Going shoe crazy!

Addison received her new AFO braces last week. Even before they arrived I was going crazy trying to find shoes. I had a really difficult time finding shoes to fit her small SMO braces, so I knew that finding them to fit the larger braces would be difficult. Before they arrived, I purchased a larger size of her current shoes as well as 2 pairs from a company called Hatchbacks. They are specially designed shoes made to fit over orthotics. I ordered two different sizes because until I had the braces in hand it was difficult for me to tell which size we would need. They are only sold online and I didn't want to order wrong and have to shop back and forth.

So, the arrival of the braces came and the orthotist decided to try the braces on with the size 5 Hatchbacks. He seemed happy with them in the short period of time she had them on. I was very hesitant. I felt that they made her feet feel two sizes bigger than normal. So, we went with them and spent the weekend wearing the Hatchbacks. They absolutely did not work!!! The poor kid could hardly move in them. Walking was extremely slow and transitions on the floor were almost impossible. So, Sunday night came and 2 more pairs of shoes got ordered online from Nike. Not many shoe company's make shoes in wide widths, but Nike does. She wore the braces very little all week due to the shoe issue.

The new shoes arrived and one works!!!! Hooray! In the meantime I also found out that New Balance makes an extra wide width. I am planning on ordering a back up pair from them. The downfall is that she has no dress shoes, so when we dress up, she has to wear tennies. I would like to try and keep one pair cleaner for those occasions and give her an everyday wear and tear pair.

At least the saga is over. This week in my house I have had:
1 pair of Nike size 6.5
1 pair of Hatchbacks size 5
1 pair of Hatchbacks size 6
1 pair of Nike size 5.5
1 pair of Nike size 6.0
1 pair of Nike size 6.0

Wow, that's a lot of money. I can't wait to return some and get my money back. More on how she's doing with them later.

Awesome Weather

Wow.....could we ask for better weather than what we got on Friday and Saturday? Addy's new favorite thing is to go and play outside. Grandma Kris came over on Saturday which allowed Aaron and I to get a lot of things done such as yard work, cleaning and putting together our new patio set. Addy really wanted to help Daddy put it together as you can see in the pics. We also put together her new umbrella table and chairs set which she got for her birthday last year, but was too young to use. Happy early Birthday present. She is also obsessed with the sand. She spent hours playing in her sandbox and sand table.

Touching Song

I found this video on another blog that I follow. The style of music isn't the greatest, but it's very touching. So for all you moms out there with children who have special needs, this is for you.

Pictures

Addy had her photo shoot this past Saturday for The Littlest Heroes Project. Here's a link to the pics. They are soooo cute! A big thank you to Wendy Martin for her time and awesome work. She will be posting some of the pics on her blog and Addy will also have a write up done on The Littlest Heroes webpage soon. Will let you know when that gets posted.

www.addy.photoherald.com

More Easter

The Easter celebration continued today at the Riley side of our family. We went to Aunt Peggy's house with Grandpa Riley, lots of aunts and uncles and many cousins. Addy had fun playing with all the kids. She especially liked playing with cousin Kaerigan because he is closer to her size and was crawling all around with her. We also went on an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Great fun! Enjoy the pics.

Addy's Easter dress

Playing with cousin Reese

Peek-a-boo with Reese

Grandpa Riley

Easter egg hunt

Playing with Kaerigan

Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Addy had fun with her Easter basket this morning. The bunny hid it and she searched and searched. We looked under the table, in the bathroom and even in the microwave. we finally found it in the dining room by the fire place. Her eyes light up the second she saw it. She removed each item one by one and looked at them in great detail. Her favorite was the Dora Fiesta set. It's actually a little birthday play set. Thought is was good timing, since her birthday is coming up and she's really been into the imaginative play of celebrating birthdays. Hopefully I can get some pictures of her in her Easter dress later today. Off to celebrate with family. Hope everyone has a great Easter with friends and family.

Busy Day

Wow...we have had a busy day. After a long week of mom being off work and Addy being sick all week, we certainly made up for it today. To begin the day, Addy had her photo shoot for The Littlest Heroes Project. We went to a local park at 10:00 the morning. The sun was shining, but it certainly was not warm. The wind made it feel very cold. Our photographer was Wendy Martin www.wendymartinphotography.com. She took roughly 200 pictures with 2 different outfit changes. She was great with Addy. She's actually a special education teacher herself who has a love for photography. Pretty cool! We are anxious to get the pics. She should have a sneak peek for us in a couple of days, so stay tuned.

After a long nap, we headed to the mall to see the Easter Bunny. We realized that we never took Addy last year, so we didn't want to miss out again. Addy didn't smile much while she was sitting on his lap and we felt rushed due to the people waiting in line behind us. Part of the problem was that once we sat her on the bunny's lap she couldn't really see him or her?? The bunny didn't move much and I'll admit was a little scary even to me.


After we left the mall we headed back to the park. Addy wanted to play this morning, but it was just too cold. Enjoy the pics of her getting around the playground with her walker. On a side note...we should be getting her new braces any day now. I am not looking forward to shoe shopping with them. Ugh!!!!