Wednesday 1-30-08

Here are the pictures of Calvin's chair, which arrived last week.

He's getting used to it, spending gradually more and more time in it for play and feeding. He gets in about 20 minutes a day right now.

He's learned a classic two year old's game of "drop that thing on the floor" -- he takes a toy that's been placed on the chair's tray, lifts it over the side and drops it noisily onto the floor below ... over and over again.... He was playing it with me in the car today, too, with his pacifier.

It's another positive sign of intelligence, and his wacky sense of humor. The ability to grasp and then release at will is a really good thing, plus he knows he's playing a game.

Things are going well at my schools. Right now I'm teaching my main bunch of hours at the school in Tainan, Classtime English School, about 7 minutes from our place. Plus, a two week morning Winter Class in the harbour town of AnPing, about 30 minutes away by scooter. The same place we went for Ukranian Christmas, called A Yen for Learning.

Eli and Rhiannon are taking the classes at Yen in the morning, which they're really enjoying. They even willingly get out of bed at 7:30 to go with me. They'll be going to classes at Yen regularly after Chinese New Year.

Eli finished his term at Public School, but it just wasn't working out for us. The classes were too big, he came home with stress issues and he just wasn't the same kid. So, we're back to home schooling plus buxiban. He's a lot more relaxed since we took him out of Public School, more able to focus on things, less prone to argument...

After Chinese New Year, Gosia'll be teaching at Yen four days a week. The Taiwanese administrator/cook/everything woman who works there was a nurse, so she'll be able to care for Calvin while Gosia's teaching, and the kids can take classes. Well, that's all for this Wednesday, next post will be on Sunday!

Tuesday, January 29th

Hello, All... the past two weeks I've been working extra hours in the mornings over Winter Break, so no time at home, really. No time to post. Plus my afternoon hours kick in after Chinese New Year, so I've decided to do the blog on Sundays and Wednesdays... I have more time those days...

So, Tomorrow-- pictures of the high chair!

Today, two of Eli (Mr. Don't Take a Picture of Me) with Calvin.

On and on...

Little by little I'll get more about Calvin, etc up here... I've caught another cold, so hitting the right little buttons seems like a challenge... Calvin's kidneys are functioning at a level where right now he won't need dialysis.

They are about 5cm which are small for a child of his age -- they should be about 6cm. On scans, both of his kidneys appear white in color when they should appear black or dark gray.

One great thing about hospitals here is that when you go get the scan, it's preformed by the doctor that you actually need to see, not someone entirely unrelated to his treatment. It's a huge difference... even just cutting out the waiting time between getting the scan and seeing the appropriate doctor...

So, his kidneys also have "bumps" but the neurologist is unsure whether they are calcified areas or deadened areas caused by the asphyxia at birth. No way to know for sure unless they cut him open and look inside. And because Calvin is not growing right now his kidneys are functioning at a level that can support his little body -- but as he grows, function will worsen.

The best case scenario is that they'll last him until he's a young teenager, and he'll be old enough to handle dialysis or possibly a transplant.

His high chair is almost finished -- he had the final fitting last Thursday, so we should have it in a week or so.

I'll post pictures when he has it...

He's doing well at his sippy cup -- he can drink better out of that right now than his bottle. He's still a little choppy with it, but getting better. He despises his formula and outright refuses to drink it... water, he'll drink a gallon of, but not formula -- which isn't great because water alone can increase seizures. He already has too much water in his brain... We're going to try and switch him to cow's/soy milk and see how that goes...

Eli's doing well enough. His big event was pink eye...

Rhiannon's just Rhiannon...

I suppose that's all for now.....

No, I haven't forgotten....

Lots going on these past few days, so I just haven't had a chance to sit down at the computer...

Over the weekend we hope to sit down and type out all we've learned about Calvin in the last two weeks....

Ukrainian Christmas

Here are some pictures from Ukrainian Christmas at one of my schools. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on the 6th, when the Catholic Church celebrates the Feast of the Epiphany. So, one of my bosses, who is of Ukrainian descent, held the traditional Christmas dinner at her school for the children and their parents.
I got to be Santa (heresy of heresies), which meant that the Taiwanese kid's first experience of Santa was a very grouchy and overheated one. I was channeling Oscar the Grouch more than Saint Nicholas... But they all had fun... Also some pictures of Eli with my teaching assistant Irene, and a friend he made. He likes older friends... he doesn't much go for kids his own age. I think they over-stimulate him.

The 8th was Rhianon's birthday, and I'll put pictures of that up "tomorrow"...

January 2nd, 2007

These are pictures from Saturday. I took Eli and Rhiannon with me to work for the Saturday Science Class. We had a craft day-- making bird's nests. First we went out with bags collecting things birds would make nests from, then went back to the classroom and assembled nests. Rhiannon refused to have a nice time, but Eli was glad he got to use a glue gun along with his partner, Jack, another rather precocious kid. The two of them are exactly alike, so they drove each other crazy all class, just until it was time to go home then they wanted more time to play together.

January 1st, 2008

Some pictures from our New Years, with fireworks on TV atop Taipei 101... Just New years in Australia, too... posted just about 5 minutes before New Years in Cambodia and Vietnam!