Just a few fun photos from our first full day of vacation - including the Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck. Noa is finally big enough to ride some of the rides... so Mommy and Daddy had to step up the plate and take her on some. Noa had a terrific time! The first two photos are from the Wacky Worm roller coaster which was by far the favorite. She could have stayed on that all day. It was kind of a tweener coaster - more rollicking then the toddler stuff, but not too wild. The perfect starter coaster (and frankly just about Mommy's speed). She also loved the Spider ride - we went on the toddler version of that and that was plenty for Mommy. That thing can really spin!!!

Daddy took Noa on the Merry-go-round - which was a big thrill (and the first ride) but I think after having experienced the roller coaster she would find it a bit lame. And he took her on the Bumper Cars - we have some photos but because Noa is so short and always looking down, he just appears to be on the ride with a hairy melon under this arm.

We have some video which I'll post later (not really able to do that from vacaction land).

Noa has been very vocal on this trip and did a lot of singing along with the radio in the car (the untrained ear it may just sound like screaming for some terrible vocal warm-up - but it was singing). She loves being the car - and we took her to the market for the shopping cart ride (and she allowed us to buy groceries) - so we all get a little something from it all.

On Wednesday we take Noa on the next big new adventure: Zoom Flume! But for now, I don't think she can imagine it getting any better.

And Away We Go!

It has been an exciting month for Ms. Noa... and promises to get more exciting next week when we go on our official family vacation which will include 3-days and 2-nights at Zoom Flume Water Park in East Durham, New York!!!

I wish had more video to post, but this gives you an into to Noa's new turn as "Ms. Independent." She wants to do everything herself (which frankly can be a lot of work for the rest of us!) She pulls up her diaper, and then her pants, after using the potty. She wants to get into bed and out of bed herself, and pull herself up out of her chair. She wants to walk everywhere - and no touching please! Gosh, Mommy what are you an Octopus? Then of course when she realizes that she can't stand, then Mommy is okay... as long as she knows her place.

She is also very interested in who initiated an action. For example - if she wants to get out of her chair, she will fuss and whine if try to hold her hand - she wants me to wait until she reaches out her hand for me. And she can be very stubborn about it. Yesterday she sat in her stroller for 15 minutes just considering whether or not she should give me permission to unbuckle her and pick her up. We also have had some rather long stand-offs over putting on pants or diapers.

Noa has been on break from school for the past two weeks and we've been doing a lot of walking at home - and realizing that she probably doesn't do as much walking at school as she does when she is home. This makes sense - they only have some much time to take kids from one activity to another at school, but we're actually noticed for the first time that she is building up some calf muscles! The bike of course helps - she loves riding it around the garden and just the action (even if she isn't initiating the pedaling) is a good work out for her.

Fun with Water

Well... someone just figured out how to make washing hands just a bit more fun... and my bathroom will never be dry again!

As you can see, the little muchkin has pretty much recovered from the trauma of her trip to the ER earlier this week. Aside from a bit of black and blue on the chin, there isn't a trace of it. And after a couple of cautious days, she seems to be back to her reckless, throw-me-in-the-air self, let-me-hit-my-head-on-that-wall self which is good to see.

Her newest trick is taking off and pulling on her clothes. The other night, she heard us running the bath and boy was she out of those clothes fast: shirt, pants, shoes, socks, everything! And she loves helping us pull up her pull-up diaper and her pants. After every successful pull she stops, applauds and yells "yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah" as loud as she can.

After the Fall

Here's the little champ the morning after. You can't really see the impressive black and blue-ness under the chin but I think you get the idea. And her expression kind of says it all.

She got a pretty good night's sleep and woke up pretty happy... until she realized that, yes, she was going to school. But I explained to her that she had to be brave and face that silly bully and show him that he didn't slow her down. She kinda, sorta bought it.

Hopefully her confidence will bounce back pretty quickly. I'd hate to see her slowed down just when she was making so many great advances. In fact, I was at the school less than a week ago talking to her speech/feeding team and it was great.

After almost a year of us insisting that Noa was further ahead than they thought she was, that the "goals" they set for her were too low, that she is ready and hungry for more... I find myself sitting across from a sign language teacher who - after three weeks of working with her - is informing me that Noa is ahead of where "everyone" thought she was, the goals she set for her were too low, Noa is ready and hungry for more. Yes! Thank You! Finally!!!!

The part of the meeting was when the teacher said of Noa, she is telling me where she wants to go. The teacher is keeping a complete record of the work she is doing with Noa. Her understanding from the Bd of Ed's audiologist is that that what they need to do is prove that sign is an issue of expressive language for Noa (not a hearing issue) - if there was any doubt before, and I'm sensing from the meeting that I had at school that there was some doubt, there is no doubt now that this is the way Noa needs to learn.

In fact, as I pointed out at the meeting, the few words that Noa seems to be approximating with any sense of meaning are words for which she has signs. The signs come first.

But for today, we're on a mission to help our little big-lip regain her confidence and get that infectious smile back!

Rough Day in The Land of Noa

Well, a rough day in the Land of Noa: Noa's first trip to the emergency room. Considering the fact that she is 4 1/2, I think that's not so bad really!


She got pushed off a chair at school by another child and hit her mouth & chin on the floor - her teeth cut the inside of her mouth (and tore that little bit between the top of the gums and the lips - you can feel it with your tongue on the top of your own gums, yeah right there). There was a lot of blood at first, and a lot of crying and a trip in an ambulance - which I think she was too upset and finally exhausted to enjoy.

The little red mark on the bridge of her nose isn't from the fall, but she does seem to have a bump just below it which is from the fall. We'll be seeing some black and blue, no doubt.

Noa was a champ at the hosptial. She cried when the doctor looked in her mouth, but I told her it would only be for 10 seconds, and so she put up with it as well as could be expected.

So apparently, this kid in her class likes pushing kids. Normally he picks on a different kid but his M.O. seems to be pushing kids that are easy push and if he gets a big reaction... all the better. So I'm guessing that Noa is now on the top of this kid's list. Luckily, the there was already a plan to meet with the kid's parents about his behavior - so that's already going to happen. I could tell you all more, but for privacy reasons I'll just leave it there. That particular kid aside, we were concerned about Noa being in chairs without arms because of her lack of balance... and this incident just exemplifies why.

So, Noa is home and fine - pensive, but fine. Fat-lipped, but fine. Exhausted, subdued, but glad to be out of the hospital. These photos are from the trip home. Looking at her face it's almost as if you can see that's she had one of those "growing up" experiences where suddenly the world feels just a bit less innocent and care-free.

Hands

Okay, trying again to upload the video of Noa playing with Grampy's hands... and success!

You can see how she really takes her time exploring every aspect of his hands. And she'd already been doing this for some time before my mom started taking the video.

I've been reading Helen Keller's autobiography, which is a great read by the by - that woman had the MOST amazing memory, and it's been very help for me just in terms of understanding how important these moments of connection are for her, and how thrilling!

Noa feels things that we don't notice. She gets more from feeling someone's hand than we can probably imagine: she knows people by the veins on their hands, and boy she can find a nerve and push on it (in fact she finds this very amusing as it always gets a reaction). Of course it's not just hands. You can take nearly any toy of her's and touch it to any part of her body - and she knows which toy it is. You can tap nearly toy of hers on a table and she knows which one it is.

Long story short, once she gets to know someone's hand, she gets the same thrill from that hand that we might get from seeing a favorite person walk into the room. So learning grampy's hand is a great investment in future happiness!

Biker Babe!

Okay, okay - a lot of posts in one day, but so much to report! Check out Noa on her fabulous new bike which she got thanks so a special program through Rusk Institute to get bikes to special needs kids (thanks Julie for making it happen!)

As you can see Noa LOVES her bike! In fact, she learned the sign for bike in about 1 minute flat!

The pedals move when the bike moves (unlike the tricycles we've tried in the past) so that she learns that moving her feet makes the bike go - and it's great exercise for her legs. There is a bar in the back that lets us steer it.

She loves the little tiger's head which squeaks when you squeeze it - and there is a little purple bell on the side of the handle bars that she is getting the hang of. The only problem with the bike is that it is soooo cool that all the other kids on the playground want to ride it - and it's tough to explain that we can't let other kids ride it. I'm sure we could do it with one kid or two, but the playground is packed with kids and this bike is too expensive and frankly, not for climbing on... so tough to be cool and popular.

In other signing news -- Noa has been signing up a storm!

She learned the sign for different in the matter of a few days. She uses it when she wants a different flavor of food - we'll start trying to use it soon for different toys, or different music, whatever.

She's also been very interested in signing letters - not that she knows what they mean, but she gets that they are meaningful. In Arizona Ben was doing some letters into her hand and she would feel the letter very intently and then try it with her own hand. I've been singing the alphabet song to her while signing the alphabet for her and she really enjoys that - and spelling her name into her hand.

If you think about it - we all learned the alphabet song without really getting what all the letters are for (which kind of explains the "El-eh-meno-pee" section which eventually learn is L-M-N-O-P) so her trying it out is just like any other kid trying out sounds or fun songs without worrying about the meaning.

Though in Arizona she did learn the sign for swim - until we'd just used the bath sign, but as I learn more, I try to help her learn more as well.

Today, Melissa signed "I Love You" to Noa and Noa did the sign back. It was pretty darn cute!!!

Noa is VERY clearly interested in more signs -

AND as she becomes more interested in signs, she is making more sounds as well. She continues with the "j-yes" and this week we got a lot of "nice" and "in-dee." But rather than making us feel like we should focus more on speech, it makes us feel like we should continue to focus on the signs - because those are what gets her attention, and the sounds, if they do come, come after and seemingly as a result of having learned a sign.