Our weekend was fun, and busy. We rented a movie, relaxed, cleaned the play room, went to Lake Arrowhead with family from out of town, went to swimming class, went to the Skirball Cultural Center with our good friend Ade, saw Lucky Diaz and the Family Jam band perform, and ate yummy vegetarian food. Below is some video and pictures of the weekend. And we got an email from our "fixator friend," Alison in New York. She had some input, advice and praise for Amaya. Thanks for writing Alison!
The girls relaxing on the dock in Lake Arrowhead.
The girls got to feed ducks with their cousins.
Joaquin and Jude loved Amaya's wheelchair! Amaya was nice enough to give them both a ride and let them play with it.
Here's some video of Amaya swimming today. She had a new instructor today, Jeremy. He was kind and she got to work one on one with him. He taught her to make big movements with her arms to help her swim. And how cool is Melissa? She came and watched Amaya swim today! She came before her workout time. Amaya was happy to see her and appreciated her effort to come by and say hello. Melissa was impressed to see so many people in the pool; students (of all ages with varying disabilities) and staff.
During the last few minutes of the class Amaya was crying. Her knee was hurting so we decided to let her get out. She said that she had tried bending her left knee as she swam and it got tired and hurt. Her instructor felt bad and worried that maybe he pushed her too hard, but she recovered quickly then went and told him that she was okay.
Another neat thing that happened at swim today was that before Amaya got into the water the head instructor looked at Amaya, her leg then said, "that's a cool contraption on your leg." Then smiled. Amaya smiled back and looked happy. What a nice way to acknowledge and react to something that you don't see everyday. I appreciated his kindness, and acceptance.
This was at the art studio in the museum. Amaya and Lidie made purses from plastic bags. It was up-cycle art; re-using materials. It was so easy! I love Amaya's purse! Lidie made a purse as well.
Lidie danced her heart out with the band. While we were there we ran into one of Amaya's old classmate from Pre-K. What a small world!
The girls got to try weaving. They really enjoyed it.
Here's some video of the girls inside the Noah's ark display. They climbed through and had fun! I started video taping right as the girls approached a crowded section. Lidie started telling the kids, "that's a fixator and if you hit it its going to hurt her." Basically, protecting her sister. Amaya pushed her way through (nicely of course) and yelled back, "come on Lidie!" It was interesting to see how they each navigated the crowd. A couple of kids looked at the fixator and were very curious. Especially one girl in particular who was about four or five. She was staring at Amaya and following her. Amaya stopped and explained what the fixator was and how it worked then the girl moved on.
Here's Amaya swinging in the maze.
In the Noah's ark display they had a pamphlet that talked about the display. It talked about the universal principles that the arc story teaches us; "it's about surviving the challenges that life throws our way by getting along and working together, and about making the most of second chances." I've never thought of it that way, but I like that perspective.
At the end of the Noah's ark exhibit (which is very cool! It has many hands on activities for kids to explore and play with) they asked you to share your story, something about what you did this summer. Amaya immediately thought of what to write. Of all the things that we've done this summer, all the places we've been the thing she picked was, meeting Rory. I thought that was very sweet.
Here she is busy writing her card. She decided she wanted to keep her card instead of adding it to the display.
Here's what Amaya wrote; "I met a kid named Rory. She has a short leg like me. She was sweet and playful. I love her." It's short, sweet and to the point. I decided to make one too. Mine says, "I have watched my daughters soar to new heights." I couldn't be more proud of them.
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