Trust

Not sure if I ever described how we cut Ada's finger and toe nail, but it was not an easy task until now.
With her using the iPad, I had asked Karec to see if she can cut Ada's nail, just the index finger nail. Karec managed to do that, but just one. So I asked Stacy if she would be able to do so with the rest of the nails. Stacy closed the door behind her. It is her way to tell Ada that mom won't get involve. She did it. Hum... how about her toe nail? Stacy closed the door and she got it done.
The next day, I asked Stacy if she would shave Ada's arm pit. This is the ultimate test because she won't let anybody touch that area for a long time. Guess what? It's done.
I remember the old saying about Trust. It is something you earn. I think Stacy just earned it from Ada. At the same time, Ada had learned about Trust again.
And we shall live happily together again.

Love, Laugh, Eat and Sandy

Sorry, I haven't written for a while but all are good for Ada. She is as happy as she can be. She smiles and laughs a lot. She gives us kisses and let me hug her . Oh, I really miss hugging and kissing her, it had been a while. Now that is is getting colder, we like to stay in bed, cuddle and laugh together.
Last month Ada's aunt came from Thailand for a visit. I had a chance to attend a Polymer Clay Retreat at Mammoth Cave for a few days and I had a great time. Ada received an early Christmas gift; an iPad, and she loves it. Be able to tab on the screen with her finger is much easier than pushing the button. She has been playing spelling game and memory game. Not that she can spell yet, but she is able to match the letter by dragging it to the right place. She also like to watch me solve the Art puzzle. Those painting from Picasso seems to catch her attention. We did took her to the Museum but she did not seem to care about those paintings. I think looking at it from the computer screen must be different since we are not sure if there was any damage to her eyes. Technology is great, isn't it?
She continues to eat Honey Nut Cheerio. We add some V8 and baby food through her tube. her favorite is pea and green bean. LOL, good thing she doesn't have to taste it.
And one day Sandy called, he wanted to visit Ada, so here's Ada and Sandy hanging out. They were in Spain at the same time and travelled together with other students while they were there in Seville. Sandy showed us many pictures of Ada and she looks pretty and happy. Sandy will send me a copy and I can't wait. She was happy to see him, I think. Never know how much she can remember, so if you have time, just come by and say hello.

Ada is doing well with her Speech Pathologist, we will have more sessions next year and we might get to see her twice a month even. I got into trouble last time because I was laughing at Ada. She pretend not to understand what she was told to do. I can see Ada tried not to laugh. Oh, well, it was so cute and I can't help myself.

She is happy and I am happy, can't ask for more.

On the sad note, my friend, Ting, who lives in Australia is not doing well. Ting always leaves a comment, kind words, words of wisdom and encouragement here for us. Now she is fighting with cancer and Chemo and I wish I could be there at her side, holding her hand. Hope you feel better soon Ting.

P.S. I just found a picture of Ada, sandy and another girl. They were in Morocco.

PT

Miss Ada walking with new rolling cane. Still need a helping hand but she likes it, I think. We will order one for her. It should be fun for her to walk around the house. Her PT and I came up with the plan to bribe Ada with Reese's pieces for each lap she walk, it did not work. Ha...ha.

Then we went outside for a bike ride. She still try to figure it out, but did paddle around the parking lot a few time. There is a handle to control the front wheel. A few adjustments need to be made before it works for Ada.

After all the hard work, we stopped for lunch at McDonald. We sat in the dinning room and Miss Ada ate a handful of French Fries. We break it into small pieces, but I am glad she wants something else beside Cheerio.

Oh, last nite, Rachael and Stacy took Ada to the movie. We thought watching "Jackass" would be fun enough to keep Ada in her seat for an hour and a half, but she was done after an hour. We will try next Tuesday, $5 movie pass, may be they can watch the second half of the movie.

We are trying to take her out more. We plan to visit the zoo this Friday, they will let the caregiver in free with disable person. Children Museum, on the other hand, wants me to buy Family Plus membership. Well, there are many other places we can visit.

Auction for Ada - Round two

Round Two will start tomorrow.

More information @ www.silastones.blogspot.com

Thank you

I can't believe it

Today we took Ada to see her PT. Her nurse was with her while mom and dad were talking with the Nuero Psychologist. It is a crucial time to get everyone together, be on the same page, same schedule, in order to help Ada continue making progress. I am so glad that dad went with us today. The plan is to do fun things with Ada, to make her laugh and learn at the same time.
There are many things that Ada would do with her nurse but not for me. For example, she will pick Cheerio from the cup and eat it herself, but I have to give her Cheerio by hand or she won't eat it. I always tell Ada's nurse that I don't believe it.
And you will never guess what she did today. She got up and walked with the cane. Yes, the cane, with her nurse holding on to her. It is not a typical grandmother's cane, it looks very high tect, with 2 big wheels in the front, 2 small wheels on the back. It let her push and walk with much more control. I did not see it, so I don't believe it. :)
Now we are going to PT every Wednesday. Yeh. Everyone is so excited about Ada's progress.
We also took her to Healthplex to walk on the tract. 8 laps equal to 1 mile. She is able to walk 3 laps now. We still use Guess pass but it would be nice to be able to get her to walk there everyday, especially when it is cold.
So, if you don't have a chance to bid on any preties yet, I will have a couple of round for the Auction later. Anything help

Auction for Ada - Round one

Dear Friends
Thanks everyone who participated in the Auction for Ada last year. After, successfully, auction off have of the donated items, I realized that we paid almost 25% to Ebay. I decided to run the auction myself through my blog www.silastones.blogspot.com. Here is how you can participate.
If you would like to bid on an items, or items, you can send me an email silastones@aol.com, to tell me which item you want to bid on and how much. i will update the highest bid as it come in and will email back to you as well.
There will be a couple of rounds for auction and each will last 2 weeks. I will then contact the person with highest bid to make payment arrangement. A small shipping fee will be added to the final bid as well.
If you have any question, please do not hesitate to email me.
And if you can help spread the word through your friends as well, I would greatly appreciate it.
The Auction will begin on Saturday, September 25th, 2010 at noon and will end on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at noon (Central time).

New feeding tube, new ER

Early this month, Ada' s feeding tube came loose, so we took her to ER. It was not busy and now, instead of putting the temporary tube in her tummy, the can put a new G-tube in there. Ada has G-J tube so we have to take her back later during the week because it was a holiday weekend. The doctor came in to replace the tube and we got out of there in a record setting time; 2 hours.
Later that evening, her new tube came out again, so we went back to ER. This time we met Nurse Ann who is Ada's ER guardian angle. Ann was so happy to see Ada, she doesn't work on the floor but doing administrative work in ER. She get a new tube and pulled a doctor from somewhere to put it in. I knew he was not ER doctor because he was wearing red shirt. Anyway, we got out of there in 45 min. Amazing, isn't it? They also have different size cuffs for the blood pressure machine and it didn't beep that annoying noise. Another thing I noticed was there was a time sheet right in front of each room where the nurse has to sign every half an hour. This way no one would be left unattended for a long period of time. How genius is that? Wonder if Ann has anything to do with this.
Next week, Ada will go back to Therapy, dad and I will go talk to her Neuro Psychologist. We now have a team of therapists and doctors who will come up with a plan to work with Ada. Everyone is so excited to see what Ada can do now.
She continues to make progress, smiles and laughs a lot. Her Speech Pathologist told us it might be time to introduce the sign language to her (and to us).
We take her out as much as we can. It is still warm here but soon it will be Fall. I am gearing up on putting the rest of the donated items on auction. Hope we come up with enough money so we can get membership to the zoo and Healthplex so she have a place to go walk in Winter.

Sunday afternoon

Just a few pictures of Ada enjoying herself in the garden at IMA.

Back off

We went to see Neuro Psychologist at Rehab Clinic a few weeks ago. Everyone there was so excited to see Ada. After a long conversation, I told her that Ada can express more emotion; angry, frustration and fear, and that she always look for me when she get frustrated with something, so I always get the worse of her. Dr. suggested that I "back off" and be her mom and try not to be her therapist. I should try to get out of the house more and let Ada's nurse work with her, which usually works better when I am not around anyway.
My problem is I just can't leave her alone, always thinking that there must be something else that I can do. Since she does not get therapy except with Speech Pathologist once a month, I feel like it is up to me to help her, work with her, but may be I am wrong. In order for me to be able to take care of Ada for a long, long time, we need a break from each other.
It is not as easy as it sound, but I am thinking about moving my work table which in front of her room some where else, so I can be away when I am suppose to be away. May be I can use the room up stair when Archie moves back to Bloomington.
There are a few problems that we have to deal with this past month. First, she doesn't eat that much Cheerios like she used to, so I have to replace it with something else, second, what goes in does not always comes out. Then she has the red eye that we thought from her scratching it but it went away then came back for a day, then went away again. Always something.
Other than that she continues to boss us around and we love it when she does that.

Grant

Grant, I might say, is the only guy friend who still visit Ada. He visits when he comes back to town, from Afghanistan. Grant's mom is a good friend and genius hair dresser, she can cut my hair, (Seriously, it is not an easy task). Ada gives him a big smile and he makes her laugh. Grant got transfer to Japan which will make us sleep better at nite knowing that he is no longer be in the war zone.

Last week, Rachael and I took Ada to the movie theater. We are not sure how long she is going to sit there, so we picked the movie "Toy Story 3". Ada likes the preview, she laughed and smile d up until 3/4 of the movie, when it was kinna sad and not so excited, she pointed to the door. I took her out, walked around then went back in but she was not happy about it, so we went home. Not bad though, she was in there for more than an hour.

Ada starts eating more and more Cheerios, but I still have to give it to her by hand.

Early this morning, I heard Ada laughed, I turn around and she was still sleeping.

Must be a good dream.