Ziva turns 5!

Easter egg hunt! Ziva is now 5! Her birthday was big excitement around here for weeks! We weren't sure how much Ziva would understand about it being her birthday, so about a week before, I started to tell her a few times every day that her birthday was coming soon. And without fail, every time I told her this, she'd gasp, get wide-eyed, and say, "Birthday? Me?" and then start to belt out "Happy Birthday to Ziva!" followed by a loud shout of "Happy Birthday, Ziva! Yeah!" accompanied by clapping. A couple of times when I told her birthday was coming soon, she looked under the table or in the living room, saying "Birthday, where are you?" It was pretty cute. And even though her birthday has come and gone, Ziva feels that even the presence of leftover birthday cake (all this week) still deserves a round of "Happy Birthday to Ziva".

Ziva has now been at her "new" schools for almost 2 months...and she is doing so well! We have been so amazed and thrilled at the progress she has made. Both schools have embraced Ziva and her special needs and are doing everything they can to meet her needs and help her. As parents of a special needs child, we feel so supported...and our stress level has gone way down! Ziva is a changed girl at her schools as well. Although she is always very happy to see me when I pick her up, now she doesn't want to leave school because she is having so much fun. Her teachers tell us that she is quite verbal and we think this is due to the manner in which Ziva is received. The teachers make a genuine effort to communicate with her, understand what she is saying, and are supporting our at-home speech goals. Another big change is Ziva's interaction with her peers and teachers. When she leaves at the end of the day, she says a big "good-bye" to the entire group of kids (they all chorus back "Good-bye, Ziva") and she always needs to say good-bye to each teacher individually. We know that she feels accepted and loved. One of the biggest changes has been the expectations put on Ziva. There is a fine balance between meeting her special needs and yet challenging her so that she will grow and make progress. The schools have found this balance and we attribute much of her progress to that.

In the past month, Ziva has developed a love for letters. She is getting quite good at tracing her name (goal for September is writing it independently) and can read and recognize her name. She recognizes probably about 20 letters from memory and knows the sounds of a handful of them. She is so incredibly proud of herself for knowing her letters. She is constantly pointing out letters to us - at the gas station, on the cereal box, on a can of soup, the toothpaste tube, her books, the newspaper etc etc. She will actually sit down with a novel, magazine, church bulletin, or recipe book and scan the pages for letters she knows. And when she finds one, she has to shout it out and make sure that both Scott and I see the letter. It brings me so much joy, I just about want to cry. It gives us hope for her future learning when we see her embracing this new-found knowledge. I guess listening to Fridge Phonics for 2 years and watching "Leap Frog Letter Factory" every week for about a year has paid off!

Ziva is a child of opposites. She can be absolutely the sweetest and absolutely the most difficult. We think she may be going through her "terrible twos" at 5. "No" is by far her favourite word and she will say it just to say it. (I am not kidding...sometimes I haven't even finished my sentence and she is already saying "no"!) Because her vocabulary is limited, "no" is about the only word we hear (in varying tones and volumes), but it is often accompanied by foot stomping, arm crossing, scowling, and grunting.

On the other hand, she is a very generous, thoughtful, compassionate, and sensitive child. Her teachers tell us that if a classmate of Ziva's is crying, she will right away go and comfort the child and give them a hug. They say Ziva is so aware and quick to help, she often beats them to the hurt child! Ziva continues to be a grateful child. Let's say I give her breakfast: she'll say. "Thank you, mommy, eggs. Thank you, mommy, toast. Thank you, mommy, milk." Yep...she'll thank me for each and every item! Oh, and if you offer her something and she doesn't want any, she'll say, "No, please." (we're working on "no, thank you."!) If you sneeze, she will run into the bathroom to get you a kleenex and say, "Bless you!" I had a bad cold last week and was coughing a lot and every time I coughed, she said, "Bless you, Mommy!". Too cute!

Ziva and her birthday cake (on her birthday itself). Ziva is not yet able to blow (no one is quite sure why); instead, she puckers her lips and makes the "sh" sound. She was trying very hard to blow those candles out and leaned in close to the cake...so close she burned her lip a little and signed her hair! Oops...here Scott is taking the cake away!

Ziva's birthday party with family. She is very excited by the castle cake I made for her. The look on her face was well worth the 3 hours I spent decorating it!

A cake fit for a princess.

And here's the princess eating her cake with gusto.

A new hat.

Ziva treats Simon like a sibling. Sometimes she is super sweet to him and other times, she yells at him! And for the most part, he just ignores her...

Lately, Ziva's favourite toy has been her doctor's kit. A real stethoscope for her birthday was just the thing she needed!