Well Haylee and I are always blog surfing and reading post of our favorite little friends.  Haylee and I were reading post at One Little Fin one night when we came acrossed a post called It’s Not Broken.  Where Gavin was upset with God because he thinks his arm is broken.  Haylee said right away she need to make Gavin a video so that is what we did.  This is to you Gavin and remember it is not broken.  Haylee said she will talk to you whenever you want or whenever you are sad.

There are times in Haylee’s life when she does not have to say a word to express her feelings.  Amniotic Band Syndrome has left me speechless a few times and so I am sure there are times when Haylee is also at a lost of words.

Haylee is beginning to get her own personalality and really just finally becoming her own person. So as she put her hand up I had to snap a picture and wonder what is she thinking.  Does she wonder if animals are also born with little paws?  Does she even really think about her little hand or is it just so normal and natural now that she does not even really remember half the time.

A little bit after this picture was taken we were walking and a little girl noticed her hand and ran over to her Dad and started asking questions.  The Dad tried to pull the little girl away.  And I watched as Haylee’s face went from a frown to a smile as she stode up straight and tall and walked over to the little girl and her Dad and said to the Dad. “It is ok.  I was born this way and if she wants to ask questions I would rather her do that than stare.”  My jaw hit the floor.  The Dad said. “I am so sorry.”  Haylee said, “Don’t be sorry, next time just let her ask.”  Haylee then went on to tell the little girl all about her little hand. It made me one proud Mama.

Sometimes we have to explain and other times we just have to be silent.

But please remember if your child sees something different on someone don’t let them stare.  We would rather you ask than stare.

Well as always Halloween was a great time.  Haylee has always loved Halloween because of the candy.   But she also loves it because it is the one time of the year where she can dress up and be anyone she wants to be.

This year she dressed up as a blood vampiress..  She was super cute and brought home a ton of candy.

Haylee has also adapted very well to carrying her trick or treat basket on her little hand so that she can get candy with her big hand.   The only little problem we had this year was her little hand got a little cold.

How was your Halloween?

Ok so our child was born different.  Ok so our child was born with a limb difference due to Amniotic Band Syndrome or whatever other reason might of caused our children to be different.  But does that give your children any right to be mean to my child?  We did not choose for our children to be born with a missing hand, or fingers, or arm, or leg, or nubs.  We did not choose for everyone to stare out our children and make them feel different.  But would we change anything about our children.. NEVER!

This weekend something happen that really pulled my heart strings.  It was a very hard situation but we made it through it.  We went camping like we do most weekends.  And Haylee decided to go play on the playground.  She was gone for about 10 minutes when she came back trying so hard not to cry.  Of course first look and I could tell something was wrong.  I asked her what was wrong and she said nothing.  I asked her again and she began to cry.

She said Mom they said I was scary and creepy.

THEY SAID WHAT???

WHO SAID THAT????

She said mom don’t go over there making a big deal out of it.  I told her that I will always stick up for her and have her back. She smiled.  She said they all gathered around her looking at her hand and then one child said something and it went from there.  She said it hurt her feelings and they would not play with her.

I explained to her that as much as we want to blame the children for what they say that often times it is not their fault because it is the parents that don’t explain to their children that every one is different one way or another and that just because someone is different does not make them scary or creepy…

I don’t understand how one child could say to another child you are scary and creepy.  How would they like it or react if my daughter told them the same thing.  They would be mad or hurt also… They would want to go have some words with my child if she said something like that to their child…. NO!

But I have to remember.  Haylee has been loaned to me from God because he has huge plans for her and I need to go the direction he points me.

SO I am sure you are wondering how things ended.  Well I told Haylee come on I am sure they just don’t understand.  Let’s go teach them.

So I went back with Haylee and when the first boy started to stare I said.  You know it really is not polite to stare but if you have a question we would be more than happy to answer your questions.  And let me tell you the questions started coming.  We answered all of them and by the time we were done playing Haylee had tons of new friends that were educated on how to react next time they see something different.

So as much as we want to over react and freak out sometimes we have to take a step back and look at the big picture first..

Haylee has a message to all ABS children and their parents. Something you want to watch. This is Haylee’s first video of many to come.  Haylee did the recording, script and editing all by herself… Hope you love it.

So I asked Haylee if there was one thing that Haylee could tell parents of kids that have little hands or children born without hands or fingers due to Amniotic Band Syndrome what would it be?

“They can do everything everyone else can do… Except Monkey Bars!”

Once again Lighting McQueen and his best friend Mater have hit the big screen and to celebrate I’ve got a great little CARS 2 giveaway for you.

1 winner will receive:

CARS 2 t-shirt in youth sizes of S, M, L, XL           CARS 2 set of 3 bumper tickets

CARS 2 temporary tattoo sheet (2 per winner)     CARS 2 puzzle

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment! So start your engine and get to commenting.

Star racecar Lightning McQueen (voice of Owen Wilson) and the incomparable tow truck Mater (voice of Larry the Cable Guy) take their friendship to exciting new places in “Cars 2” when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world’s fastest car.

If you haven’t seen it yet then you’ll want to make sure you do. It’s one summer flick you won’t want to miss.

Winner will be selected by random.org on Friday, July 8th and notified via email!

WINNIE THE POOH is our beloved ‘hunny’-loving bear, so why not choose one of his favorite things – a honey jar – to create as an Easter egg? You want it to look like a real honey jar so use tape to cover the top of the egg where the lid will be and also a wide strip of tape around the middle for the ‘HUNNY’ label. Boil half a cup of water, mix in 30-40 drops of blue food dye, and one tablespoon of white vinegar. When it cools, gently lower the egg into the pot. The longer the egg remains in the pot, the darker the color gets! Once you are happy with the color, take it out with a spoon, dry it and remove the tape. Then stick the word ‘HUNNY’ in tape to the egg, and pop it back in the pot, just for a few seconds to make the ‘label’ pale blue. Finally, you can use acrylic paint for a blob of honey and leave the word ‘HUNNY’ in the egg’s natural color. If Pooh could see your Easter egg, he might think it looked so much like a honey jar that he would keep it in his personal collection!

Also check out this awesome coloring page you can print   HERE!!!

TIGGER would be ecstatically happy about painting Easter eggs. You could have a go at painting an egg that looks like Tigger! First, use an orange watercolor crayon to paint the entire egg orange. While it dries, bounce around a bit – Tigger – style! Then draw in the tiger stripes with a steady hand and a black marker and fill them in with a black watercolor crayon. You can use a pink button for the nose and draw on eyebrows, eyes, mouth and whiskers with the black marker. Tigger-tastic!

EEYORE we all know would probably be less excited about painting Easter Eggs, so why not create one of his favorite food — thistles, of course! All you need are some crayons, a little spinach and also purple and green acrylic paints. Draw the thistle with a crayon, to prevent the area from being dyed. Boil the spinach, letting it simmer for 45 minutes. Put the egg into the water to color it green. The crayon colored thistle won’t dye (due to the wax in the crayon), so you can use acrylic paints to finish your egg.  Even Eeyore would have to admit it looks pretty sweet.

PIGLET loves his friends, and his motto is “Even if you are rather small you can still have a very big heart.” Why not paint a Piglet style Easter egg, with huge hearts on it? First, draw seven hearts with a marker, and then use small pieces of sponge with different colors to paint the egg. You can paint the whole egg pale blue like the sky and then paint each of the hearts with one of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Piglet would love this Easter egg because it’s small and cute, just like him!

To have more adventures with Pooh and friends go and see WINNIE THE POOH, the brand new film by Disney, in theatres July 15th!

ABOUT THE MOVIE

Walt Disney Animation Studios returns to the Hundred Acre Wood with “Winnie the Pooh.” Featuring the timeless charm, wit and whimsy of the original featurettes, this all-new movie reunites audiences with the philosophical “bear of very little brain” and friends Tigger, Rabbit, Piglet, Owl, Kanga, Roo—and last, but certainly not least, Eeyore, who has lost his tail.  “Ever have one of those days where you just can’t win, Eeyore?” asks Pooh.  Owl sends the whole gang on a wild quest to save Christopher Robin from an imaginary culprit. It turns out to be a very busy day for a bear who simply set out to find some honey. Inspired by three stories from A.A. Milne’s books in Disney’s classic, hand-drawn art style, “Winnie the Pooh” hits theatres on July 15th!

Making a move to a new place is always difficult.  Difficult finding a new community, a new job, a new school.  And for Haylee starting a new school and making new friends scared her the most.

When we told Haylee that Dad had been relocated and that we would be moving she freaked out and cried all night.  My heart broke into a million pieces.  I knew Haylee was worried about making new friends.

As time whent on and it got closer to the time we are moving she started to not be so sad but she was still scared that people would like of her little hand and if they would be scared of her little hand or if they would except her for who she is.

Once we were all moved I setup a time to tour the school the day before she started at her new school. A new school which is actually twice the size of the school she was in before.

The tour of the new school went awesome and Haylee was super excited to start school the next day.

As I sat in the car after school that day waiting for Haylee to come out to the car she had butterflies in my stomach praying that she had a good day.  But here came Haylee skipping and bouncing down the sidewalk toward the car with a huge smile on her face.  And right then I knew exactly how her day had went.

It went awesome and she made new friends.  Although she says she misses her old friends she says she really likes her new friends too and really like her big new school.

See, it is not so bad…..