The Tovington Post

Tova, Croup. omg. Really?

How can this still happen? Doesn't the world know how exhausting, terrifying and horrible this is for a little girl? Can't Croup just go away, like, forever?

Tova is happy enough, she usually is, even when she has ended up in ICU from croup. But it’s so scary to watch. And knowing that sleep isn’t going to happen much tonight is also miserable.

We pretended to ourselves that we could get away with out using Pred. So we went and got a new Ventolin from the chemist, gave Tova that and Panadol, and some Braur cold and flu medicine and then. omfg, I looked at what we (Yuval and I) were doing and remembered how we do this every time, denial.. And gave her Pred. Which thank god we have in the fridge. I just filled a script the other day, for no reason other than I could. So, that’s lucky.

By the grace of everything good, Tova seems to be asleep right now. I guess once the Pred kicks in she will wake and climb the walls for a few hours during the middle of the night. How delightful.

Yuval and I (and Tova, before she felt unwell) went to Nissim’s school for parent teacher interview. They pretty much said he is a pleasure to have and thank you for letting him come to this school, he is a delight. So, that’s that. We already know that. lol. But yes, it was pretty lovely to hear (again). ahh, my perfect children. Little angels

Tova had her first haircut today. Less than a week till her 8th birthday. We were both brave.

I was expecting it to be quite traumatic and or difficult. However the hardest part was when a little boy in the waiting room was told by his mum it was "time to go" and he cried saying "BUT I NEED TO COOK!" (there is a toy kitchen there - kids salon). Tova was so sad that he was so sad, she cried.. real tears..

While we were waiting I brushed some of the knots/dreads out of Tova's hair with a brush and product the hairdresser handed me.. it was fantastic. I'm going to buy a brush like that, and product like that!
Then it was Tova's turn. She wasn't reluctant. She was willing to go and sit down on the stool and quite pleased about being handed an Ipad. We youtubed violin players and she watched some great violin playing, even laughing while the hairdresser brushed and cut Tova's hair. It was unbelievable to watch.
I thought it would be more about crying than cutting. Tova would have happily sat there for hours. So now Tova has all neatly cut and much shorter hair. I hope it makes the dreads go away.
She looks beautiful.

We went to Little Hollywood - exclusive kid’s salon.
I decided to go here because I have been quite scared about taking her to the hairdressers, and thought that a salon for kids was the safest option.. And they were outstanding!
It's also the same place Nissim had his Upsherin (first haircut when he turned 3 years old).

Happy 7th Birthday Nissim!

Nissim had a party in our 'shed' this weekend (our shed is more of a Granny Flat, but the council won't let us have people live in it, so we just call it the shed). It was very cute and old school.. Pass the parcel, musical statues, pin the nose on the clown face, lollies, lollie bags, prizes and running around.
And to anyone not invited. I'm sorry, there was no bad intention. I didn't have any say in the invite list, it was the decision of a 6 year old who was in a rush to go do other things like, play...

Tova didn't mind it too much, but at times found it a bit overwhelming. It was hard for her not having a parent to help her join in, because we were too busy running the party. Next year we will make sure that someone is there dedicated to ensuring she is also having fun. She did have fun, but she could have had more fun!
Nissim had a great time. He has such lovely friends.

After his party two of his closest best mates stayed for the day until it was time for Nissim to go to his Krav Maga class. He started a few weeks ago and it's really good. He likes it lots. The venue is very friendly and welcoming, which helps. It's great that he is doing self defence. His mate Ruby goes too, so it's nice they have each other. They have been friends since they were about 2 years old, friends from my gym creche.

This post is important so I don't forget the time line.
A couple of weeks ago Tova took a couple of very small steps 100% unaided. I tried to get her to do it again so I could video it, but it's too hard keeping an eye on her and holding the phone at the same time.
So the other day I got her to do it again "4 steps and I'll clap Tova".. so she did. I took a very bad sideways video but it shows Tova walking for one of the first times in her life aged seven (7) years.

Any parents of kiddies that are told that your kids will never.... Don't listen! Instead read this book "The brain that changes itself"

Tova went to see 'Anything Goes' yesterday with grandpa and Savta. Tova has a subscription to the Ballet and Opera, for some reason the Opera included 'Anything Goes'.

The sun was out yeterday, it was still really cold, but the boys washed Yuval's car, which was cute to watch.

Here is a little video of Tova riding her horse!

We went to Tassi for a holiday. NO THERAPY, just a holiday.

We all hated MONA - besides the fact that it is boring and weird (not in a good way), it was scary and stupid for kids, we lasted about 15 mins then left.

But wow, ZOODOO is amazing. It's by far the best animal park we have ever been to. Also, Bonorong was outstanding. Tova spent much of her time cleaning the grass and dust off the dirty Kangaroos, and feeding them.

We also loved Hastings Caves and
Richmond maze

It was really lovely to see both kids so interested in everything. I was surprised about Tova being so happy about it all.
Nissim is very into science and animals, so that wasn't so surprising. But Tova, who doesn't like animals at all was impressed with everything (of course cleaning the roos was the funniest). She isn't scared of animals, she just doesn't care for them and usually prefers the cats to not be on her bed etc (unlike me, who has a cat sleeping on my pillow most nights).

Tova also spent quite some time playing the piano at my dad's house.

oh, and we went out for dinner to a friend's place, a house with the best view of hobart ever! And this photo below shows my kids appreciating the view.

Tova is home today. No school. She is of course in very good spirits, but isn't breathing quite right. No other symptoms.

I’ve given her Pred and Panadol and she has improved.

It’s nice to have her around the house, she is such a nice little friend. Currently she is in the other room watching a Mr Bean movie. I can hear a Croupy laugh from time to time.

Other than this Croup day, she has been really well. Still no hospital, it’s been well over a year.

Her latest naughtiness has been escaping from car seats while driving. So, that’s fun for the driver. We had to go and buy new car seats. We got 3 new booster seats, a few Houdini straps and a special harness for one of the boosters.
That’s one for the school bus, one for my car, one for Yuvals car. We gave Grand pa an old baby seat that she still fits into (mostly) and a houdini strap, that will stop him having to ocky strap her in his car when he picks her up on Friday (I wish I had a photo of that).

Oh yes, we had to dismantle her beautiful bed and buy her a new one that is close to the ground. She had started thinking that climbing up the bed and throwing her self headfirst to the floor was a good idea.. I disagreed.

So I sold her old bed and got a new one

We have changed horse riding centres and are really happy with the new place. Tova has of course taken this naughty behaviour to horse riding too. Luckily there are two side walker to catch the naughty child. But she also likes to grab their glasses (if they are wearing them) and pull their clothing. It’s all to get the attention of the coaches, whom she loves interacting with, because they are amazing.

It’s great strong willed behaviour, that seems naughty, but it’s great to see her determination and crazy humour. Saying ‘No’ to her delights her even more, so it’s a tricky one.

I may take her to Dr Craig today (www.signaturewellbeing.com.au). I have to get my mother to drive us as she has borrowed my car, since she decided to crash hers, into a police car.

Tova has had croup a few times. Needed Pred, got better - at home - and stayed out of hospital.
Perhaps what they told me is true "she will grow out of it"!
What ever the reason, it's fabulous.

Tova is getting better at walking with her sticks and she is fantastic at standing up. She stands, standing.. from sitting she can get her self into standing and stand there. It’s really quite amazing!
I really don’t have much else to say. Everyone is healthy, happy (most of the time - who ever said we had to be happy all the time anyway?), and doing well at school.

The kids are back at school. Grade 1 and grade 2.

They started on different days (at different schools) so I took each one for their first day. They were both happy to be back at school and like magnets found their friends straight up.

Tova got sick on Monday night. TERRIBLE breathing. We gave her Pred and ventolin.. She improved enough for us to not call the ambulance. But it was a close call.
It was a hard night. She wouldn’t sleep and wanted to climb on everything and was wide awake.. Yuval and I weren’t.. It was torture. She was kinda crazy breathing and crazy awake from 1.30am till 4am… Eventually she went to sleep.
Of course she didn’t go to school on Tuesday. She watched movies all day on Tuesday. She discovered Cast away (Tom Hanks) and loves it Wilson.

Tuesday night she woke crying at 3 or 4 am.. She was so upset and breathing very strangely, I hadn’t heard that kind of strange breathing before. She was also shaking and I guess she had a fever. So we quickly gave her Panadol to reduce the fever. She was quite distressed but after the drugs kicked in she relaxed and fell asleep on me! So we knew she was sick. It was so scary. We aren’t used to this different sickness. But the Panadol seemed to work, which was comforting.
She woke up at something like 11am on Wednesday and I took her out onto the deck to get some sun and fresh air. The rest of the day was spent watching Castaway.

She stayed home Thursday and Friday too, she could have gone to school on Friday, but what was the point. She is heaps better now. So school on Monday please

Nissim seems to be enjoying himself at school in Grade 1. He has good friends and so far the school seems great. It will possibly be way too religious later, as he gets older. But that can be his decision. He is welcome to stay there till grade 12 or change schools. He just has to be happy!

Future Footprints was great. It's pretty much like magic, probably because I'm not quite sure what they do all day but the results are very obvious and very wonderful.

Just before we went to Adelaide Tova had her 4th lot of Stem Cells. So that could be a contributing factor to her greatness. But Conductive Ed does seem to have great results.

The last week was good. I'm not sure what happened to Summer this year. But when the boys arrived for the last few not so hot days we still made sure we had frequent, yet a little chilly beach visits.

It was great having the boys arrive at the end of the trip and driving home with us. It was better that way, less crying on my part.

The drive home was long, long, long. We ended up staying somewhere I'm not quite sure where, for the night. Tova was crazy pants nuts! I pretty much had no sleep, Yuval almost no sleep and Nissim for some reason slept through it all. Tova was acting as though she had been stung by a bee or given some speedy drugs. Climbing walls, investigating every bed and everyone in each bed (mostly me) and really being difficult. So, that was 'fun'.

The sun vanished, the cold and rain came. Great.

Tova has had a great week at FF. She is happy, they are happy, I am happy.

We were going to the beach each day after class, but then it got cold. I feel like I’m in winter. It’s just horrible. Summer hasn’t really kicked in this year. Such a shame.

Today Tova and I went to the movies at Marion. We watched ‘Annie’, the re-make. It was really fun, perhaps a bit long, but we had nothing better to do.

We had lunch and then cake in Marion, it is a very expensive place to eat.

On the drive home Tova spotted the big pool with the massive water slides and requested that we go there. Gawd.. It looks scary to me. Perhaps I’ll get brave tomorrow or next weekend.. We shall see.

Other than that, we have pretty much just spent our time on Google plus video chat with the boys and eating.

Rain again tomorrow. Perhaps we will go to the city and have a look at city market, or ummm, I’ll google something to do, there doesn’t seem much to do indoors that doesn’t involve shopping.

Sunday 11 Jan 2015

It's sunday today, the day wasn't so sunny so the beach wasn't in play. I asked Tova what she wanted to do today, she signed that she wanted to go to the city. So we did. I thought it would be nice to check out the central market, but of course, after spending ages finding parking, it was closed. So we walked to the mall and had lunch. Sushi of course. Tova was asking me about the ballet and the city today, heaps, I think she thinks that going to the city means going to see the balet, because we often do that in Melbourne. CUTE.

After lunch and walking for ever to get back to the car we went to the supermarket and then back 'home'. The sun came out, sort of, well it was reasonably hot. So we went to the beach for a while.. YAY!

Tova and I are on Adelaide time now, yeh, it’s only half an hour difference, but that can mean the world at midnight and 6am. We are in sync now.

Tova was very happy to go to ‘Adelaide School’ this morning. It’s so great that she loves it so much. It was a very hot and very beautiful morning. I went for a swim and what not. It’s such a nice life. I did loads of work today too. I got some internet sorted out than goodness.

When I picked Tova up the Thunder started. Tova luckily didn’t want to go to the beach. I think she is tired. She wanted to watch ‘Home Alone’, so she did. Yuval express posted me my dongle and the prescription for Pred as I had forgotten to bring Pred with me, so Tova and I went to the chemist after her movie, it started to bucket down, I’m glad Tova asked to drive rather than walk, because even though the chemist is around the corner, we would have got soaked.

The lightening was impressive. Tova thought so too. And because we are on the beach the thunder roared so loud it shook the ground.

The bucket bath has saved my life, it’s so great. Tova is in bed now. I can hear her playing, not sleeping.. it’s almost 9pm.. Maybe bedtime needs to change these days.. Both kids don’t seem to go to sleep at 7.30 anymore.. Hmmmm. Might have to talk to friends with kids the same age and ask around what bed time is these days.

We do it all again tomorrow. I hope it stops raining, We want to play! Especially on the weekend. There is a great park across the road. I guess if it rains it’s a good excuse to go to the movies or a shopping centre.

Internet has been a bit tricky. But it's mostly sorted now.. hopefully. And if not, Yuval has express posted me my dongle.

Our hotel and the people that run it are amazing. We are so happy here. It's newly renovated, bright, white and on the beach

Our first night here was a bit noisy, listening to the people (mostly kids crying and so forth) in the other apartments. But perhaps I’ll get used to it. Or go buy ear plugs.. I may even go join Tova in her room as it seem to be a bit quieter. Tova slept well. She stayed in her bed all night and was asleep when I got up.

I dropped her off at the therapy and she was at home right away. She remembers the pace and the people. I didn’t stick around for long. I then went to find a fruit and veg shop, but remembered that they don’t really exist here. So off to the supermarket I went.

I decided that the supermarket in the Adelaide DFO would do just nicely.. I went to about 6 shops, got bored, supermarket shopped, got even border and went back to the apartment.

My day was mostly wasted trying to sort out the internet. I gave up getting any work done.. Sorry clients!

I picked Tova up (Tova’s friend from school is here too, in the apartment next to ours, and is also doing future footprints, so we drove in together). Tova was very happy to see me. She is such a little light.

I had set up our bathers earlier in the day so that the second we got home, we got changed and went to the beach. It was great fun. Then home, dinner, books, bed etc.

Day two has been some what the same. But this morning I did a body attack class, swam at the beach and then tried to fix the net. Gave up on doing work for the day. Again, sorry clients. It’s out of my control.

Tova and I went swimming again after her ‘school’. It’s quite the life here!

I hope to have the net all sorted 100% tomorrow so I feel like I will settle in and start a routine. I’ll also find out what Tova is up to all day. She is probably going to be more settled by the end of tomorrow’s session.

There is no bath here, and that’s quite back breaking with a Tova, so I went to Masters today and got a VERY large bucket. It’s Tova size. She used it as her bath tonight. Cute.

We slept with the air con on because there was quite a lot of smoke in the air. Tova played musical beds for hours before passing out. I lost my calm a few times, which she LOVES for some reason. It makes her laugh when people shout at her "STOP IT" and so on.. Which only made me want to kill her more.

Eventually she did fall asleep, next to me in my bed. (there were three beds in our room). We woke at 7am ish. We were ready to leave by 9ish. Yep, it takes us that long to get ready. We obviously weren't in any hurry.

We drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and drove, with quite a few stops here and there. No rain, no smoke and no wind. It was easy. It was a long drive but eventually we arrived at Adelaide just before 2pm.

Where we are staying is very, very similar to Brighton beach. Beach one side and our apartment the other side of a busy enough road. NOT BAD!!! The apartment has just been renovated and looks absolutely brand new. It’s lovely.

Once we unpacked we went to the supermarket and got a few things for dinner. Not much is open on a Sunday in Adelaide.
After dinner Tova and I went to the beach across the road. She was delighted. We put our feet in the water and let the waves crash on us. It was so much fun

Tova and I drove from about 10.30 till 5ish. We made it to the same hotel as last year. It's just of fun to be in the same hotel. We feel like regulars.

Tova and I talked and looked out the window for the first 2 - 3 hours. The drive was reasonable, no somke from bush fires, no road blocks from bush fires, just some wind.

We stopped and hand lunch in the same parky bit as last year too... just by fluke. The wind seemed to get a bit stronger the futher west we drove.

I put on a dvd for Tova for the rest of the trip.

I was listening to the radio, which was telling me about fires and storms.

Apparently I was heading right into a crazy pants storm with massive hail stones and high winds etc.. Yep, they were telling the truth. IT WAS SCARY! Thank you very much for that universe! I had to pull over at one stage because after the car was almost blown off the road the rain decided to make the road invisible.

It was a bit tricky to find the side of the road, but I did, and pulled over as did the car in front of me. Scary.

I was shaking.

The car was shaking.

Tova was happy. I love that kids feel safe with parents.

The rain stopped a little bit so I drove on very slow for a bit until there was a rest stop. I pulled up for a while and waited it out. It didn't take long. The storm passed, we carried on. There were many times where the wind didn't like my car driving in a straight line, but we managed. slowly.

After Horsham the world seemed to calm down and we watched the smoke from the bush fires out the left window.

Now at Kaniva. That was enough driving for one day. We now only have a short 3-4 hours tomorrow.

Tova requested to watch the nutcracker ballet, so that is what she is doing. I'm just sprawled out on a bed in this motel too tired to move. It's funny how sitting in a car all day can make me so tired.

Tova has made it pretty much ONE ENTIRE YEAR with no ER visit nor an Ambulance ride.

Nissim has completed Prep and moves to Grade 1 this year. Tova has finished grade 1 and is going to grade 2.

Tomorrow Tova and I are going to Future Footprints for their 3 week therapy program in Adelaide. We will drive. In the morning I’ll load up the car and we will leave when we feel like it. I love not flying.

I have started packing some bags and pretty much have just thrown most of our summer clothes into a bag, I never get to do that when flying.

Tova got a bike the other week too, so I want to take that. I’m not sure if we will have enough room. But I do have roof racks.

The boys are staying home. It’s a long time to be away from them. But at least it’s not as far as Canada, Thailand, Austria and every other place we have been for therapy

So, the other night we went to Tova's school awards night. For the primary school. It was great. I was surprised.
Tova was very excited to go. It started at about 7pm, so it was a late night & fun to be at school at night time.
There were organised games and activities, Tova loved it. It was really nice to see her so enthusiastic, which in turn made us feel involved.
I really love her school.

Then there was an awards ceremony. 4 awards were given out in the primary school. Two for bravery and two for literacy.
TOVA WON (achieved) A LITERACY award!
Our precious non-verbal princess! We are so proud! She is so lovely and so clever!

Her Auslan is pretty great these days.

Yuval and I also completed our TAFE course 'Cert 2 Auslan' the other day. That feels good. Cert 3 next year.

And the little boy, tomorrow is his last day of prep. I can't believe it. Where did the year just go? It's very cute talking to him about being a big grade 1 next year.

Apparently today is world premmie day. What ever that means..

I'm not sure if it is a celebration or a nightmare memory.

I do know my kids are strong.

And my boy!

After having a think about it, I hate my photo being taken because I see my self as hideous to look at in many photographs. Of course I know I am far more critical about myself than anyone else. Perhaps because I was bullied at school and am acutely aware of all the body parts that those bullies ensured I would be aware of for the rest of my life (stupid bullies, thank's for that!).

And photos of my kids being put out there in public makes me nervous, I guess I feel that it some how takes away their identity a little bit. A photo shows only a fraction of them, yet photos can be so deeply judging, at least, people can be so deeply judgie. Or something. However...

Jewish Care are raising money for new buildings. They asked if they could take a photo of Tova and her family. It is really hard to get the 4 of us together at one time. So, it ended up being a photo session with Tova, Nissim and me.

It is strange to me that the 'selfie' is such a big hit at the moment. I often wonder why and how people find it so easy to put their face out there for everyone to see, online.

I walked past someone using a 'selfie stick' the other day. How amusing.

Here is a pic of Tova and I.

Stem Cells are biological cells found in all multicellular organisms, that can divide and differentiate into diverse specialized cell types and can self-renew to produce more stem cells. In mammals, there are two broad types of stem cells: embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, which are found in various tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing adult tissues.

Here are some pics of the last few days in Canada.

Our precious daughter Tova, was born at 24 weeks. She spent her first 5 and a half months in hospital. Of those, 4 and a half were spent in NICU and one month in special care.  At birth she was a little 553grams.She was hooked up, tubed, plugged in, poked, prodded, tested, pricked, studied, kept warm and humid. She successfully fought hard for her life.

Because of all the tubes and trauma of being in NICU, Tova developed an oral aversion, was always full from being tube fed and refused to eat. By the time she came home, she was completely Tube Dependent. Tube dependency was never mentioned to us as a drastic side effect of tube feeding. She was fed by a Naso-Gastric tube for the first year or so of her life, followed by a PEG tube inserted directly into her stomach.

Tova had never eaten with her mouth until we visited a weaning program in Graz, Austria during January 2010! After 4 weeks in their program we gained a 100% oral feeding baby! Our next step is to get her chewing. It is now 2014 and yes Tova eats, everything has to be pureed or lumpy or she won't eat it. The next stage of learning took place in Canada where we attended a Conductive Ed program for 5 weeks. Once returning home we did a simmilar program in Adelaide during Jan 2014. Stem Cell therapy has been researched and I may or may not discuss that on this website.

Blog: Adelaide - Conductive Education

As of the 28th of November 2013 we are booked in and confirmed!!!

Tova will attend the intensive Conductive Ed program during the entire month of January 2014. 7 Hours a day 5 days a week!

Again we will leave the boys at home. At least this time they are much closer and a $40-$60 plane ride if we need them.

When we got back from Canada I found a Conductive Ed program in South Aus. Actually I found a few all around Australia, but the one in SA was just about to start up an intensive therapy program, similar to the one in Canada.
I contacted the owners and had a chat or two. It just so happens that the lady that runs the one here in Adelaide, went to uni and even shared an apartment with the lady that runs the program in Canada. Small World.