Jazzie and Tahlia

Good Luck Jack

The girls love watching Good Luck Charlie on Disney Channel. It's a show about an older sister who makes a video diary for her little sister Charlie. She ends each entry by saying "Good luck, Charlie"...

The girls have been playing around with the Flip camera and this evening I found this video made by Jazzie where she is talking about her birth parents. I had no idea the girls were making video diaries for their nephew. Seriously, how cute is this?

I give you some seriously talented musicians

Yesterday Alex took a bit of time to give the girls some music lessons in preparation for a concert they were going to put on a bit later...

And now I present to you the concert:

This and that

I can't believe the marathon is this Sunday! Am I ready? Yes, I am ready to do this. My knee is still not 100%, but I am not going to let it stop me. 

"I've learned that finishing a marathon isn't just an athletic achievement. It's a state of mind; a state of mind that says anything is possible".
- John Hanc

Bring it :-)

 

For as long as I can remember, Tahlia's nickname has been tweety bird, so when I saw this shirt, I simply had to get it...

She's my little rockstar ;-)

And speaking of rockstars, here we are burning some calories after dinner last night:

One more week

(Side note: why do these video stills always make my face look ridiculous???)

I am proud to say that when I signed up for the marathon training through Ohio Valley Voices, I agreed to try and raise at least $250 for them. I am proud to say that I have raised $1,220! I want to thank everyone who has donated in my name. I appreciate it SO very much. All the money raised will be used towards teaching children like Jazzie to talk and to understand when being spoken to. My wish is for every child with cochlear implants to have the same success that Jazzie has been able to have.

Thank you!!!!!

A big milestone

Another dance party

For as much as Jazzie claims that she does not like music (it bothers her cochlear implant processors) and for as much she can't carry a tune when she sings, she sure does love to dance.

As you can see, she did not appreciate it when Matt took the camera of her ;-)

Dance party

Every damn day, just do it ***Updated***

Yep, that's my motto!

Saturdays are supposed to be my long run training days. However, I am not able to do it tomorrow, so I am doing it today. I HAVE to get those 10 miles in. No excuses! I want to say thanks to all of you have sent me messages of encouragement. I appreciate them ALL!

I will try to remember to take another video when I am done. It should take me about two hours to run my 10 miles.

Happy Friday!!!

UPDATE:

And here is me, literally the moment I walked back in the door after my 2 hour and 20 minute run. It's cut short, since the girls walked in right in the middle of it ;-)

When you gotta go, you gotta go ;-)

So Jazzie has really been into helping me in the kitchen, but lately she has been wanting to cook/bake things all by herself. The other day she wanted to make brownies and she wanted me to film her doing it. In the middle however, nature called ;-)

Some video's

First, here are the girls dancing and singing along with The Fresh Beat Band. I love Tahlia's drum set, the way the girls dress like the members of the band and how Jazzie yells at Tahlia to be quiet ;-)

Next is another video of Jazzie helping me bake. I sent Tahlia and her friend over to borrow some sugar from one of the neighbors and I love how they are both holding it when they return...

And finally here is Tahlia on Thanksgiving Day morning, waiting for Alex and Winnie to wake up. Alex and Winnie drove all night from Chicago and didn't get here until 3:30 in the morning, so we let them sleep in, much to Jazzie's and Tahlia's dismay. They literally asked us every 2 minutes from the the moment they woke up if they could wake them up. Finally at 11:30, I gave in...

Jazzie and mom being goofy

Jazzie wanted to take a video of us last night, so here we are :-)

Some chit chat

To sign or not to sign

Over the years of having this blog, I have gotten a lot of e-mails from people who have been inspired by Jazzie and her cochlear implants. I know that my blog will often come up when people are researching hearing impairment and cochlear implants. I also know that not everyone agrees with our decision to give Jazzie bi-lateral cochlear implants. I am not going to get into a debate on whether or not cochlear implants are right or not. I think you all know how our family feels about this. 

As you know, Jazzie went to Ohio Valley Voices, which is an oral deaf school. What that means is that the students (who are ALL hearing impaired) are taught to speak and to listen. There is absolutely NO sign language. There is an argument that if you teach children with a cochlear implant to sign, that they won't speak (or maybe not as well or as quickly). Sign language is a lot easier than speaking, so some experts say that using sign language will hinder a child's progress in acquiring speech. We were encouraged not to sign with Jazzie when she first started on her cochlear implant journey. And for as much as I love Ohio Valley Voices and other oral deaf schools like it, I disagree with that philosophy. We have been signing with Jazzie since the day we first met her in China and we still do. Upon learning that Jazzie was deaf, I immediately signed up for American Sign Language classes at our local university. Before Jazzie was two years old, she had a sign vocabulary of about 400 words. And even though we don't sign as much as we used to, we still do. It is unrealistic to expect me to never sign with my daughter who is still a deaf child. I mean, there are times when we simply have to, because there is no other way of communication. When her processors are off when she is swimming, in the bath tub, in the shower or at bed time, she cannot hear anything so we use ASL. 

I think that any professional/expert who listens to Jazzie's speech and takes a look at her overall progress with her CI's can see that us using ASL from the time that she was a baby has not hindered her in the least. I guess I wanted to publicly say on this blog what I don't think I have ever said before. We went against what professionals told us to do at the time. 

If you are reading this blog because you are trying to get information on cochlear implants and an oral deaf education for your child, I am here to say that you can still use American Sign Language AND be a successful speaker and listener. My Jazzie certainly is. Here is a clip of her reading Green Eggs And Ham by Dr. Suess. Her reading level is way beyond this, but I wanted to showcase her speech as best as possible. Towards the end she uses some funny intonations and facial expressions. She makes me laugh, that girl :-)

A different language

Tahlia LOVES to sing. Her current favorite song is The Climb by Miley Cyrus. The other day she told me she was going to sing it in a different language, so of course I had to get the Flip out. Tahlia will tell you at the end of the video what language she was singing in ;-)

I am posting this video today in honor of all my friends North of the border. Happy Canada Day!!!

An imitation

Jazzie imitating mommy while watching the Dutch soccer team. I suppose that the Dutch soccer spirit will be forever engrained in me ;-)

Daddy's Song

I present Matt singing in his worst voice possible which really cracked up the girls :-)

Dancing with the Fresh Beat Band

Seven years ago today.

On May 14th, 2003 we finally got to hold Jazzie in our arms. It was one of the most overwhelming and emotional moments of my entire life. From the moment I held her close to me, I knew I would do anything for this child and that I would love her forever.

Here are some pictures of that day:

Catching a first glimpse of the babies (Jazzie is on the far left even though we did not know it at the time):

Back in the room (after removing her quilted snow suit in 90 degree weather):

She was such a tiny peanut; barely weighing 13 pounds. 

I can't believe that here we are, seven years later. Jazzie has grown SO much. She used to fit perfectly in daddy's arms :-)

May 14, 2003:

I guess she still does. May 14, 2010:

 
Hey Matt, can you still recognize her by her socks??? (inside joke)

I remember our Family Day so well. It was filled with happiness and emotion. I knew that first day that Jazzie was deaf, but kept it to myself for the first couple of days. I was afraid to say anything, because I was worried they would not let us keep her since we were not approved for a special needs child. I shared my suspicions with Matt and we did not say anything the entire time we were in China until we got to Guangzhou for the medical exam. Jazzie failed her hearing test and before we knew it there were lots of Chinese people in white medical coats talking to our guide. We were asked on three separate occasions if we wanted a different baby. Just thinking about it makes me cry again. There was NO way that Matt and I were going to give her back because she was deaf. One of our travel mates told me recently that she vividly remembers me getting upset with our guide after he had asked us again if we wanted a different baby, because "it could be arranged". Apparently I got angry and told him that I did not want anybody asking me that question again, because we wanted Jazzie and Jazzie only. The interesting thing is that I do not remember that conversation with our guide at all. 

Not even for a moment can I imagine having any daughter other than Jazzie...

I love her, sassiness and all :-)

 

I love that girl...

If you have never seen our travel video, it can be viewed here.

Funny reaction

It seems that people couldn't view Jazzie's video I posted yesterday. It should work now.

And please excuse Jazzie's constant wiping of her nose. Her allergies are really acting up.

Homework

So I got a Flip and I've been playing with it, hence yet another video :-)

In this video Jazzie is working on her spelling homework. She almost always gets challenge words instead of the regular list of words for that week. On Monday, the kids take a test on that week's spelling words. If they already know how to spell all of them, they get the challenge words, which really are quite a bit more difficult. Yesterday Jazzie said: "Why do I always have to get my regular words right?" She has yet to figure out that if she misses just one word on purpose, she does not have to do her challenge words. Of course, I am not saying anything!

I am also posting this video for those who have e-mailed me lately about Jazzie's speech. I will take another video of her to give you an even better idea of her speech, but I think you can tell from this video that she has done well with her cochlear implants, even though she has some trouble pronouncing the word "precipitation" :-)

The Climb

Tahlia singing her very FAVORITE song and some chit chatting afterwards :-)

Jazzie's adoption video

After struggling to figure out how to upload our adoption video's to the blog, I was finally able to put Jazzie's video on YouTube. I am still working on trying to get Tahlia's on there as well.

I have put a link to the video in the sidebar on the left, but here it is now. I still can't watch the moment of me holding Jazzie for the first time without crying. It was such a powerful moment...

The world is just awesome

Skinnemarinkedink

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Tahlia's artwork

Here is a piece of artwork that Tahlia brought home from school:

I'll let her tell you all about it...

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I'm Yours

Tahlia absolutely LOVES the "I'm Yours" song by Jason Mraz. Every times she hears it on the radio, she runs to turn it way up to sing and dance along to it and lately one of her favorite things to do is parade around the house with my Ipod, listening to it.

I give you Tahlia, singing "I'm Yours"; it takes a moment for her to really get into it, but when she does, she is on! I didn't realize until after I wrote this post that Dropshots has a maximum of 2 minutes for downloading a video, so you're not able to see the entire song. But it's still cute ;-)

Oh, and please excuse my singing; I like the song, too ;-)

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The next Project Runway star?

Tahlia has been asking for a Tinkerbell costume for a while now. I keep telling her that she could ask to get it for her birthday, but that I wasn't going to buy one right now. Then Jazzie had a great idea and said: "I'll make one for you, Tahlia". So down to their craft room in the basement they went. They must have been down there for over an hour. Matt and I heard LOTS of giggling and finally I decided I needed to check out what they were doing. It turned out that Tahlia was in the middle of her first fitting:

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The second fitting must have gone a little bit better, because eventually the costume ended up looking like this:

 

Hmmm, I am not sure if it's a realistic representation of Tinkerbell's costume. I think it looks more like Pocahontas, but I'll give it an A for creativity :-)

      

Can you do this?

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D-D-Dora!!!

I love how you can see the dog sitting behind Tahlia waiting to be fed. You can hear Matt making noise in the background, getting her food ready.

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Baking with Tahlia

Tahlia really enjoys helping me bake (I enjoy it too!). Yesterday we made our much beloved pumpkin bread. My girl is getting really good at cracking those eggs. When she first started helping, there were many times when I had to fish out some egg shells from the batter. However, she is a real pro now, ready to join a long line of bakers in our family. Here is a little video of Tahlia helping. Sorry it's a bit long (about 5 minutes), but she is just too darn cute! I love her answer towards the end when I ask her what we need to do after the batter is all mixed ;-)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beautiful

I have posted this before, but I need a reminder for myself today...

A conversation with Tahlia

And now presenting...

...Tahlia as Ariel, The Little Mermaid :-)