Claire Wiegand's Story: 2015 - 2016


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Claire's Story: [1989] [1990] [1991] [1992] [1993] [1994] [1995] [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009] [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2015] [2016] [2017] [2018] [2019] [2020] [2021]

Claire continued to struggle with her weight this year. Despite our best efforts, we couldn't get her over 105 pounds, which is too low for her height (5' 3"), but she remained healthy. She almost never fed herself but would occasionally pick up her drink. She was willing to be fed but not very much.

Her sister Jill remained her caregiver the entire year, except for a two-week break when Jill gave birth to her second child, Johnny, in March. Jill, Kelly, and Johnny all come to her mom's and dad's houses on alternating days to care for Claire. Kelly adores her Aunt Claire and loves to try to help feed her. Every time she hears or sees Claire, she says her name. Kelly also understands that most of the toys belong to Aunt Claire.

In September, we took Claire for an early evening stroll to Founder's Park, one of the many parks in our town. (September 2015)
Later that month, we took Claire to the nearly-deserted water park near our home. (September 2015)
We took Claire to Skyzone for Special Needs Night. After a few minutes of figuring out what was happening, she really enjoyed having us help her bounce on the trampolines. (October 2015)
Claire is always a good sport for Flu Shot Day at Orchard Software. (October 2015)
Here is Kelly in her Halloween shirt, thrilled to be sitting next to her Auntie Claire. (October 2015)
Kelly adores her Auntie Claire and loves to help feed her when Mommy is babysitting. (November 2015)
Here's Kelly again, helping her Auntie Claire drink some Instant Breakfast, ...
... and eat a sandwich. (November 2015)
We spent Thanksgiving in Dayton at Tom's mother's home. We got a rare family photo of all 6 1/2 members of our immediate family (not quite pictured: Johnny, due in four more months). (November 2015)
Claire joined us occasionally on New Year's Eve when we were celebrating with friends at home. Here, both the selfie stick and the regular camera got pictures of her. (December 2015)
While Jill was in labor with her son Johnny, Claire played patiently with her toys in one corner of the family waiting area.(March 2016)
Sometimes, Tom gets creative with Claire's morning hairstyle. (March 2016)
We tried out a new park, Flat Fork Creek Park, with Claire.
Most of the park is wheelchair accessible, but it has a couple of tree houses that require getting out, so Claire was a champ and climbed up the stairs into one with us.
Here are Claire and Mom at the top of a hill in the park, with the nice wide paths visible in the distance. (June 2016)
We visited West Park for the first time to check it out for Debbie's company picnic the following week.
At the top of a small hill in the middle of the park were a mother and her 20-something non-verbal autistic daughter. The daughter was beside herself with joy to see Tom pushing Claire's wheelchair up the hill toward her, and there were smiles all around when we reached the top. It's nice to run into other people who are members of our very exclusive club.
We tried Claire on a new type of swing, one designed for parents swinging with their toddlers. Claire was able to swing on it just fine even though it didn't have back support.
Finally, we spent some time sending Claire down the slide. She's a big fan of slides and this was was no exceptions. (July 2016)
Claire had a nice time opening up her birthday presents on her birthday. Here she is with the goodies from Uncle Doug and Aunt Susan. (July 2016)

Next: 2016 - 2017


Claire's Story: [1989] [1990] [1991] [1992] [1993] [1994] [1995] [1996] [1997] [1998] [1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006] [2007] [2008] [2009] [2010] [2011] [2012] [2013] [2014] [2015] [2016] [2017] [2018] [2019] [2020] [2021]

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