Hearing Aid Appointment

Today Emily had her hearing aid appointment, and I had no idea how she would do, and like I have said on numerous past occasions, my girl rose to the challenge and did SO GREAT!!

Happy girl!

I had her teacher have her all ready in the big room for me to pick her up early, and she was crying when I got there as this was DIFFERENT from the norm. Many of you know that Miss Emily likes things on her regular, normal schedule. She was fine once she saw me, and off we went! Her teachers had been telling her today that she was going to go with mommy on an adventure...THANK YOU teachers!

I tried to calm her anxiety in the car while driving to the appointment. I had brought some snacks and a new toy to also help occupy her during the appointment.

She wasn't too sure upon arrival, but Rachel was GREAT with her.

Emily played with all of the toys in the room while mommy learned all about hearing aids, kinds of hearing aids, how Emily's will work, what they can do, the differences between brands, what sounds exactly Emily is missing, etc. A LOT of information to take in, BUT I must say Rachel was very sweet and would re-explain anytime I asked.

Emily will have many appointments with Rachel in her future, especially in the beginning while Emily is getting used to them. Emily did great having the molds made of her ears with her ears filled with pink silicone!

We even got a new story book written by a boy with hearing aids, and a new stuffed animal with hearing aids, so Emily can see how hers will be. :-)

Drum roll please...Emily picked pink with butterflies for the part over her ear, and red and white mixed together for the soft part that goes in the ear. Each time she needs new inner ear parts, she can choose from a multitude of colors! These she will need every time she has a growth spurt! YIKES!

Also, I was informed that hearing aid batteries only last about two weeks, and for the rest of her life will need to be replaced every two weeks!!!!!! Costco here we come!!! YIKES!!!

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Notice her new friend's hearing aids

Now for the good news! With my insurance coverage for hearing aids, my part will only be $65.00. Every time she will need new inner ear parts they are about $40.00 each. I am willing to do ANYTHING for my loveybug!!! I can't wait for her to get them and see how she adjusts to them!

I know this wee one is destined for GREATNESS!!!!!

Enjoy the pictures!

Love,

Kathy

P.S. Thank you Kira and Kayla for the Red Envelopes! We love you!

Chinese New Year Continued

Sweet Asian Princess

Chinese New Year continues at the Schroeder home! We have had lots of little things since the holiday began on January 23rd. It has one more week to go, and we will cap it off by visiting the Chinese Gardens in Portland next weekend. They will have lots of crafts, music, a lion dance, and many Chinese dancers.

Over the past few days Emily has worn her Chinese hat, received some stickers, a drum toy, a fan, some craft toys that she can color of the Chinese zodiac characters, a card from mommy, and her favorite so far...flavored/colored fortune cookies!!! Yummy!!!

Mommy still has a few more surprises up her sleeve before the holiday ends!

We would've gone to downtown Vancouver today to see lots of fun things for Chinese New Year at the library, including a lion dance...but...Emily is still fighting off this very bad cold!!! We spent only 20  minutes at the park yesterday until the wee one threw up three times from coughing so much! Today we took it real easy after church. We watched Beauty and the Beast three times, and Emily took a three hour nap! Darn cold...I wish she could just get rid of it!

News on the hearing aids. We have an appointment Tuesday at the ESD 112. They will be the ones to help her until she is 18. Her aids, molds, all hearing tests, appointments will be there from now on. Thank you so much to my new friend Katherine, a fellow parent at Emily's school, whose son has hearing aids as well. She has been a wealth of knowledge. Will give you all updates after Tuesdays appointment! Wish us luck!

Enjoy the pictures of the angel!

Love,
Kathy

Big smile even though didn't feel that well

Stickers, fan, and cookies

Love you baby girl!

New drum toy fun

Love that smile

Such concentration

Good job loveybug

Chinese New Year Treats to School

All ready to share at school

Well, my little darling is still feeling a bit under the weather, and has a bad cough and runny nose...BUT...she had a GREAT day at school! She wore her Chinese dress, shared her book, took and helped pass out all of her treats for her friends, and had a well behaved day at school!

Her teacher had her take off her dress before snack and lunch were served today. Good thing, as she came home with tomato soup down the front of her shirt. :-)

I could tell when I got to school to pick her up she didn't feel that great, although she was in the kitchen center making "dinner" for her teacher!

When I got to her room today, one of the little boys came up to me, and this was our conversation:

"Hi Emily's mommy"

"Hi CJ"

"Hey Emily's mommy, did you know Emily's from China?"

"Yes, CJ, I did know that."

"She brought us treats."

"What did you think about them?"

"Cool!"

"I'm glad you liked them."

For the past week Emily has been VERY interested in China, her "baby" pictures, and especially movies on my video camera from our time in China. We have watched them over and over. She has even wanted us to reenact the moment she was placed in my arms down to every detail. We have reenacted a movie from our time there, of Emily being tickled on the hotel room bed by mommy and auntie.

This is a huge step for Emily. She has never wanted to, nor shown any interest in, viewing herself in China when she was a "baby."

It is GREAT to see her watch herself and me as we first became a family!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Love,

Kathy

All decked out for school! My sweet Princess

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Letting her toes dry...

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone.

Today marks the beginning of Chinese New Year 2012, The Year of the Dragon. Mommy had some plans for the wee one today, but Emily stayed home sick. Poor baby! She has a very croupy sounding cough which started yesterday, and it seems to be worse when she is lying down, so last night was rough!

Mommy and Emily had a very low key day at home, with Emily having a few strawberry Panda cookies to celebrate with. We will have more surprises as the holiday unfolds. I guess we are lucky it lasts more than one day.

How did mommy and Emily spend their day off??? Lots of movies, lots of movies on the video camera from our time in China, and of course painting Emily's cute little toes pink and green!

Tomorrow Emily will be taking some treats for her class that she was supposed to take today. She will be giving each child a pair of chopsticks, a package of chocolate panda cookies, and a lucky red envelope each containing a nickel.

Enjoy the pictures, and I am sure there will be more to come as Chinese New Year continues!

Kathy 

Emily helped decorate Sunday afternoon...

We have many paper lanterns

Emily placed our dragon in the pot by herself

Chinese zodiac characters banner

Is that cute or what??

Wouldn't even know she felt icky...

Our banner says it all...

Nana's 93rd Birthday

Nana and Emily

Yesterday, we had my grandma, Emily's Nana, over for her birthday celebration. She turned 93 on Friday, January 20th. Julyn picked her up and brought her over at 4 p.m. and we had a great time playing with Emily, a very nice dinner, and even watched some videos of Emily in China on my video camera. We capped the evening off with a nice cake and singing Happy Birthday to Nana! We all had a nice time, especially Nana, who loves to just watch Emily play. Emily probably told Nana that she loved her more than ten times throughout the night. Nana ate it up each and every time.

Emily gave Nana a picture she drew all by herself in a frame. It was SUPER!! A REAL picture of the grass, birds, the sun, flowers, and a ladybug! No more scribbling for this big girl!

Enjoy,

Kathy

Playing with stickers and paper from Nana

Let me help you Nana

Here, let me help you read your card



Nana's gift



Playing beads

Watching videos from China

Happy Birthday Nana

Emily's First SNOW Adventure!!!

Sweet snow baby

Well, we had a snow day today; no work for mommy and no school for Miss Emily! Last year she didn't get to play in any snow due to having her surgery at Doernbecher's. The day we had the most snow last year, she was up to her elbows in arm casts and could only look at the snow out the front window. Up to today she has only been in the snow at school when it was just a dusting. So she was SO EXCITED to go outside in the dark this morning; yes, we went outside before the sun came up! She LOVED it! She lasted about 40 minutes before she was too cold and asked to come in the house for some hot cocoa!

When we got outside she wasn't too sure at first, but soon warmed up to playing in the cold snow. She asked to go in the front yard instead of the back, as I have a bright porch light to see better than in the back! There would have been more snow to play with in the back, as my huge tree in the front yard covers most of the grass, but as I said she had the time of her life!

She loved playing with the ice she picked off of the heat pump, snow off the recycling can, crawling around on her knees, making her first snow angel, and her first (teeny tiny) snowman, all by herself!

Enjoy the photos! I know I posted a lot, but I knew you would all want to see the little darling's first real snow experience!

Love,
Kathy

First thing she did was sit down...

Then laid down and laughed so loud...

Next, tried her first snowball...

Then began to crawl and giggle...

Decided running would be OK...

Tried to get all the snow from the recycling bin...

Then she discovered the ice on the heat pump...

Mommy and Emily's footprints

Hmmm, let me try this ice...

Look mommy, I'm strong...I can get the ice off

Emily's very first snowman...you that know her, know she of course called it a "baby"

My baby's first snow angel!

Tried shaking the branch, but didn't like when it went in her mouth

Couldn't get much cuter!

Look at my piece of ice!!!

Face of an angel!

Pure bliss...

Getting a little cold, but still HAPPY!

Winter Cold Fun

The ballerina and her Doggy

Just a few quick snapshots from today! This morning Emily and Doggy were the picture of bliss as they danced and danced to the music from The Fox and the Hound 2. You'll just love the dancing clothes OVER the footie jammies! TOO CUTE!!

Serious dancing is happening

Cutie

Peek Mommy

Brrr...winter park fun!

Then it was off to the park after we put on about three layers to brave the COLD weather! It is great on a Saturday morning to have the entire park to ourselves! BRR!!!

Enjoy!
Kathy