A bit sickly...

a bit of whining, a bit of puking, a bit of the nasty diaper thing, a bit of a cough, a bit of snot

a lot of sleeping, a lot of missed meals and snacks a whole lot of clinging

a day off tomorrow

then we shall see about Tuesday

One year ago today at Aunty Julia and Uncle Danny's wedding!

(after being in Canada for just one week)

About a year ago...a few of my favourite shots

p.s....6 weeks til March Break

Looking Up!

Can't go under it?

Well, move it.

Imagine the manly grunting noise that goes along with lifting BIG HEAVY items...

and the post-lift exultation...

 

Happiness is...a happy baby

(one more day til the weekend...can mama do it?)

Yesterday looked like this...

Today looked like this...

Things are looking up.

Tired

I'm not going to lie.  I'm tired.  Perhaps more tired than I have been at any other time since the wee one arrived.  The post MMR shot weekend of whining and sniveling (mostly Ben) and worry (mostly me) over unexplained rashes sucked the life out of me.  Dude finished the weekend with a scream fest in the car all.the.way.to.school.today...needing 20 or minutes of soothing at the babysitter's place before I could leave him and start the day...top it off with nearly an hour of school time; prior to school, my prep period and recess, trying to get past the answering machine at the flipping doctor when I should have been preparing report comments and I was fit to be tied.

Fast forward to the 30 min early leaving time today to get home in time for the doctor.  Arrived at the babysitter to find the mysterious 4 day old rash pretty much gone.  It went anyway.  As mysteriously as it appeared.  By the time we arrived at the dr. it was reappearing a bit.

Caused by the shots?   Possibly.  Possibly not.  One thing for sure, get the dude screaming in fury and it comes back in bright red.  Now it is in his file and there are no more mandatory-ish shots for a few years so I'm going to try to relax.

and go to bed.

and hope the rash isn't back in full force tomorrow.

because if I have to call for an appointment again and waste my precious time hearing the click of that answering machine over and over and over again I may very well become a drinker.

except my speech impediment comes back when I'm drinking and 60 bucks per half hour is too rich for me (though Ben is worth it)...

A Bucket Full of Ben

One year ago right about now sweet Ben was starting his first night of sleep in his very own home in Canada.  He had slept most of the day, in a variety of positions, so I wasn't entirely hopeful...

 

  

 

  

We celebrated one year in Canada this weekend by keeping an eye on a strange little rash

 

Eating ice-cream with friends

Playing at Auntie Carol's house

and hanging out in a bucket...

 

A year

From this...

To this...

Just the Facts

Weight
12.8 kgs or 28 lbs 3.5 oz, 50th percentile on Canadian charts (100 % on VN charts)
Height
85 cm or 33and a bit inches, around 65th percentile on Canadian charts (100% on VN charts)

very sore needle hole in left thigh and not so sore needle hole in right arm

a shared slice of fresh hot pizza
and then
a great 3 piece outfit (track pants, t-shirt, sweatshirt) for 12 bucks at the consignment store
(this is not the outfit...)

followed by a 2 hour walk in the sunshine where mama basked,
completed her "things to do" list by visiting a variety of stores
and dude fell deeply into a post needle coma

presently playing in a sunbeam
making a mess

while being protected by the fierce Boomer

A year ago...and today

Last year on this day I was sailing about on Ha Long Bay having the time of my life.
In Singapore someone was reviewing the wee dude's paperwork  but little did I know that the very next day I would have his Canadian passport in my hand. 
Glorious, glorius times.

Take a peek at my HaLong Bay recap if you wish:
http://wonderandwait.blogspot.com/2009/01/wow.html

In Today's news I received a tentative appointment for a provincially funded preschool speech and language assessment for Ben today...
in March...
of 2011. 
14 months, ridiculous. 

Wow, I crashed and burned...

A very small  photo recap.
Not only did I fail to post I failed to take pictures for the most part.
Oh well, my intentions were good.


Thursday night

Dinner at 8pm
Fried rice and banana
Followed closely by a night of restless molar growing sleep.

Friday was wonderful and worrisome all at the same time.
We visited with the lovely speech path that originally diagnosed little Manh's swallowing delay/aspiration/oral aversion.  I needed the aspiration situation rechecked because symptoms were very subtle but very much there...and expressive language, not so subtle and not so there.  I made the choice to participate in a two-tiered Canadian system of early developmental support by paying for this full assessment rather than waiting until May for intake meetings and perhaps another 6 months or more for action.  So off we went.  3 days after we called looking for available appointments.


Short version...

still very much aspirating.  Must thicken everything again.


a suspicion that palate differences exist and a referral to Sick Kids to a clinic with a really long name that when goggled sends me into a tailspin, causes an upset stomach and is now being ignored until it happens. 3 to 5 months away.


a referral for hearing testing at a local clinic...it will be covered by the ontario health plan and will occur in the next two weeks, not in May.  And questions about why 2 weeks exists one place where just down the road the same test is 4 1/2 months away.

identified moderate language delay in expressive language.  A great resource book called "It takes 2 to Talk" and a follow up appointment mid March at which time the decision to schedule regular language therapy sessions at 60 bucks per half hour will be further considered.  

normal receptive language assessment results.  If you've met Ben this was obvious I'm sure.


Okay, not so short.


Friday night sucked.  Dude is growing molars that just DO.NOT.WANT.TO.ENTER.HIS.MOUTH.PEACEFULLY.
Sleep was fitful at best.
Come morning there was blood on the dudes pillow and this lower gum looked like ground beef.
Poor, poor boo.
And the slobber.  Oh my lord the slobber.  Pouring from his sore little mouth.


We ended up canceling a long anticipated lunch date with fellow adoptees because it happened at nap time and we BOTH needed a nap with a previously unknown desperation.  I gave the lovely salad , made to feed 12 or more people, to the family next door with two teen boys.

Then down to the city to meet Auntie Wendy, Jude and Susan for dinner.  And we ate out at the Best Toronto VN restaurant I've ever visited.  Called "Hanoi".   Yum.  Ben could not get enough.  They claim to be the only Toronto area restaurant specializing in only Northern VN food.  Sooooooo good.


The server, from Hanoi (the city AND the restaurant), asked what we wanted and we couldn't choose so he suggested that he choose a menu for us, a few appetizers, a few mains, perhaps a dessert.


Yum, Yum and Yum.  We will go back.  And I will take a booster with an eating tray because the highchairs exist appearently but were under a pile of stuff in hibernation.  Perhaps I may have managed pictures of the food if the wee one hadn't been in my lap.  67 bucks for 4 adults and a baby and we couldn't finish everything we were given. 


And today...we celebrated this wee one.  

We are all so blessed to have this sweet baby in our lives.

She received this sweet hat as a gift...hee, hee...

I'm going to try to post every day but frankly?  
Life is going to get in the way again. 
and again. 
and again.  
But I will try.

15/365

Yikes...a whole day off because of an appointment with the wee guy and alas only poor photos at dinner to show for it.  It should be noted that dinner happened at 8pm.  We ate at Aunty Carol's at a respectable time, 5pm, but the Ben wanted nothing to do with dinner.  Then bedtime and he was starving.  So, dinner at bedtime.

 Crap, now it is past 12 and I give up...can't find the camera...

14/365...sad, for Haiti

Watching the news a bit.  And feeling so very sad.
I talked with my class today about the earthquake and we now have plans to do a popcorn fundraiser in support of the Red Cross on Tuesday.  It is hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that the average Haitian family has an annual income of 425 bucks.  One popcorn day in my low/modest income neighbourhood school can easily make that much profit.  2 hours work for 20 6 year olds and one teacher.  The inequalities of the world obvious to even the 6 year olds.

D and M, two of my littles, head out for recess after watching a few clips of structural damage in Haiti and following a discussion about fundraising and where that money might go...

15 minutes later D comes in and announces that she has made some decisions that will help the kids in Haiti...
first of all we need to make the popcorn 3 dollars...so it can be spent on more tents and lots of water
Second... Why are we sending stuff to Haiti in planes?  We should send empty planes and bring the families back to Canada. 

Oh I wish it was that easy. 

G wonders what we spend all of the other popcorn money on all year...good question

D assures the class that God is real and the Haitians are sitting in the street praying for a miracle and we are part of  the miracle so we need to make posters so we sell more popcorn

I confess...no pictures tonight.  I took some but frankly the dim lighting, truck pajamas, crap it's dark at 6pm pictures are simply not thrilling me today.  Blogger is being difficult and I'm getting [failed] every time I try to upload an archived photo...so I give up.

13/365- Vietnam, I miss you

Wishing for one of these...in the livingroom please...

This would make Ben Ben a very happy boy...

 

Brother's Cafe...SOOO yummy.

Vietnamese baby chub.

I love me some baby chub.

I miss it.  

During bath time tonight there was a slender toddler in my tub.

When people ask if the orphanage watered down the formula or ignored the wee one's cries for food I refer them to this picture...

 

I think I may even miss the traffic...

and the thrill of crossing a street...

and the challenge of getting a taxi that doesn't rip you off...

Vietnam, I miss you.

12/365...apparently I suck at waiting

Yeah, I know.

With so much practice you would think I'd be a master.

But, no.

I can wait for the baby boy

(painful as that was after seeing this on June 24th 2008)

but I can't seem wait for the support and help I think the dude deserves.

BenManh has been referred for speech support as his expressive language is lagging and he requires a followup on the whole swallowing thing.  Referred Dec. 22.  Of course he needs an audiogram prior to his speech screening.  The audiogram, with the ENT is May 5th.  Nearly 5 months later.  Haven't heard from the speech people but I've heard of people waiting a year.  A YEAR!  How far behind do we want these kids to get before we take a look and a listen and give their parents a few pointers?  Brutal.

So I chatted on-line with a speech teacher with my board of education.  Got some ideas.  A few games to play to get us past that hump I call MAAAAM..which meant pick me up pass me more noodles play cars with me and do it all right this second please....

We only had mom.  Lots of phoneme rich babble but there was no echoing behaviour.  Truck, the first word had disappeared never to be heard again.  The doctor was worried.  So MAAAAM got to work.

And now we have a bit of language...mostly copying, using the words when prompted...up, nana, bye-bye, nite-nite, more...I'll show a wee video of our progress as soon as I figure out why I can't upload it anymore.

And we have a speech path/feeding specialist assessment on FRIDAY.   THIS FRIDAY!  It's costing me.  The initial assessment will be completely covered by my employee insurance and then I'll have a whopping 80 bucks left to play with for the calendar year.  This is the cost of not waiting...and I don't wait well anymore. I'm not willing to wait for next October...Dude will NOT be taking thickener to his frosh week parties if I have anything to say about it.

Solids?  No problem...only the liquids ar tricky.

11/365 Sharing...maybe...

10/365

On the first day of our second year together I awoke to little Manh whispering in my ear...

pssssssss...psssssssss...pssssssss

A dude with few recognizable words this is a sound with meaning.

In short it translates into...

Hey mom.  Diaper needs changing.  I peed.

Okay, fine.  He is always wet when he gets up.  I didn't give it another thought.  Drifted back to dreamland.

Finally, the whispering was getting to me 15 minutes or so later when the slight draft of the pssssss entered my ear canal again.

Reached for my favourite little person in the world.  Gasped.  Dragged my eyes open.

And I've been doing laundry ever since.

He was wet.  From his toes to his neck.  The sheets, mattress cover, pillows, a couple of stuffed toys...

Oh my.

Note to self:

If you go out to celebrate Ben Day...

and Ben fusses a bit so gets his night-night bottle at 5pm...

and then enjoys showing off his new straw skills with water and orange juice...

and then you order him another bottle to enjoy on the way home...

chances are good that the diaper's capacity will be tested.

Pampers failed the Ben Day test.

While the sheets were drying we headed out to the park.

It is sunny and slightly less cold than it has been for the what seems like an eternity.

9/365 Happy Ben Day

Click Here 
The link takes you to 1 year ago.

365 days...where did it go?

Bright and not too early Ben and I will begin our second year together.
The wind is howling.  The temperature is plummeting. I predict a lazy pyjama day of tea and trucks.  Thickened milk and early moring cartoons.  Toast and jam for me and a nice cold very large pear, peeled and sliced for the dude.  Cheerio chaser.  A bit of water in the new fancy Diego straw cup.  More trucks.  Some trains.  And maybe, if things go above -20 degrees celcius a dog walk, a romp in the fluffy snow and a trip to the local grocery store.  And a nap.  A "long cold day flannel sheets and duvet kind of nap" nap.  Together, on Ben's Day...he gets to make most of the choices.

Tomorrow evening we are celebrating our year together with many special ladies.  Some of them are new mommies to sweet babies.  Some of them are waiting to travel to meet their sweet babies.  Some of them have not yet spent an entire afternoon memorizing every single detail in a grainy photocopy of their child's first photo, a photo they eagerly anticipate...but they are wishing, wondering and waiting.  Like I was. 

And Auntie Kristen is joining us for dinner.  Who better to celebrate year one than Ben's very first girlfriend.  A girlfriend from that very day, 365 days ago.

I'll add photos I'm sure but here is a wee photo essay by the BenManh himself demonstrating how he plans to spend his special day...  Enjoy.