A week in the life of us

Well I thought it time that I braved the internet and wrote about our general week. We have so much that goes on and I would hate to look back on this time and not remember the fun and hard work that makes up our lives.
Sundays are family days playing together and generally going outside to eat from our wonderful vege bed. Even Zekiah gets in on the action and reaches up to pick silver beet leaves to munch on. Zemiel and Azariah search daily for the new peas and beans and eat them as fast as they find them. They really love the fresh food.
Monday are usually home days. Every day I have a goal of what work Zem needs to do. This week it is  sign language cards based on the book "The hungary caterpillar", speaking practice with words starting with the 'f' sound, listening practice (on what is called minimal pairs), recognition of emotions worksheets, plural practice, barrier games to improve listening, I Spy, and I try to squeeze in some math concept. Usually I tackle four activities a day but more if Zem is having fun with them.
Tuesday is when I pretend to be Daniel's secretary and do some shopping for him. It is also a big house clean day. Even with a small place, it needs constant cleaning. Zem enjoys using the vacuum cleaner and also enjoys putting washing powder in our front loader washing machine. Azariah loves to spot clean with a spray bottle and cloth. He attacks the spots on the floor with great gusto and persistence. Zekiah loves to follow around the vacuum cleaner and climbs to where his hair is blown around by its air vent.
Wednesday is washing day. It is also the day that I try to water the plants. We currently have a nectarine tree, peach tree, pomegranate, miracle fruit, cape gooseberries, blueberry, lemon, lime, numerous baby tomato plants, lemongrass, longan, geranium, aloe vera, raspberry, quondong, sweet potato, potato, basil, oregano, indian almond, malabar spinach and possibly some more that I can't remember the names of. All these plants are in pots and so require attention each week. I made some watering cans from old spaghetti and baked bean tins so that Zem and Riah help.
Thursday is the busy day. Zem has preschool at EDCP (Early Development Childhood Program), I drop of Azariah either to Aunty Ellie's or to Poppy Brian's house and then go to school to teach Home Ec. Once finished I pick up Azariah, then Zemiel and then come home to make dinner.
Fridays consist of going to the speech therapist, then to the EDCP, then home to get ready for sabbath. It is also my phone call day to specialists if necessary. I pick up Zem and come back home to clean up the house and then help the kids remember their memory verse for the week.
Oh - I forgot. I also tutor 2-3 hours per week in the afternoons. Busy, busy.
Praise God for Sabbath!
Anyway - that is a week in the life of us. I hope you had fun reading about it.

Daniel and the Lions

Azariah and Zemiel have a new favourite story - Daniel and the Lions. When the boys have learnt it well enough, I'll put it on the blog for you to see.

Big Camp 2012

Our family has just returned from our big camp in Townsville this year. We had a fantastic time! Zekiah has recently started to crawl and became more mobile as he scuttled around the tent. It was a great place for him to learn to crawl. Azariah had his 3rd birthday party and grew more and more confident in walking around the grounds. Everyone was his 'friend' at camp. He also adopted certain groups of boys and girls who be came 'my boys' or 'my girls' whenever he saw them or played with them. Zemiel also grew more confident in interacting with other children and coping with situation without mum and dad there to interpret for him. By the end of the week, he attended the kindy sessions alone and spent long blocks of time playing with other children without Sharlene or I watching over. Zemiel loved playing with the junior aged children who were keen on playing handball. He also began to climb trees at camp.

Some funny events happened at camp and one was when Zemiel took Zekiah for a ride in the pram. On the previous day, we had purchased some 'big camp' shirts for Zem and Riah to wear. Both boys had chosen yellow from the colour options. On this day, Zemiel steered Ki right up to the table where the shirts were being sold. He immediately reached under the pram and retrieved Sharlene's purse. He opened it and found 40c, which he offered in exchange for a yellow shirt. I thought he as buying another shirt for himself, but it quickly became apparent that the shirt was for Ki. What a kind boy he was to think of his baby brother! This is just one example of how gentle and considerate Zemiel can be, and is, most days.

Zemiel's Results

Well, I've been putting it off and I've also asked Sharlene to write this post, but she's refused to do it too. So it falls back to me to let you know what is going on with our Zemiel. Sharlene has been to Brisbane twice this year. She has found out some useful information about the boy, and some things that took some adjustment. Let me start at the beginning....

Once upon a time a boy was born to a family in Murgon...whoops, too far back.

Let's try again. 

Zemiel had a series of tests done earlier this year which culminated with a report being sent to us stating that he is loosing his hearing slowly and ultimately he will become deaf again. We should, therefore, continue to sign with him and pursue means of giving him signing support at school. The thought that he would loose his hearing hasn't been easy to take. There was also a perplexed debate between specialists as to why he hasn't learned to talk more than he has. Theoretically, he should have caught up by now. While all these specialists were left scratching their heads, Zemiel, Zekiah and Sharlene came back home. 

On the most recent trip, he again met with a plethora of specialists, sometimes twice. One of the results was that we were given the option to label him as either Autistic or with Executive Function Disorder. We also discovered that Zemiel's apparent continued loss of hearing was connected to the new mapping program  sent out by Med El. We reverted to the old program and everything seems a lot better now and Zemiel is responding better as well. Another result was that Zemiel is getting very limited information from his left implant and may be a candidate for a second operation. Instead of the Med El device, he would be receiving a nucleus processor. We'll keep you posted about that. 

So you can see that it hasn't been smooth sailing for our family yet this year. We are still not sure if he will be able to go to the SDA school here in Mackay due to funding. Who knows, perhaps with ASD funding he might be able to get more support at the school. The disparity between funding of state schools and private schools is astounding. In a state school he would receive an aide, an Auslan model as well as the teacher. In a private school, he would have the teacher and a part time aide.

I'll let you know more as the information comes in.