Back to (Summer) School

Got this great photo from Noa's teacher today showing her enjoying "sports week" at school.

We feel very fortunate that Noa has summer school so that her therapy can continue through the summer and its especially great because it keeps her busy doing all kinds of great indoor stuff when it's so hot and uncomfortable outside! As you may recall, Noa doesn't sweat properly so being outside in the kind of heat we're getting right now is just plain unhealthy. But she loves school and as you can see if having a great time bowling.

What Noa Did on Her Summer Break

Our Idaho vacation may be over, but the memories linger... unfortunately so do my ongoing issues with rotating video so that it posts on the blog properly. Oh well.

Well you get the idea of the one-hand walking from the photo anyway. Since coming home, Noa continues to want to try to walk holding just one hand. Sometimes she gets some real steam going, but balance is still an issue (I think she hopes speed will make up for balance but that only works for so long). But she really wants to make it work and our experience has been that once she gets it into her head to do something... she's eventually going to figure out how to do it.


In this photo from the fabulous Gold Folks hot spring you can really see just how long Noa is! She's downright lanky. She is really doing all the work here, I'm just giving her a little reminder every once in a while to arch her back "up up."

Noa also likes go from me to Ben, and then from Ben to me. To call it swimming with be a stretch, but we're working on getting her to use her arms and legs to propel herself. She has this insane level of confidence in the pool and keeps trying to go off on her own only to realize that she actually does need someone to hold onto to keep her head above water, but that doesn't stop her from taking a few much-needed gulps of air and then trying to escape again. She can actually stand in the shallow pools at Gold Folk so she was able to work on standing in the water the alone (and kneeling in the really shallow places) and bouncing -- and she really enjoyed that. I think she feels very free in the water - it just holds her in a way that air doesn't and that makes her more aware of her body in space which can be a challenging awareness for blind kids.



I don't know if this photo shows how tall Noa is, or how short I am!

4th of July Report

Hard to believe we're already getting ready to leave McCall! We've had a great time - and Noa has been doing some amazing stuff. I'm sharing a few photos here, but when we get back to NYC I'll upload video from her Independence Day walk with Daddy in the Park. She likes to do one-hand only walking now. When she does it with me holds one hand and then puts the other hand on her arm exactly where she wants it.

Noa has been enjoying lots of bike rides (sitting in one of those bike trailers). She makes a motor like noise - and sometimes insists that Daddy "go go" - mostly when he slows down because he's pedaling uphill. Noa doesn't like that. But she likes the more off-road paths in the park that are very bumpy. Noa has also been doing a great job in restaurants (as you can see in there photos). Of course is helps when she can sit outside and feel the breeze.
And of course... the hot springs. Yesterday Noa really floated on her back all by herself for a long time. She really gets it. When she would start to sink, I'd just touch the small of her back and say "up" and she'd say "up" and push herself back to floating. She even did some kicking, and some jumping in the water all by herself. We love the water -- it's one of the few activities that actually exhausts Noa without also exhausting us!

Noa likes saying "up up" when she is standing and pushing up various parts of her body - she gets that she has to lift up to stay up. Yesterday she also liked lifting her shoulders up with I said "up" and then letting them down when I said "down."

She is also learning to stack blocks - and is doing a great job (as you can see from the stack in the photo - though I did help her pick which blocks to stack). She can identify circles, ovals, squares, moons and rectangles on her sorting box, and loves putting together snap beads. So of course, all that keeps her very busy. She has had a little loss in some signs - signing more more more more, with no object - but we're hoping that some of that has to do with the fact that she is just focused on so many other new things right now.

More when I'm in closer, more regular proximity to internet!

Land of Noa - Vacation Issue

So after a month away from Mommy... the Noa ship has finally landed in Idaho (thanks to brave and tireless Daddy who made the cross-country trip with her solo).

Noa is HUGE! I can't believe how big she's gotten just in the few weeks I was out here without her.

I met Ben and Noa at the airport but by the time they got off the plane she was more worried about her wet diaper than about me -- though she had a moment of registering that it was me. She gave me a big smile and happy jump up and down and then told me "potty."

After all day flying, Noa was a real trooper on the two-plus hour drive up to McCall. When we got to the house Noa took two steps into the place, stopped, realized where she was and then did a very big and joy-filled happy-dance with lots of rasberries and cheering: it was clear that she knew where she was and she was thrilled. THEN to top it all off, we went to the hot springs - arriving at what would have been her bedtime back home. But Noa mustered the strength to enjoy about a half hour of swimming - then back home and out like a light.

In our first few days we've enjoyed the playground swings, chilling at the Bistro, two hot spring trips, a party with live music and a great new toy - a stuffed octopus. As I type, she is on a bike outing with Daddy - sitting in one of those little trailer things on the back of his bike. As you can imagine, she really enjoys the bumpy, windy ride.

One thing that has made the trip much nicer for us has been a new special needs stroller for bigger kids. It's very off-road so we can go on hikes with her (since we can no longer carry her in a kiddy back-pack; her feet would drag on the ground!)

So all-in-all, life in the Land of Noa is pretty darn good.

One Step, Two Step and...

LOVE this clip of Noa playing with her cousin Elecktra - just yesterday! This really show how much more interactive Noa has become. One of Noa's BFF's (and ours) Sheila, started doing this game with Noa a couple of months ago - and suddenly about a month ago she got the idea that she could do it to us - which she really enjoys. I think this is the first time she'd done it with another kid, and as you can see she really enjoyed it. Elecktra enjoyed it too and they played this game back and forth for a while.

It's hard to explain how wonderful it is for us to see Noa - at 6 - being able to play interactively like this! Just a case in point, yesterday there was a huge street party on our block; very kid/family oriented: bouncy rides, giant slide, face painting, photo booth, games, etc... but absolutely nothing for Noa. She would have loved the bouncy rides or giant slides, but grown-ups weren't allowed and since she couldn't do them alone she couldn't do them at all. You'd think that after a while, one would get used to the fact that your kid can't take part in these things - and on one hand that's true. On the other, Noa is such a fun-loving kid. It never stops being hard to be someplace where your kid can't be a part of the fun. Of course, on the third hand, Noa wasn't aware of missing anything. She loves the sound of fun and probably liked just wheeling through the fair on the way to the playground where she had a great time on the reliable ol' tire swing. And course, having this lovely moment later in the day made it a great day after all!

Jump the Fence!

Here is a great example of how Noa letting go of us and making her own fun! (without pulling Mommy's arms off, which is an extra bonus) She likes to do this at the couch too. While it may seem like a small, cute moment, it's really huge that she is able to entertain herself and not be so dependent on us to bring the fun to her - and it allows her to figure out how to be creative and proactive in terms of how to make stuff fun. It's big.

(note the guest appearance of Noa's Aunt Izzy in the background!!)

Standing Tall

Okay, so another long, dull spell on the Blog. But life in the Land of Noa has been anything but dull! Noa has been just soaring in over the past month. As you can see in this photo, she just plain let go of Jes altogether. She needs to hold on to stuff to balance, but is become more and more comfortable holding letting go of us and hold onto her bike or the back of the couch or whatever.
She has been talking up a storm, got a new big girl wheelchair - with a stander coming next week - she's out grown her walker and now needs a bigger one (she is growing like crazy).
We're also very glad to report that Noa will be able to continue on at Blythedale School next year! Because Blythedale is a rehab hospital school it's really designed for kids to be there for a short time (one or two years) as a part of their rehab -- but for a kid like Noa, what does rehab mean??? When will she be "rehab'ed?" In any case, she is doing so well there - loves her teachers, her therapists, the other kids, even the bus folks so we're thrilled she be there next year!