Sunday, June 28th

Hello out there...

Well this weekend's post is mostly Calvin.

So, Calvin's about 27 months now. Over the weekend, we've been looking at him as he is now, where he needs to be, and what we can do new for him.

The first movie down below is of him eating.

This is one of his strongest areas, developmentally.
















For those who don't remember or weren't here for it, eating was his first major accomplishment. It was achieved mainly because Gosia didn't listen to the nurses and insisted of trying to nurse him. This was one of the reasons he doesn't have a feeding tube, which has greatly decreased the risk of infection for him.

For his whole like, the feeding tube has been an option, but we've always stayed clear of it, viewing it as a last resort. While still in the ICU, Calvin nearly died twice from infections, so Gosia has always worked extremely hard to create the proper diet for him and his needs so that proper nutrition would be taken care of.

Months ago, he had a series of what we view as allergic reactions to his powdered formula. The formula reacted with some of his other problems, and even though it's hypoallergenic, he was vomiting constantly, couldn't hold anything down, and lost a bunch of weight before we just stopped giving him the formula and switched to people food... Lots of rice, beans, lentils, chick peas, and fruits and vegetables.



So, he made the transition from nursing to bottle to semi-solid foods quite well. He had some pretty severe gagging issues a while back that he's more or less overcome. He's teething again now, which makes it hard for him to eat, but it's no where near the problem it was a year ago... He's come a long way with his oral sensitivity problems.



Now we're working on just feeding him. All his routine foods are mashed or blended... A typical meal would be rice, beans, and a vegetable or two blended together; or his fish soup which is rice, fish, and vegetables cooked and then blended together.


He can eat yogurt as is, and pudding too. Sometimes Gosia will mix grated fruit or the juice from an orange to his yogurt... things like that. The more diversity in his diet, the better for his development.

But back to the movie... He can eat a number of solid foods... he can bite off chunks of banana and chew that well... the movie is of him eating away at a slice of orange. He can eat chunky peanut butter and, as I discovered yesterday, corn flakes.

We're also working on drinking through a straw. He can do that pretty well, now. That's really difficult for a lot of brain injured kids. He can suck well, and usually swallow what he gets. There's a bit of leakage, but he gets the concept...

One of the things we're facing right now is the wall we're up against with his mobility. He can interact very well with his environment, and he should be able to crawl, but isn't doing it. His therapists at the hospital are good and he has gotten stronger, but he doesn't see the point of getting from point A to point B. We tried all kind of motivational techniques, food, love, etc... Maybe it has something to do with his Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum...

We think it's partly because he's already come farther than he ever was supposed to come developmentally... and now he needs to make another leap forward.

Right now, at this stage in his life and development he's especially prone to developing psychotic issues-- mainly because of frustration and stress, brough on by an inability to deal with his surroundings, interact with his surroundings, etc. So, we're working on pushing himwith his mobility issues without stressing him out. Personally, I'm not too concerned about his walking. I see it as secondary to his happiness.

He could advance to be an expert runner, but if he gets psychotic issues on the way and has to be doped up to deal with that, what's the point?

Right now, the anti-roll device stresses him out a lot. We've been exploring other options to get him moving over the weekend. But it's really all experimental. What do we think we can use that's out there and not out there that can help him.

One of the problems is that so much of the equipment is very expensive, so we're looking at building our own. When we first got here, we built him the incline floor (seen in the second movie) and Gosia's made him the checkerboard wall to stimulate his vision. She also made the many, many images that now dot the checkerboard wall. As his vision gets better, we can increase the complexity of the images.

So, now that his nutrition has improved, we can really get back to his mobility issues. Nutrition really has been at the front for us this past year. Like I said, a year ago he could barely take water and oatmeal without gagging and throwing it up. If he made it through the day without losing a meal or two, it was a big thing. And now he can even suppress the gag reflex if, say, there's a bit too much food in his mouth. He can make it through the gag and still swallow down the food.

Yeah, so next is getting him crawling and understanding "space." Movement from one point to another...

But, again, like I said, for me happiness in the most important thing. Without that, there's almost no point. And he is a pretty happy kid.... and very expressive... so, we just need to build on that!

Anyway, enjoy the movies, see you Wednesday.

Wednesdy, June 25th

Today's post is just some pictures of Rhiannon with a bag of snails.

One wet night, Rhiannon went out snail collecting in the courtyard and came home with a shopping bag of a dozen or so snails.

Then she put them along Eli's arm while he was watching CNN...

...after which she set them free. She's a great lover of snails.

Not eating them, though, I think. They have them at the night markets here... They're simmered in some sort of black soup. You get a heap of them in a cup and suck out the meat. But I think those are sea snails... that's what my students tell me....

Anyway, snail laden movies down below!

They're a bit dark because it's night and all...

Sunday, June 22nd

Well, it's been a while... a week since the last blog... seems like longer. It's been a long week. But it's Sunday, and it's been a nice weekend here.

So, to combat the Summer mosquitoes, people sleep under net canopies that are hung over the bed. So for the kids, instead of that, we got them a tent.

Tents are ridiculously inexpensive here, and it gives them a lot more room than the net would... Plus, they get to have a tent in their bedroom.

It was also initially a plan to give Eli a little "space" from his sister, who can be a little over stimulating... So, it was going to be Eli's Tent, but as soon as it was up, Rhiannon began domesticating it. Blankets, pillows, stuffed animals...

Technically, it's still Eli's Tent, and Rhiannon has to ask to come in for sleepovers... They have a floor fan pointed in to keep then cool, and it's been working pretty well.

Not much of interest... I'll be changing schools at the middle of the Summer. I'll be going back to work for a Taiwanese woman, Ainjalie, who owns a well run buxiban (English Cram School). I worked for her during our first time here... Her husband puts on the May Jam, which I put up a couple pictures of us at a month or so ago... the beach thing.

So, some changes in our life...

Calvin's doing well. Teething again, but it hasn't been too bad. He's in pain, etc, but he's eating and sleeping well. Gosia's got him going down the Incline Floor a bunch of times a day... His sounds are improving, too... He's making Ma's and Bu's... He's really expressive with his sounds, which is really nice to hear.

Sunday, June 15th

Well, here we are nearing Summer... It's rained the whole weekend, starting Friday evening. It's extremely humid.

So, some pictures from a rainy day. I think these are actually from last week... our walk to get a loaf of bread from the bakery down the alley. I had an umbrella, but Eli chose to go without...

It's been raining a lot lately. On days like this I usually have to bring a change of clothes to work with me -- I get soaked on the five minute scooter drive over there. Even a rain coat really doesn't help.

But it's a shared experience -- everyone gets soaked, so it can be fun.

Also, there's the waterbug stamping. The waterbugs flee the sewers and swarm the sidewalks. They occasionally come into the house too, which has been great fun for the kittens.

Our fluffy cats can't be bothered to catch a waterbug, but the alley cat kittens love it. We've been finding dead, chewed up waterbugs around the house, signs of their love and devotion to us. Adorable but gross.

But it's all part of the weather.

Snails and waterbugs...

Thursday, June 12th

So, here are a few pictures from the past week or so...

Rhiannon has learned to make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on the floor, of course). Eli's there, hanging out... It's been rainy again this week so I didn't get any pictures of them on the roof... next time, maybe...































































Last Wednesday we made potato noodle/dumplings... we can't decide if they're noodles in the European sense, or dumplings in the American South sense.

The kids love them and they're versatile once made, so I'm getting into the habit of making them in my free time. Stewed tomatoes and potato noodle/dumplings. That's our weekends!

Also that Wednesday, I'd gotten some fish at the traditional market... It was actually like buying a stolen watch. I asked some guy how much some fish were and before I knew it the fish were in the bag and I was paying a suspiciously reasonable price.

Of course, the fish were neither gutted nor scaled, so it became quite the morning. Both Eli and Rhiannon are very interested in anatomy and animals, so they had a great time. They had a little tupperware of hearts, gills and digestive tracts to analyze.

Also this week they made bagels, but, no, I have to put up pictures of us gutting fish.

It has been raining a lot here lately, which means it's snail season... No, they're not gutting those... but they do go out on rescue missions before bedtime, collecting snails off the path and putting them back in the grass so they won't get stepped on.

Yeah, so that's Eli and Rhiannon... a wide variety of interests.