Time to Catch Up!

Today is Wednesday, October 28, 2009, and it has been brought to my attention (thank you, Anne) that our blog needs serious updating, so here goes! Our last post was in July, at Talia's first post-operative visit. Lydia first . . . since that time, Lydia finished her Chinese Summer Camp program, and just loved it. She was with a friend from preschool, and met many new friends over the summer. She's come so far in her Chinese now, and is writing characters and learning many new songs and vocabulary words. Miss Penny, our Saturday Chinese teacher seemed quite pleased with Lydia's characters, and gave her a few pointers last week. Updating all about Lydia, kindergarten began on August 25, 2009. From the get go, we knew that her local public school was not going to be the best place for Lydia, and we quickly began looking at other options. Big clues: there were not enough chairs for all the children to sit on and the first week's goal was "recognizing their name." On day three, we withdrew Lydia from her public school and enrolled her at Montessori Community School, just 1.8 miles from Donna's office. Although we had not planned to pursue private school, this has been a fabulous fit for Lydia. The instruction is all individualized, the classroom is very stimulating with learning materials, there are four playgrounds--with a zip line on one (Lydia's most favorite thing) and a curriculum that emphasizes including the outdoors and nature as well as all things peaceful into their instruction. The children are cooking in their attached kitchen, and Lydia is one of four "elders" who mentor the four and fives not yet in kindergarten in her multi-age classroom. Lydia has learned to finger knit, is learning pre-division and pre-multiplication concepts, she has weekly Art, Spanish, Music and PE and has grown up so much in these first eight weeks. At our conference on 10-01-09, we also learned that Lydia is reading! She said she didn't tell us, as she didn't actually realize that she had made the transition to an independent reader already. There were a whole basket full of books that her teachers, Mari and Trish told us that Lydia could read independently--we were quite surprised by this. Lydia now reads to us each night, before we read to her. The teachers had no goals for her, other than to keep her going. They have been amazed at her beautiful transition into a class that has already been together for three years now. We're continuing her in her After School Chinese Program, and she is excitedly looking forward to being "Sleeping Beauty" for Halloween. She'll trick-or-treat with her very best friend Charlotte on Saturday, and is quite looking forward to this new experience. Montessori Community School is quite the fundraising machine--so thanks to all who purchased gift wrap and chocolates from our girl.

Now about Talia. Our baby continues to grow. She had her first haircut at the end of September, as her wispy bangs had grown so long. She's still shy of 22 pounds (21 pounds and 13 ounces at last check up) but looks robust and healthy. She eats everything, and new favorites this week have been cantaloupe, fresh ruby red grapefruit and fresh pineapple. She has no dietary restrictions and loves to try everything. She has been in full-time daycare with Christine Wang, a local home-based day care, since September. Christine speaks Mandarin, so we are excited that Talia will continue to be exposed daily to Mandarin Chinese. She knows most of her body parts in both English and Chinese, and understands much more language than she can communicate verbally. She's quite the clever girl and uses real and her own sign language to communicate when she needs things. We can understand a few of her words: "mo" for "more", "gen" for "again", "Lia" for "Lydia", "uh oh!", "uh" for "up" and a couple of others. She has clear sounds for her friends in daycare, and we can tell which friend she's referring to by her intonation of their name. "Mama" is her default word for Donna, and any other word that she's trying to say. She loves to copy her big sister, and is currently very good at cutting with primary scissors and "writing" mostly circles with pen or pencil. We are beginning a developmental screening for her in November, that will likely lead to in-home speech and either occupational or physical therapy to both promote more speech and strengthen her big muscles. Talia charms most everyone she meets with her exuberant blowing of kisses. The August 27, 2009 follow-up with her surgeon and an ENT to check her ear tubes was very positive, and they were both pleased with her healing and progress. She has her next full Craniofacial Team meeting on Thursday 11-5-2009. She'll again be seen by the surgeon, ENT, speech and language, audiology, social work and psychology for a complete update. Talia doesn't know it yet, but she will be a bumble bee for Halloween, and will help her little friend Ruby hand out treats while Lydia and Charlotte do the door-to-door trick or treating.

Mom and Dad (Donna and Art) are trying to hang in there, with two full time jobs, two children in school and all of the assorted activities and appointments. We'll be spending Thanksgiving with Donna's parents and sister in Hillsborough, NC. Early Christmas with Art's family in New York will be the first weekend in December, followed by actual Christmas at Donna's sister's house in Charlotte--then off to Florida for two well-earned weeks of rest and relaxation, hopefully at the beach, weather permitting. The adventure continues and its all good. As we look through pictures . . . soon . . . we'll try to post more.