort of memorial to him I put together this video.

My grandfather was quite a character. He had a fondness for poetry- the good, the traditional and the very bad. There are examples of all three in this video. The first is a poem, as my granddad says, about Scottish emigrants- I don't know the title and, in truth, only understand about half the words. The second poem about a three legged dog and is by William McGonagal, widely recognized as Scotland's worst poet. The third one is a rather bawdy poem about a lady named Teresa my Granddads girlfriend Win declares is "not for young ears". The final poem is "The Shooting of Dan Mcgrew" by Robert Service- it was one of my Granddad's favorites. The music at the end is Amazing Grace- I'm sure you will recognize it. It was my grandfathers request that it be sung at his funeral, so it seemed the obvious choice for this video. This version is by a mixed Canadian Military and a U.S. Marine Corps band.

The lady in some of the pictures is my granddad's girlfriend Win Moore, who for many years has been my grandfather's friend and companion and a second grandmother to me (and a second great grandmother to Zoe). She is a wonderful person, and I thank her for bringing so much joy to my granddad's life.

Zoe's middle name is Alexander, named in part after my grandfather, and I can only wish she has as long and full a life as he did.


He will be missed.

Abbie W. tries out Zoe's pony

Hi all,

at the conference our friend Abbie (well, maybe more Abbie's mom Kim) wanted to try out Zoe's walker. So here she is, giving it her best (it was the end of a long day and it was her first time in it- you can see how much it wore her out!) Kim asked us to post the video so she could show it to her physiotherpaist with the hope of getting Abbie a similar walker- maybe next year at conference Zoe and Abbie can chase each other around!

(FYI, the song is "These Boots are made for Walking' by Nancy Sinatra :)

Zoe turns two

Zoe's birthday photos

As some of you know, Zoe just turned 2- a very big event around here. She was sick for the week before her actual birthday, so we had a small family party on the 21st (Zoe's grandad was here and got to get in on the cake!) and then a slightly larger friend party on the next Sunday.

This video is a slideshow of pictures- one per month since Zoe was born. At her one year birthday I printed out pictures by month for ages 0 -12 and stuck them on the living room wall as decorations for her party, and I continued doing it this year. As long as our wall space holds out, I plan on making this a major part of the birthday decorations- it is really nice to look back over the months/years and see where Zoe was and where she is now. So for those of you who cannot come into our living room and see the actual pictures here they are. Months 0 to 24 of Zoe Alexander Ross.

The song, by the way, is "Only you" by Joshua Radin. When Zoe was born and admitted to hospital for 3 weeks it was the only CD we had with us so we listened to it A LOT in those first three weeks. Zoe got rocked to sleep many times to these songs- good thing it was a good CD we happened to have in the car and we weren't listening to Milli Vanilli or Boney M or something like that (not that we actually would listen to Milli Vanilli or Boney M but . . . )

My rules for picking the pictures is to limit myself to one per month, it has to only have Zoe in it (mostly anyway) and as much as possible it should highlight what is going on in Zoe's life at that time. This can be a challenge, as we take a lot of pictures! But I think I did alright- that is one of the great things about doing it- it really makes me appreciate who Zoe is and what she has done.

The first picture is Zoe about 30 hours old, already extubated and with my thumb holding her hand. The next one (maybe 12 days or so?) shows just how tiny she is- my hands wrap around her chest. Then she gets home on the NG tube and then into one of her preemie outfits people gave us, looking pissed and greasy (she had cradle cap so we were told to rub olive oil on her scalp. Olive oil- good for Italian food, good for babies- who knew?) She wouldn't fit her newborn clothes for several months yet.

In August 07 we went to Scotland and England- here is Zoe contemplating Carlyse cathedral (which her Scottish ancestors sacked and partially destroyed way back when- sorry about that!). In September she started smiling- before that she had not done so and we didn't know if she ever would. She used to always stick out her tongue to smile. The two October pictures in he slideshow how she developed in terms of grabbing stuff and using her hands. In 07 it was all hand over hand, guiding her; in 08 she was all about grabbing it herself. This picture actually documents one of the first times Zoe attempted self feeding (hence the pumpkin goop on her face) It wasn't an attempt with anything particularly edible, of course, but that came later on. Incidentally, I think both pictures were taken at our friend Amanda's house in Pittsburgh.

In November we met our new 1p36 friends (including Jacoby, whose back you see) in Jacksonville for the 1p36 conference. Zoe's facial expression here is very similar to a lot of the photos to come. December we had lots of snow, which lasted a long time that year (see March). Then there were new toys for Christmas #1 and Birthday #1. In April Zoe got her glasses, and her tracking and hand eye coordination really began to improve. It was hard for Genevieve and I when she initially got her glasses - it meant admitting she was pretty profoundly visually impaired at such a young age. Although she looks adorable in her glasses, it still is sometimes painful to realize what they really mean- I'm sure the 1p families out there can understand. Now she has had them so long and they help so much she just doesn't look like herself without them on.

More solemn glasses looks, and the shirt that started out as a long dress many months before- she has many of these. Smiling, and our crazy girl who likes sleeping with the blanket over her head. This blanket was given to her in the NICU- it is a project Linus blanket and she used it every night since she was about 10 months old or so. Project Linus is a bunch of knitters ( I imagine them all as old grannies but there may be some younger ones too) that knit blankets and donate them to hospitals for infants to have a comfort item. In the course of our careers, Genevieve and I have given away hundreds of these, but now find ourselves on the receiving end. For the life of us we can't recall who gave this blanket to us- we just remember it showing up in the NICU.

Zoe's vibrating toy and her crazy hair. Bathing in the kitchen sink (still fits!) Another hospital admission and NG tube- this is Zoe on the the last day (I think) of a short stay. Another skirt/shirt. Second Christmas- Zoe was so much more into her gifts and toys. Here she is tasting her Aunt Muriel's/ Uncle Walter's/ Cousins Elaine and Zoe's kangaroo family. January self feeding (whip cream) and February's pony walker (her first attempt- she did amazingly well and far exceeded anybody's expectations. A great step we are still exploring as a family.)

Hope you enjoyed the slideshow, and the accompanying commentary. Happy Birthday, Zoe.

Love Daddy

Zoe walking

Yesterday, as it turned out, was an unexpectedly good day. We had an appointment with the equipment vendor to drop off a sample VASI stander and Pony walker for Zoe. The stander is to promote weight bearing and trunk strength- the Pony walker is to provide Zoe with a means of mobilization and getting around her world. We don't anticipate her having the strength to walk independently or with a more traditional walker/gait trainer for some time, but want to be able to give Zoe a way to independently get around until then. We had anticipated she would hate the stander initially, and maybe just kind of sit there in the Pony walker. Our unrealistic ideal parent dreams, of course, were that she would immediately start using the walker to move around wherever she wanted, but we didn't really expect that. Well, to everyone's great surprise, that is almost exactly what she did. After happily being in the stander and playing at our coffee table for about 15 minutes she indicating she was tired so we put her in the walker. Her very first time using it she was able to move across the room to where I was sitting several times. Lucky for us Genevieve managed to arrange to come home from work early and arrived just made it in time to see Zoe's first steps! Later that day when her OT was here Zoe was able to move twice across the room to deliberately look at our fish tank-she seemed fascinated by them. Everyone was amazed by how well she did, and our parental dreams were, on this occasion, fulfilled. It was still really hard for her, and she is very unsure about initiating the movement, but it is a great start!

This video is from today, her third trial at the walker. The lady in the edge of the picture is Riane, our wonderful respite worker who was able to come in this morning to give me a bit of a break. Genevieve was hard at work and missed the fun.

The song is "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" by The Proclaimers.

Those of you who know Zoe, or know our 1p36 kids, know how amazing a moment this is. It happened 4 days before her second birthday. We are so proud and excited. For Zoe to be able to move herself around and seek out what interests her is a huge goal for us, and this is a huge step toward that.

The other excellent piece of news the equipment person gave us is that as this is Zoe's first equipment claim the Ontario government agency which pays for 75% of equipment costs (Assistive Devices Program or ADP) would likely have no problem approving the claim for the walker and stander (and hence paying for it). The equipment company would be confident in ordering the stuff as soon as we paid them the outstanding 25% (which we then claim back from our extended insurance coverage). So that will mean the waiting period, once we decide for sure what we want, should only be about four weeks at the most. This is very exciting!

So Zoe is still sick, and not drinking much, but we are very encouraged by how well Zoe is doing with these new challenges. We are so proud of her.

Signing "More" and "Tired"

The quality of the video is a bit off but we are going to post them for now and then try to fix them later. Zoe's sign for "more" has become much clearer in the past few weeks and she is starting to get quite insistent when she wants more of something.

a smile and a stink eye- Halloween fun

Here is a quick video of Zoe enjoying carving her pumpkin at our friends Amanda's on the weekend. She loved it, and is soooo cute in this video (Zoe, that is-not Amanda)

I don't know what I did to deserve that stink eye, but Yikes! I love how expressive her face can be, going from that wide grin to that scowl in just seconds.

There will be more pumpkin/Halloween pictures to come- we just need to pick out the best ones. It's a hard choice- they are all super cute!

Zoe's great grandmother

Zoe's great Grandmother (Gavin's grandma) died this weekend, at the age of 91 (I think). She had been ill a long time, so it was not unexpected, and apparently she went peacefully in her sleep. She lived in Davidson's Mains in Edinburgh until she was around 77, in the same house my dad and two aunts grew up in. The first memory I have is from the garden of that house when I was two. For the last 14 years or so she lived with my aunt Muriel, uncle Walter and cousin Zoe in Surrey, England.

We were lucky enough to get over there last year with our Zoe (or wee Zoe, as she is known to that side of the family) last year. Zoe was 6 months old at the time. My grandmother was still in somewhat good health (though rapidly declining) and she enjoyed visiting with her great grandaughter (her "bonny wee babbitty") immensely. I can't say I knew my grandma well, owing mainly to the fact that Scotland is quite a long way away from Canada, but I am very glad that she was able to meet Zoe and that they could spend some time together. It meant a lot to everyone involved, I think (though Zoe looks a little mystified, to be quite honest).

This video is, I guess, my tribute to my Grandma. She was a spunky old lady- I think there can be no argument about that. She lived a grand old life, and I'll miss just knowing she is there. I'm posting this video in the hope my family can see it, and remember how happy Grandma was to see her "wee Zoe".

The music is "Flower of Scotland"- this version by a band called Runrig. The other lady in the video is my cousin Zoe, who is only a few months younger then I am and a charming young women who was also absolutely thrilled to see "wee Zoe".

Peek-a-boo video

Today Zoe (and Genevieve too) wanted me to post this piece of video of Zoe and I playing her version of peek-a-boo. She started doing this a month or so ago. Her first attempts were using a blanket in her high chair. We have video of this too, but the quality is really poor and it's hard to see. Check it out at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-546432121159693397 if you are interested (which I know you are - it is super cute even if it is a bit dark). As you can see she kind of does the whole peek-a-boo thing backwards- generally laughing and smiling when covered/not seeing and her usual neutral face/downturned mouth when she looks at you. What a weird baby.

And this is exciting why you ask? Some of you out there will know, having seem it in your kids but we love seeing Zoe do this because it reflects her increasing ability to play, interact with the world around her and indicate her enjoyment in things. This ability has really taken off in the last couple of months- now Zoe laughs at things and plays with toys and us and shows us both her pleasure and (like this morning when the yummy cereal/strawberry/bean mix I was feeding her suddenly turned to poison!) her displeasure. There's a whole cognitive/developmental piece to it too- object permenence, knowing an object still exists when out of sight blah, blah, blah, but that doesn't sound nearly as much fun as peek-a-boo.

There are a billion other cute clips we could post, but we will try and hold ourselves back (a little, at least). Zoe specifically requested this one though (through mommy) so there you go- how could I refuse?

Sorry for the abrupt ending on the clip- I'm still not happy with any of the video editing software we have on our computer. The music playing in the backgorund, by the way, is a Vancouver band I really like called The Town Pants. The songs are Dark Annie and Plastered in Paris. Just so you know.

Zoe rolling over

This is a video we took of Zoe rolling over from the end of April, which makes her about 14 months old. As you can see rolling is still a lot of work for her, but she gets there!