Sick baby, sleeping in and changes.

Maggie has been so sick with RSV.  It started out as a little cold, then she got Strep, then she tested positive for RSV.  She continued to get worse and worse and it was very scary. There is no medicine for RSV ( a virus) and breathing treatments don't really help.  Maggie's breathing was very labored and her respirations got up to  57 breaths/min - that's fast !  She had a terrible, hacking cough and a high fever. Why is it every time I start to think about how healthy my children are and how they never get sick - they get sick ?

But, she is starting to feel much better !! Her fever is gone,her breathing is back to normal and the cough is getting a little better.  I am just glad she is walking around and playing after spending three days sleeping in my arms.  We even got out and went to the park ( forgot my camera) and Maggie loved it ! She went down the slide a million times and even walked fearlessly on the swing bridge at the playground. And the weather was perfect !

We all stayed up way to late last night watching a movie ( National Treasure). So, after breakfast this morning, the boys made pallets in the kitchen and went back to sleep.  Why they didn't just go back to their bed instead of laying on the kitchen floor is what I want to know.  Today was President's Day so they didn't have school.

The boys are really trying to get all the sleeping in they can get because next year......

...they are going to school.  Yep.  This is my last year home schooling them. We have had a lot of fun these last four years, but it is time to move on.  We are all excited ( well, Walker and Will are not happy about getting up early).

 Maggie will also be starting school - Two year old preschool three days a week !  I think it will be very good for her speech development and she LOVES playing at Mother's Day out so far. So lots of changes for next year and an empty, quiet house that I will have to get used to. There are definitely seasons in a mom's life and I feel like I'm about to drastically change climates !

Speech and Signing Update.

 I love this picture of Maggie and her big, bright smile. 
 Beautiful!!! 
(Those luscious lips have no lip stick on they are el naturale!!) 

Maggie is signing "dirty" in this picture. 

She was looking at some mud under the tree in our front yard.


We use the video series Signing Time to learn American Sign Language.  Maggie learns so quickly by just watching the videos and we make sure we say what the sign is every time she signs.  


It has become evident that Maggie is a visual learner and learns best by seeing something in a book or a video. People with sensory deficits in one area usually have a heightened sense in another.  So, it is with Maggie. It is kind of funny... Maggie had a hearing problem and she really does hear quite well now.  She actually hears without the BAHA if we speak just a little louder.  Now that she knows what hearing is and that it is important, she listens better too.  I know that sounds weird but its just how it is.  So, if she got the deluxe vision package due to the hearing impairment and now is hearing great with her BAHA... well, she must be Wonder Woman!
 God has blessed her indeed!   

Our little girl loves leaves and always finds some to play with.

Ok. Now for some updates:

Maggie has had her new BAHA hearing aid for six months now and so has a "hearing age" of a six month old baby.

( Her hearing age is determined by the amount of months she has been hearing and the first day she wore her BAHA was day one.) 

With that said, Maggie is doing fantastic!
 We are still so amazed at her progress since she got her BAHA. 

Here's a list of her spoken words so far:

mama

bye bye

Wu Wu ( Walker or Will)

Where Wu Wu ( Where's Walker or Will)

"H" for house, heart,or horse

"F" for fish, fall down

Bu ( for bus)

Woof

Maggie's Signing words:

Eat,milk,water,ball,more,bird,dog,shoes,flower,mom,dad,sleep,bear,please,share,thank you,book,socks,yes,no,dirty,potty,bath,hurt,stop and home.

The many faces of Maggie.

This is her "I'm mad face" because I am trying to take her picture.  For some reason, Maggie does not like to see my camera now.

 At. All. 

 She starts crying right away when she sees the camera. ughhh !!

This is her "surprised" look when I ask her to act surprised.

 Cracks me up.  I don't think she'll win any acting awards.

 And, just in case any one is wondering why Maggie is sitting on the kitchen table playing with dry rice....

It's a speech therapy technique to try to get her to say "d" for duck and dog ( somehow the cow got in there too, oops).  

Maggie had to "d"ig for the "d"uck and the "d"og.  She loved it !!  

A girl and her hamburger.

Camping at Grayton Beach.

I have found the cure for Cabin Fever.... go camping.

 It forces you to play outside with your children and enjoy the cold air and blue sky.  

Grayton Beach is a sleepy little beach town nestled with live oaks and cottages.

We camped at Grayton Beach state park ( Florida) and this is our campsite view.

  I thought it was very old Florida - like.  Beautiful.  Natural.

Chuck and Walker cooked our traditional pancakes and sausage  breakfast.  Yum !!! 

The beach was beautiful and empty. 

This is what Maggie thought of it..... 

She was not sure of all the white stuff and cold wind, but it didn't take her long to realize the beach is pretty fun.

We went biking a lot and Maggie enjoyed riding around in her own "princess buggy".

Walker and Will dreaming of ice cream at Seaside.

Our campsite was filled with gravel, which proved to be one of the funnest parts of the trip.  

Will and Maggie loved to play in it !

Finally, Maggie starts to enjoy the beach !

We can't wait to go back !

A Great Wonder.

It is a great wonder that Maggie was even born considering the options for pregnant woman in China.


It is a great wonder that Maggie was found alive by a police man, just after she was born, on the side of a road.


It is a great wonder that she survived fourteen months in a poor orphanage, confined to a baby bed and silence.


It is a great wonder we were able to complete the mountains of paperwork and red tape to fly half way around the world and enter a Communist country to bring home Maggie.


It is a great wonder that Maggie is doing so amazing just one year after she was first placed in our arms.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords, to Him who alone does Great Wonders.          Psalm 136:3-4

Maggie and the shapes Part 2

Shapes.

I started showing Maggie what a circle was a while back.  Whenever I saw something that was in the shape of a circle, I would tell her " that's a circle" and make a big deal about it.  Then, I moved onto showing her what a square was.  For Christmas, I got Maggie a short board book about shapes and we have been reading it everyday (about three times a day or more). She loves it !


Now, she knows all her shapes.  Yep, even the odd ones like arrow, oval, rectangle and diamonds.  She can't say them ,but when I ask her where a certain shape is she points to it.  Crazy Amazing if you ask me !!!


You see, I honestly didn't know what Maggie was capable of when we first got home from china.  I wondered if she would just lay on the floor and look at her hands all her life.  It is a horrible thought to have, I know.  And, if she would have laid on the floor and looked at her hands all her life, we would have loved her all the same.  We just didn't know.  We took each day at a time.


But, now.  Well, Maggie is blowing me away with all that she is doing.  She is signing everything we can teach her and just picks up new signs so fast.  Her speech is improving, not as fast as I would like, but still improving every day.  She no longer needs Occupational Therapy for her hands.  She can stack blocks up so high they almost reach her head, draw a circle, feed herself and string beads - yeah !!!  Go Maggie go !!!

God, we thank you again for all of our prayers you have answered.  We know your timing is always perfect and trust you with all the unknowns that lie ahead.   Amen.

Busy.

I have been incredibly busy lately with school, speech therapy and all the other stuff that keeps our family running smoothly. But, knowing that a beach trip is coming soon sure does help make it all better !

I am working on a post about my favorite sewing patterns, fabrics and sewing tips.  It was almost complete and the Blogger decided to not save my post.  So, as soon as I get some more time I will finish it.  Also, Maggie is doing and saying so much now it is hard to keep up with her.  I will post an update soon.  We continue to be amazed !!

Midday Maggie Video

January Randomness.

We had Black eye peas, bar bq, sweet potatoes, and sweet tea for New Years dinner. 

 Chuck cooked it all and it was so very good !   (We like ketchup on our peas)

We got Maggie the Loving Family doll house for Christmas and she loves it !

  It is the cutest doll house and the furniture is so fun. 

 Maggie loves to put the baby in the red wagon and pull it around.

The baby swing is adorable too ! 

 She also loves to put the loving family daddy in a chair and have him sit at the kitchen table and eat. 

 Maggie signs "eat" to the daddy.  Hmmm....

Someone left a box of Crackers out in the living room.

  Maggie thought it would be fun to spread them out all over the floor and dance on top of them.

Maggie's little hands holding her bottle.  

So sweet.

Maggie's first haircut.

 I decided to cut Maggie's hair last night.  It was getting a little out of hand and mullet looking in the back.  So, instead of taking her to a salon, I thought I would try to cut it myself.  It can't be too hard, right ?


Having NO idea what I am doing and feeling like an eight year old girl cutting her dolls hair, I just started cutting.  It was a little scary at first and I had a moment of " what have I done ?" Then, slowly, it started actually looking like a real hair cut !!!  Maggie did great and she watched her favorite video - signing time-while I cut away at her hair.   I think it turned out really cute.

 Before

After

wordless wednesday.

Mandarin House ( Maggie's Gotcha Day Celebration)

Super Velcro Baby !

I think all the Christmas traveling and festivities has upset Maggie big time.  Her schedule has been disrupted and she has taken a step backward into the Velcro Baby phase.  She was doing so good before December and I was seeing a big improvement in her clinging to me.  But, she is back to her " I want Mommy all the time, won't let me put her down and have to see Mommy's face and sit in her lap to play".

  So, of course Maggie needs me.  She needs to know I am there for her and needs to have that time with me.  It is just a part of her healing emotionally.  And, she is emotionally delayed due to her institutional background. and can not always deal with things like separation.  She's also a typical two year old and a tiny bit spoiled.

I have lots to write about and share and have been wanting to post about our Christmas and how much Maggie loves her doll house and the boys love their soft blankets and Auburn shirts, about how wonderful our gotcha day celebration was and all the New years reflections I have. But, all that will have to wait for now.

  I have a Super Velcro Baby that needs me.

Maggie's One Year Gotcha Day Anniversary Video

Maggie's new doll house... Merry Christmas!!

Maggie... Do you want to eat?

This is a video of what happens when we ask Maggie if she wants to eat.

Merry Christmas.

December Speech Update

Doesn't she look so big in the pictures ?

Now for the update :

1. Sign Language:  It is somewhat controversial to teach a hearing impaired child sign language when that child  has the ability to hear through hearing aids.  One of the thoughts behind this is that a hearing impaired child will tend to hold on to signing and will not want to use their voice.  A non hearing impaired child will drop the sign language easily and talk.(  I am sure there is a ton of research and info out on this topic and I am just skirting the issue.)  So we had a decision to make a while back - to teach Maggie sign language or not.  Her Auditory/verbal teacher felt Maggie had just as much ability to speak as she did to sign.  But, she left the decision up to us and also Maggie is not your typical child.  She has other issues: orphanage,severe lack of stimulation as a baby and developmental delays due to orphanage.  There's no nice color coded chart that tells us what to do with Maggie.  It has all been trial and error so far.

We decided to slowly introduce Maggie to signing.  Communication is very important and she had no way to tell us anything - except crying and taking our hand to show us something.  It seemed cruel to not teach her a way to communicate while we wait on her language development.   I see sign language as a bridge to speaking.  Plain and simple.

We started with one word - milk. Then we added more and all done.  The following are the words Maggie can sign on her own using the correct context:

milk

more

all done

bath

home

no 

yes

cry

rock the baby

shhhh ( or night night)

eat

please

2. Speech : It has been a long road to get Maggie to talk.  Sometimes I thought she would never talk.  When she played she was so quiet and she babbled off and on, but not a lot.  In November she started saying ahhh

with a good open mouth sound.  I was reading to Maggie one day about colors.  I said "red, red you say red", and she said ahhh.  I know, it sounded nothing like red, but it was the first time she copied me and tried to repeat a word.  From then on anytime I asked her to say the name of something she would say ahhh. For example, yel-low would be ahh-ahhh, blue would be a short ah.  Very exciting for us and for Maggie.  She's trying to talk.

Last week she started saying baaa consistently and when asked to say blue now she says baa.  Oh, she's so close !  Sometimes she actually says the word.  I have heard her say purple and apple.  Random I know.

Here's a list of words Maggie can say all by herself and in context:

mama 

bye bye

ma-ma ( more)

gu-gu ( dog)

That's a terribly short list of words for a two year old, but we are so proud of our little girl. She is working so hard and is really making huge leaps and bounds toward catching up developmentally. Tonight she danced and danced and laughed.  I was caught up in watching her joy for life and her happiness was almost too much to take in.  

God has done so many Miracles for Maggie and for us.  Just the fact that she is in the living room twirling and dancing is a huge miracle.  So, we are rejoicing at this small little list of words Maggie is saying.  It is our Big Christmas miracle this year.

Reading To Maggie.

You may have tangible wealth untold:

Caskets of jewels and coffers of gold.

Richer than I you can never be -

I had a mother who read to me.

-Strickland Gillilan

"The Reading Mother"

Maggie loves books. Well, love doesn't even to begin to describe her relationship with books. She needs books, craves them. I spend hours everyday just rocking Maggie and reading her books.


The picture above is a stack of books I read her this morning. She signs please-more after each book. Her little fingers point to the pictures and she loves to know the names of things and the sounds they make. I ask her to point to animals,apples,colors,shapes and she knows exactly what I am talking about. She knows so much, I believe, because of books.


Her mind is a sponge right now, taking in everything and learning so much lately. She even wants to sleep with her books and reads them when she eats.


Even though Maggie is not yet talking up a storm, her receptive language (the listening and understanding of language) is amazing. She intently listens to the stories I read and knows exactly when it is time to turn the page. It is easy for Maggie to pay attention and sit for an hour sometimes when I read to her.


There's so much that is happening as we read together : Bonding, vocabulary and knowledge building are just some. And the best source for building up her brain with words and sounds is reading.

Two books I love that explain the importance of reading to children and also have detailed lists of books for different ages are:


Honey For A Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt


The Read Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease.  


I love these books and they stay on my nightstand and go to the library with me.


Happy reading !