Last Saturday something dreadful happened. Our wii quit working. ;O If anyone knows what electronic obsessed geeks all of my kids are she or he would realize the magnitude of this unfortunate event.
Brent and I had been talking about a different game system for the big boys. Sort of like cell phones a couple of years ago, my teenage boys were some of the last in their classes not to have a PS3 or XBox game system.
Brent got onto Craig'sList and happened upon a PS3 system that had literally just been listed a few minutes beforehand. He called the seller and about 20 minutes later was driving home with said PS3 system. Wow!
Our boys were nothing short of thrilled of course. We had a system and two controllers, but no games. :)
Brent, myself and the girls were out that evening so we sent Tate and Cory to Target to purchase a third controller plus one, count 'em, ONE GAME. They came home with the controller, but wouldn't you know the game they wanted could not be purchased by less than a 17 year old. Poor Cory was almost beside himself.
We pulled into the driveway about 10:15pm that night. I hopped out of the van with the girlsies, Cory and Wade hopped in and Brent drove them to Target to purchase THE GAME. :) Mercy. Finally at 10:45pm that night my boysies had the game system plus the game they had been waiting for for sooooo long.
I appreciate my kiddos so much. With so many kids on a single income they have to wait longer than most of their friends for many electronic gadgets that most of those same friends take very much for granted. My kids don't take cell phones or PS3's for granted. Gifts that are such a long time in coming are very, very much appreciated by my brood. :) I wish we had oodles more money and way less debt so that we weren't always so dreadfully behind the electronic times. Until then, we'll continue to be content with what we have. Happy Start of Summer Boys! :)
OH! And by the way, Cory was able to fix the wii and get it working again. We have long needed two game systems as my sweet little Mallory has become as addicted to electronic game playing as her big brothers. Now we can finally have the boys in the basement and Mallie upstairs and EVERYONE IS HAPPY. No more fighting over taking turns (teen games vs kiddie games all on one overloaded wii system). I hope. :)
Saturday, May 26, 2012
End of School
End of school this year is the primary reason I have neglected this blog for five plus weeks. In a word, it was OVERWHELMING!
I have felt particularly s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d thin lately, moreso perhaps than at any other time.
In the past five weeks I feel we have accomplished quite a bit.
We survived drumline tryouts. :) We also enrolled Cory in driver's ed through the school. He's set to complete that in the month of June.
We were able to secure Tate one of 30 high school spots to be a volunteer at our local hospital this summer. He will have one four-hour shift per week. He might be delivering blankets to patients or filing papers in someone's office. Not necessarily fun work, but it is customary these days for kids who want to pursue a career in medicine to begin hospital volunteer work sometime during high school.
If I may toot my own horn, both driver's ed and the hospital volunteer spot required lightning fast turn around time on our parts. I'm pretty impressed we managed it actually. :)
We of course enrolled Quincie in summer school and got both girls into a Fairy Tale Ballet dance class. :) Mallie is definitely excited! I also searched and finally found a private speech therapist who will work with Quincie these couple of interim months. I wish I could say that all of these things were free. Why is there always more money going out than coming in? Eek!
I just completed paperwork to get Wade onto a city sponsored summer swim team. That will keep him busy a couple of hours per week as he wants to do swim and dive.
We also signed up for church camps for Tate and Wade. Cory is so bummed! There are two church camps this summer for the high schoolers, one in early June and one in late July, and there are two drumline camps, also in June and July that happen to fall into the exact same weeks. We really couldn't believe the timing. ;(
Drumline camps are required (the kids were actually asked about them at auditions and whether or not they could attend) and since we felt rather incredibly lucky :) to make the drumline in the first place we didn't dare to ask Mr. S for any exceptions. I sincerely hope the drumline camps are fun, because Cory knows how much fun church camp is and what he will be missing.
End of school for me then was primarily micromanaging the big boys finishing up their end of year school projects plus securing summer placements for all five of my kiddos. And I consider all of those things extras, because cooking, cleaning and caring for seven is still my full time job. My mantra is Maximum Maintenance, Maximum Occupancy. As I said in my last post, we are a full of people house, and not a day goes by that I don't feel it. :)
We are looking forward to our few weeks off of school but I also admittedly feel extremely overwhelmed. Almost all of the aforementioned summer placements are slotted for mornings in June, and I will definitely have a few overlaps. That means that Cory might have to wait on me to pick him up from North after driver's ed while I am across town delivering Wade to his designated city pool. Tate can help with driving for the most part, but he will be at camp for one full week in June and I really haven't figured out how I am going to manage being in two places at once. ;O Like every other family out there, we'll make it work somehow.
All in all, the 2011-2012 school year was our BEST YET. We were nothing short of elated / ecstatic / thrilled that Quincie was finally, after a rather long and painful road getting there I might add, in THE PERFECT PLACE FOR HER. She made many strides this year with Jo (our miracle worker) and Marcella (her designated full time para who loves her dearly). She is still dreadfully delayed for a child her age, but at least we are on the right path now. We expect great things in the years to come now that we are mainstreamed into district / public schools.
My little social butterfly Mallie is breezing through elementary school. Fortunately we don't have to worry about her. :) Despite a rather rough start and a few bumps in the road (like his best buddy Luke moving away) Wade seemed to have a good schoolyear. I still have never been so anxious for one of my kids to leave elementary school behind and graduate to middle school. Now we are one year closer. :)
After a rough freshman year last schoolyear Tate came into his own this sophomore year at North. He still somewhat misses his buddies from East (the high school we are zoned for) but has made several new friends at North and is firmly, even happily entrenched in his DS Science curriculum / group there. They are an extremely close bunch and school is fun for my eldest boy again. Did I mention his girlfriend is at North too? Enough said. :)
Last but not least, what a banner year for my Cory!!!! Making the East Drumline was simply a tremendous feat. We had several 8th grade band and jazz band performances that were fun throughout the schoolyear plus two school plays that Cory loved being a part of. Oh and I need to mention that both Cory and Tate ACED almost all of their courses (straight A's, many of them 99-102% final percentile grades), and several of those were AP / Advanced Placement courses.
It was overall a pretty terrific school year, and we can say that with some authority because we have experienced less than terrific school years. Lesser than experiences certainly make us appreciate when something goes our way. Hats off to another school year down. :)
I have felt particularly s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d thin lately, moreso perhaps than at any other time.
In the past five weeks I feel we have accomplished quite a bit.
We survived drumline tryouts. :) We also enrolled Cory in driver's ed through the school. He's set to complete that in the month of June.
We were able to secure Tate one of 30 high school spots to be a volunteer at our local hospital this summer. He will have one four-hour shift per week. He might be delivering blankets to patients or filing papers in someone's office. Not necessarily fun work, but it is customary these days for kids who want to pursue a career in medicine to begin hospital volunteer work sometime during high school.
If I may toot my own horn, both driver's ed and the hospital volunteer spot required lightning fast turn around time on our parts. I'm pretty impressed we managed it actually. :)
We of course enrolled Quincie in summer school and got both girls into a Fairy Tale Ballet dance class. :) Mallie is definitely excited! I also searched and finally found a private speech therapist who will work with Quincie these couple of interim months. I wish I could say that all of these things were free. Why is there always more money going out than coming in? Eek!
I just completed paperwork to get Wade onto a city sponsored summer swim team. That will keep him busy a couple of hours per week as he wants to do swim and dive.
We also signed up for church camps for Tate and Wade. Cory is so bummed! There are two church camps this summer for the high schoolers, one in early June and one in late July, and there are two drumline camps, also in June and July that happen to fall into the exact same weeks. We really couldn't believe the timing. ;(
Drumline camps are required (the kids were actually asked about them at auditions and whether or not they could attend) and since we felt rather incredibly lucky :) to make the drumline in the first place we didn't dare to ask Mr. S for any exceptions. I sincerely hope the drumline camps are fun, because Cory knows how much fun church camp is and what he will be missing.
End of school for me then was primarily micromanaging the big boys finishing up their end of year school projects plus securing summer placements for all five of my kiddos. And I consider all of those things extras, because cooking, cleaning and caring for seven is still my full time job. My mantra is Maximum Maintenance, Maximum Occupancy. As I said in my last post, we are a full of people house, and not a day goes by that I don't feel it. :)
We are looking forward to our few weeks off of school but I also admittedly feel extremely overwhelmed. Almost all of the aforementioned summer placements are slotted for mornings in June, and I will definitely have a few overlaps. That means that Cory might have to wait on me to pick him up from North after driver's ed while I am across town delivering Wade to his designated city pool. Tate can help with driving for the most part, but he will be at camp for one full week in June and I really haven't figured out how I am going to manage being in two places at once. ;O Like every other family out there, we'll make it work somehow.
All in all, the 2011-2012 school year was our BEST YET. We were nothing short of elated / ecstatic / thrilled that Quincie was finally, after a rather long and painful road getting there I might add, in THE PERFECT PLACE FOR HER. She made many strides this year with Jo (our miracle worker) and Marcella (her designated full time para who loves her dearly). She is still dreadfully delayed for a child her age, but at least we are on the right path now. We expect great things in the years to come now that we are mainstreamed into district / public schools.
My little social butterfly Mallie is breezing through elementary school. Fortunately we don't have to worry about her. :) Despite a rather rough start and a few bumps in the road (like his best buddy Luke moving away) Wade seemed to have a good schoolyear. I still have never been so anxious for one of my kids to leave elementary school behind and graduate to middle school. Now we are one year closer. :)
After a rough freshman year last schoolyear Tate came into his own this sophomore year at North. He still somewhat misses his buddies from East (the high school we are zoned for) but has made several new friends at North and is firmly, even happily entrenched in his DS Science curriculum / group there. They are an extremely close bunch and school is fun for my eldest boy again. Did I mention his girlfriend is at North too? Enough said. :)
Last but not least, what a banner year for my Cory!!!! Making the East Drumline was simply a tremendous feat. We had several 8th grade band and jazz band performances that were fun throughout the schoolyear plus two school plays that Cory loved being a part of. Oh and I need to mention that both Cory and Tate ACED almost all of their courses (straight A's, many of them 99-102% final percentile grades), and several of those were AP / Advanced Placement courses.
It was overall a pretty terrific school year, and we can say that with some authority because we have experienced less than terrific school years. Lesser than experiences certainly make us appreciate when something goes our way. Hats off to another school year down. :)
In A People House
I am borrowing this title from the incredible Dr. Seuss. :)
I was thinking this morning how well this describes OUR HOUSE. We are definitely A PEOPLE HOUSE.
For starters of course we are a FAMILY OF SEVEN. Five kids these days is a lot. More than most anyway.
In addition to my own five kids we always seem to have a plethora of other kids plus persons in our house in any given day / week. For example, my nephew Owen comes to our house each day after school until my sister gets off of work. So five days a week we see Owen and Aunt C.
Several days per week we are besieged with neighbor kids, usually asking if Mallory can play. :) Those days the doorbell seems to ring non-stop.
Another person we are incredibly fond of and get to see a lot of is Jenn, Tate's girlfriend. I think I can finally post this without getting into trouble from my teen. :) Tate and Jenn spend oodles of time together and our family simply adores her. Wade and Mallie ask almost every day if Jenn is coming over and are always disappointed if it is not a Jenn day. Jenn is also extremely good with Quincie and has even expressed to me that she would love to work with deaf kids someday as she truly has a heart for them. Wow! :) Its plain for anyone to see that in this season in our lives, Jenn is a part of our family and we are grateful for her.
Another person who frequents our house is Cole. While his wife Valerie was finishing her Master's degree these past few weeks Cole could be found at our house most Thursday evenings playing board games with my boysies. This is a marvelous gift that a parent simply cannot buy. To find someone we greatly esteem who chooses to spend time with our kids? PRICELESS!
On top of all of this we still love to entertain / spend time with friends. Almost every weekend we have plans with another family. This is certainly no small undertaking, but it is one that is definitely worthwhile. I am incredibly grateful that my kids have grown up in the company of several other families our family holds dear. We have absolutely OODLES of marvelous game night laughs and memories. Memories I hope my kids will tuck into their pockets and take with them when they leave our people house someday.
At any rate, it any given day there are a lot of people in this house. It FEELS like there are a lot of people in this house anyway. We love our family and friends and most days I feel I somehow magically manage to pull it all off. However there are other days when I feel I am not managing to pull it off. Days when we are barely keeping our heads above water and so many obligatory duties are scrambled together at the last possible second and...and...and...it keeps me on my toes. And then some. :)
We love our FULL OF PEOPLE HOUSE. Some days I just wish it was easier to keep it all afloat. :)
I was thinking this morning how well this describes OUR HOUSE. We are definitely A PEOPLE HOUSE.
For starters of course we are a FAMILY OF SEVEN. Five kids these days is a lot. More than most anyway.
In addition to my own five kids we always seem to have a plethora of other kids plus persons in our house in any given day / week. For example, my nephew Owen comes to our house each day after school until my sister gets off of work. So five days a week we see Owen and Aunt C.
Several days per week we are besieged with neighbor kids, usually asking if Mallory can play. :) Those days the doorbell seems to ring non-stop.
Another person we are incredibly fond of and get to see a lot of is Jenn, Tate's girlfriend. I think I can finally post this without getting into trouble from my teen. :) Tate and Jenn spend oodles of time together and our family simply adores her. Wade and Mallie ask almost every day if Jenn is coming over and are always disappointed if it is not a Jenn day. Jenn is also extremely good with Quincie and has even expressed to me that she would love to work with deaf kids someday as she truly has a heart for them. Wow! :) Its plain for anyone to see that in this season in our lives, Jenn is a part of our family and we are grateful for her.
Another person who frequents our house is Cole. While his wife Valerie was finishing her Master's degree these past few weeks Cole could be found at our house most Thursday evenings playing board games with my boysies. This is a marvelous gift that a parent simply cannot buy. To find someone we greatly esteem who chooses to spend time with our kids? PRICELESS!
On top of all of this we still love to entertain / spend time with friends. Almost every weekend we have plans with another family. This is certainly no small undertaking, but it is one that is definitely worthwhile. I am incredibly grateful that my kids have grown up in the company of several other families our family holds dear. We have absolutely OODLES of marvelous game night laughs and memories. Memories I hope my kids will tuck into their pockets and take with them when they leave our people house someday.
At any rate, it any given day there are a lot of people in this house. It FEELS like there are a lot of people in this house anyway. We love our family and friends and most days I feel I somehow magically manage to pull it all off. However there are other days when I feel I am not managing to pull it off. Days when we are barely keeping our heads above water and so many obligatory duties are scrambled together at the last possible second and...and...and...it keeps me on my toes. And then some. :)
We love our FULL OF PEOPLE HOUSE. Some days I just wish it was easier to keep it all afloat. :)
Drumroll Please...DRUMLINE! :)
I know its been a few weeks :) but I did want to finally post about our drumline tryout outcome.
Cory had practiced. And practiced. And practiced. We were nervous. We were unsure. And thanks to the band director :) we knew that incoming freshmen very rarely made the drumline.
Finally Monday came. Cory raced home after school, dropped off his backpack, grabbed his audition material and I drove him over to East.
I was surprised when he called about 30 minutes later. I had expected him to be a bit longer. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Of course the first thing we asked was, "How did it go?"
"Ummmm, not terrific," was my rather deflated middle boy's response. Oh. ;(
Cory felt he had performed the practice material well. Not perfect or even terrific, but well. In his own words though, "the sight reading raped him." :O
In addition to the 20 plus pages of practice audition material he had to have close to memorized, each student was given brand new material that he had to play on the spot. This was our Aha! moment. Of course the sight reading was not nearly as difficult for the upperclassmen, the kids who take Mr. S's percussion classes at East and are familiar with his music material. But to the incoming freshmen, who are not at all familiar with Mr. S's music material, it was a completely different story / experience. This is what Mr. S had been trying to communicate to me in so many emails. This is what he meant. Oh.
My heart was breaking for my boy, who was obviously upset with his audition, but I rallied and told him what he needed to hear in that moment. I told him he had practiced and practiced and practiced and had done all that he possibly could to ready himself for this audition. An audition that was incredibly tough by the way. Only a handful of incoming freshmen were brave enough to even take a chance and try out. I reminded him that we knew we were the underdog going into this. But I was so incredibly proud of him for having the guts to try out; and even if he didn't make it it had been a worthwhile and valuable experience. We had learned a lot and would be that much more ready for tryouts next year.
One of the things I love most about my Cory is his ability to roll with the punches. He wasn't thrilled with how auditions had played out for him, but it was over and he wasn't going to dwell on it. That's my boy!
Now the waiting officially began for us. I had originally thought that we would receive a phone call and find out the same night. Not so. Cory said that Mr. S had told them it could take a few days. Hmmm. Ok, I thought for sure we would know by mid-week. Thursday at the very latest.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday!!!! Came and went with still no news. I was beside myself. I think I checked my email every hour on the hour after his audition Monday night.
Friday my Cory came home from school and reported that the other Cory, Cory J from PT who had also tried out, had a buddy at East who had seen Mr. S's Drumline Posting. What?!?! This high school student relayed that Cory B. had made the Battery. We were jumping up and down but with a bit of reservation. Le'ts face it, there were TWO CORYS who had tried out from PT and we had not seen the posting ourselves. What if this East kid had made a mistake and it was really Cory J?
Saturday.
Sunday.
Monday, ONE WEEK AFTER DRUMLINE TRYOUTS, my Cory came home from school and said that Mr. S had posted the official 2012-13 East Drumline on the PT Band room door. Exactly one week later, almost to the hour, it was finally official. CORY BESTWICK, AN INCOMING FRESHMAN, HAD MADE THE EAST DRUMLINE.
Not just the drumline, but THE BATTERY. I have learned so much through all of this. There are two parts to a drumline. The Battery, the 12-15 kids who march with the bass, tenor and snare drums, and The Pit, the bells, cymbals and other percussion instruments that are on the field but are stationary, i.e. not moving / marching.
We were really jumping up and down when we found out he had made the battery!!! I will say that Cory tried out for a coveted snare drum position and he did NOT make snare. He is 3rd bass drum. But hey, we're not complaining. :)
I emailed Mr. S that same night and told him that we were excited! plus thanked him for this opportunity for my incoming freshman. Mr. S responded that he was glad we were excited and he thought Cory had played well. Coming from Mr. S that is rather high praise. :)
I did also discover that there were not nearly as many returning seniors this year as in years past. We know this is probably the primary reason that our Cory plus one other incoming freshman made the battery. We're not too proud to admit that that was an extraordinarily lucky break for us this year. But still, HE DID IT! :)
We are SO PROUD OF OUR CORY!!!!! And hope that this is only the beginning of a tremendous high school experience for him.
Cory had practiced. And practiced. And practiced. We were nervous. We were unsure. And thanks to the band director :) we knew that incoming freshmen very rarely made the drumline.
Finally Monday came. Cory raced home after school, dropped off his backpack, grabbed his audition material and I drove him over to East.
I was surprised when he called about 30 minutes later. I had expected him to be a bit longer. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. Of course the first thing we asked was, "How did it go?"
"Ummmm, not terrific," was my rather deflated middle boy's response. Oh. ;(
Cory felt he had performed the practice material well. Not perfect or even terrific, but well. In his own words though, "the sight reading raped him." :O
In addition to the 20 plus pages of practice audition material he had to have close to memorized, each student was given brand new material that he had to play on the spot. This was our Aha! moment. Of course the sight reading was not nearly as difficult for the upperclassmen, the kids who take Mr. S's percussion classes at East and are familiar with his music material. But to the incoming freshmen, who are not at all familiar with Mr. S's music material, it was a completely different story / experience. This is what Mr. S had been trying to communicate to me in so many emails. This is what he meant. Oh.
My heart was breaking for my boy, who was obviously upset with his audition, but I rallied and told him what he needed to hear in that moment. I told him he had practiced and practiced and practiced and had done all that he possibly could to ready himself for this audition. An audition that was incredibly tough by the way. Only a handful of incoming freshmen were brave enough to even take a chance and try out. I reminded him that we knew we were the underdog going into this. But I was so incredibly proud of him for having the guts to try out; and even if he didn't make it it had been a worthwhile and valuable experience. We had learned a lot and would be that much more ready for tryouts next year.
One of the things I love most about my Cory is his ability to roll with the punches. He wasn't thrilled with how auditions had played out for him, but it was over and he wasn't going to dwell on it. That's my boy!
Now the waiting officially began for us. I had originally thought that we would receive a phone call and find out the same night. Not so. Cory said that Mr. S had told them it could take a few days. Hmmm. Ok, I thought for sure we would know by mid-week. Thursday at the very latest.
Monday.
Tuesday.
Wednesday.
Thursday!!!! Came and went with still no news. I was beside myself. I think I checked my email every hour on the hour after his audition Monday night.
Friday my Cory came home from school and reported that the other Cory, Cory J from PT who had also tried out, had a buddy at East who had seen Mr. S's Drumline Posting. What?!?! This high school student relayed that Cory B. had made the Battery. We were jumping up and down but with a bit of reservation. Le'ts face it, there were TWO CORYS who had tried out from PT and we had not seen the posting ourselves. What if this East kid had made a mistake and it was really Cory J?
Saturday.
Sunday.
Monday, ONE WEEK AFTER DRUMLINE TRYOUTS, my Cory came home from school and said that Mr. S had posted the official 2012-13 East Drumline on the PT Band room door. Exactly one week later, almost to the hour, it was finally official. CORY BESTWICK, AN INCOMING FRESHMAN, HAD MADE THE EAST DRUMLINE.
Not just the drumline, but THE BATTERY. I have learned so much through all of this. There are two parts to a drumline. The Battery, the 12-15 kids who march with the bass, tenor and snare drums, and The Pit, the bells, cymbals and other percussion instruments that are on the field but are stationary, i.e. not moving / marching.
We were really jumping up and down when we found out he had made the battery!!! I will say that Cory tried out for a coveted snare drum position and he did NOT make snare. He is 3rd bass drum. But hey, we're not complaining. :)
I emailed Mr. S that same night and told him that we were excited! plus thanked him for this opportunity for my incoming freshman. Mr. S responded that he was glad we were excited and he thought Cory had played well. Coming from Mr. S that is rather high praise. :)
I did also discover that there were not nearly as many returning seniors this year as in years past. We know this is probably the primary reason that our Cory plus one other incoming freshman made the battery. We're not too proud to admit that that was an extraordinarily lucky break for us this year. But still, HE DID IT! :)
We are SO PROUD OF OUR CORY!!!!! And hope that this is only the beginning of a tremendous high school experience for him.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Quincie: My Chinese Bamboo Tree...Post 4
The Chinese Bamboo Tree is rather AMAZING. A hopeful gardener plants a seed. Days pass. Weeks go by. Months elapse. Even years disappear. Four to be exact. That's right. For FOUR YEARS the Chinese Bamboo Tree seemingly does nothing. Absolutely nothing. The enthusiastic gardener has lost all hope that the seed she planted will ever poke through that dumb hole in the ground.
The fifth year is the year of fruition. After four years of waiting and watering and waiting some more, the not so patient, frustrated, weary and even almost withered herself gardener watches in absolute wonderment as the sprout pops through the soil and grows. And grows. And grows. And GROWS. Right before her astonished eyes. In fact, the Chinese Bamboo Tree can grow as much as 90 feet in as little as five weeks in that fifth year. Amazing isn't it?
Obviously I am not speculating that Quincie will be an astounding tall Chinese woman someday. :)
What I am speculating though, what I am wishing and wanting and watering and waiting for, is that fifth year of fruition, because we are almost upon it! June 2012 will close out our fourth chapter year with Quincie and the fifth year, a brand new chapter in this Book of Quincie, will commence. I can't wait!
I realize that that fifth year may not be magical for us. It might be our sixth or seventh or even eighth year with Q-Baby before she is finally able to forge that path, brick by brick by laborious brick, and achieve communication.
It might also happen that there is no magic year for us. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen, but Quincie is still dreadfully delayed. Almost seven years is a horrendously long time for someone to live without the crucial element of language. Also in Quincie's case there have been speculations that there might be "something else wrong," some other developmental delay or learning disability that we have yet to diagnose.
For now, I am going to hope. I am going to believe. I am going to spin positive. I am going to continue to wish and want and water and wait for My Chinese Bamboo Tree, my enigma, MY Hello Kitty, sweet, compassionate, giggling, sunshiny and rather just plain marvelous QUINCIE, to sprout and grow. And grow. And grow. And grow. And GROW. :) Three years, ten months...and counting. Post 4 of 4
The fifth year is the year of fruition. After four years of waiting and watering and waiting some more, the not so patient, frustrated, weary and even almost withered herself gardener watches in absolute wonderment as the sprout pops through the soil and grows. And grows. And grows. And GROWS. Right before her astonished eyes. In fact, the Chinese Bamboo Tree can grow as much as 90 feet in as little as five weeks in that fifth year. Amazing isn't it?
Obviously I am not speculating that Quincie will be an astounding tall Chinese woman someday. :)
What I am speculating though, what I am wishing and wanting and watering and waiting for, is that fifth year of fruition, because we are almost upon it! June 2012 will close out our fourth chapter year with Quincie and the fifth year, a brand new chapter in this Book of Quincie, will commence. I can't wait!
I realize that that fifth year may not be magical for us. It might be our sixth or seventh or even eighth year with Q-Baby before she is finally able to forge that path, brick by brick by laborious brick, and achieve communication.
It might also happen that there is no magic year for us. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen, but Quincie is still dreadfully delayed. Almost seven years is a horrendously long time for someone to live without the crucial element of language. Also in Quincie's case there have been speculations that there might be "something else wrong," some other developmental delay or learning disability that we have yet to diagnose.
Quincie: My Chinese Bamboo Tree...Post 3
What we did was fight. (Thanks a million Monica!)
Since sign language did not seem to be working, at all, we decided to pursue again this elusive path towards amplification. I have blogged about this journey in great detail so will not get specific here. Suffice it to say that after an arduous fight that left me a crumpled heap on my bedroom floor many afternoons, Quincie received her first cochlear implant on Good Friday, April 22nd 2011. She was implanted by the same surgeon who had given us our terminal hearing diagnosis on September 24th 2008. (Three thousand cheers for those hypoplastic wisps of auditory nerves that were / are so microscopic and teeny tiny that the MRI could not even detect them.) We were hopeful. Again. We wanted to believe this would be our Easter Miracle of 2011.
Thankfully, it WAS our Easter Miracle of 2011.
Not only was the surgery / implant successful, Quincie was hearing better than any neurosurgeon or audiologist believed to be physically possible. Quincie then received her bilateral or second cochlear implant four months later on August 12th 2011, the weekend before she was to begin school at our district / public school as an excited and even quite proud kindergarten student for the fall semester of 2011.
After a (and this is putting it mildly) frustrating first three years we felt we were finally turning the corner. We finally seemed to be having a bit of luck. Were things beginning to go our way at last?
This first 2011-2012 school year in public school - which incidentally is where we had always wanted / planned to be but had been denied during the preschool years - has been AMAZING. We found the Annie Sullivan for our little Helen (Keller). Jo, Quincie's DHH / Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher, is truly OUR MIRACLE WORKER.
I have written much this year about EMERGENCE. We have seen sparks of life. Hearing and Jo and all of the people and services in public school have breathed life into our little girl. There has definitely been an awakening. Quincie seems truly ALIVE. Connected. A part of instead of worlds apart. We are more hopeful than we have ever been that Quincie will bridge this chasm and finally achieve communication sometime soon. In this she is much like the Chinese Bamboo Tree. Post 3 of 4
Since sign language did not seem to be working, at all, we decided to pursue again this elusive path towards amplification. I have blogged about this journey in great detail so will not get specific here. Suffice it to say that after an arduous fight that left me a crumpled heap on my bedroom floor many afternoons, Quincie received her first cochlear implant on Good Friday, April 22nd 2011. She was implanted by the same surgeon who had given us our terminal hearing diagnosis on September 24th 2008. (Three thousand cheers for those hypoplastic wisps of auditory nerves that were / are so microscopic and teeny tiny that the MRI could not even detect them.) We were hopeful. Again. We wanted to believe this would be our Easter Miracle of 2011.
Thankfully, it WAS our Easter Miracle of 2011.
Not only was the surgery / implant successful, Quincie was hearing better than any neurosurgeon or audiologist believed to be physically possible. Quincie then received her bilateral or second cochlear implant four months later on August 12th 2011, the weekend before she was to begin school at our district / public school as an excited and even quite proud kindergarten student for the fall semester of 2011.
After a (and this is putting it mildly) frustrating first three years we felt we were finally turning the corner. We finally seemed to be having a bit of luck. Were things beginning to go our way at last?
This first 2011-2012 school year in public school - which incidentally is where we had always wanted / planned to be but had been denied during the preschool years - has been AMAZING. We found the Annie Sullivan for our little Helen (Keller). Jo, Quincie's DHH / Deaf and Hard of Hearing teacher, is truly OUR MIRACLE WORKER.
I have written much this year about EMERGENCE. We have seen sparks of life. Hearing and Jo and all of the people and services in public school have breathed life into our little girl. There has definitely been an awakening. Quincie seems truly ALIVE. Connected. A part of instead of worlds apart. We are more hopeful than we have ever been that Quincie will bridge this chasm and finally achieve communication sometime soon. In this she is much like the Chinese Bamboo Tree. Post 3 of 4
Quincie: My Chinese Bamboo Tree...Post 2
And waited. And waited some more.
Four years is a long time to wait. I know some persons out there have suffered and waited much, much longer than four years. But for me in my lifetime, four years has been a long time.
For four years now we have simply felt stuck. Quincie's progress has been excruciatingly slow, almost non-existent. Its rather awful to watch time pass and see little to no improvement. Especially when you are expectantly watching your child, waiting and waiting and waiting to see if something wonderful will happen.
Now to be fair there have been wonderful moments and happenings. Even miracles. :)
Quincie had her third life saving open heart surgery in July 2010. Suddenly she was pink instead of blue. Quincie's oxygen levels were now THE BEST they had ever, ever been. For the first time ever in her one month shy of five years of life she had normal oxygen saturation levels. That was definitely a Wow! moment for us. We anxiously waited to see if this might lift the murky fog that had enveloped this sweet child her entire young life.
We were exceedingly upset / disappointed however when a fifth (and final) semester, the fall semester of 2010, at our state deaf school proved to be as fruitless as the first four had been. After two and one half consecutive years at school, Quincie still had not made significant strides or gains. In desperation we pulled her out of the deaf school and she spent the spring semester of 2011 home with me.
Those fall months after her open heart surgery / while she was in her last semester at KSD saw me at an all time low. It was only with excruciating effort that I was able to put a positive spin on our seemingly dismal situation. I was beginning to lose hope. That's when my friend Monica told me to push. :)
Monica is a cancer survivor / warrior that is beating the odds every single day. She told me not to give up. To push. To fight for Quincie.
We had to do something. Our now five year old daughter still could not communicate and was mostly oblivious to the functioning world all around her. She was worlds apart in fact. Floating along in a silent, happy, beautiful bubble. Disconnected from life. Disconnected from people.
We had to do something...Post 2 of 4
Four years is a long time to wait. I know some persons out there have suffered and waited much, much longer than four years. But for me in my lifetime, four years has been a long time.
For four years now we have simply felt stuck. Quincie's progress has been excruciatingly slow, almost non-existent. Its rather awful to watch time pass and see little to no improvement. Especially when you are expectantly watching your child, waiting and waiting and waiting to see if something wonderful will happen.
Now to be fair there have been wonderful moments and happenings. Even miracles. :)
Quincie had her third life saving open heart surgery in July 2010. Suddenly she was pink instead of blue. Quincie's oxygen levels were now THE BEST they had ever, ever been. For the first time ever in her one month shy of five years of life she had normal oxygen saturation levels. That was definitely a Wow! moment for us. We anxiously waited to see if this might lift the murky fog that had enveloped this sweet child her entire young life.
We were exceedingly upset / disappointed however when a fifth (and final) semester, the fall semester of 2010, at our state deaf school proved to be as fruitless as the first four had been. After two and one half consecutive years at school, Quincie still had not made significant strides or gains. In desperation we pulled her out of the deaf school and she spent the spring semester of 2011 home with me.
Those fall months after her open heart surgery / while she was in her last semester at KSD saw me at an all time low. It was only with excruciating effort that I was able to put a positive spin on our seemingly dismal situation. I was beginning to lose hope. That's when my friend Monica told me to push. :)
Monica is a cancer survivor / warrior that is beating the odds every single day. She told me not to give up. To push. To fight for Quincie.
We had to do something. Our now five year old daughter still could not communicate and was mostly oblivious to the functioning world all around her. She was worlds apart in fact. Floating along in a silent, happy, beautiful bubble. Disconnected from life. Disconnected from people.
We had to do something...Post 2 of 4
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