Awards

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.

Tova with her literacy award 2014

World Premmie Day

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.

This is a photo of possibly the first hold I ever hand with Tova, months after she was born. And the hand print she left on my chest once I gave her back to the Humidi Crib. I almost ran out and had it tattooed on me!
This is a photo of possibly the first hold I ever hand with Tova, months after she was born. And the hand print she left on my chest once I gave her back to the Humidi Crib. I almost ran out and had it tattooed on me! 2007

And my boy!

Tiny New Nissim
Tiny New Nissim 2008

Photograph

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.

Tova and I

Croup.. but no hospital

Tova woke up at 6am ish on Sunday morning breathing horribly. So we gave her pred.

As usual Pred makes her look like a vampire. She was happy enough, but a little bit flat.. So we canceled our fun events for the day and spent the day looking after ourselves. 

I like to keep her close to me when she gets croup so I can listen to her breathing. She was breathing wasn't great, but not hospital worthy.

She woke this morning breathing fine, after sleeping very well last night.

It is great to see that things are hopefully finally changing regarding the croup.

I have been sick for about 3 weeks. I usually get this cough and feeling crap in August, maybe that is why I have babies born so early in August?

In other news, Nissim and 5 of his school friends had a joint birthday party. They decided that instead of presents, they would like people to donate some money to Jewish Care Children Respite House. They raised over $1200. I'm so proud & Jewish Care are so grateful! They are such good kids. 

All the kids are 6

So, both kids in the house are 6! 

Tooth Number One! For The Boy

Nissim came home from visiting his friend Violet (they have been friends since they were about 3, they were best friends at creche and have kept the friendship even though they haven't attended the same school/kinder for about 3 years, which is lovely).

He was all excited to tell us that he had swallowed his wobbly tooth and that it would come out in his poo! hehe. 

He said he didn't even notice until he went to wobble it with his tongue and it was just 'gone'. 

Cute. 

foggy horse riding
Morning horse ride in the fog

 

Tova has recently had her second lot of stem cells, we shall see what comes of that. The first thing I noticed was her desire to walk (aided) and not be carried.

 Here is a pic from horse riding the other day in the fog: 

Wobbly Tooth

2014-07-23

Nissim has his first Wobbly Tooth! It is pretty exciting. He looked quite shocked when I told him.. He is a funny one, a bit of a wuss.. :-) But then he realised that I was very excited and he decided that he would go with it being fun! We have been talking about the going rate of the tooth fairy these days. I have been informed that it is more than $1 now. 

I'm not feeling very well today.. So I went to get a prescription of pred filled incase Tova gets sick. The prescription had expired so I had to go beg a doctor to give me a new one without seeing Tova.. that was fun.. 

Tova is going really well with walking. She doesn't really use her walking frame anymore and has moved onto using walking sticks. 

I have invited all Tova's class mates to her birthday party and have only heard back from ONE person. It is very strange. I am also surprised that not one person has invited her to their party this year. Either no one has parites, or she isn't popular? The teacher says that the kids don't seem to have parties, so she has been giving them one at  school when it is their birthday. HOW STRANGE... Well we will be happy to have the party with her one class friend and the other couple of friends we invited from outside of school.. 

Hello Croup. Hello ER

2014-06-19

Hi croup. Not nice to see you!

Oh well. I had a feeling that it was too good to be true.... not being in hospital since January..

Tova slept a bit badly the night before last and ended up sleeping with me (yuval went and slept in her bed). But she was breathing fine and she woke happy.

Last night she woke crying again and came to my bed again, swapping beds with Yuval... again.. that was at about midnight. At 4am she woke with stupid breathing. There was no fresh pred in the fridge and no 24 hour chemist that I know of. ... So off to hospital. We went straight in and not long after Tova was given Pred. We are home again now 7am. Tova is happy, watching The Wizard of Oz - the original.

I imagine that if we had a fresh bottle of Pred we wouldn't have ended up in ER.

No school today for Tova. We will stay home together and keep warm n cozy.

Assignments and Walking

2014-06-07

I have an assignment due next week for my Auslan course. So, I'm procrastinating here. The assignment is pretty massive and boring not to mention written terribly, not my answers, but the questions. Tafe is quite different to uni. I remember assignments being hard at Uni, but not because they were written so terribly. This one is hard also because it requires so much research and i have a lack of interest in the subject matter. Some of it is interesting of course, I am a fan of lots-of-things-history, but the pressure is on and I just don't feel like writing about what I am reading. 

Some things that are interesting, The Deaf Community hate cochlear ear implants, especially if people opt to have two. I didn't know that, now I do.

Deaf people in history, way, way back were considered 'less than human'! 

AND - Hitler sent deaf people off to concentration camps, simply because they were deaf. 

Oh and another really odd one is that when society did decide that Deaf people were worth educating, there was a catch, they could only be taught by hearing teachers that could not sign, and no sign language was allowed. If a student tried to sign, they would have their hands either caned or tied behind their back, probably both at times too.. 

In other news. Tova's teacher wrote to me the day after I approved Tova wearing a helmet at lunch time (so she could walk around using canes, not her walking frame), without giving teachers heart attacks when she falls.. well the teacher said Tova walked all the way down the school corridor (which is long) before she decided that crawling was her preferred option. So, there is that! Which is completely astounding. 

I ordered canes at the beginning of the week after I was told that the funding for Tova's bike (over $1k) had fallen through for what ever reason. So they should be here (just the canes) some time next week. I hope. 

Nissim has been on school holidays all week, which has been nice for me to spend some time with him, just him and me! He is such a little dude. 

Horse Riding with RDA Harkaway

2014-06-04

Tova's teachers asked me today if during lunch Tova could wear a helmet in the playground. Hehe, that made me laugh, the reason is, Tova has started to be almost walking, more than ever before and they want her to stop using her walking frame and use just sticks (proper ones, not from trees obviously;.).

Sometimes in the playground she doesn't have 1:1 with a teacher, so a helmet will protect her head for her very likely falls.. funny, cute, amazing.

Well I recon horse riding with RDA Harkaway once a week has contributed to her success..  (Or could it be the combination of that and: conductive ed, stem cell treatment, hydro therapy, physio therapy, speech therapy, OT, Feldenchrist, bowen therapy, hbot, chiro, and every thing else that child does). If nothing else I love going out there once a week to pat those beautiful animals. I am in love with Jake the horse..

Not sure if I mentioned last time, but we went to see 42nd Street, Me, Tova, Nissim and my mum. Tova LLOOVVEEDD it. She loves everything music. 

Sticks and Frames

2014-05-20

There has been no hospital since Adelaide - that is since January! Which is incredible. 

I'd love to take Tova back to Ability Camp. And perhaps we will, I guess it all comes down to money. We are also hoping to go back to the Adelaide program in January 2015, fingers crossed!

Both kids are loving school. Both kids are doing well at school!

I'm trying to get Tova some new canes, it has taken ages. Hopefully they will arrive soon. 

Tova has been loving walking around in her frame, she has had it for years, and has always used it, but now for some reason she is excited when she uses it. 

She has become quite amazing at walking while holding one adult hand too, that is fun, slow but fun. I can see that walking isn't too far away. She most certainly wants and tries to walk. 

The bike we want for Tova may or may not happen, that too is because of money. Special needs bikes are crazy expensive eg: $3k.

Tova has been focused this year, possibly something to do with all the therapy she has been having. 

Nissim is doing well with learning English, Hebrew and Auslan. 

Yuval and I have been learning Cert 2 - Auslan at Tafe this year, and are enjoying it. It is hard to imagine that we will ever be fluent. 

One incredible fact that I would like to share. Each Tuesday Tova comes with me to drop Nissim off at his school, it is a small school, with pretty much no parking on a tiny street and is always chaos at drop off times. There is one disable parking spot out the front of the school and about 10 regular spots. Every Tuesday I aim to park in the disabled parking spot and every Tuesday it is available. There are parents and carers parked everywhere in that street, but that one spot is always free. That is almost unheard of. I am so impressed.  And yes, Tova has a disabled parking permit which is stuck in my car for those who are wondering.  It is very good to see the respect the community have for people that need that spot. Especially as most parents don't get out of the cars, they just let the kids out and drive off, so it would be very easy to just stop in that parking spot for those few minutes. But they don't!! Which is WONDERFUL! It is so helpful. 

School Term 1 Done.

2014-04-08

It has been a while. 
Tova has been well, and when she hasn't, she has stayed home. 

Tova is now on school holidays, term one of grade one done. Amazing. 

Nissim still has the rest of this week before he is on holidays. He is loving prep and he and Tova have been doing homework together. Tova is more advanced with reading than Nissim so she helps him know when he gets words wrong etc, and Nissim tests her reading too. It is very cute to watch. 

All the therapy that Tova has been having seems to be doing amazing things. She is so focused and progressing with everything. 

Today she had a hearing test, if she had fluid on her ears she would have had grommets next week. But nope, there is none.. so no surgery! Not that I would have actually gone ahead with the grommets, but at least now I am not made to feel guilty. I just know that it is the chiro that has cleared up her ears. Hearing test before chiro = fluid, every hearing test since seeing chiro (she sees him every week or $o), the fluid has been less and less. Amazing. Truly amazing. 

 

Croupitycroup

2014-03-11

Last week Tova was touch and go with the good old croup. She managed to stay home the entire time. We gave her Pred, but didn't need to call the ambulance. We possibly could have at one stage, it was very close, a very hard decision to make. 

But for what ever reason, we decided to keep her home and she recovered over about 5 days. 

At horse riding Today, Tova was amazing. She is getting so good at it. She is a bit cheeky, as is her horse, they are a funny pair. The horse gets a bit frustrated with Tova because she lets go and stands up etc. The horse nips the very tolerant lead walker from time to time, I'm sure it is from being annoyed with little Tova. 

Nissim and Tova have been playing so well together recently. They are doing their home work together and everything. It is very cute. Tova is a bit ahead of Nissim in reading, but she loves going over the golden and red words with him. He is also getting very good at reading hebrew! So Nissim is learning, English, Hebrew and Auslan.. what an adult this young man is going to be! 

Tova is pretty much refusing to crawl anywhere at all at almost all times. She will actually wait for an adult to come over to her to hold her hand to help her, or for someone to bring her the walking frame. It is very cool, she is progressing. We also met a young boy today, he must be early teens that only just started talking recently, which gives me some inspiration for Tova. She does try to talk, I'm not sure why she doesn't use her voice, but either way, talking or Auslan or other communication devices, it is all good with us. 

Tova and Nissim Studying together:

kids studying together

Stem Cell Treatment

If anyone wants to know about stem cell treatment here are a few useful links you can follow up.

I'm not comfortable writing about the treatment Tova may or may not have had as it is so controversial and other things. I'm not interested in being involved in this political debate publicly.

So, here are some links for anyone wanting to know more.

http://www.regenetec.com/

http://www.globalstemcells.com/

http://www.adistem.com/

http://www.repairstemcells.org/

http://www.donmargolis.com/

Parents of School Children

2014-01-30

Today Tova went back to school. Grade 1!

I drove her in as I wanted to see where her class room is and also wanted to meet her teachers. I did make the point of saying I will remove her from the school if she is 'strapped' to anything, such as her chair. The bike sure, she needs a seat belt, but I'd rather her learn to do what she is told such as "Tova please return to your seat" than her being trapped. Harsh words, but I need it to be completely understood. I'm not really that intense, but I do worry and so, as I am not there during the day I need to 'sound' intense. They didn't mind anyway.

She was happy to be in her new class room. One of her friends from her prep class is in the same class, so that is nice.

Nissim! Well... He started school today for the first time! Prep! Amazing. Mum and Yuval took him. They sent me a photo, he looks gorgeous. They told me that he is 100% comfortable at school. They didn't know where his class room was, he showed them. He is so smart to remember the way (I was there with him yesterday to have a 10 min meeting with his teacher before the first day of school). Apparently he told mum and yuvie to leave too. So, he is at school now! I wonder what he is doing. I hope he makes friends quickly and is so happy. Lots of the kids there know each other. Nissim went to creche with a few of them, but can't remember them because he was 3. His cousin is at the same table as him too, but they also don't know each other very well and his cousin has been going to that school creche for a few years. I'm sure he will be fine, he is not a shy child, actually he is quite the opposite, but also he is sensitive. My little dude.

Ok, well Yuval and I are now parents of two school kids. It is going to be a busy life now. Driving here and there dropping kids off, picking kids up etc.. :-)