Wow time just flies

I can't believe how fast time just flew by during Christmas. Lots of updates to write about but right now I am trying to post a video on this blog. Everytime I try I get an error. I will be working on this hopefully tonight and then get it posted if I have sucess. Stay tuned.

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.