Hooray for Hazel!

Time for a Hazel update! 

Christmas Eve was the two-year anniversary of her being with our family.

Look how little and cute she was when she came home!

Let's see, what can I tell you about Miss Hazel?

What she still loves:

She still loves FOOD more than anything.
It is on her mind every waking moment.

Her lack of it when anyone else is eating anything,
causes her to drop to the floor, weep and wail.

She loves to cuddle.

Especially at 7 am when Mom and Dad aren't ready to get up.

She loves to crawl right in between us and snuggle.

Only thing is, it's not enjoyable for Mom and Dad 

because she likes to suck on her ring finger

then touch us with it while it's wet.

Just a quirky sensory thing.

She loves to help me empty the dishwasher.

She also loves baths, school and babies and the iPad.

And following Anya and Eli occasionally to neighbors' houses.

What she still struggles with:

Her encephalitis ordeal last summer

set her back a bit behavior-wise.

It seems that she reverted back to when she first got here. 

That has been hard. 

She is still not talking, except for a few words: 

Mom, Dad, apple, nana, bye.

The rest sounds like her own version of Chinese.

One of her favorite phrases is

"Gah, POW." 

Wish I knew what it meant.

Ohhhhh how frustrating her lack of speech is.

You know how nice it is when your toddlers can start expressing things?

We long for that with her. We are doing all we can to help her

but she's just on her own timetable. 

Sometimes she uses signs to communicate, which helps!

She tries so hard!

She still prefers electronics over playing with toys.

Something we are working on. 

Still in diapers.  

I tried over Christmas break to potty train. 

Nope, pee everywhere, even though

she can potty on the toilet just fine.

Still in the toddler stage.
Loves to knock things down off of counters,

get into the garbage, break things.
This stage is a hard one for me.
I can say it's better than it was 2 years ago.
The progress is just really slow!

And...we just took her in for a sleep study and found

that she has mild sleep apnea.
It's not obstructive, though. That's good.
She just wakes a lot.
Pretty typical with Ds.


What she has accomplished this past year:

She responds to us like she understands most of what we are saying.
She answers us now. She says, "Na" for "Ya"

She attends a transitional kindergarten
and is much better behaved at school than she used to be.
Her teacher and the aides tell me they LOVE her.
They keep her on task by giving her healthy snacks. :)
Here's a video of her performing in her class Christmas Program.

She doesn't run away as much.
She'll usually come back when we call her.
Usually.

She is paying better attention in speech therapy and
during developmental activities.

She can repeat 2-3 directional sequences now
(for example, when we ask her to point to things in order)
Just the fact that she's following those directions is an improvement.

and

She is starting to like books and will point to the things you tell her to.

This has taken a while. Big accomplishment!

I'm sure there's more. I just need to think some more. :)

I get the question "Is Anya more high functioning than Hazel"
(People think high functioning means smart. I honestly don't
know what it means.)

For one thing, I don't like to compare them because,
although they have the same diagnosis,
they are two very different individuals.

Another thing is, Anya is 3 years older than Hazel and has been here longer.

It's hard to judge where they will each end up "functioning" wise.
and pointless, if you ask me.

Hazel is so much more "with it" than people think.
It's just that some of her challenges hide her smartness.
(Did that make any sense?
If you have a child with special needs, you get what I'm saying.)

It's not our place, or anyone else's, to decide how far she'll go in life,
compared to her typical peers.
We'll give her every opportunity to excel that we can
and the rest is up to her.
Please don't ask me to speculate. That just makes things hard.

All we know right now this day, is that we love her to pieces

and can't imagine life without her.

I love this photo.

"Let me show you what missions are all about, Big Brother.

My mission is pretty much figured out"

Change of subject:
Did you know that Hazel has a song?

Great song, isn't it? 

Only thing is, the Hazel in this song is mean. 

Our Hazel is sweet as sugar. 

Well..

unless 

she knows you're trying to take a picture of her.

In that case, all sweetness goes OUT the DOOR.

And she becomes a P.I.L.L

Come on, just one smile, Hazel? 

Or even just a calm face of some kind?

Nope.

OK, we'll just have to roll with it.

Ah...there we go. Good job, photographer Aunt Jen. 

You caught her at the right split second.

And one more!

Hooray for Hazel!

She's quite the girl.