Our whole family went to Egypt, first plane flight ever. It went without any problems, only the return trip was tiring. For the airport security we’d had to prepare the pass from Medel explaining why Hela needed implant and doctor’s statement in both Polish and English, however nobody asked for those documents. Nobody has asked what are those things on her head either, there wasn’t any trouble.
December 21 2013
The trip was successful, the weather was great, very warm, we were sunbathing and swimming at the beach a lot. Hela had her speech processor pinned to her clothes, so sometimes it got soiled by sand, but nothing has happened to it. It turned out that one of leisure activity coordinators from Germany was a deaf person wearing hearing aids and noticed Hela’s implant, so they understood each other perfectly. Helenka liked her a lot and clung to her. The German lady took her to the playground stage so often that our daughter didn’t want to return to us.
Even though it’s hard to rest with small children, the trip was successful. It was very intense, but I think it was a great adventure for kids and some kind of interesting ?rehabilitation? for Hela. Playing in the sand, sea, at the pool, dancing on stage, watching animals and nature, the flight ? those were great experiences. One of Hela’s physiotherapist’s was somewhat skeptical about the traveling with such a small kid, but I disagree. I believe she should advise family trips into other various places.
January 2014 Hela can point at the right picture of an animal when told its name: cat, dog, chicken, duck, ram, horse, cow, elephant, snake, mouse. She uses onomatopoeiae to describe animals: cat: meow, dog: woof, cow: moo, duck: quack, elephant ? points at nose, ram ? baa, flower- achoo. February 2014 When asked to, Helenka can point at: eye, nose, tongue, teeth, ears, leg, hand, hair, stomach, finger, shoes, cap. She’s said ?Hela? a few times, but now she calls herself differently. Some of her words: Eat ? am am Kiss ? she gives a kiss Nie (no) ? nie Tak (yes) ? tak Daj (give) ? da Gorace (hot) ? aua Bach (boom) ? ba Sound of a car ? brrrrr Fish ? bulbulbul Trumpet ? tatata Glowa (head) ? glowa (While listening to a play about animals ? she’s showing animals by their sounds perfectly and very fast. Hasn’t made any mistakes. At the end of February Hela could point at every card with Plum Bear in it. She was able to do that after we played the sounds from CD, even when all cards were placed together. When asked to pass me a card, she gives the correct one, even when I put the request in different words, like: show me where the bear is opening something, show me where the bear is feeding animals, etc. She likes those hearing exercises very much. Every time I say we were going to listen, she points at her ear, goes to the CD player and sits there, pleased.
February 11 2014
Today we’ve started our two-days stay at Kajetany for pre-surgery diagnostics. In the evening Hela was already dressed in her pyjamas; she was pulling my hand, pointing at her baby carriage and saying: ? Auto, auto, brrrrrr? – she wanted to go home. She slept so badly that the doctor came to as us and asked what’s happening that causes her to cry so much. They gave her pain-relieving suppository. We were alone in the room. It was hard, but thankfully the stay lasted only one night. Next day’s conversation with psychologist was very interesting. She said that Hela’s developing very well and we really should reconsider second implant ? there was still time and we had to be sure, since the first one might have been enough, because the results were amazing. That got me thinking. I believed it’s worth to think it through, maybe it actually was too early? On the whole it was a nice chat. Now it is time to wait for the qualification letter from Kajetany, then we would set the date of the procedure. Since January, Hela’s had a new babysitter. Eliza helped her a lot with rehabilitation and playtime. She talked a lot, loud and clear, it was a great help for Hela’s development. She taught Hela a new word: dom (home). And Helenka was saying it correctly from the beginning. Hela knows how to put together one-piece foamed toy-puzzle.
March 2014
New words: – plane. She learned to say: uuu and to point at the sky – Agata ? Aga
March 8 2014
We’ve bought Medel Xs set. Hela started wearing it on her ear, or on headband. She doesn’t mind the ear part, even though it was falling off sometimes and it was hard to find it . We’ve paid a visit to Kidi kindergarten and talked about the possibility of signing Hela up there. The owner said there wouldn’t be any problem, they would accept her. We’ve received an offer to put her among two-year olds, because at the beginning there wouldn’t be many children, which would allow for better childcare. We’ve decided to consider it. We’ve ordered headbands from US, with special holders. March 10 2014 Unfortunately Elisa was leaving on 1st April, so we had to find a new nanny. New words: oko (eye) ? oko Drink ? bulbulbulbul Elisa was leaving to the US/ On 20 March 2013 we’ve found a new nanny ? Asia. Elisa has contributed a lot to the development of Helenka, she talked to her loudly and clearly; taught her first words.
March 19 2014
Our kid’s second group therapy session. So far it has been quite hard for Helenka, since most kids already speak lots of words because they are older, but Hela gladly tries to participate in complicated activities and plays. She follows other children and does what they do. I am very pleased with her. She is brave and very eager to play. After the activities kids had pictures for Medel taken. Hela was first to pose; she entered the set and sat on the chair, she’s was eating kabanos sausage and looking at photographers. Unfortunately we couldn’t make her smile, but she was very brave anyway.
March 20 2014
Headbands from US and Australia have arrived. Both ? very comfortable, Implant hasn’t been able to fall on the ground, only the coil was detaching, but I am very pleased, that it seems to be a very comfortable way for kids to wear implants. New word ? ogorek (cucumber) ? ogo
March 25 2014
We were planning Gran Canaria vacation with kids and grandma. I wanted for us to go there before the surgery.
