A Summer of Appointments

Hello, everyone! I can hardly believe that the summer is almost over! This blog entry is about 2 months overdue! This summer's theme was "appointments"....almost 30 in total (in a matter of 7 weeks)! We have seen so many people this summer...speech pathologists (4 of them), occupational therapists (2 of them), a physiotherapist, a geneticist, a developmental pediatrician, ophthamologists (2 of them)...then add her "regular" pediatrician, her dentist, and a week long "occupational therapy" class. We've been to Sick Kids, St. Michael's, 3 different ErinOak locations, and all places in between. To be honest, it was sometimes hard for me to keep doctors and their locations straight! I only drove to the wrong location once! Ha!ha! Attending all of these appointments were in the attempt to get some answers as to Ziva's delays and get the best help for her possible. And although we spent a lot of time going to appointments, I am also thankful that I had the summer off to be able to take her to them. I couldn't imagine having all these appointments while working! I can see why parents of special needs kids end up having one parent stay home.

We did have some fun this summer as well! We had a day trip to the zoo, went camping for 10 days, and for the first time, Ziva spent a whole weekend with her Beppe (grandma). Scott and I really enjoyed that weekend too! :)

Ziva is such a joy and delight to us. More and more of her personality seems to be surfacing all the time. She is the kind of child that does everything with gusto....and her clothes and face are usually the proof of that! For example, I drop her off at school with neat hair, a clean face, and clean clothes. By the time I pick her up, she is a total mess. (The sandbox being her favourite pastime at school...you can imagine!) We go home, she undresses at the door, and she goes straight into the tub! The way I figure it, the dirtier she is, the more fun she had!

Ziva is such a child of opposites. She gets so dirty when she plays in the sand and doesn't care, and yet when we sit down for dinner, she will go through 10 napkins (if she had her way!), wiping up tiny drips and spills. (I know this will sound sexist, but) she plays like such a boy when she is outside...she is rough and tumble, she loves cars and the sand. On the other hand, she can play with her "baby" so gently and she is so nurturing and motherly towards it, it is amazing.

Ziva continues to be a very grateful child and she truly savours new things and experiences. She takes nothing for granted. We redid her room this summer and she graduated to a "big girl bed" (photos below). Even though it's been 7 weeks, if a guest comes over, it is the first thing she will show them, she is so happy about it. Since getting her new bed, she now doesn't want to get out of bed in the morning!

Now we are busy gearing up for school! She will start SK at our local public school, where she will receive full time EA support. On her other days, she will continue to go to Maple School and be in their SK program.

Ziva and Mommy dressed as "twins" on Canada Day.
Being silly in the backyard.

Family photo.

She's our sunshine!

Toronto Zoo, July 2011.

Ziva in her new room. No more brown and blue!

Ziva had an absolute blast camping! With lots of sand and water, Ziva was in heaven. We went to Grundy Provincial Park, where they have floating docks out in the water (water is 8-10 feet deep). Ziva has no fear...she would jump off the dock, "swim" back to the ladder, jump again...for hours! People were amazed to see little Ziva do this and they used her as an example to try and cajole their kids into jumping!

Ziva had her first experience with roasted marshmellows. Talk about savouring! Just watching her enjoy the marshmellows made me cry.

You can't quite see it in this picture, but Ziva can put her entire hand in her mouth! Hmmm...either she has a big mouth or small hands!

Sticky! Sticky!

We went on a 1 1/2 hour hike with Ziva...and she ran the entire time! Maybe she'll be a cross country runner?! Scenic Grundy.

This license plate caught our eye. Read the frame around the plate. Ziva is #1! (And typical Ziva, she is refusing to look at the camera!)

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!

New experiences for Ziva

Hello everyone! (Somehow this photo ended up here...and I am not computer saavy enough to move it!) This is Ziva on our 2 year anniversary of Gotcha Day, January 27th. Ziva has experienced a lot of new things in the past few months! We started gymnastics at the beginning of January which Ziva loves, of course, since it gives her lots of opportunity to run, jump, climb, and swing. Once the coaches realized that she has special needs and was delayed gross motorly, they provided her with a one-on-one EA; we were very glad for that because otherwise she would just run around and not do any of the tasks. In a few weeks, once gymnastics is over, she will go for another round of swimming lessons.

At the end of January, we started with rehabilitation services at Erin Oak; this provides services for kids who have multiple needs. Weekly, Ziva goes to see a (new) speech therapist and an occupational therapist. This week I took her to a physiotherapy assessment and we will now also consult with a physiotherapist every few months. Ziva and I also visited Sick Kids earlier this week for a "pre-MRI" check up. We have been told that Ziva is a great candidate for a weekend MRI appointment, so hopefully that will happen in a few months.

We have spent a lot of time this past month looking into schooling for Ziva- for now and next year. For SK next year, we have enrolled Ziva in our local public school where she will be provided with a one-on-one EA. We also decided to have Ziva switch schools now. Her needs just weren't being met at the school she was attending and so we made the difficult decision to pull her out. Next Monday, she will start at two new schools in their JK classes. We weren't able to find one full time placement so we have had to make do with two different centres; but that is what she will be doing next year when she is in SK, too, so she might as well get used to it! (No, we do not have full time SK in Halton yet!) We have heard nothing but good things about these two centers so we are very excited! It seems that both of these centers are well-equipped and trained to deal with special needs kids.

Ziva is making some progress in her speech. She still does not have all her sounds, though, so most words are still somewhat difficult to understand. Every day, Ziva and I work on sounds using games/flashcards provided by the speech therapist. Although she is limited in her speech, Ziva talks non-stop at home!

We continue to feel frustrated and, quite frankly, sad about other people's perception of Ziva. Ziva has her challenges and her delays... we are very well aware of that...but she is also able to learn and she is making progress! We have witnessed so many times in the past few months where people have low expectations of her and they automatically assume she can't understand or learn because of her delays. It seems that it is mostly related to her speech delay...once people realize she doesn't talk (much), they assume the worst. Although Ziva is not aware that people do this, we feel so badly for her because it is unfair judgement. It breaks my heart that people treat her this way.

I am so happy to say that Ziva is becoming quite the "mommy's girl"! When we are at home together, she doesn't let me out of her sight. For example, if she is playing upstairs and I need to go down to the basement to quickly get something, she always has to go with me. If she gets hurt (even if it is very minor), she always needs "a kiss to make it better"...but the kiss can only be from me (daddy's kisses don't even cut it!). And the number of kisses she gives me! She's my girl!

Now onto some fun photos!

Reading continues to be one of Ziva's favourite pastimes. This was the first time she picked this book off the shelf...

She will often read a book while eating. Hmmm....I wonder where she picked that up?

Snow was a huge hit with Ziva this winter! We took her tobogganing every weekend and she had a blast. She has no fear and so would go down even the hugest hills! Ziva fell in love with her snowman!

Always a helper, Ziva would help me shovel the snow.

Ziva's new look! At an appoinment with the ophthamologist at Sick Kids back in February, they discovered she needs glasses! This week was her first week with them...so far, so good!

Ziva is a puzzle hound! We bought her 24 piece puzzles at Christmas...which she "outgrew" in about a week. She is now up to 48 pieces and whizzes through them!

We took Ziva to an indoor amusement park...this was right up her alley. She loved the spinning, the heights, the speed! This was one ride I wouldn't even go on.

Ahhhh....this is more my speed!

Ziva smiles all the time...she is such a happy girl. But, as you may have noticed, she doesn't often smile for the camera. When we are going to take her picture, we'll say, "Ziva, smile!" and she will usually absolutely refuse. What a stinker! Every once in a while we are able to capture her with her big beautiful smile...

Happy 2011!

Hello, everyone! Happy New Year! I pray that you had a blessed Christmas as well. We have had so much fun and excitement at our house over the last few weeks, I thought I'd share some of our joyful moments.

Ziva really got into the Christmas spirit this year. We took her to see Santa twice; the first time (mid-November), she had no idea who he was and why on earth she was sitting on his lap. After that, we "talked up" Santa a lot, read her books about him, and pointed him out to her whenever we saw him. She fell in love with Santa and everytime she saw a picture of Santa, she'd say, "Ho!Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" (She still walks around the house, knocks on doors, and says, "Trick or treat!", so we have a feeling we will be hearing "Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!" until Easter!). The second time Scott took her to see Santa, just a few days before Christmas, she could hardly contain her excitement.

We put out cookies and water (Ziva's suggestion) for Santa on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, the look on Ziva's face was absolutely priceless. She was simply stunned that Santa had been in our house and had eaten the cookies. She kept saying, "Santa? Eat cookies?" and looking in disbelief at the few crumbs left on the plate. It was so cute.

Ziva continues to make slow progress in her speech. The one thing that we have noticed recently is that she knows and says more words. Just out of the blue, she'll say random words like bandaid, toothpaste, needle, toothpick, crouton, etc. Bandaids and tape have actually become her new favourite things. Anytime anything is broken, she'll say, "Uh-oh, broken. Tape." Then she'll run into the office, get the tape out of the drawer, and bring it so me so I can fix said broken item. Bandaids are her cure all for any "boo-boo". She'll bump her leg, rub her eye, have a hang nail, you name it, she'll say, "Uh-oh, boo-boo. Bandaid." Thankfully the bandaids are too high up in the closet for her to reach them!

Ziva has replaced her emphatic "No!"s with "Mine!" If she even thinks you are going to touch something that is "hers", she'll say, "No! Go away! Mine!". It makes us laugh because she'll do this for everything from her clothes and toys to her snotty kleenexes!

Ziva has surprised us lately with some of the things she knows...which we didn't know she knew! One day a few weeks ago, she was singing to herself in her room and I was surprised to hear that she can sing the entire alphabet song! One day she was reading an alphabet book and when she got to the b page, she said to me, "Mommy...b." When making an alphabet puzzle, she picked up the Z and said, "Mommy...me." I think she knows her name begins with a Z! It has been exciting to see!

One thing Ziva does not like to do is work on her speech. She gets very sloppy and tries to talk fast but then you can't understand a thing. We are constantly telling her to slow down and repeat herself- which she hates. For quite a while now, Ziva has been able to pray "God is great, God is good..." before mealtimes. She knows it by heart and most words are correct...that is, if she slows down. She will start to pray by herself but she will hurry, so we will stop her and make her repeat it more slowly. She will comply easily enough, but the funniest part is that when she repeats herself, she says it in this very mad, ticked off tone of voice. It is hilarious. I hope God doesn't mind that she always prays mad!

Here we are, all decked out on Christmas eve, ready to go to church.
A short trip down memory lane...3 days ago was the 2nd year anniversary of when we met Ziva. This is what she looked like on that day...

...and here is what she looks like now! We also went to the doctor recently and Ziva officially weighs 34 lbs and is 98 cm tall (last year at this time, she was 30 lbs and 89 cm tall).

We took Ziva ice skating for the first time. I don't think she really saw the point.

We also took Ziva tobogganing for the first time...and she definitely saw the point of that!

A stunned Ziva on Christmas morning.

Having some fun with Mommy.

Checking out a new puzzle with Daddy.

Ziva loved her Santa hat!

Ziva seems to always get her hair in her food, so we thought a headband might help. Now the headband has become a source of entertainment at the dinner table for Scott and I. Ziva, of course, has no idea why we laugh at her.

Fall Fun

Hello, everyone. I am hoping that you haven't given up on me and are still checking in! Here are a few tidbits on Ziva since the last entry...Ziva has settled into school again, but without those naps every other day (like last year), she is a whiny thing when we get home! I still try to do some "homework" with her every day but sometimes it is difficult!

Lately, Ziva has been getting very snuggly with me, loves to sit on my lap, and loves to be picked up. I know, she's 4 1/2 and may seem too old to be picked up and carried around...but hey, we are both just making up for lost time! When we are out together, she absolutely loves to point to me and tell people, "MY mommy!" She is getting rather possessive! I know I have mentioned how much Ziva loves music and singing. She will often sing songs to the tune of "Old McDonald" or "The Farmer in the Dell"...but the only word she keeps singing over and over is "Mommy". It's adorable.

When Ziva went to the doctor's in July, she was 92.5 cm tall; last week we measured her and she is now 96 cm! No wonder her pants are too short on her every two weeks!

Ziva is loving swimming lessons. She loves the water so much, but the entire experience is still overwhelming to her. For the first few weeks, Scott was allowed in the pool with her and he said that her heart races the entire time. Her adrenaline is in overdrive. She dunks her head under the water so often that she doesn't even listen to the instructor or do what she is supposed to be doing. But I guess that is why we are going...so eventually it will not be overwhelming to her.

Our greatest frustration as of late has been with how other people interact with Ziva (at Sunday school, swimming lessons, school, bank, etc). If they have never met Ziva, we always need to explain that she doesn't really talk because, inevitably, they'll ask her her name, how old she is, or something like that, and she will not answer. Once people find out she doesn't talk, they start to treat her like she is stupid. They seem to think that because she doesn't talk, she also doesn't understand. We have also realized that it is easy for people to take advantage of her because she doesn't talk. We are just constantly reminded of that fact that we are her voice and her advocates.

I have told people that Ziva really reactes to bug bites. And people almost always say back, "Oh, yeah...me too. " Like this? (The bite location is at the black mark.) Poor thing.

First trip to an apple orchard to pick apples.

Thanksgiving Day: a walk at Scotsdale Farm

Jack-o-lantern carving was a hoot this year. Ziva literally dug in...she loved the sensory experience!

All dressed and ready to get some candy! And no, her face isn't wet- that's the gross sparkle gel that I put on her face. She was the cutest butterfly...or angel...or fairy...