Dad turned 40

I forgot to say one of the funniest stories that happened this past week (or at least I think it is funny because it was Dad not Mom). Allen turned 40 on Friday. I don't know if the boys or who has been coaching Annika that turning 40 is old but when she was at her OT appointment on Friday she made her Dad a birthday card. It had a gingerbread man on the front so that was cute but when you opened it said, "Man are you old". She came up with this all on her own-at least at the appointment. What a kid!! So then when Allen came home from work and read the card, Annika proceeded to find little "gift" to bring to him and as she would give him the item she would say "Happy Birthday, old man". She would run away giggling as Dad pretended to look offended. It was way too cute to get upset over!!

Christmas Season

Wow, I can't believe how fast the last few weeks have flown by. Christmas is right around the corner. Annika is having so much fun counting down the days until Santa comes. She will miss school for sure during the break but she is getting a little worn down so the break will be good.

First of all, a little over a week ago we went to Annika's first Holiday program at school. She did such a great job!!! As soon as I find my patch cord for the camcorder I will get the video on the website. The school did great on creating a solution for her also. Because it would have been hard for her to stand up there during all the songs and still do all the actions, they had two benches up next to the risers-one on each side. Annika sat on one of the benches in between two of her friends from school and then 3 kids from the other kindergarten class sat on the other bench. She just sat up there and sang her heart out. On the last song they sang, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", all the kids learn how to sign to the verse. Of course there is always those that do better and those that do worse. That being said I found it ironic that the "deaf" child that was up there was one of the worse ones. She really only learned a couple of the signs. She was trying but it just goes to show us that she loves to talk and we are so glad we made the choice we did. I am not saying that some day she may learn sign language but for now she is very happy with using her words and bossing everyone around.

Unfortunately we have spent part of this Christmas season sick. The "flu" bug was going around the kids' school and they must have brought it home. Annika and I were the ones that it hit the hardest. It took Annika 2 full days to recover so she missed a couple days of school. We knew she was sick because she did not complain about not going to school.

She did receive her new shoes that have a lift built into them and we are seeing great improvements in her walking again. Also the Botox is starting to really kick in up in the hamstrings so she has more movement in there. On Friday we did record a tape of her in therapy as we are trying to get her doctor to approve a different therapy to work with her. I haven't gotten to see it yet but I look forward to this.

Today we will be having our Christmas program at church. She knows all the songs an has been practicing them almost every day so it will be fun to watch her there. Of course that all depends on how the weather cooperates with us. Yesterday we got hit with a storm that caused the boys' wrestling tournament to be cancelled. Allen was out later in the day and said that the snow had stopped and the roads were not bad, including the side roads but you never know what may happen overnight now.

If I don't post again before Christmas. We wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Holiday Pictures

We did finally get the Christmas tree up today-just a day later than planned. Annika had a blast. She spent all morning at church today telling everyone that we have our Christmas tree and presents. She saw the ornament packages that I had wrapped up for the kids so she was excited to get home today to open them.

The boys did a great job of putting the tree togethe and decorated. They did most of the "work" while I supervised. Annika had to put on her "princess" dress before we decorated the tree. So her she was in the Snow White princess dress and her princess Santa hat bossing the boys around the room.

Next came time to do the pictures. She jumped up and said "Me first, okay? I will sit up on my knees.". So of course she went first. Then she directed who would go next. And wouldn't you know it that little stinker who has now caught up with her brother's teasing, popped her head in and made faces while I was trying to get Marcus's picture done. That is the picture I put up on this blog. I will put a slide show together of all the other Christmas pictures.

Gotta keep this short as I need to get ready to go to a Football Banquet for the older kids. Happy Holidays everyone!!!

Thanksgiving is over

Wow!! Thanksgiving is over and we are now on our way to Christmas!! That also means that wrestling has now started at our house. The boys are getting home around 6:30 or later every night now. Hard to have any family time. I am trying to make up for that this weekend. For the first time in our 19 years of marriage we had our own Thanksgiving dinner. Allen was my chief cook and bottle washer for this. He was so tired after dinner that he laid down and slept for at least 4 hours! For Thanksgiving it was just the Wanha clan and then my brother came over for dinner before it was time to pick up his kids and take them on a road trip. We started the day out with the Turkey Trot-Mom, Dad, Marcus and Dan participated and then Jon and Annika stayed home to sleep in. When we came back from the Turkey Trot, we had egg bake and rolls. Then it was time to really start to work on the turkey dinner. We ate dinner around 1 p.m. and then it was rest time for the parents. Thankfully the boys helped take care of Annika.

I have to applaud the school this past week for how Annika now knows what the Mayflower is. Well, maybe, she now calls it the "power boat". I can't figure that one out yet but anyway she was so excited coming home on Monday to proudly tell us about the ship-the Mayflower!!

Today she was able to get her picture taken with Santa Claus at Wal-mart. She proudly told him that she wanted a baby for Christmas. She loves to go in the Christmas aisle and make all the singing toys go off. This year there is a Snowman who dances and then turns around and wiggles his backside. She thinks this is so funny!!

We had to take her back to the eye doctor this morning because she failed the eye exam at school. So I was a little concerned but then after talking with her eye doctor all was well. Right now the stigmatism is only corrected to the level that she is currently seeing. Her eyesight right now is 20/40 in both eyes but just 6 months ago it was 20/70 so her eyesight is improving greatly. It is just training those eye muscles to work like they should. The eye doctor was very pleased in the progress that she has made in just six months. So what they thought would take her about a year to adjust to has only taken her 6 months. She is just staying at the current level and see if her eyes will adjust and make more improvement on their own. The good news is that we were able to get her glasses adjusted again and hopefully now we have a better fit. They now understand that her glasses need to go on the outside of her processors instead of the inside. For the first time in over a month I can now look at her and her glasses aren't half way down her nose!!! This should also help her use her glasses better since she was just peering over the top of the lenses on one side all day long.

Hopefully I will have some Christmas pictures to put up on the site after tonight. We are putting up the Christmas tree and I will try to get some pictures done for our Christmas card tonight. We will see how cooperative the kids are.

Time just flies!!

Okay, my son reminded me this week that I had not posted on this blog for awhile. I can't believe it has been that long since I wrote but in my defense it has been a very busy month!!

We started November just enjoying the sport season break. Wrestling practice starts this next week so my time of rest and relaxation is soon to end (if you have a wrestler or know of one you would understand what I am saying). Thankfully, about a week ago we hired a great new PCA caregiver for Annika and right now I think she is going to be my life saver this wrestling season. Lisa is great with Annika and Annika is having a blast in getting her riled by calling her Alisa instead of Lisa. So that means Annika's name has now changed to Monica if she ever calls Lisa by the wrong name. Now who taught this child to tease???

This month Annika spent about half of it in a serial cast on her left leg. We had noticed that Annika's left foot was very tight and we were seeing no effects from the Botox injection she had received. It was too soon to inject her with more Botox so into the cast she went. The first week she wore a purple cast and the next week she had a bright orange cast. We think she was trying to convince her dad to take her out in the woods hunting since she now had a blaze orange cast. The good news on this was that she went from zero percent of movement in that left foot to a good 10-15% movement or range now. Great results and Annika now walks around the house and gleefully tells us that she can skip now!!! What she had to go through to get this is something she would like to forget but she is loving the movement she now has in that foot.

Annika was able to go to her friend, Austyn's, golden birthday party the beginning of this month-cast and all. We went to the party at Woodbury's Fun Zone. She crawled through the climbing area, with some help of her friends. We saw twice that Austyn would help her on the slide and they would slide down together!! I brought home a very tired little girl that day but she had a blast!!!

We took Annika to the Fall Musical at our school called "Honk". This was her first time watching a musical and loved it. It did get a little long for her but I think it was more the time of night (the musical ended at 10 p.m.) than how long it was. It also helped that she knew a couple of the kids in the musical so she could watch for the people she knew.

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house this week. For the first time we are not going anywhere for Thanksgiving and no one is coming over here either. Just our family. I am excited to enjoy some good family time that day with just us and the kids.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!

October 31st

Well, we had a very hyper and excited 6 year old come Friday October 31st. She started practicing for trick or treating on Thursday night at home. We found Annika and her older brother trick or treating at her bedroom door. Of course that started the sugar rush going.

For school on Friday she got to wear her pajamas and have a party. I told it was no fair because I didn't get to wear my pajamas to work. She offered to go to work for me but then back out when I told her she couldn't wear pajamas to work either.

School told me that she was a little tired on Friday but you never would have guessed that at about 1 p.m. on Friday afternoon. She was running around and giving her therapists a run for their money at therapy. After her weekly therapy sessions it was home to get the princess ready. Cassie took her home while I was still finishing up work and started on her hair. After I got home and did all the finishing touches on everything, it was off to the local photography studio and get our annual Halloween pictures done. It was only about 4:30 p.m. when we got back from there and she was ready to go out trick or treating. And if she couldn't go trick or treating she wanted to take off the costume and go rake leaves in the front yard. She isn't slowing down for one second let me tell you.

Finally it was time to head off for a little trick or treating before heading over to the church for a Reformation Party. She was so independent and wanted to walk all over. She cried when we made her get in the van so we could drive a little ways to the next block (it would have taken way too long to walk!!). Finally she wore out but thanks to her brother Daniel she finished trick or treating on his shoulders.

After about an hour of candy gathering it was off to the church. She got to carve her own pumpkin (with the help of Dad but she did get the chance to really just pull the "stuff" out of the pumpkin). She also had her first chance at bobbing for apples. We took off her implants to make sure they didn't end up in the water and let her go. But she was so careful, she would just bob her head above the water. Mom helped her grab hold of her apple finally and she was ready to try it again later. Mom said no. What I couldn't believe is the fact that she kept it up all night long and was still ready to go at 9:30 that night when we left the church. Where does she get all this energy?

Today she is off rollerskating with Cassie. I will try to put in an update later on to tell you all the antics from the rollerskating party.

Busy weekend

We had a great weekend here. Annika's grandparents were down here for the weekend so she had a great time seeing them. We went shopping on Saturday to get groceries and also the last few pieces needed for her Halloween costume. Of course Mom's plan has been overrode by Princess Annika. We have a cheerleader costume that I was going to have her wear for Halloween. Annika keeps saying tha she is going to be a princess this year. I did have her convinced that we were going to do cheerleader this year but I have finally gave up. Yes, it is her Halloween and if she wants to be a princess for the 3rd year in a row, who am I to argue? Thankfully the clothes that I bought her her to wear under the cheerleader costume matches the princess dress she wants to wear so I am not out anything.

On Sunday, we had an early Thanksgiving with my mom and dad, my brother, my sister-in-law and all the kids. We had 6 adults and 9 kids. The kids were split between teenagers (5) and the little kids (4). There was a time during the get together that we were more concerned on what the teenagers were doing versus the little kids. Aren't you supposed to trust them more as they get older? Who knows.

Then we also got a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with all 9 of their grandkids. You can never guess which group gave us more trouble in the picture-not the little kids. My boys either stuck out their tongue or waved at the camera. So much for a good picture but at least it is true to life. Our next challenge is going to be trying to get a picture of all 9 of the grandkids together as we want to get one before Marcus graduates this year. Believe me I am not taking this crew to a professional for this!! Wish us luck.

After her busy weekend, Annika was off to visit her neurolgist on Tuesday. Everything is going just fine. No changes and he is very please on how she is doing. We talked about how far she has come since her menigitis and how much of an impact she is having on the world. She teaches us every day more than what we are teaching her.

On that note, she has secured another victim. Marcus is working in a 3rd grade classroom for his child development class this trimester. This classroom is about 3 doors down from Annika's kindergarten classroom. She came home yesterday from school with a sucker from that 3rd grade teacher. He says "she's too cute". Uh oh, watch out if he ends up getting her in his class 4 years from now. All kidding aside she doesn't do this intentionally, she just has that drawing personality that people just can't help liking her. I spoke to her special ed teacher and really this is happening. She has lots of friends at school and they are really great to her. It is not how you think some people are-they don't like her out of pity or feeling sorry for her. They genuinely like her and enjoy playing with her. Annika's love for life is just so contagious!!! I know that God really has plan for her life and it is going to be exciting to see her grow and mature into the person God created her to be.

Last night, the teacher was back at work. The poor cats were put in time out. Ashly (her PCA) and Allen were getting their "frogs" taken away for wrong behavior. That is the behavior management program they are using in the Kindergarten room. All her stuffed animals had to go to school and she was off. I can't help myself but just sit back and watch her antics. Yes, some day I will feel sorry for our cats but for now they are little and they just love having the attention no matter what it is.

The Hungry Caterpillar

Annika's kindergarten this past week did a unit on "The Hungry Caterpillar". To make the highlight of the week, the kids did a play on "The Hungry Caterpillar". All the kindergarteners lined up in a long line hanging on to one another on the hips. They went around and around the gym, eating the various foods and then eventually going into the cocoon and coming out as beautiful butterflies. Annika got to do this all via a ride in a wagon as physically it was hard for her to keep up. She had her 4th grade reading buddy pull her wagon through the play. She was so excited because both Mommy and Cassie were able to come to watch her play. What was so neat to see today was when we went to Applebee's for lunch, guess what was on their kid's menu? Activities based on the books by Eric Carle and the first one was "The Hungry Caterpillar". She was so happy to be able tell me the whole story again with the help of the pictures. Of course her favorite part was changing into the butterfly so she was trying to rush through to get to the end. Then she told me all about her play again. Way to go Annika!! I love when things work together and she gets to replay things to us because that auditory memory of hers continues to be the struggle in her life. Here's to all those beautiful butterflies out there!!

Annika will be a teacher, I think

I know that we have a long time until Annika has to decide what she is going to do in life but right now I can see her choosing to be a teacher. When she is home for the weekend, all that she talks about is school. Last night, Allen, Annika and Jon were leaving to go get supper from the store. Annika is standing in the doorway having a meltdown. So we ask her what is bothering her. She cries "I want to be the teacher.". We, of course, tell her she can be the teacher. She turns and hollers out to the van where Jon is "Jon, see I am the teacher." Oh my goodness!!

Then today we are sitting at Applebee's having lunch. She turns and says, "Mommy, I like school. I work hard at school." So I ask her what is her favorite thing at school to do. She looks at me and says, "I like making "T's" at school. Making "T's" at school is my favorite thing. Okay, last year it was playing with dolls or playing outside or something like that. Making "T's"??? Where did this child come from?

She is forever now playing school at home. I fully expect her to start "teaching" her kitties. She already does it with her dolls and Barbies. Watch out Smokey and Princess you are next!!

Annika's cats

Yes, I said cats-plural. Those of you who know what happened this summer bear with me while I do a little update. This summer Jon was picking on our cat (they had this love/hate relationship even though it was his cat) and she went pyscho on him. She basically stalked him all over the house for 2 days. We had to pack up the cat and send her off to the farm. After she left, Annika would ask at least weekly when Nermal was coming home. Allen, the person who does not like cats very much, went on a quest and found a baby cat at a co-workers house. Her name is Smokey and she came to us about 2 weeks ago. She is grey in color and a very big baby. She likes to sleep in my hair at night on the top of my head. Even though she is old enough to be away from her mother she probably left too early before we got her. We have heard that her sister is the same way so we bascially had one baby cat and that was enough for me. Annika was very happy but still would ask if we were going to bring Nermal home. Well, last night Allen was out for his walk and he heard this tiny kitten cry from over in the ditch. He went over and found a mother cat and her little kitten. The mother cat had been hit by a car and was dead; the kitten was fine but all alone. Allen walks late in the evening and it is pretty cool here at night. He couldn't leave this little one on her own so now we have Princess. The picture attached is the two kittens sleeping. At least we know that it will be okay to have these two together. They are still so little and definitely are still working on who is the dominant cat so all last night and this morning we would have the non-stop cat fight cry. I was being to wonder if this was going to work. We left to get some shopping and left the cats on their own. We came home to find them sleeping together in a ball. All our fears are gone. Annika is very happy now because she has "2 kitties". Right now the youngest one, Princess is the most patient with her and puts up with her. In fact just now Annika walked in with her princess dress, crown, wand and was going up to Princess saying "bibidi bobidi boo". I am not sure what she is turning her cat into but Princess thought it was a hoot and even chased her wand like it was something to attack.

Football is over

Well, it was a sad night at our house last night. Annika's older brother's football team lost in sections to our rival school and the season is now over. We didn't bring Annika last night and I was glad. The last quarter of the game it started to sprinkle and the wind really started to pick up. I wrapped up in my extra blanket and pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt. Marcus, who is our senior, did get a chance to play in the last minute or so of the last game and at the end of the game he fell to his knees. It was hard for him and Mom of course was crying. It was so great to hear as the crowd was yelling for Marcus when he got into the game. To explain it a little bit is Marcus is one of the smallest kids on the team but he has the biggest team spirit. So most of his time on varsity was spent on the sidelines. You can always hear him on the sidelines cheering on his teammates, pacing the sidelines, and just being a huge supporter of the team. But he also loves to get out there and "hit". He doesn't know the meaning of give up. The big guys will plow him over and he gets right back up and goes at them again. What a kid!!

Other than football being over, not much has been happening at our house the past week. It was MEA weekend here so the kids were all home. Annika got some well deserved rest for her physical needs and watched lots of her "movies". She did have some therapy sessions and actually went to her last speech session with the local SLP here in Litchfield. She is only seeing her now when she has a break from school but now the SLP is "retiring" from the hospital to spend the summer with her daughter and her family in Florida. Annika doesn't realize that this was the last one as we kept it pretty low key at the session. I will miss her greatly as Annika has been going to her for speech ever since she was 18 months old. So that means we will move on to another chapter in our life and not have any medical speech for the rest of the school year. I don't want to have her see a new therapist on a sporatic basis so we will need to see what is available this next summer and go from there. Actually with her level, we may be done with speech permanently as Annika's speech is really great. She really just needs help with language and some of the pre reading skills.

Better go get the princess up for school.

Wedding, Grandparent's Day, oh my!

Well, I have been trying to get this done for the past week but never got the chance to get in and also was waiting for a picture to attach. Anyway, last Friday it was Grandparent's Day at Annika's elementary school. Grandma and Grandpa N were able to come down for this. Annika was so excited. She got to show them areound her school, eat lunch with them, and even more important she got to spend the afternoon with them as I was at work. That evening it was off to another football game for the boys. It is now really starting to cool off around here in the evenings so blankets and extra clothing is a must to head off the to games.

Saturday morning Annika woke up just in time to see Grandma and Grandpa take off for home. She said goodbye to them and even thanked them for coming down for Grandparent's Day. What a kid!! I hadn't even coached her on that.

Then also on Saturday, Annika had to give up her "boyfriend". Cassie's old roomate, Sarah married her sweetheart Heath. Annika fell in love with Heath and he has been her "boyfriend" ever since she has met him. She was so cute though because once he was married she would only hug Sarah and not Heath. She said he broke her heart. What a goof. She is over him now and on to others but Heath will always have a special place in her thought. It was a very unique experience for Allen and myself because we were only at the wedding because Annika was invited. Go figure-she is 6 years old and has a social life!!!

It is MEA around here now so Annika is a little lost with out her school. She has had some good time to recover and relax but by the end of the weekend will be climbing the walls for entertainment. Thankfully she has a few medical appointments that we scheduled during this time to give her a chance to get out and about.

Well, the picture included in the post is one that was taken with Heath and Sarah on their wedding day. Leave it to my daughter to just walk up to say "hi" and the next thing you know pictures are getting taken. What a little princess!!!

Catch up

Wow What a week!!!! As I thought the week was wild and crazy with it being Homecoming week. As sometimes things go our van started to act up on Wednesday so we spent about an hour at the repair shop instead of getting the hamburger fried for the next day. Only to find out that we needed to leave the van there and borrow a car from the shop. We were able to pick it up on Saturday and that is another story but not for here. Anyway, from the shop it was off to church and get the hamburger done. It went quicker than I thought and that was a blessing.

Thursday was an event itself. It started with a phone call from the school letting me know that Annika was not herself and her urine smelt very bad! That was at about 1 p.m. so I was off to pick her up, get her home and try to get a sample to drop off with the doctor all in about an hour and a half. I did get it all done and there was no doubt in my mind that she had an infection. So antibiotics were ordered and she is doing much better. Of course we had one really bad night on Thursday so Annika and I spent the day recovering on Friday.

Okay, so after getting the sample done it was off to my chiropractor appointment and then to the church to get the spaghetti supper done. There was a few tense moments but all in all we served around 50 guys in a little more than 20 minutes. I can't believe it went off as well as it did with the problems we had (still boiling noodles and warming up bread as the boys started to walk in the door) but the kids ate and were thankful. We even came home with enough leftovers to feed us for at least 3 meals. We will get tired of spaghetti around here but all in all I am glad we did it but won't be looking forward to next year.

Like I said Annika and I laid low on Friday until it was time for the football game. By then she was ready to go and acting very much herself. As for Mom I could have stayed home and slept. But it is Marcus's last home game and I can't miss that. I was glad we went but it was a downer of a game because we lost. Annika lost interest in the 4th quarter and started to take a nap in Dad's lap. Because it was so packed that night we decided to head out with about 3 minutes left in the game. That was a mistake in our part because we missed seeing Marcus play the last 3 plays of the game. We had forgotten that if at all possible they try to play all the seniors on the last home game so they have that opportunity.

Saturday we laid low and cleaned house. At least Annika, Dan, Jon and myself. Marcus had training in the cities so Allen and Marcus headed off bright and early. It was a nice day to get relax and recover. We made some homemade applesauce too.

Sunday Annika and I were invited by her friend, Noah to go to a play on Junie B Jones. It was put on by the Youth Performance Company in the Twin Cities. It was a great play and they did a great job. The kids enjoyed it. Annika laughed through the whole play. We took a picture of Noah and Annika with Junie B Jones.

On top of that I think we have a little "love" blooming between the two kindergarteners. As we were waiting for the play to start, Noah decided to give Annika a "kiss". When we came home Annika told her brothers that she didn't love them anymore; she loved her boyfriend, Noah. Oh boy!!! That did not go over well with her brothers. They are going to have to "talk" to Noah. No boyfriends for their princess.

Well, it is time to wake up the princess so I will need to end this update.

Homecoming week

Okay, our week of craziness is about to begin!! It is Homecoming Week for our school. Since Annika's oldest brother is a senior on the D/C football team, our week is going to be a little crazy. Today we have the JV game against our rival town and our kids are looking for a little revenge since the varsity lost to them last Friday. It was such a bad game that Annika finally gave up cheering and went to sleep. Everyone is yelling all around her and she is curled up in my lap snoozing away. And I didn't take off her implants either! Anyway, then after the game today it is off to Homecoming Coronation. Tomorrow may be our lull in the week but that is yet to be seen. Wednesday is church night for us and we also have to start to fry up 10 lbs of hamburger as it is our turn to feed the D/C football team on Thursday evening. So yes, Thursday evening we will feed the whole D/C football team a spaghetti dinner. This is a tradition for our football team that all the families take turns hosting a spaghetti dinner (or helping out with it) the day before the varsity game. And then of course Friday is the big homecoming game. Before the game we will feast on a pork chop dinner.

And then to start this week off, we went to the annual CI picnic in the Twin Cities yesterday. Only Allen, Annika and I went as the boys now want to do their "own" thing. But I always enjoy this day because it is for anyone who has been implanted at the U of MN so you get the chance to visit with adults and other families. Annika has a blast because there is always a playground close by so she spends most of the time hanging out on the playground. You can hardly get her to come back to the shelter to even eat something. It was a little cold to start the picnic but it turned out to be fairly nice by the end. Had a great time catching up with some of the families around the state. Also there was a guy there who was going in today to get his implant. It is always great to talk to those who are heading into surgery in the near future. Also met a young man who battled menigitis only last November and he now has implants. Still struggling and going to therapy for many things and not that I want to see others struggle but it is great to know that we are not alone in our situation and we can encourage each other on the way.

I think what is so fun is seeing how great the kids are really doing with their implants. I still think that if someone would have told me back when we started this journey that it was going to be this good I would have been more relaxed. But of course the issue is would I have believed them?

School is going great for Annika. She is having a blast. I got the opportunity to go along on her field trip on Friday to the apple orchard. The kids were so excited to be there and the all got to pick their own apple right off the tree. It is fun seeing how she interacts with all the kids and how they work with her. She has lots of friends and they all watch out for her, well as much as 5 and 6 year old kids do. I also received an email from her child study coordinator that she stopped by school one day last week. She peeked in on how Annika was doing at school and she said she was having a great time and was listening and interacting with all the kids. I know that what I did and the battles that I fought were worth it but it is good to hear from the school district that they are now seeing that what I did was "right" for my child. No regrets.

Gotta run finish getting ready for work. To top off all the craziness of the week it is my late week so I have to work from 8-4:30 p.m. every day this week. It is going to make supper very difficult for us to work out. Thankfully 2 of the nights are planned already as we have the dinners on Thursday and Friday. The other 3 days are going to be whatever we can throw together very quickly.

Busy Weekend

What a busy weekend we had at our house. It started out on not such a good note as the D/C football team lost their game on Friday night. It was not really so much of a surprise as the team we played was one of the best teams in the state but when we were ahead 8-6 at half time you get your hopes up. Annika was not that thrilled with the game and the whole first week of school got to her. She kept asking to go home the whole 2nd half of the game.

Saturday we were busy preparing for Marcus's surprise 18th birthday party we had that evening. Annika was so excited that she had to keep a secret!! And we pulled it off and he had no clue what was going on so it was great. We had a hayride and bonfire at a friend's home for his party. Annika had a blast because her cousins came over for the party so she had a blast playing with them.

Sunday we were off to the Twins game. The tickets weren't so great as we were in the cheap seats but I think everyone had fun. Annika took advantage of the time to take a nap. She still must have been feeling the effects of the busy week. She slept through about the last 3 innings. Mom and Dad switched off with holding her so both of us had numb legs when it was all over but I was glad she got the chance to rest.

Yesterday was her first full day of Kindergarten and she had a great time. She was very excited to go back to school and daycare again. She had fun telling me all about her day in the van on the way home. I was very pleased on how much she was able to tell me about her day.

Annika's first day of school and daycare

Well, the first day is over and she had a great time. I got emails from two of her teachers and spoke to another one and everyone said she was very happy and glad to be at school. Not a big surprise for me but it was good to hear that it all went well. It went so well that she crashed when she got home last night about 5:30 and slept for at least a couple of hours. She did wake up to eat a little something and watch a little TV with me. She went back to bed around 10 p.m. without any problem (she is not usually awake this late but when she woke up from her late nap it was close to her bedtime so we bent the rules a little).

That is all the good news. Now for the not so good news. She went to daycare after school and was having a great time. She fell outside on the playground and both of her implants came off. They placed the left one back on and it worked just fine. The right one was put back on but continued to flash red. They changed the battery and also the headpiece nothing helped. So they called me at work to see what else could be done. The only other thing I thought of possibly was to try changing to a different program on her processor so they tried that and still nothing. I was hoping that there was a little connection that they didn't see and all would be well once we got her home but that wasn't the case either. She was very tired by the time I got to try to troubleshoot everything but we were not able to get the Harmony processor to work at all but the good news in this all is that she was able to hear with the BWP (back up processor). The only thing that concerns me is that when I was trying to hook everything back up she would cry and say that her implant site hurt. When I asked her why it hurt she said she hit it when she fell. When we talked to daycare they said she fell in the sand as she was trying to get to something else (not that I don't believe them; they did a great job trying to get things corrected for her and felt so bad that this happened on the first day of school). But there is wood around the sand (I think) so maybe she did hit her head on there. I don't know; it will be interesting on what she has to say this morning once I get her up.

I did call AB because everything was closed for the day here and spoke to an audiologist there. She believes that because the BWP did work that we are dealing with the external processor and we should be okay. But she did recommend that I call her implant center tomorrow and of course we will need to call her audiologist to possibly order another processor and have that programmed. This means another trip to the Twin Cities and I am not looking forward to this but such is life.

Tonight we have our big football game against GSL so I will try to put an update in here tomorrow morning.

Kindergartener tomorrow

Well, this is it. As of tomorrow, Annika will be an official Kindergartener. We have to go in tomorrow and meet with her teacher, sign all the paperwork, and drop off her supplies. She is so excited that we are having problems getting her to go to sleep tonight. I am not sure how I feel about it all because I not only have the Kindergartener but my oldest son is a senior. I think this will be a very emotional week for me. She starts her new school and a new daycare. She is excited about it all. I know that this is a very good step for her but I still now that my little girl is growing up.

School is around the corner!!

What a week this has been at our house. It started out with us heading off to the neurologist and an EEG which did not give us great news. The current meds that she is on is no longer controlling the seizures and even though we aren't seeing her typical seizure activity there is some going on. That means closer monitoring and a change of medication. Not a great time for this to happen but here we are. Unfortunately for Annika, the new meds mean that she will need to go back to having the routine blood draws to keep tabs on the level of her meds and watching for the potential side effects from the meds.

Today we had a quick meeting with her special education staff and regular teachers to make sure we have everything in place for her to start school. We got to meet the 2 paras that will be working with her this year and they got a chance to do a listening check for her. She was a little nervous with everyone looking at her and having different staff doing this with her so lets hope it gets better as she gets used to the new staff.

After the meeting it was open house at the elementary school. She had a great time visiting her new classroom and playing in there was her favorite part. Big surprise but her teacher has done a great job in putting some thought into where her locker is and the like.

Tomorrow it is off to get the results from the gait lab analysis. I am a little nervous with what recommendations will come back from them. It may take me a little while to post the results as we have our first football game of the season tomorrow night and then it is the annual Red Rooster Days so that means parades, garage sales and activities for everyone over the next few days.

I will attach the picture I received from the pics that were taken a few weeks ago in Mankato. These are the pictures taken for her brother's senior pics but of course we got shots of the "little princess". Just to give you an idea of how important she is around here; I asked my son (who is the senior) what he thought of his pictures and he said "ok" and then said "I like the pic of Annika". Yes he will miss her greatly next year when he is off.

At the Corn Carnival

Last week we attended the annual Cokato Corn Carnival. The week started out a little wet. We watched the parade in the rain. We found cover for most of the parade under a great big elm tree but the leaves could only hold so much water. After the rain started to fall through the tree, we decided to watch the remainder of the parade in the car. We had a great view and Annika was able to stay dry then.

The biggest part of the Corn Carnival is the all you can eat corn on the cob. And for Annika the carnival rides. So Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the evening at the Corn Carnival riding rides and eating corn. Tuesday night is also the competion for Miss Cokato. Annika loved that as she could "watch all the princesses". Of course the corn kept her entertained because she has no front teeth so eating corn on the cob is not the easiest. It took her about an hour to eat one cob but she had a great time doing it.

My favorite part of the carnival was watching Annika ride the pirate boat. This ride swings back and forth and gains speed. She had a blast on it and it was her favorite ride. But what really was great to watch was her interacting with the girls in the seat with her. The two girls were talking and she noticed Annika's implants. So she asked her about it. She was telling her about her implant an it was so neat to see Annika just explain it all. My little girl is growning up and is just able to advocate for herself. Just makes a mom proud and I know that we have done all we can to prepare her and gave her the confidence to be proud of who she is.

More updates

Back to my updates, let's see. We covered the gait lab and NV alumni day. I guess the next appointment was her bi-annual mapping session at the U of MN for her implants. First of all, I want to say that I get amazed almost daily on how she is picking up the incidental language and using it in her conversations. We walked into the audiology/ENT area and Annika looked at me and said, "let's go punch in". I looked at her and asked, "don't you mean check in?" "No, I said punch in". Well, I guess she has been listening to me when I leave in the morning because on the hectic mornings I am running out the door saying, "I have to hurry or I will be late punching in". She gets what I meant and now think she should "punch in" for her appointments instead of "check in". A little work there but it is so cute that I will leave it alone for now.

Her mapping session went great. I think what hits me is how much she is really becoming such a "girl" now not a little kid. She is silly and loves to laugh. We keep her entertained during the boring parts by just being silly. Though really I remember struggling to do some of the boring parts with her just a year ago and she really did well.

She thought the "sentence" test was very silly so there were times when we would lose her in the testing because she would just have to laugh at the sentences instead of repeating them. She also showed us that she would rather have both of her implants versus the two. We were testing the last side with the words and somewhere along the way she put the second implant back on. We didn't see her do it but realized it when it was all done and we went to have her put both implants on. She just would smile and laugh when she got caught!! Watch out for her in school, she is going to have fun playing with her teachers. I can just see it now. It is so fun to see that she is just being a "typical" 6 year old. So many days I just shake my head and say if I had only known that we would be this far 4 years ago I would have relaxed so much more. But hindsight is 20/20 every time.

All in all she is doing just great with her implants. We did some testing with what she can her in noise and really when she was not being silly she did just great. There may be a day in the future when she won't need to use the FM system at school and that to me is just unbelievable. For now, she likes the FM system and we want to make sure she doesn't miss anything at this point. That also means that really we don't need to look into getting one for home. We have talked about it and really thought we would get one some day but now I am thinking more down the line of just getting her a t-mic for her implants and see how that goes and just leave it at that.

Well gotta run. It is time to get everyone moving around this house. My next update will cover the Cokato Corn Carnival which was last week.

Busy day

What a day!! I was up early as I needed to pack the whole family up as it was senior picture day for Annika's big brother. We were also going to do family pictures so that meant outfits for everyone in the van. To add to the eventful day, it was media day for our D/C football team (2 of her brothers are on the team) at 9 a.m. and we had to leave straight from there for more pictures.
Annika had a blast out on the football field. For the first time she was able to run all around on the field and didn't have to worry about the "big bad" football players. We got a picture of her and the 2 older boys on the field. A request from her brother.
We went to do pictures in Sibley Park in Mankato. This is a little over an hour and a half from the school. I got some much needed rest on the way down there. Annika just kept talking; even though it was only Dad to hear her. She kept calling to the boys and then it was "okay, you sleep now" when they did not answer her or even start to fire her.
Annika loved the park as she had a playground to play on where ever we were in the park. She even got to try to climb some of the trees there. I even watched her try to balance and walk on the cement stops in the parking lot. She must be watching the gymnasts in the olympics when we have it on. Of course, she ended up faling down but got right back up to try again. If we didn't still need to do pictures, I would have let her keep trying. But our luck she would have fallen down and hurt herself worse the next time. Scrapped up knees or black and blue marks were not the look we were going for in the pictures.
I will try to share some of the pictures on here once we get them back from the photographer. But for now I will share the one I took on the football field of her and her brothers.
Gotta run for tonight. Still have more things to share from the past few weeks but I am too tired to write about them tonight.

Summer goes by fast

Wow!! I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by. School is just around the corner and I still have some issues to put together. Where does the time go!!!!

That being said we have had very busy weeks in Annika's life so I will probably take a couple of postings to write it all down or it will be too long to read. I am well known to "write a book" in just emails so just sit back and relax.

First of all, Annika went down to Gillette at the end of July for Gait & Motion Analysis. It was really neat to see all of the technology that they use there. We even came home with a CD copy of the video they taped of her walking. That was the nicest part because then Allen could see it since he was not able to attend the session with us.

So for those who are not familiar with this testing I will describe it the best I can. The first thing that they do is have her walk up and down there line and they have two cameras (one from the back/frond and one from the side) taping her as she walks up and down this line. She even is given the chance to "run". After all of that data is done, Annika is weighed and measured. Then it is off to lay down on a table as they do more measurements and test how well her muscles move in every imaginable muscle. This is all done for information and also so they can create the computer image of her. Then we get to hook her up to patches, light sensors and cables. Basically the same technology that was used on Polar Express to create the characters is what we are using. After she is all "hooked up" it is back into the room to do more walking so they can create this computer image of her walking. I did get to see her on the computer and it sure did look like her on the computer. When that is all done, she gets to remove all the equipment and get ready to do the oxygen test. So the best news of this test is that she gets to sit down and rest for 10 minutes while watching a movie so they can test how much oxygen she uses at rest. Then it is up for a 6-7 minute walk. The whole time she has a oxygen mask on that is connected to a machine that tests how much oxygen she is using. Annika was a trooper and did such a great job. For me the worst part is that we have to wait another 2 weeks before we get to hear the results. It will be very interesting to see what recommendations the gait team will come up with.

After we are done with the testing, we head over to Northern Voices for Alumni Day. Annika is back in her element now and her friend, Alec, gets a big hug (much to his dismay!!) when she sees him. We spend the rest of the day just hanging out with the kids, teachers and other parents at Northern Voices. All in all it was a very eventful day and Annika crashed in the car on the way home.

What a busy weekend!!

Wow, I can't believe that summer is now officially 1/2 over!! We had a great 4th of July and Annika had a blast. Our big news in the past is that she lost her other front tooth so she just looks so big now. She has no front teeth (one of the bottom front teeth is starting to come in) now so we have the big toothless smile!!

On the fourth, we went to Annadale for the parade, swimming and of course carnival rides. I can't believe this little girl. She went on every ride at the park except for 3 (2 of them we didn't let her ride on or I think she would have). She just went from ride to ride and kept on pushing through. As expected, we had to take her from the park in tears as she didn't want the fun to stop. We decided not to hang out for the fireworks as she was really tired and we had more fun filled days to follow. There is fireworks here in Litchfield this Friday so we will get her out to those then.

Saturday we were off to a friend's cabin to spend the day at the lake. She had a great time in the water and then got to go on a boat ride with Dad and her brothers. She even got to go fishing with them in a paddleboat. We had to convince her to do this instead of going back into the lake because the sun was starting to go down and the weather was getting cooler.

On Sunday, we had to drive over to Wisconsin to Allen's sister's farm for a birthday party for our niece. Daniel is spending the summer there on the farm so it was good to see our long lost son!! Annika had a blast as she has a cousin there to play with. She also got to see a baby cow being born, ride on the 4-wheeler and just run around the farm. We thought for sure she would crash on our drive back home but she spent the whole ride home talking with her stuffed animals she brought, singing songs and basically annoying her brother in the back seat. And we thought our "fighting in the back seat" days were over but those 2 can fight as well as the boys did when they were younger.

Hope everyone had a great 4th!! I think we will spend this week recovering from the weekend!! She also gets to head over to Northern Voices for the morning on Thursday. I think looking back in the past year I can't believe how far she has come in just a year. Yes, there are struggles that we have but really this is better than I could have ever imagined.

Annika gets a "big girl" bed

Annika finally outgrew her toddler bed or maybe we just wanted to get her something bigger so we finally made the move to the big girl bed today. Annika was very concerned as we moved her toddler bed frame out to the road to see if anyone wanted to pick it up for free. So her dad, being the jokester he is, told her that she was moving out and she could go live with Cassie (her aunt and PCA). Well, that wasn't bad news for Annika and she proceeded to go to the steps to head in the house to "pack her bags". I had to take her to van to show her that she had a new bed that we were going to put in her room. That was good news for her and even better news is that we needed to go shopping for "big girl" bedding. Because there is just the boys ahead of her we had nothing in twin sheets that would pass on the "princess" bed. She had a great time picking out her bedding. As we were putting up the bed, she got inside the bed frame and put her head down on the floor. She was very excited.

For the first night in a long time she didn't even argue about heading to bed. She was even asleep before we gave her the bedtime meds. She crawl in her new bedding, took her choice of her dolls and laid down in her "Little Mermaid" a.k.a "princess bed" bedding and was off to dreamland in less than 5 minutes. If only it worked that way every night!!!

A Day of Appointments

Wow, what a "jammed-packed" day we had yesterday. A day full of good news/bad news. First of all, we had her bi-weekly appointment with aural rehab at the U of MN. We had a change in our health coverage effective the beginning of the month and we now had to send in information for authorization of Annika's therapies. Well, for her sessions with Aural Rehab they approved visits until July 24th but in order to approve more they will need to have standardized scores sent in to show the need for her to have additional services beyond then. Well, this produce a dilemma for us because we planned for Annika to be discharged from services effective the end of August since she will start Kindergarten in the fall and it would be difficult to get her down there for services (it is about 75 miles one way) while attending full time school. So the question came to be-do we increase her services for the month of July (she only had one session scheduled because of the 4th of July ending up on her scheduled day to be seen) and just discharge her a month early or do we do the testing (and we need to make sure it was testing that she didn't have through the school district) and show proof to continue in the month of August. We would also have to schedule an extra appointment in July so we could get the information on the authorization into the insurance before the 24th of July. I was torn in the decision because really what we have for testing is speech testing and Annika doesn't go to the U of MN for speech but more for her auditory processing issues. I figured she would not qualify under the speech issue as she doesn't qualify for speech for school no longer. Well, we went ahead and just did the testing to see how she did and we did a speech test and I think she really only had 3-4 errors on the whole test and one we can count but she was being silly and wasn't saying it right. We did a receptive word test and she didn't have issues with this either. She knows a lot of information just has problems getting it out. We came up with a couple more tests we could do but we would have to come back a different day to do this. So I left with a decision to make. Do I let her go and do it on our own or do we make this work and push for just an extra month. I thought and prayed about this for a little bit of time and also made a call to a friend and we prayed together about the choice. After that I decided that it was time to let go of all my supports and let my girl fly on her own. We know what to do with her at home and we really can cover a month of services ourselves but this is the first time in 4 years that we are flying solo. It is hard for me to let go of my safety line but it is time.

So after that session, we went to have fun at the zoo for a couple of hours. Annika loves the monkeys and she told us that this day her favorite animal was the giraffes. If the monkeys were more awake they would have stolen the show but it was either nap time or lunch time for them. It was a neat day there as they had several tables set out with additional exhibits and things for the kids to touch and see. Also animals for them to see up close. A tiger even came up and laid right next to a viewing window so we could be up and close. She, of course, wanted to "pet" the tiger.

After the zoo, we headed off for her appointment at Gillette for her possible Botox injections and to see the orthopedist there. Well, for me the good/bad news is that her rotation in her upper thigh is getting worse so that means we are finally being referred to gait lab and motion analysis. I have asked for this for the past year but everyone has told me that they only do this if surgery is in the future and don't usually use this as a diagnostic tool for the therapists. So it is great we left with no Botox (she didn't need it at 3 months for the first time in the past 4 years) and an appointment with gait lab. The bad news is that her bone in the thigh is more than likely rotating more and we are possibly looking at a derotation surgery sooner than later. We will know more possibly sometime in August as we are scheduled for gait lab on July 31st. Mom know has to do more research and more reading between now and then because I am thinking we are going to have to make another decision then and if everyone else has the experienced surgeons as we have if we don't have our questions then and there and ready to fire the opportunity has just flown by.

Well, this is has almost turned into a book.

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend. It has been a quiet weekend around here and we are very thankful. We needed to just have a quiet weekend. Tomorrow we will head down to Fort Snelling for their Memorial Day service. Annika's older brother is in the Navy SeaCadet program and they help out with this service. It is a great service and we take the chance to stop by Allen's dad gravesite while down there.

Annika is adjusting to not being in school anymore. She is enjoying the weather now that it has warmed up but she does miss going to school. She is such a social kid that staying home with all of us can get a little boring for her. We are going to have to try to set up some "play dates" for her as she misses playing with kids her age.

I have added a video that we made of her before we left for California. Enjoy and have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!

Twin's Game

Oh, what a short night last night. We went to the Minnesota Twins game last night with Northern Voices, the oral deaf school she attended. She had a blast hanging out with her friends at the game and of course Mom enjoyed catching up with all the Moms and teachers that came. And then Allen and Daniel were disappointed because we lost the game 10-1, which of course I lost track of. But at the end of it all everyone had a great time. My recommendation for the next time is not to let her fill up on pop and cotton candy though. We got home at 11:30 last night and she was crazy and a jabber box up until about 11 or 11:15 in the car!! We have about a 1.5-2 hour drive home. She was creating her own songs, playing "Simon Says", and just talking a mile a minute. She wore Mom out in about 1/2 an hour!!!

We will see how today goes for her because this has been a major emotional rollercoaster for her. She has realized that school is done and that has made her a little sad. Yesterday she received her "graduation" present from her daycare-they only have kids up to school age so she will have to switch come the Fall and I think is starting to understand the end is coming and since it isn't her personality to really be down or sad when this all happens she just becomes more edgy and will cry more often over little things.

I think we have figured out the glasses now and some day when she is home we are going to try to lose the rubber bands. I have found that if I place her bow of the glasses on the outside of the ear hook they tend to hold everything in place. The rubber bands are working now but once school starts we will have to change the ear hooks daily so this puts a lot of stress on the bands so they have been breaking every couple of days.

We had her meeting with the new Kindergarten staff on Tuesday and this went very well. We just have some final work to be done on her IEP before the end of the year and figure out where she is going to do her ESY and we are done for the year!! Annika came to the meeting to met everyone but then was able to head off to the playground with her older brother so she could have fun while all the adults had a conversation about her. This was not a meeting that she would have wanted to sit through or one that I would have wanted her to be at. Not that anything bad was said just a lot of information about her that she doesn't need to hear at this time.

School is winding down around here and the weather is finally starting to look like we might see some Spring weather before the Summer season starts. Finally!!! If you live in Minnesota you know exactly what I am saying.

Gotta run it is time to awaken the "princess" which should be fun because she told me last night that she would "wake up" at daycare. That means we don't want to "wake up" at home but we need to get dressed for the day and get the implants on.

Annika gets glasses

Well, on our return home we found a message from the eye doctor that Annika's glasses were in so we ran over last night to pick them up after school/work. Annika loves her glasses because they are pink!! That being said she is not liking her glasses because we are still working out the bugs of keeping her implants and her glasses behind her ear comfortably. We have been trying to use rubber bands to hold the ear hook to the bows of the glasses but then on one side especially the bottom of the huggie will stick out and cause issues. She has broken 2 or 3 rubber bands already by pulling her BTE's off from the glasses. So our new challenge is coming up with something to help hold everything all in place but can be changed from school to home as she wears the I connect at school with her FM system and the standard ear hook at home.

Tonight we went to the end of the year party at preschool. This was celebrated by having a Vehichle night. You name it it was there and she had a blast moving from place to place. Tomorrow is her official last day of preschool so she is a little sad but excited because that means she moves to the elementary school and Kindergarten. I can't believe that we are there already!!! It just seems like yesterday when she was born and we went through it all and yet I feel like I have lived a lifetime since then.

Time for us to put our princess to bed. Good night all.

We are home!!!!

Well, we got home from California about 11 pm on Tuesday evening. All I can say is that it was a whilwind trip!!! Annika loved the plane ride. Of course for some reason that I can't understand she was disappointed because the plane didn't crash into the cars. Oh yes, I can tell she has big brothers who have to be teaching her something. I will try to give a quick overview of our trip but it will probably end up fairly long.

We arrived there late Sunday afternoon and it was just beautiful there. Flowers in bloom and the sun shining-believe me with the spring we have had in Minnesota that is a welcome relief. Anyway, after we settled into the hotel it was off to find somewhere to eat. We found a Chuckie Cheese and since Annika hasn't been to one and we had time to burn we headed in. She loved being in the show room and watching the characters and of course the games and rides were a huge hit. She had a blast but was looking forward to going swimming back at the hotel so we cut our time a little short there. Well, I didn't think that it would cool off so fast while we were in the restaurant and of course I thought we would get away without heading to the pool but no she insisted so we swam for about 5 minutes and she was shivering so we called it quits. It had been a long day so we headed to bed after a splash in a warm bathtub.

The next day we were off to Advanced Bionics and to participate in trials there. It was so great there to met the people who work with her implants and design the next up and coming products. I talked to several different engineers and gave our thoughts on all the new protypes they have but more importantly I was able to see how much they care about what we think and how much they put pride in their work since they make a product for children and specifically Annika. It is hard to explain until you experience this. We had a tour of the plant and we learned out the implants are made from the beginning to end. Annika tried to put all the pieces of the internal device together just like a puzzle. Dave, our tour guide, fell in love with her so she got her own ride via his arms across the whole plant. She was given one of the Clarion Cougars, who has gone everywhere since she recieved it and just was treated like the princess she believes she is.

At this time our previous director at NV arrrived and we were off to Magic Mountain-Six Flags. She had a blast on the rides and even got Etta and myself on rides with her-including the mini roller coaster!!! We spent a couple hours there which was just perfect in my eyes but Annika was not so thrilled that it was time to go home. The people who ran the rides got a real education on what is possible for a child who is deaf. One person told us that Annika was her "hero". They just enjoyed her because she just loves life and it just becomes contagious.

We went out for supper after Six Flags and Annika did not stop talking the whole time. At one point Etta looked at me and said "she doesn't stop talking does she?" And really the only time she is quiet is when she is sleeping or is upset about something (even then we usually have noise just not words). After this whole action packed day I was so ready to get back to the motel and get some rest. The ocean wasn't an option this day because it was overcast and about 60 degrees out so too cold to head out there.

On Tuesday morning we woke up to a nice day and sunshine so we decided we were going to head out to the beach before our flight left early afternoon. So we headed over to Ventura harbor. Annika loved the drive over as we watched the mountains go by and drove by orange groves and so many other things to look at that we don't see in Minnesota. I wish I would have had the time to stop and take pictures of it all because I would have come home with such a vocabulary book in just that one drive!!!

Well, the ocean wasn't as great of a time as we planned it to be. At first we were enjoying the view and playing in the sand. Well, I let her get too close to the surf (I didn't think it was too close but it was) and as I was trying to put the camera away a wave came up and knocked her flat on her back. Of course we were fully dressed and had the implants on. No I didn't put any protection around them because I didn't plan on her getting wet as it was still pretty cool by the ocean. The good news is that after spending a night in the dry and store they are just fine but we had some anxious moments as we left California. I now had a child who was cold, couldn't hear and wanted to get back to the car now!! I had to carry her, the shoes, and my bag across the dunes to get back to the car. I was worn out by the time we got back to the car and I still had to dry her off, get her changed and take care of the wet implants. It was time to go home!!!

The plane ride home was very uneventful but Annika was sad to leave California. She wanted to stay with Fisher in California but also missed Daddy so we shed a few tears as we were taking off from Burbank.

I will post pictures from the trip soon and also Annika has something new to show everyone so will do that later today. Now I have to go get her ready to head off to daycare.

Have a great day everyone!!!

California here we come

We are leaving today to fly out to California. Annika is so excited, she has never flown before and that is all she has talked about for the past weeks!!

We are flying out there to participate in trials and testing at Advanced Bionics, her implant company. I am excited to get the chance to see the plant and just to be to California as I have never been there either.

We are going to be out there such a short time so not sure how much sightseeing we will be able to do but my one goal is to get her out to see the ocean. Last night we were packing her suitcase and we had to try on swimsuits (as you know in Minnesota it has been way too cold to think of wearing them yet) to see which one would fit her and then she kept saying, "are we going swimming? I go swimming in California?" Unfortunately I was doing this too close to bedtime so when it was time to get ready for bed she refused to put on her pajamas because she was going to go swimming!!!

Last night she was so excited we had to call Etta Fisher, the previous director at Northern Voices, because she lives in California and we are going to see her. She just had to talk to someone or she was going to drive me crazy!!!

Well, I won't have a computer while we are out there so I will post another blog when I come back and let you in on all the stories and hopefully will have some pictures and the like to add.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!!

Annika's Story

We decided that we should start at the beginning for you to understand where we have been and how far we have come.

Our daughter was born into a family of 3 older boys (they were 8, 9 and 11 at that time). She was going to be the princess no matter what. Annika then came down with bacterial meningitis at the age of 2 1/2 months old. I can't even begin to explain how our whole life changed at this time. But I can tell you that God has been so good to us through it all.

As we prepared to leave the hospital, her neurologist sat down with us and explained all the things she might not be able to do. She may have lost her hearing so she won't talk, she may have cognitive delays, she may not be able to walk, she may not get back the full use of her hands and the list goes on. Her neurologist ended that heartwrenching conversation with the statement that he was just telling us the worst scenario and the best part of his job is when kids come back year after year and prove him wrong. To this day, Annika has proved him wrong with everything that he told us.

She was diagnosed, about 3 months later, with a moderate-severe hearing loss and we started with hearing aids. Now this child has known exactly what she wants from the beginning. We started to work with her and teach her sign language and also use speech to communicate with her. For about 1 1/2 years we used sign with her. She understood everything we would sign to her but she absolutely refused to use sign herself. She would just try to speak. Around the same time we learned that Annika's hearing loss was progressing due to ossification which is common with kids that have meningitis. So we then started the journey of cochlear implants.

At the age of 2, Annika received her bilateral cochlear implants. I remember watching her a couple of days after the surgery pressing her head against the radio in our living room because she couldn't hear the music but could tell it was on because of the equalizer lights that were on the radio. My heart just broke for her but it also told me that we did the right thing. This child wants to hear, she wants to talk, she wants to listen to music, she wants to dance!!

Annika has also been diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy which causes her leg muscles (her hands and arms are no longer an issue) to be overly spastic and makes it difficult for her to move her legs and balance. But about the time that we had decided that she would never walk indepdently and had purchased her very own walker, she decided to surprise us all and walk right out of it. I wish I would have recorded her walking into school the first day because her face was undescribable and her teachers were amazed. This child has truly taught us that "if there is a will, there is a way."

Annika attended Northern Voices, an oral school for the deaf for about 3 years and has made great progress. This past fall (2007) she transitioned back into our home district and became fully mainstreamed in the local preschool classroom. Mom, of course, was so nervous about the bigger class size and how she would do. And just about a week after school started, we asked Annika what she liked about her new school. She didn't miss a beat to respond, "I like all my new friends!" She loved the big classroom, she had lots of kids to play with. The kids have just accepted her for who she is and are very helpful in areas that she needs help with.

As this school year is coming to an end, we are working with and looking forward to her new transition into the Kindergarten classroom and the "bigger" elementary school. Annika is very excited about moving to a new school and loves the idea that she is going to school where her brothers went to.

I think that is enough for now. I will post more hopefully tomorrow.

Love Mom