(chair clicks) - [Cole] Yay. (bright music) (upbeat music) (alarm dings) - [Charisma] Stop. (Charisma yawns) (bright music) Good morning, Sophie. Hi. - Give me a kiss. - [Charisma] Oh, good morning. - Okay. - [Charisma] You gotta go potty, Sophie? Yeah, gotta to potty? Go potty. Good morning sleepyhead. - Good morning, how are you? - [Charisma] Doing well how are you? - I'm tired. We gotta get blackout curtains like we had back home. - [Charisma] I know, we do
not have blackout curtains out here, so the light comes in. Are you ready to get up and
show your morning routine? - Yeah, we got a long routine for you all today, so you get to see the whole program. - [Charisma] Yay. - It's gonna be so much fun, y'all. - [Charisma] Yes, all
right, let's get it going. - All right. Okay, first thing I do in the morning is wake up. (girls laughing) That's the hard part. So Cole's program day, I usually get him in his shower chair, help him get in the shower
chair in the bathroom before I do any of my routine and then usually while
he's doing his thing, I get myself ready. Can you see Cole? - I don't know here, I'll wave. - Wave. - Hi. - All right, let's get you in the shower. The shower chair. - All right, so this shower chair is a lot taller than the shower chair we had at home, so we use the bed to try to raise me up as much as possible to make the transfer a little bit easier. - You probably can't really tell that it's moving. I mean, Cole's body's moving. (upbeat music) Good. - That's good. We're gonna tell you a
lot about the shower chair because that's like the biggest new part of our routine. One of the big differences between this and my other power chair is that it does not- - [Charisma] Shower chair. - Yeah, shower chair, is
that it does not have wheels for me to push. They're all like castors
that are pretty low, which allows for the chair to move like in any way, like you can drift it around and stuff. Unfortunately, I can't push it, so Charisma has to push me everywhere. - [Charisma] It's not that bad, though. We don't go too far. - Yeah, it's not that far. It's literally right there. (upbeat music) - [Charisma] How are you
enjoying your little cubby? - Oh, I love it, look. (Charisma laughs) We gotta do that because my head rest is so deep and I actually love having a head rest on my shower chair. It does mean that we have
to keep the doors open, otherwise, this long thing would push me out and then I would just be missing the toilet. - So I keep all of Cole's supplies in our little shelf here, which I put up and nailed to the wall. - She built it. - Well, I assembled it. - [Cole] Assembled. - So, we use, you know, Enemeez, we talked a lot about
our whole morning routine in all of our other
morning routine videos, but it's the same thing. We use Enemeez to get things going and the brand is called Enemeez, y'all. I know it's not plural of enema, I realize that, but the brand is called literally Enemeez. - Yeah. - And then we keep gloves in here and then all of our other supplies. So we'll get that started. - Enemeez in, now we just wait a while. It works pretty quickly and this has been a really good solution for me as a quad. A lot of different quads
try different things. This works really well
for me and I've been using it for years now. So I would recommend it for sure. Yeah, now we just wait
and Charisma goes off and does her own thing. - So I don't know if you can
tell how the bed is high. From this angle you can kind of see it. And like this is my bed so
they're two separate ones. And so that's how we raise Cole up. It doesn't come straight up, so we have to play with it to make it as raised as possible. Cole loves his phone while he's in there, so I gotta go give him his phone and then while he is in there, I shower, get myself ready. All right, so I'm gonna
go give Cole his phone before I start getting ready myself. (shower running) - So real quick, this year in 2022, I'm definitely making it a focus to be healthier across the board, so that means eating healthier, I'm back to working out regularly, which makes me feel great. I'm getting all of my nutrients and supplements that I need and what helps out a lot
with that is Ritual. So I take Ritual multivitamin. Ritual's multivitamins
are actually specifically designed to fill in the gaps in your diet. It's been perfect to know
I'm just getting everything I need every day. So there are a bunch of things I really like about Ritual. One of the things is its design. So it's specifically
designed for a slow release, so it doesn't dissolve
entirely in your stomach, 'cause if it does that, then your stomach acid
and that environment can kind of damage all those
minerals and nutrients. Instead, it waits until it
gets into your intestine and then it dissolves there where everything in it
gets absorbed perfectly and I think that that's
such a smart design. You don't have to take it
with food on your stomach. So you can just take it at any point and that makes it nice. I can just pop it in the
morning before breakfast. I don't even have to
worry about my stomach getting all torn up. I definitely recommend
y'all checking out Ritual. They have multivitamins essential
for men and women 18 plus. So go check it out. Be sure to use our promo code CC10. So go to Ritual.com/CC10. That'll give you 10% off
your first three months, so go check it out. And thank you Ritual for
sponsoring this video. We appreciate the support. (bright music) Hi. - [Charisma] How's it going in here? - It's going all right. - [Charisma] You about done? - I think so. So all done with that. Now is like my favorite
time of the morning routine. It's time to take a shower. I love taking showers. I actually haven't used
a tub shower like this in probably a decade except for when we came here, so yeah, this chair solved a huge problem for us
because when we were looking for apartments, we were
trying to find something with a roll-in shower and
there were some available that had roll-in showers, but
this was by far our favorite. We fell in love with this
one when we toured here. So we decided to come here, but to change this shower
into a roll-in shower would be $5,000 and we would have to do it when we leave, as well. - 'Cause we have to put it
back to its original state instead of keeping it as a roll-in shower, although it would help a lot of people. But we found a cheaper solution. - Which is this chair. It's not cheap by any means.
- No. - But it's cheaper than
the 10 grand we'd have to pay to convert and reconvert. And this chair actually
slides along tracks into the tub. We have like this frame built into the tub that connects with a bridge to this chair and then we just slide laterally across it and it works really well. - It does work really well. - It works really well. - So, you wanna get it
out and get on in there? - Yeah, let's show them how it's done. - Okay. Let's take our necklace off first. - Oh, yeah. - You can't get the jewelry wet. Keep that nice and dry. - Of course. - [Charisma] And this is the bridge device that connects the two together and he slides right over it. - Yeah, and this frame
has like suction cups that are holding it in place so it's very sturdy, like
you can't move this thing. - [Charisma] No. - But, yeah, let's give it a try. (gentle music) (chair clicks) So as you can see, we always put the chair into a tilt, which I love the tilt feature and it makes it way
easier to pick my legs up while we're sliding across the tracks and then there's a little mechanism right down here that releases. - [Charisma] So this is how you tilt. You just pull it up and
then turn to straighten or all the way back, but
when he's in the shower, we have it like halfway tilted, so leave it there and then this is the
button he was talking about to release it so it
can slide on the tracks and then I just take off the tracks. Super simple. Wait, your shoes. - [Cole] Oh, my Crocs,
we gotta get that first. - [Charisma] I'm dropping stuff. - [Cole] There we go. - [Charisma] The other one. - [Cole] All right. I can just reach forward. (water running) - [Charisma] Let it warm up. - Let it warm up and then we got it and then I just get warm and this is why I love the tilt feature. 'Cause I can just lay back. - [Charisma] Bye. - [Cole] Bye. - [Charisma] Ready for your shampoo? - [Cole] Yur. - [Charisma] I can't film and shampoo you. It's too big (groaning). - [Cole] You get it? - Okay, it's kind of towards the front of your head. Okay so like Cole was saying, he does 90% of his shower on his own. I just have to help hand him some things, so like the shampoo just now, like help pump it in his hair. He has a face scrub
that's battery operated, so I just turn it on for him and hand it to him and
he's able to scrub it, turn it off and hand it back to me. And then with his towel, I just like get the soap on there for him and he's able to wash himself. So I just assist, but
he does like majority of the shower. And while he's in the shower I usually find a way to do something else. I'm a big multi-tasker, so usually I start prepping breakfast or put away dishes from the
dishwasher from this morning. Take out the trash. I do a lot of those little things just to keep me moving. But, yeah, I'm gonna
go finish helping Cole and do some small multi-tasking things. (dishes clanking) (upbeat funky music) - [Cole] All done. - [Charisma] All done? - Yeah. - All right, so we'll show how we get out. So I put the bridge on here first. I always put it on the
side Cole is sitting. So going in, Cole pushes off and he pushes the whole way and I just help him with the last bit. Going out is downhill, so it's much easier and the momentum takes us, so I just grab this leg, Cole grabs his other leg and we just work together and get him out, so that way it's less pressure on me and it's much easier when he
gets a leg and I get a leg. I tilt him to sit all the way
up once he's in the chair. And bam, he's all the way up now. - We're ready and then we just disattach or deattach the bridge, roll back out and transfer to bed. - And just like that, all done. - Da, da, da, da, all clean. - But today, we were supposed
to shave Cole's face earlier and we totally forgot, so I'm actually gonna
shave Cole's face now before we get into bed 'cause he's looking a
little scraggly there. He gets a haircut, I don't cut his hair, but I usually shave his face. We're trying to figure out a way for him to start doing it. I think he's a little nervous, though, to have a razor on his face. - I don't wanna mess it up. - [Charisma] Yeah. - You do such a good job. - Thank you. Well, let's go do that then. Cole's in his little barber shop. - Yes, our homemade barber shop. - Wait, I gotta tilt you back like he's in the chair, ready? - Yeah. Oh, wow, oh, this is great. (Charisma laughs) (razor whirs) (upbeat music) All right, all done. - [Charisma] Much better, uh... - So another goal of mine, that's actually been a goal of mine for a long time is dressing myself in the mornings. It's like one of the
most challenging things for me as a quad. I know some quads that
are capable of doing it and that do it regularly and other quads who are unable to do it. I've been unable to do it so far. I wanna try to figure out how to do that 'cause I know that that would open up a lot of independence for me and freedom for you. And there's these jeans that I really like that we just got and you can see on the top there's Velcro on them. That Velcro attaches to the Velcro on the other side obviously and these are magnetic buttons, so they're very easy to open and close, which I love and then also
on the bottom of these jeans, there's Velcro, so you
can rip open this Velcro and it makes it a much
bigger hole to work with. So really cool adaptive jeans, so I'm gonna try to put these on today and we'll see how it goes. I'm gonna open these up. - [Charisma] Did they make it easier? - I don't know. This is the first time I'm doing it, so I'm guessing. (investigative jazz music) All right. (jazz music) - [Charisma] Ooh, you're
in the wrong hole. - Really?
- Yeah. (jazz music) Hey. Hey, got that one in pretty easy. - [Charisma] Nice. - Hey, I'm making some progress. - [Charisma] Yeah. - Okay, so now, now comes the hard part. I got my legs in. I figured I could do that, but getting it up over
my booty is a challenge. - [Charisma] Definitely
pull some slack up. - Yeah. This is the part where I'm
just not sure what to do. (jazz music) - [Charisma] Is it stuck? - Yeah, it's stuck under my big fat butt. I'm thinking. All right, I'm gonna try one last thing before I give it up for today. I'm gonna put the bed down and hopefully that'll give me more ability to flip over and get
that weight off my butt so I can get the pants up. (Charisma laughs) Here we go. (jazz music) - [Charisma] It's still
stuck right at the bottom. - Ah, didn't get me very far. - [Charisma] That's the hard part. - And I can't roll the other way, 'cause I'll roll off the bed. - [Charisma] Mm-hmm. - Ah! That's hard. - [Charisma] Want me to help? - Yeah.
- Okay. - Just got these. Very easy for me to put on and off and when we're just staying
in the house all day, I don't really feel the need to put on fancy shoes or anything. Actually I just got
another pair of new shoes and, unfortunately, when I get new shoes, sometimes I can get blisters. So if you take a look here. - [Charisma] It's a little
blister right there. - Got a little blister and that's just from
the back of the shoes, something to be cognizant of and definitely wanna give it time to heal as much as we can, so. One on. - [Charisma] You don't want sport mode? - I'm trying to, I don't wanna have the thing on my heel. - [Charisma] Just do the
other one in sport mode. I'll fix it. - Okay. It's actually harder to put these on with sport mode activated. - [Charisma] I know,
you gotta use your thumb to get it out. - [Cole] Oh, no, I got it. - [Charisma] Yeah, it's good. - Aha, success. - [Children] Hurray! - [Charisma] Perfect. - Definitely don't look that cute, but they serve a good function. All right, here's the transfer. This is a little bit different than at home because we're
going a different direction, so it took me a little while to learn how to go this way. I kind of lick my hand to get a little more traction on the sheets. (soulful music) Did it. - [Charisma] Nice job. - Yay. I feel like I got a
workout in this morning. - You did. He doesn't work out on days where we have program mornings. I think sometimes people question the every other day situation, showering and program every other day. That is very common in the SCI world. I don't know many SCI people who shower and program every day 'cause it takes a long
time, as you can see. We do every other day
and his body's used to it and it's just way more feasible. Some people do it every two days. - Posture's important so I
wanna sit up as best I can. So I do this first and
then Charisma just pushes my knees back. I flip around and we go for an
extra little boost like this. - Ready?
- Yeah. - All right, now I'm nice and tall. Just like that, easy peasy. - Lemon squeezy. - Lemon squeezy. - Usually I don't take it off until Cole's done with his shower because it gets humid in there and I'm not trying to like
get my hair all frizzy. Like, no. - A big part of our morning routine. - This.
- Oh. - Is our kitchen. (Charisma laughs) - So an important part of
our morning routine we feel is starting off the day
right with a good meal or a good smoothie and Charisma just found an amazing recipe and what, you made it for the first time yesterday? - Yes.
- Or the second time. - First time. - Yeah, you wanna tell them
about your secret recipe? - So I don't like avocado
and I've been trying to find a way to eat avocado because it's healthy for you. And it's good for your tummy and so many different
things, for your heart. I've just been trying to learn, find a way where I enjoy avocado. It's a texture thing for
me, same with hummus. I'm weird with textures. And so I put a poll out there and people told me to
do an avocado smoothie. So I did one for the first time yesterday. So good, did not expect it to taste the way it tasted. Cole enjoyed it so much that he wants me to make
him one this morning, too. - I'm getting on the avocado train, y'all. - Yeah, so I'm gonna
make avocado smoothies for us this morning. I usually pair it with an English muffin, so some toast, 'cause I'm trying to put on some weight
and get some calories in my body. All right, let's make this smoothie. First things first, we need an avocado. - [Cole] First things
first, I'm the realist. - One full avocado. Eat it up, eat it up. (silverware clanks) - Oh, my goodness gracious. - I caught it. Get in there, yeah, yeah, get in there. Now we need three cups
of oat milk or milk, but I use oat milk, one, two, three. One full banana. Can I have some room, please? Thank you Two teaspoons of vanilla extract. Put it on. Oh, shoot. Oh, my gosh, what is happening? Oh... Put it on right. (blender whirs) Can I pour and film at the same time? I sure can. - [Cole] Oh, that looks good. - [Charisma] Ooh, hoo. - Yay, breakfast time! Got some pineapple. - Sophie girl's eating her breakfast, too. The only way she'll ever eat is if she eats at the same time as us, so. - I know. - We eat breakfast and dinner with her. Are we gonna give it a try together? - I'm gonna give it a try, I'm excited. - Ready? - Yes. Mm. - I can taste the banana. - Yeah, the banana's strong. - Last time we made it, we didn't put a banana in there, we just did avocado and we put sugar, sugar for a sweetener, but this time we just
used banana as sweetener 'cause it's a natural sweetener. - Avocado. Thanks. - Gee, thanks. - Avocado. Thanks. - Yeah, so there you have it. This is pretty much our
morning routine every day. It's late today because
we've been filming, but typically we're in
the office by 9:30, 10, get our day started, get to work. This is also a much quicker process on the off days when I don't have that whole program. We just get dressed
and we get right to it. - When Cole's working out, you're working out by like 7:30, 8. - I hope you all enjoyed it. See some differences
between our first home, that video, we did that
so long ago it feels like. - Yeah. - And then once we got our house, we did another one and so now this is our third routine in our third location that
we're living in together. - Yeah.
- Pretty cool. - I know, things have changed a lot. Our routines are getting better. Things are changing. We're both getting stronger, so. - Thanks for watching everyone. - Yes. You were about to say it? - I almost said it. Thanks for watching everyone. - Yes. You can say it go ahead, go ahead. - No, no, no.
- Take it away. - That's your thing, I'm
not gonna take your thing. Thanks for watching. - Don't forget to like,
comment, share, subscribe and stay positive. Peace out, y'all. - Oh, you gotta go all the way over there. - [Charisma] I know. - [Together] Bye.
