Sunday, September 30, 2007

Mismatched Outfit

A night before Dylan's returning to school on Friday, he pleaded me to allow him wearing mismatched outfit for his school spirit. I normally don't like seeing my own kids wearing any mismatched outfit, but since it was for the school spirit; I accepted.

Boy, he was delighted when I let him wearing mismatched outfit. He let his beyond wildest thoughts. He had all of his clothes set up a night before Friday came.

On Friday at 5:30 A.M, he woke up bright and early to wear his mismatching outfit from head to toe. He even asked me to have his hair mohawk up, and the other part of his hair flat ! Don't forget to take a close look of wearing his mismatched shoes!
But the sad part when I came to pick him up from school, I asked him if anyone mentioned about his crazy mismatched outfit for school. No one had mentioned it to him about dressing it up for the school spirit day! It broke my heart when he tried his best to share his school spirit.

Detoured Our Plan

We were supposed to go out to Pumpkin Patch for the afternoon with Dylan and Ryan. But I should have known better that it does not open after October. After discovering it was not open until later on this week, the boys were a little bit upset with me for a few minutes. They accepted my promise that we would take them to Pumpkin Patch next Saturday.

Instead of waiting for next Saturday, we went to Viejas Outlet, not far from where the Pumpkin Patch. It was the first time for David and the boys to attend the outlet. Instead of gambling, we just shopped and played it around the Viejas Outlet.

The first thing we arrived, the boys were excited to see the other kids were walking on a small creek. Ryan was the first ones to jump over the small creek and climbed/jumped on the boulder while Dylan went around it. But not too long after that, Dylan accidentally stepped his dry shoes in the river.

From there, we allowed them to play a little bit without getting their clothes wet, except their feet. They were good just having their feet wet only especially at 88 degrees! Not only letting them just playing and exploring their new adventure, we even did stopped by at a small Border Outlet, Kitchen, and KB toys! We even wanted to explore for more stores, but the boys can pulled us down whenever we wanted to see what the inside stores have! At the end of the long afternoon, the boys were already worn out from their short, fun and free
activities !

David's New Toy

On our first Christmas in our new home, we received an useful gift from my father and step mother until David's old toy worn out. Then, David was up to getting his long waiting for his dream to come true. It is a stainless Viking BBQ!

Frankly, David is so exciting to get his new toy especially wanting to make his step father, Richard jealous. He is actually looking forward to seeing Richard's eyes when he comes over to our home for lunch or dinner. Isn't he crazy and competitive husband???

Speaking cooking a BBQ dinner, I have to admit that he is a real pro chef! He loves to cook. On that night, he cooked thick steaks and pineapples for dinner. It was even equal going out to Chris Ruiz's Steak Restaurant. Eating red meat is not my top preference when it comes for a dinner, but whenever David cooks, it is REALLY delicious.

The next time you are in town, don't forget to holler David to cook you out of his new BBQ! It is a lot cheaper than going out to a fancy restaurant. We can create you either a casual dinner with the family, or a romantic dinner as we have a beautiful mountain view in our own backyard. If you chose over having a romantic dinner, our kids would be not bothering you :-)

You're Invited!

Kids' Funniest Comments

We often wonder how the kids come up with the funniest comments or even wondered where did they come up with the wildest ideas...it happened to us over this past weekend.

David signed to Dylan without using voice: I demanded you to clean your trains up, or I will throw all it away. You will never get it back if you don't clean it up in one hour!

Dylan rushed and cleaned his toys up. Then he spoke it back to his dad in signing:

Dylan chuckled at his dad: " See I beat you less than one hour!"

So, Deby, my sister in law, was right that he is a competitor.

Ryan was on the other hand. He is not even in a competitor yet, but he did have a wildest thought.

While we all went out to have a dinner at Souplantation for dinner, he tapped my shoulder and said, " Mommy, I wanted to sleep here for 72 hours!" How did he ever come up with the time of the hours?

I replied to Ryan, "We do not have any blankets or pillow to sleep over the night." Dylan soon jumped in our conversation, " We all can warm each other up over the next 72 hours!"

Catchin' It Up

Pardon us for neglecting our update blog news. We have been focusing on other priorities and have neglected putting up a post lately! Everything will be putting it up late this evening, so look out for the update posts:

1) David's New Toy
2) Dylan's Mismatched Outfit
3) Kids' Funniest Comments
4) Pumpkin Patch

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Down to the Wire!

Last Saturday, David and the boys were gone out to see the Red Bull Air Race Show at the bay area in Downtown of San Diego in order to free me up for a couple of hours. This idea began back in 2003, and has grown into a successful worldwide racing series. It also held on four continents and visits carefully selected, exciting locations around the globe. Thus, the boys and David were lucky to witness their lifetime show for FREE ! (It is too bad that my brother in law, Bob was not with them because we know he loves to drive on a small airplane.)
Actually, it was supposed to have a storm over the weekend. The blessing part was the storm was putting it on hold for the weekend for them, so they could watch the world best pilots. There were thirteen pilots from all over the world being a competition.

Before the show began, David parked his Jeep two blocks away from the bay. Three of them walked all the way to a vacant place, Shoreline Park not far from where David's work on a Navy Base. Overcrowded people made it even more difficult to find a vacant place. Yet, they were being optimized until they found a vacant place. The only vacant place was to sit on a huge black rock by the bay.

While waiting for the show began, they had a lunch. Shortly after they found a place and a lunch, the show began. It was amazing to watch the pilot from a helicopter followed each of the other small airplanes closely at approximately 300 feet from each other. All of a sudden, the helicopter flew too close to them which was about 80 feet above them! It scared them ! Lucky, it didn't give David or the boys a nightmare !

Then the other small airplanes began their contest. Each pilot must increase the speed over to 250 mph with 75 decimal. It was extremely loud enough to be heard, even for David, who is profoundly deaf. While watching the planes swiftly by them, Ryan and Dylan stood like as if they were a little bit of terrified. Yet, Ryan had mixed feelings: exciting and terrified at the same time.

The race continued for an hour, but the boys were being burned out after 20 minutes of watching the show. They were exhausted from the sun and sitting on the top of the rock becoming uncomfortable. Yet they were being good sportsmanship throughout the show and walked two blocks back to David's Jeep.

Besides of being exhausted of sitting under the sun, I personally think it was a worthwhile they experienced watching the world best pilots. It may be the only chance to watch the show in their lifetime for FREE.

Lil' Professor

On Monday night, Ryan had tracing shapes and letters for homework. Ryan was pretty upset that he has homework while Dylan already completed all of his 10 paperwork of homework, including reading five reading books. (It was Dylan's choice to complete all of the homework over the weekend, though it was not due until this Thursday.)

At first, we've tried to have either me or his dad to help Ryan tracing the shapes and letters. He kept saying in a full signing sentence, "No, I don't want homework!" It sounds like he is like another kids, who loathe homework!

Well, I had to find a way to convince Ryan to complete his two homework. Unexpectedly, Dylan volunteered to be a Lil' Professor. Once Dylan sat next to Ryan, Ryan went ahead to do his homework without obligation.
Dylan demonstrated the numbers with orange crayons- his favorite color. After doing of each number, Ryan traced the numbers with his second favorite color- green. Aren't they making a splendid team? They deserve to earn a goal medal for making "sibling team."

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Boys' Personalities

Both David and I have watched our boys' personalities over the years.

Dylan 6 1/2 and Ryan 5

The first few years, both boys have totally different personalities.

Dylan is the ones who has not changed ever since he was born: loves to chat with all kinds of people, including signing to deaf students at school sites. He has senses of humor, even sometimes he tells me that he has crazy thoughts in his mind. He also loves to read books.

Ryan somewhat keeps flourishing ever since he uses more language by having similar personality as Dylan. But there is one thing I can tell you is that he has not changed: loves to give others a hug. Don't forget to ask for his affectionate when you see him.

As we have watched our boys over the years, both David and I discovered that they have very much similar personalities. The only difference is their sleeping pattern. Dylan always has been a morning person while Ryan likes to wake up late in the morning.

Their similar personalities are: enjoying reading books/newspapers, chatting with people, and likes the similar toys. I guess Ryan is a follower while Dylan teaches his younger brother basically on everything.

Basically, we are enjoying and loving our sons. They are fun to watch.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Shut Down

Can you believe that the Water Company accidentally shut the water off on us? It was supposed to be for the next door neighbor, whose house was foreclosure. Not us!

We didn't know the water was shut down five minutes before five p.m. David panicking called the Water Company to find out what was going on. The workers realized that the Tech had came to the wrong house, and couldn't send the Tech man to fix the problem until the next morning.

On that evening, we couldn't take our own shower. But it didn't stop us from being clean. Guess where we went? Instead of waiting for another night, we ended up going to a Clubhouse and took a shower under the moon lit. Oh, it was fun ! I enjoyed seeing the boys giggling with their petite underwear while taking a shower. We even did take a shower, but with our bathing suit on !

By the time we finished putting the boys in their clean Pajama on, they pleaded us do it again ! Both David and I agreed that it was one of the cherish memories.

The next time, we will sing and sign one of my favorite movies of all times, "Singing In the Rain!" but instead will use the words, "Singing in the Shower" with our bathing suits on !

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Rocket's Soup

Have you ever heard of "Rocket's Soup? " I didn't either until Dylan created his own Rocket's Soup. Ryan soon participated the cooking activity. I thought it was very strange, but I did give them the privilege to create their own meal.

The recipe for Rocket's Soup:

2 bars of Chedder Cheese
Lots of Young Soypeas in Pods
A Can of Pork Beans
A bowl of water

After they collected the food ingredients, they mixed it together. Everything was ready to eat! Believe it or not, they dared to try it for the first time. Dylan thought it was good, but Ryan and I were chicken to try it.

I later learned that the recipe was coming from the Little Einstein DVD show. Boy, it amazed how much they took it seriously from the show.

Dylan's Proudest Day

A night before a big day for Dylan, I told Dylan that I have a something surprise for him. He was anxious to know what was it, but of course, I told him that he had to wait until the next day. That didn't make him very happy to know that I am keeping a secret from him. I knew if it would be worth to wait until the next day.

Today, I attended his school to watch him getting an award. Before he was getting an award, I was sitting and waiting for him to arrive in auditorium. He then was delighted to see me being there, but I figured he didn't know why until his name was being called.

When Ms. Farwell, the principal called his name for getting the Highest Academic Achievement Award. Unexpectedly, he was jumping up and down as if he was a rabbit in a front of the other teachers, parents, and students. Boy, he was so proud and held his certificate in a front of the audience. He returned to his seat where I could see him. The interpreters and I could see him signing to me, "Mom, aren't you proud of me?" Isn't that cute?

Throughout the award, there were several songs for the Kindergarten to Second graders. His current teacher, Mrs. Lampshire clearly is an outgoing person. She showed a lot of dramatic during the songs. Once it ended, she stated that she was so proud of him. So
am I ! Dylan asked me before he returned to his class if he would get something rewarding. I asked him what was it !?! I did expect him either was a new toy or getting a Jamba Juice. Boy, I was wrong. He instead wanted me to buy him more new books from Scholastic! Isn't that wonderful to know that he would rather to read books than getting tons of toy junks!?

Before he returned to his class, Ms. Farwell, the principal passed by the students. She was using the pink hopping because the school has earned more than 100 Parent Teacher Assocation (P.T.A.) members. Dylan, of course, pleaded me to pay for the P.T.A. because he REALLY WANTS to see the principal kissing the LIVE PIG if the school earns over 200 members. They only have 40 more to go ! In fact, she is soon to be married in October. Her finance' will be there to watch her kissing the live pig once the PTA earns 200 members.

As I was about to head for home, I was stopped and introduced by the President of the PTA. She stated that she volunteered in my son's class because she also has a daughter in it. Anyway, she told me that, "Dylan is a darling cute boy. I really love having him in my daughter's class. He is a fun boy. " It was GREAT hearing the positive things about Dylan !

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Ryan's 30 Days Placement

Well, today was a short meeting, yet positive. The special education teacher, general education, speech therapist and the principal were at the meeting. Of course, I had a sign language interpreter.

Before the meeting was proceed, the principal knew I was coming from Chula Vista had asked me if I am happy about putting my son, Ryan in a special education placement at my school district site. I indeed am because I have seen him lots of progresses within 30 days of school.

1) Special Education teacher indicated Ryan's classroom work: able to cut around the pictures and write his own name without assistance. Last spring, he did very little in cutting and writing his own name. Now, he is on his own ! Second thing she mentioned that Ryan is a very social and affectionate person. However, he needs to set up a boundary not to give "too much" hugs. ( I know I tend to give him tons of love.) Thus, she asked me to give her a "trick." I suggested her to find something that Ryan likes to do at school. The less he gives too much affectionate, he gets a reward and play with a thing he likes to do (for extra minute or two.) She also stated that he needs to pay close attention. He does need to continue to work on this part. Nonetheless, I did bring this subject up that he had made remarkable improvement: from walking out of a circle/desk to sit in a circle/desk. He even listened a lot better than before.

She even said that Ryan shows empathies. For example, when she declared to have him to do something wrong, he automatically would say, "I'm sorry. I won't do that." He even do both verbally and signing in class in a complete sentence such as "I need your help." It is so good to see that he is using pronouns.

2) General Education teacher also teaches Kindergarten. She stated that she teaches music/songs. Ryan did show up with good attitudes. Currently, he is listening to the songs-- same as for other typical kids getting to know the songs. Eventually, the kids will participate by singing the songs. The teacher knows that I would like to have him to involve by knowing the Kindergarten songs. Both special education and general education teacher know that he would need an extra help since I cannot help him on that part at home.

3) Speech Therapist mentioned that Ryan is making a progress. She is currently working on him with the categories: Food, Clothes, Animals, and Body Parts. He was able to sort the clothes, animals, but not yet for the food. He just could identify the food easily but putting in the category. She also states that he mostly speaks with 4-5 words in a sentence. Hopefully, he will speak longer words in a sentence. She states that he does have very good cognitive skills ( I later learned that it is very common for Autistic kids with good cognitive skills.) He would not rebel on anything when it comes to speech lesson.

4) Goals: Ryan's special education teacher told me that if Ryan's "attention" improves within one year. He would be qualified to attend a mainstream class with aide. Right now, the general education teacher with 19 students does not have an aide. It would not be worth for Ryan to attend a mainstream class at this time, otherwise, he would be completely lost. Let's hope his attention improves because I would very much like to see him participating in a Least Restrictive Environment.

5) My concern-- I brought the issue about the way he holds the crayons, pencils or pens. Both special education and general education teacher assured me that even with the typical Kindergarten students do have the same problems. The matter is that he gets a lot of help from the special education teacher's constantly reminder. He is getting there as I have seen him making the progresses at home. If he does not improve within a year or two, then we, as a team, would have the rights to be concerned.

So in the meantime, he is currently in a special education classroom until his "attention" improves. Then, the meeting was ajourned within 30 minutes after it started.
Come On Give Me A Kiss
For Good Luck!

Monday, September 10, 2007

Deaf Trivia

As I have read so many blogs, I often see the bloggers leaving cooking recipes. Unfortunately, I don't cook fancy as much as many of you sound like you do.

Instead of leaving the cooking recipes, I thought it suits me well by giving you Deaf Trivia since I'm a deaf educator. All you can do to give me your best shot answers. Then, I will give you the answers next week.

1. Throughout the history, many hearing people thought there were ways to "cure" deafness. What were they?

a. Take opium
b. Heat your urine using two dishes, and use the water that boils off, in the ear. The water in the ear will stop the deafness.
c. Stick a twig in the ear and keep it there all day and night until the deafness is cured
d. All above

2. Which country invented the first world school for the deaf ?

a. England
b. France
c. United States

3. What is the most common that the children born deaf during 1960's?

a. Listen to the Loud Music
b. Rubella (German Measles)
c. Taking Drugs

4. What else did not Helen Keller do in her life besides traveling all over the world?

a. Graduated with an Honor Roll from Radliff College
b. Wrote several books, magazines, articles for the newspapers, and poem
c. Teaching other deaf and blind people to read and write

5. What year did the Cochlear Implants invent ?

a. 1990
b. 1790
c. 1890

6. Does all Manual Finger spellings and Sign Language have the universe signs ?

a. True
b. False


Besides leaving you pondering whether you got your answers correctly, I thought I'd to leave you the Manual Finger spellings. This is the best way to start communicating with any deaf person you meet before learning to sign.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Special People

Some of you may know that my younger son has a slight disability, Persuasive Development Disorder, Non-Known as Autism. We had to move on and accept the fact he has a disability, and continue to work with him throughout his life.

There is no need to give us anymore sympathy because we have seen remarkable improvements in Ryan's overall performance: socializing, communicating, and eye contacting. The best gift of all is that he does have a sense of humors and very affectionate in MANY WAYS.

Not too long ago, David and I did search for a variety of activities for Autism Spectrum, we found one local one in San Diego. Our first and experimental event was going to "Annual End of Summer Family Party " with an Old Fashioned Family Barbecue to savor the last moments of summer and to celebrate the new school year. To our surprise, we indeed were lucky that there was a volunteering sign language interpreter for a full three hour of activity. It gave us a positive impression that the committee did try their best for not leaving us out. Since there was no communication barrier, we enjoyed chatting with several other parents and the people from the committee.

There were mild to severe Autism children from age five to fourteen years old (My best guessing) came along with their siblings. It did open my husband's eyes a lot more than before while I have seen daily at my school site. The parents joined the fun by watching their child doing the water slide jumper, indoor swimming, eating treats, hamburgers, hot dogs and all the fixings, and getting the door prizes.

The best part of being there were:

1) We unexpectedly won the Grand Prize ! (I chose a large tote bag, four beach towels,plastic ice cubes, and collapsible can cooler!) I thought it was a perfect gift because we used to either carrying our four beach towels, or stuff in our backpack.)
2) The President of San Diego for Autism has asked me if I was interested in giving a small presentation at San Diego Convention Center in October! I was stunned, yet felt so good because he told me that I had impacted them a lot because David and I are one of the deaf minority parents with a hearing Autistic kid. They were wondering how did we work with him, and how he did the most awesome personality at the swimming event. Boy, I would have to ask you for advice because I have never or ever give a presentation, especially at the convention.

Besides getting the positive experience at our first Autism event, we also learned more special events for Autistic children only:

1) Teaching them to Surf
2) Teaching Swimming from Aqua Pros Swim School s an individual instead of teaching in a
group
3) Going out to Day Camp in San Diego area

I image that I will open my eyes a lot more than I had anticipated.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Books

Over the Labor's weekend, we purchased books for the boys to read. Dylan had pleaded us to buy him two books which we never thought from the Cine-Manga Disney Book.

This is the first book, he read 72 pages quietly within one day. In the book, it has pictures and bubbles (conversation) throughout the book. The next day, he started reading on his second book, Hannah Montana. He is a half way through.

With these two books, it clearly tells me that he idolizes older kids, singing and dancing. Like he told others that he will become the next superstar since he practices dancing a lot of times. Who knows if it will come true? In fact, he likes to be the center-attention.

Ryan is the totally opposite of his brother. Though he loves to dance from Garfield's DVD, yet he would rather to read more about Science Vocabulary Readers books from Scholastic Company. These Science books are great because it involves tons of eye-popping photos with fantastic facts and captions. Ryan was not a quiet ones. He frequently would ask me Wh's questions. He just recently learned more about Lightening and Tornadoes ! Clearly, he would rather to focus on everything is around him.

Zack's Daily Routine

For three entire week, we volunteered to do the dog sitting, Zack for Cathy and Richard, my mother and father in law while they are away for their belated twenty-fifth anniversary.

Every single morning, he would greeted us out of his crate and followed us all over the house. By the time, we had to leave for school and work, he would be put in his own coop place-- a depressing place to live. But by the time we arrived home, we often discovered that he would shove the cage all the way to the kitchen/garage entry. Perhaps, he was hoping he would join the event with us.

Of course, we freed him whenever he wants to do except entering in our guinea pig, Fluffy's pen. They would often communicate each other through by cage-- it is funny to watch them jumping whenever they communicate each other back.

The only distress Zack did not like was giving a bath-- who else? Except he would be curious when our boys, Dylan and Ryan were in a bath tub. He would hop on the top of a bathtub.

While David giving Zack a bath and grooming weekly, Ryan would try to ease his tension. Throughout brushing his curly hair, we didn't realize it would take a while to soften his curly hair. Boy, wasn't I glad that I'm not a dog groomer? I would hire the professional dog groomer before Cathy and Richard return from their journey.

As a reward, he gets his favorite treat- raw carrots and going out for a walk daily. The walk did us good especially at night with the average of 75 degree at 8:30 PM in order to avoid the heat wave at 95- 110 degrees. Zack enjoyed sniffing who passed by while I enjoyed easing my "stressful" mind off for a while around our long cul de sac.

At the end of our day, he would return to his own crate with a white woolly heart to sleep with it for the night. Sleeping with his possession reminds me as Linus from Charles Brown.( see the top of the picture)

Sunday, September 2, 2007

The Truth Comes Out

Last Thursday, I attended Ryan's Back to School Night. I learned the real Ryan from the staff. After his summer had ended, he wasn't like him. His habits changed for better.

After I observed and listened the staff, I really like the teacher very much. It was a good move for me to fight it way through. While I was there, there were two aides (normally, aides don't come to Back to School Night, but they did), Ryan's teacher and a speech therapist were there.

The teacher is very organized! She does have high expectations.

The comments I got from the staff:

1) No tears or tantrum since the first day of school ! On the first day of school, he sneered but then the aides told him to stop. He stopped ever since the first day. When I told them that Ryan used to take off his shoes, and lost his temper, their comment was, "NO WAY JOSE' !" They were stunned that he is a totally different boy than a year and a half ago.

2) The speech therapist said, "The first two sessions, he wouldn't talk much until the second week. He talks a lot even saying in a sentence . He is a really sweet boy."

3) Teacher and aides told me that "Ryan is a very smart boy. He has passed all of his Kindergarten words." (It seems to be correct because I bought Post It from Wal-Mart for his age. I tested him (typical of me as a teacher :-) and found that he recognized 21 out of 50 words, but knowing that he can read more than that - especially from the vocational vocabulary words: open, closed, push, pull, stop and go.

4) There is no need to prompt him to go and play with the other typical kids. He just dashed it off to play with other typical kids at recess.

5) He does not rebel to write his own name, or even using with the two holes scissor without assistance. He does cut lines perfectly! Can you believe that? ( He now does not rebel when it comes to his homework !) Last Spring, he was only able to use little bit of cutting, but using three hole scissors. Now, he cut it perfectly in a square?! What happened?!

His works from Back to School Night show:

1.) There was a place mat. He showed few of the manuscript letters that he wrote it on his own.

2) He was able to make his own face correctly: eyes, eyebrow, eyelashes, ears, nose, hair and mouth in a right place.. He even colored his brown eyes and brown hair. (Actually, he looked the older kids up and see what they were doing.)

3) He was able to recognize all kinds of insects learned from his previous pre-school, and do it in patterns (by colors) for his math without a problem.

4) He was able to color the shapes correctly. For instances: color red for squares, color blue for circle. He did that on his own !

5) Match the constant letters ( h = hat, t =tent.). He got 8 out of 9 corrects without help!

I know I have seen the changes in him after he started his kindergarten. Today, he colored the Lightening McQueen (Red), Chick Hicks (Green) and audience (yellow) on his own. He even cut the 30 square apples perfectly and glued the paper apples up for his September calender. That was his choice to do this over the weekend!

He also did show and tell ( I thought it was the best thing that he practiced standing up in a front of the class from his pre-school class ) in order to help him to express his expressive skills, and even gaining his receptive skills. He nows reads out loud"Five Little Monkey Jumping On the Bed " perfectly.

On September 12th, I will have a 30 day placement. From there, she and other staff will tell me about Ryan's current performances. I will give you update information if you are interested.

Love Me or Not

Out of blue, Dylan gave me the lists that he loves me, except one in this bright early morning.

Five things that he loves me are:

1) I love the way you give me hugs.
2) I love the way you tickles me.
3) I love the way you give me lots of kisses.
4) I love the way you read me lots of books.
5) I love the way you play with me.

Except there is one way he does not love me.

So he said, " I don't love you when you made me born first."

It left me puzzle, so I asked him to give me a valid reason. His reason was, " I don't like the way you made me clean the mess up more because I am the oldest. " His mind sure cracked me up !