Favor Please

If you have our old blogs linked on your side bar can you remove them and replace it with our new one if your inclined to. I really don't mind if you put the new one up I just really don't want the old one up. Many thanks from our family! :)

Oh and for some reason I've lost some of you comments from the last post.

New Glasses!

Twink received her new glasses yesterday. I'd like to say it went without any tears but anyone with a child with sensory issues knows that was not the case. She hates it when anyone does anything with her head. We've finally arrive to a point where brushing her teeth is not a fight but it took a TON of therapy. Brushing her hair is good as well but that too took along time.

When we placed the frames on Twinks face she went into hysterics! She kept screaming, "I don't wan em" over and over. I whisked her out of the building and brought her home where everyone was roasting marshmallows. That seemed to calm her down a bit. Give her food and she is happy as a lark. I started to notice she was looking all around taking it all in. You could tell she sees better. 

Today she has only told me a few times that she did not want them but there has been no tears! She off playing and having a great time. We will beat those sensory issues yet!

Baby of The House

Twink is the baby of the house when it comes down to the ages of all of the children. I've been thinking about something for now for awhile. When we decided to adopt last time we knew we were going to go older and in between Spitfire and Dash. I've always felt that Twink needed to be the "baby" of the house.

It was my thought that she would not do well with someone younger than her. When in fact she actually plays better with a child that is a year or two younger than her. See I believe it is more my own fear that plays into that mind set.

The thought of Twink having a younger sibling makes me quite sad. The thought of that sibling one day surpassing her in something just does not give me warm cozies. We recently had a little tike (almost 1.9 yr old) over at our house and I could not believe how well she was talking! Made my stomach kind of ache. Then I did a little dance for how far our girl has actually come. My niece Special K who will be 1 yr next month is pooping in the potty! Ummm, I can't for the life of me get Twink to poop in the potty. She is fully pee trained but no poops. I actually think she is withholding.

When I get frustrated people feel the need to remind me that Twink either had a stroke or has cerebral palsy. REALLY!! I forgot that tiny tidbit, thanks for reminding me. It's pretty hard not to compare your 4 1/2 yr old to a younger child who is far exceeding what your child is doing. Most days I'm fine but there are days that are harder than some.

Twink just has her own rhythm that she moves to! :)

Who's The Boss?

 Twink signing to Spitfire "Stop"!

If you answered either Spitfire or Twink than you must know that these two little girls are making us crazy lately! They both think they are the boss of the house. Between the tattling, yelling and face making we need to keep them separated. Only problem with that is they look forward to playing with each other when they get home from school. Spitfire is the culprit for most of the problems, as she like to be the instigator. Boy does she know how to get under Bebos skin!

Apparently Miss Twink thinks she is the boss at school as well! I received a note home stating that her speech is exploding. Not only that she is bossing her teacher around and tattling on the other children. I'm sure they think it's cute but we don't. I'm going to have to make sure they do not continue to allow either behavior.

We really can't put our finger on when Twinks language took off but she is really talking up a storm. She is talking in sentences and we can usually understand what she is saying. We saw three different older children that we had not seen since last fall and when they heard her talk they were shocked. The first thing they said is, "She can talk now?" Can you imagine how proud I was to say yes! :) We're loving it but holy smokes this child can yell momma for a long while!

Please Read

The reason for moving my blog address and giving my children nicknames is because they are getting older and I wanted them to have a little bit of privacy. We've also had a peeping Tom snooping around our house. Jewel saw heard this person knock on the window downstairs shortly after we arrived back from China. This is not the first time we've had one. Jewel waited almost two weeks to tell us about the incident. It did freaked her out quite a bit.

I'm also very careful not to blog where we live. I always say north east but never give my state. If someone does place where live in their comments I will not be able to post their comments. Same with the kids real names. We can never be too careful when it comes to safety and our children. I went to an internet safety awareness at the kids school and it really opened my eyes.

I also just wanted to move so that I had a bit more freedom to post my feelings. Now that family is one blog and adoption community/friends is on another I don't have to worry and can be even more open. I can touch on a few things that I wouldn't if the family were to read.

So please, use the nicknames and if you know where I live please do not post it or I will not be able to approve your post. I hope that clears up why I moved and why I am using nicknames. :)

*So I was the first offender of using the kids name! LOL Thanks Carla for giving me the heads up.

Deaf NOT Dumb

Pictures are from last week when Bebo received his new Phonak hearing aids. Pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

 So Excited!

Surprised by sound

 Pleased!

This is how China labels some of their deaf children in the waiting children program. It is not acceptable as these children are not dumb!

When people find out that Bebo is deaf I get that "Oh" and a long pause. Up until recently you would not have known he had any hearing issues. Now with his hearing aides, it is a little bit more obvious. I've had a wild array of comments from the moment he arrived. Anywhere from does he read your lips (this just coming home from China) to questions of his intelligence. Why do people automatically think he has intellectual impairment?

What I'm also find is that people like to go to the extremes! They approach him and then talk really slowly to him stretching their mouth out making it difficult to lip read. He tries his hardest to repeat the word back. It is not going to sound anything like what the person is trying to get him to say. The sounds that he makes is Ba, occasionally Ma and some sounds that come from his throat. You know, like humming. He is not a mute. People are surprised that he makes noise. I think this is one of the most common misinformed pieces of information of deaf people. If they are not doing that they will shout - distorting their lip patterns, again this makes it difficult to lip read.  He is deaf you know, not stupid so just talk normally or just a little bit slower. Not too slow as this makes YOU look really silly. Don't be afraid to tap him on the shoulder to get his attention, it’s OK and helps. Waving is mighty handy as well. Yelling at him from behind does not work even with his new hearing aids in. Just because he has those in does not mean he knows what he hears. Every sounds he hears is brand new and he can not distinguish what is what.

Bebo has done well with simple gestures. That is all China taught him the whole 7 yrs he was there. OK, they found out we were coming so they scrambled and taught him a few "signs". He is signing more and more thanks to his amazing school and the signs that we've taught him at home.

Quote:

"For Hearing People Only" (Third Edition) by Matthew S Moore and Linda Levitan. With a foreward by Harlan Lane. Both are Deaf so forth, Linda is Latened Deaf.


Think about the last time you used the word "dumb". you used it to describe something stupid, clumsy, or foolish, right? A century ago, this term was in common use. Nobody thought twice about its propriety. It's outmoded now, and insultingly inaccurate. We're aware that this term is still used in England to describe someone who is deaf, but that doesn't say much for the discernment of those who persist in using it. As for the correct term, why not simply say "deaf"?


"Mute" prefers to someone who cannot talk, that is, produce intelli-gible speech, or someone who has malfunctioning or missing vocal cords. "Mutism" is a medical or psychological condition_the inability or refusal to produce sounds. Virtually all deaf person are physically and psychologically normal in this area. They have vocal cords and voices, just as the vast majority of hearing people do. This also applies to deaf people who prefer to communicate exclusively in sign language. Their vocal apparatus is perfectly normal. But, being deaf, they cannot hear themselves talk, and thus, cannot easily modulate their voices. Consider: If you were born deaf or became deaf as an infant and have never heard yourself talk, it's extremely difficult to talk clearly, with normal intonation. So signing is the natural mode of communication for many deaf people; speaking can never be. A few deaf people have good clear articulation better than some hearing people but most don't. It's a matter of personal preference, deciding what we feel most comfortable with.

We dislike these terms because they now convey a negative attitude. "Deaf and dumb" does not connote pride or wholeness. It conjures a pitiful, pathetic, dull-witted image, with a hint of subnormal intelligence. "Deaf-Mute" suggests that a deaf person is doomed to a life of silence, without speech, without hope. We've run into these terms repeatedly, and we find them annoying, inaccurate, and insulting.

Hope this information helps. :)

Goal!

We had a busy weekend of soccer! Both Spitfire and Bebo play Saturday mornings, usually back to back. This past week Spitfire's soccer game was first. She played great once we were able to get her out onto the field. See, the child is extremely shy and needs to warm up to people. If there is a crowd of people it makes matters worse. I could never see her doing dance! LOL She would just stand on stange with her arms folded a crossed her chest.

Here she is fighting for the ball down near her teams goal.

 Celebrating her first goal of the game!

Running to her coach after her goal.

Bebos game was right after hers. In fact we had to leave her game fifteen minutes early. It really didn't matter as I had watched her kick in 6 goals! She has really blossomed into a much better soccer player this year. Dad and Spitfire came to Bebos game right after and informed me that she scored two more goals for a total of eight goals for the day! WOW!

Bebo did really good as well. He played really hard and almost kicked a goal in. He loves to play soccer but he needs to build his stamina and remember to look up even when he thinks they are not playing. It will come in time. It was only his second game. The kids on his team are great as well as his coaches. We have been really blessed so far.

Look at him run!

Oh so proud! (Love that smile!)

Waiting for his turn to go back in.

Both kids would love to have a practice or a game every night but this mama is happy we don't ! LOL I do love to watch them though.