I've been a little bit slack on writing about Micah and his hearing, mostly because not much has been going on. His next appointment with his ENT surgeon is April 15, and he'll also be seeing the audiologist as well. He's wearing one BAHA to school, and a lot of the time when he's home he isn't using it.
Yesterday at the Lunar New Year party, our friend Amy went with Micah downstairs to the basement playroom. Amy is Lucas's mom, the one other boy in the flock of girls. I was still making trips out to the car to bring things in, and I'm hobbling thanks to smashing my right fourth toe into the rolling duffel bag while unloading the car Wednesday night at my mother's.
Amy told me that one of the girls asked what was the thing on his headband (his BAHA). He answered her that when he was born, his ears "weren't wide enough" so he went to the hospital and had surgeries so that he could hear better, but "sometimes I still say 'What?' a lot so I wear this to help me hear."
I am so proud of him, I could not have explained it that well if I were four years old.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Micah's Hearing, in his own words
The Year of the Rabbit
What a bunch of gorgeous kids. The older ones, Thea in aqua, Ava in silver, Lucas in red, Kyra in white, Sorcha next to Kyra in red/white and Kitty in red, sandwiched between her little sisters, all met their families in September 2004. At least once a year since then we've gotten together, starting in December 2004. The kids have grown, siblings have joined families and now thanks to Wii and other toys and games, the parents can actually sit down and talk to each other.
If I ever had to spend a two week road trip in a foreign country again, I would do it with these people without a moment's hesitation. We're lucky that about half of the thirteen families live close enough to be able to get together.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
More Lunar New Year, YingHua Style
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Lunar New Year, YingHua Style
Friday, February 5, 2010
Lunar New Year, Round 1 - Photos
Midnight Faceplant
Last night shortly after 12 I woke to the sound of Micah crying from a location not on the bed. He must have woken, started looking for Bunny Bear, found BB on the floor and then reached to grab him and fallen out of bed and onto his face. Hugs, kisses, Bunny Bear placed in his arms, back in bed.
I didn't know the extent of the damage until I went off to the bathroom turned on the light and saw my t-shirt covered in blood. Back in the bedroom, now with the light on, Micah looked like a baby vampire after a late night snack and it was a little bit of a challenge to find where the blood was coming from - I was worried about a through-and-through bite on the lip or something that would mean our 2010 trip to the ER was underway. It was a bloody nose, and had stopped bleeding already. He was incensed that I wanted to wash his face and examine his mouth, teeth and nose, but fell back to sleep pretty quickly.
The nights I try to got to bed early and get at good night's sleep just never seem to work out.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Final Lunar New Year post, for this year at least
The last bows at the January 31, 2009 YingHua Day School Lunar New Year Celebration. (Thea's in the gold outfit, on the left side.)
Friday, February 6, 2009
The Wheels on the IEP Go 'Round and 'Round
The case manager at the school district called acknowledging receipt of Micah's letter of acceptance from Summit School. And to tell me to submit his immunization record to the school (already done on the day of his candidacy interview, but he needs a PPD placed.)
Next the transportation needs to be worked out, so that's the next phone call to wait for. . . .
Tomorrow Thea has another Lunar New Year performance with her school, this time in Plainsboro. It's beginning to feel like the Lunar New Year that won't go away. I'm working tomorrow and on-call all weekend. I caught a few really great breaks on Thursday in terms of no-shows so it probably means that tomorrow will be horrible in terms of patient volume.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Forgotten Lunar New Year Post
In all the hubbub over the BAHA incident, I didn't mention that we went to the Lunar New Year show/dinner put on by Thea's school. That was going to be the big post for the weekend until it was eclipsed by the brush with disaster. She did perform, and the full-length show featured a 'green' (recycled) fashion show put on by the kindergartners. It was really cute and the teacher put a lot of effort into teaching runway walking and vogue-ing poses. I'll try to put a video clip up later. Getting out of the auditorium and backstage to help her change from her Chinese costume and into her fashion show outfit was a challenge. Fortunately when it was time to change her back, the school maintenance man was in the hall and he had a key to the backstage door. Micah and Steve brought a rose to give her after the show and she was properly excited and asked it it was a real flower.
Micah enjoyed the show, too - and even managed to clap at the appropriate moments with no prompting from us.
After the show there was a dinner and in the cafeteria area there were several artists/vendors. Micah got a puppy dog hat cut from a white paper plate - to watch the artist do it was amazing, it took him seconds and as his scissors flew he did not lop off his own finger tips while quickly moving the paper. He also did a cameo of me - and in my mind I hope that's what I look like when I'm sixty, otherwise he sees me as a lumpy, dumpy old lady. Not flattering, stick to the paper cuts of animals.
Thea and I made little knotted dolls; I love the more complicated Chinese knots. Since we have a few as ornaments for our Christmas tree, I bought a goldfish knot to add to the collection.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Change of Heart
Thea's been saying that she wasn't going to perform in Saturday's Lunar New Year show that her school is doing as a fund raiser. No real reason other than she didn't want to do the full version of the show. Too boring. Period. End of discussion.
But tonight at dinner we had a successful application of parental guilt/pressure. Her friends Lucas and Kalani recently returned to school after absences for travel or whatnot; they were not able to be at last Friday's show at the Senior Center and were just learning the songs and skits at today's in-school rehearsal. So I used the "wouldn't you like to be there to help your friends?" schtick and (for now) the message took.
Good news ! This means her costume will get another wearing and not be a complete frivolous waste of money. And I am also prepared for a reversal of fortune, just in case she changes her mind once more.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Lunar New Year - The Real Thing
The holiday on Monday was not celebrated in the traditional fashion, no hong bao (red envelopes), no new clothes, no traditional Chinese cooking, and most of all I did not bust my behind cleaning the house to welcome the new year or burning up the Kitchen God so that he would ascend to heaven and give a good report on us.
Thea did have the day off from school, so she got to hang out with Micah, Ela and me for Micah's session. She was resonably patient with Micah and only a little bit bossy (to both Micah and Ela).
After that the three of us struck out for MarketFair to have lunch and see the movie 'Hotel for Dogs' - I thought Thea might like it, and because it had dogs in it, I also thought it might hold Micah's attention for more than a few minutes. The Regal Cinema at MarketFair has stadium seating, and this became a blessing because Micah seemed to wander checking out almost all of the seats, except those occupied by two other patrons; Thea only wanted one change in seating to go up higher. My prediction that Micah would eventually fall asleep thanks to lunch and the two hour session with Ela did not pan out, not even close.
Thea liked the plot, but got a little bored thought the middle, and I think if I'd offered to bail out, both would have followed me. But for $7 a ticket for me and $6.50 for Thea (Micah was a freebie), we were sitting tight until the end. It was cute, but not exactly something I am going to rush out and buy when it's released on DVD.
By evening Thea had a little bit of a sore throat, so she got to have a mug of tea while sitting in bed listening to Chapter 15 of The Penderwicks. That was probably the best part of the day for her. Micah also seemed like he's fighting off something, he got a session with Mr. Nasal Aspirator since trying to get him to blow his nose doesn't seem to working. He makes the sound effects orally but doesn't push the air out through his nose.
This weekend we're going to try big boy underwear to try to win him over to the world of those of us who don't wear port-a-potties on our privates. He likes being naked, so maybe this will feel more naked than diapers - but he also likes going commando which is not going to happen. If I take off his diaper and turn my back for one second, he's taken to scooting away and pulling up his pants and doing a little free-ballin' happy dance.
Micah and I are going for his intake interview at Summit Speech School on Tuesday, February 3rd. The case manager/social worker from the school district called and said that the school offered three dates: 2/3, 2/5 and 2/12. I picked the first date just to get it over with - and as dumb luck would have it, the case manager (who doesn't need to be at the meeting) isn't available that day. Works for me, even though I will miss a morning at work.
Friday, January 23, 2009
The Year of the Ox
Meanwhile out in the audience during preparations for the show, Micah was cruising for spare grandparents. He hooked up with a small cluster of elderly Chinese people sitting near the 'backstage' area and proceeded to work his charms on them. At one point, he was sitting on one man's lap and then running over to an older lady to play with her. Last year when we were in Guangzhou I bought a little quilted navy blue satin jacket for him, and it still fit, so he was also outfitted for the occaision.
My first attempt at putting a short video on the blog:
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Enter The Year of the Rat
Be forewarned, this post contains references to urine, feces and snot, and their roles in my recent life. If it's not your cup of tea, stop reading now and move on to a blander blog.
The Lunar New Year is off to a rather inauspcious start at our house. Wednesday Thea's school had a performance at the Princeton Senior Resources Center. She went to the rehearsal the day before, had been singing the songs around the house and in the car and was otherwise totally ready. Until the moment arrived, the children all marched out and she crumbled like a house of cards and started to cry.
And she spent the remainder of the performance on my lap.
The next day the performance was repeated at school for the Lawrence Day School students (Ying Hua and LDS share the same building), and she participated in the entire show. So much for rearranging schedules, having Steve home to do Micah's session with Ela, etc.
Thursday came and I arrived home to find that a glazed earthenware bowl that had been my grandmother's had an accident. The bowl had survived twelve years of me using it while I lived in DC, the moved to Philadelphia and two moves once in Philadelphia, the relocation to Princeton and seven years here. I loved that bowl because I can see my grandmother grating cabbage - and she always let me have some with just the vinegar and oil on it, before the mayonnaise went in and made it yucky.
And I know that it's people that matter, not possessions - but that bowl was a link to a person, and that person was enormously important to me.
Steve said it was in too many pieces, but he kept the pieces in a plastic bag - and it wasn't quite as bad as the "totally shattered" that he told me. Five large pieces, one shard and a chip, and with Elmer's glue and 3M tape, the bowl is back. Nurses and tape, baby - miracles can happen.
All of the above is almost insignificant compared to Friday's events. Thea was annoyed at the computer and threw two major tantrums - one of which I called Steve so he could listen in on the tirade. She got a 15 minute time-out from using the computer twice, and howled like I was pulling her eyelids over her head until they touched her butt. By dinner she was back to good humor - which was a good thing since Steve was trotting out to a bridge tournament. The whole theme of any of her tantrums is I WANT IT AND I WANT IT N-O-W. And since my membership at Our Lady of Instant Gratification has lapsed, it really gets her going. During one of the snot and tears tirades, I had to get a tissue and wipe her face and get her to blow her nose, only to have her scream at me I WANT MY BOOGIES BAAAAAAACK. Much as I would have like to have obliged, I might not have been willing to return them to the same orifice from which they emerged.
After dinner and clean-up, Thea went upstairs to get ready for bed. I was downstairs, stripping off Micah's clothes to throw in the wash. He indicated that he also wanted his diaper off. It was soggy and warm, so I figured I had a few seconds to dump it in the garbage and grab a new one. A few seconds for the little hoser to unleash the contents of his bladder onto the kitchen floor, and then try to splash around in it.
So after mopping up after the mess, kicking myself for my stupidity, I went upstairs with him. Thea was on the potty, I went to get my pajamas on and grab Micah's pajamas and undershirt, seconds really, just a few seconds.
During which Thea got off the potty, after pooping, giving Micah the opportunity to shove the toilet brush in and stir up a nice batch of turd soup, and then walk around the bathroom carrying the dribbling brush.
Nasty boy. And Thea, who usually starts hollering if he looks at her funny for thinking about hitting her some time next week, remained silent throughout this, so as an AWACS system, she is somewhat selective and therefore sucks.
So the two little beasts got tossed in the tub, I washed off my feet, and since it was after 9 pm and my mother is usually asleep by then, I was unable to call and ask her what was her magic formula for not killing my brother and me because I needed that particular incantation and I needed it N-O-W. Thea paddled around in the tub for almost an hour, relieving me of having to do bedtime stories.
Saturday, other than making them breakfast and getting them dressed, they were Steve's problem. I went to see Juno, probably the first movie that I've gone to in almost two years - it was great, but I could have lived without the ten minutes of commercials before the previews. Much more annoying than the music and slide-show advertisements from back in the day.
Tonight I settled for The Nanny Diaries on PPV. The book was better.
So much for Lunar New Year, I'm already looking forward to the Year of the Ox.
Posts
