Willy Wonka Birthday Party

Kai about to go on his first (and only at the moment), plane ride to NY.
Less than a year old.

Kai turns 1.  We celebrated by going to see Sesame Street Live.

Kai's 1st Thanksgiving, 2006.

And he just keeps growing, 2011.

In less than 2 months, Prince Malakai will be 5 years old.  It's so hard to believe how fast time flies.  *sniff sniff*

He is turning into such an Amazing young boy.  He does his best to help with Mimi.  She couldn't ask for a better brother.  He comforts her at night, helps feed her, show her signs, and also...........annoys her, pulls on her, jumps on her, etc.  He's her Big brother.  :)  This year, he has decided he wants an "Oompa Loopma Birthday Party."  Ummmmm, not sure about that.  So, I suggested, a "Willy Wonka Birthday Party" and it went over pretty well.  Technically it's the same thing, I guess.  But, I don't feel like painting him orange and dying his hair GREEN!  Right now I am still thinking of "festivities" for the party, which is mind boggling at times.  Right now the party is set to be held at the apartment.  Yep!  The two bedroom apartment.  And now that I "think" about it, it has to be held here because the invitations states our address as the party destination.  So, the apartment it is.  One activity I do know we will be having is an Easter Egg Hunt.  Well of course.  Someone has to find the Golden Egg.  So I know.......this will be fun.  Another one, is guess the number of Gobstoppers in the jar (or whatever I decided to put them in).  After that, I haven't figured anything out.  I have been thinking over either pin the hat on Willy Wonka or pin the Oompa Loompa on the picture of a Chocolate Factory.  Oh and for those of you who don't know already.  The party is based on the Old version with Gene Wilder.  

I went to Cross Creek mall a few weeks ago back in Fayetteville, and they have a Willy Wonka candy machine.  It's actually exciting.  Pretty freaking pricey for a few pieces of candy, but so worth doing it at least once.  I don't have pictures of the machine itself, but I did take a snapshot of the container the candy came in. I am trying to figure out how to incorporate it into the party.  (which apparently is on my phone, so will add later).

So.............there are 15 lucky individuals who will receive Willy Wonka invitations to help celebrate Kai's 5th birthday on September 10.  I have to thank Mrs. Marlene Villar for her talent and work in making the invitations.  I absolutely love them and once Kai "actually" sees them in person, he's going to be ecstatic.  Since the invitation is basically a candy bar, I may possibly let Kai hand deliver them to his "friends" and "family."  :)  Then I have Mrs. Cindy who will be making Kai a Willy Wonka candy bar cake.  Yay!  And as always, I know it will be delicious and yummy!  And finally, Mrs. Violet who will "hopefully" me creating Kai a Willy Wonka 5th birthday shirt of some kind.  I just know this is going to be a birthday Kai will not forget.  It's truly going to be fun!!  Come on September!!

Willy Wonka candy wrapper and the Golden ticket.

Semi-closer look at the Golden ticket.

A BEAUTIFUL Daughter She Is...

For the past few weeks, it's just been me and Mimi.  Kai has had the pleasure of visiting Grammie back in Hope Mills.  I'm sure he's enjoyed playing in the pool and running in the front yard.  Compared to being cooped up in our little apartment.  As I sit here on the couch, I think about how blessed I am to have both of them in my lives. Yes!!  Its been stressful and too much for me to handle lately and there are times I just want to give up, but I continue to move forward.  I'm even more blessed that Mimi seems to be progressing and learning something NEW almost every day.  It's a slow process, but I truly believe she will continue to improve.  There are so many other families who have children with Microcephaly with other health conditions.  While at the moment, all Mimi suffers from is "Microcephaly."  This is something we are truly Thankful for.  Even though she is not saying words at the moment and she is three years of age and 2 months, her babbling and communication has increased so much over the past few weeks.  It's amazing and mommy is truly impressed.  :)

She however has lately picked up a few bad habits from brother Kai, so....she has been getting in trouble here a lot lately.  But, she knows when she's doing wrong.  Most times I think it's just because she wants more attention.  Go figure!  Mimi is a pure-out Drama Queen.  Working on signs with her is a challenge.  There are times she wants to learn and seems to get it, but there are the times she just does NOT care.  It takes time and patience; something you must have with a 3 year old plus.....a child with Microcephaly.  Something I continue to work on with her is, when she wants something she just yelps at me.  If it's something out the fridge, I will open it and allow her to show me, then I will sign whatever it is: juice, milk, cookie,  fruit, etc.  My main goal here is to get her from STOP whining about what she wants and show me or express to me what she wants.  It's a process and there are times it seems long and dddrrraaaggggggged out, but we will get to the end of the RAINBOW eventually.  Mimi is no dummy.  She's got a lot of support and people rooting for her.  She will, GO FAR!!!

A few months back, Mimi was some what introduced to the potty.  Yeah, introduced and that's about it.  Well here lately, I've been sitting her own the potty, allowing her to read her "Abby Goes to the Potty" book which has sound effects.  Yay!!  She loves it and it's a winner almost every time.  We of course have had several accidents, something I already expect and don't plan on NOT occurring anytime soon.  She's special needs.  She has NO clue on how to take herself to the potty.  The step "we" are trying to reach is for her to inform someone she has to go.  That's a plus in the making.  One thing she has the tendency to do is sit on the potty and when no one is looking, get up, find a blanket, and let all her business out there.  Not good Mimi.  So, this is something we are trying to avoid.  I do NOT want pee-pee blankets.  She knows the sign for potty, so whenever I sit her on it, I sign potty, and most of the time she does too.  This here is still a working progress.

Now Mimi in general.  She is her own UNIQUE-self.  Fun to be around, friendly, loving in all ways.  She's one Awesome girl and I LOVE her to pieces.  I couldn't ask for a better daughter.  There are times me and Miss Mimi butt heads, oh YES we do.  But we always work things out in the end.  She's my little Mimi Monster and I love her to pieces!!

Disney Hot Air Balloon (2011)

Not happy baby!

Just the "three" of US.

Video of Mimi Signing

Getting prouder and prouder with Mimi each day!

Here is a video of her signing Baby!  

I was having issues uploading it the other day, so here it is:

Signing BABY

Baby

Here is Mimi signing Baby.  I honestly think this is one of her favorite signs because any time I ask her to do it, she has this HUGE smile on her face.  

For the past few weeks, it's just been me and Mimi.  Kai has been visiting Grammie back in Hope Mills, while Mimi has been here in Wilmington with me.  Of course I've been in school during the day, but afterwards, it's just been the two of us.  Today, we "attempted" to have a girls afternoon out.  It really didn't go all that great. Well, nothing went wrong.  We just didn't accomplish much.  But we did spend time together and that was more than enough.  Mimi's first set of DVDs came in the mail today.  She was super excited when we opened the box.  The set came with a CD of some of the Signing Time CDs.  So my iTouch connection in the car has been replaced with the Signing Time CD.  At least I have something to learn on the way to school.  Mimi carried the CD case around during our entire "date".  She refused to put it down.  At least I can tell she's happy about the new movies.  The DVD set came with 4 DVDs, but right now we are just going to focus on two.  The first one we watched was "Going Outside".  Some of the signs we are learning include:  outside, flowers (which we already knew), grass, sun, and many more.  The second one we started on consisted of the different seasons.  We aren't really paying attention to it at the moment, just listening to it.  Mimi is too young to understand the different seasons, so it's not a must at the moment.  So, I'm sure in a few minutes, I will be putting the "Going Outside" DVD back in.  Well, that's about it for today.  Thank you all for taking the time to read up on little Miss Mimi.

Bath Time

Loving up on Louis from The Princess and the Frog!! saa

Back to SQUARE One........

So, apparently the ASL-101 class is full for the Fall semester.  Yes, I will admit, I was a bit disappointed, but at the same time, maybe a little relieved.  I don't know.  I still have my back up plan of taking courses online, so I may go ahead and start one, once I see how my school load will be in August.  Until then, I will continue to practice my daily signs out of my pocket dictionary and watch Signing Time videos with Mimi.  I just ordered Vol. 1-3, Series Two of Signing Time.  So, she has a total of 7 DVDs on there way.  I know Miss Mimi is going to be super happy once they arrive.  Kai will be too.  Especially since these are new DVDs in which they haven't seen yet.

Not much to report on at the moment.  But I will continue to keep every posted on my progress.  Once I get the time, I will post what I've learned so far.  Which is a lot, if you ask me.  :)

I can do this.......and I WILL DO IT!!!

I guess you can say, after 24 hours of "some-what" thinking, I made up the decision to go ahead and sign up for ASL-101 at UNCW.  Well, lets rewind.  I emailed the teacher a few weeks ago about wanting to take the course, but wasn't sure if I could since I'm a graduate student and already completed my language requirement.  Well, never heard back from her and TODAY, I got an email from her stating she'd been out of town and was catching up on emails, and did not see why it would be an issue.  I went around talking to several people to be sure and make sure it wouldn't cost me an arm and a leg, and it won't, since I am "already" taking classes in the Fall.  As of right now though, I'm not signed up for it, since it's not available to add to my course load.  Fingers crossed it won't be an issue.  Now, fast forward.  I decided to go ahead and do it now since #1, I'm already at UNCW and they have it available to take it, so, why not?  #2, it's a course that has NOTHING to do with Chemistry, so it shouldn't be "too" much for me to handle.  #3, I will HAVE to go to class and there will be no slacking on my end.  So as of right now, I am going to sign up and take ASL-101 in the Fall.  I'm kind of EXCITED about this.  At least I will have some what of a fresh start once the course starts.  I have NO idea what to expect, but we shall see.  So, that's the news of the day!!  :)

Teaching Signs in the FUTURE

So I have decided, I am going to learn ASL, not only to help me better communicate with Mimi, but to hopefully be able to teach in the future to families who could benefit from it.  I'm looking into taking courses online, since many of you know already, I am working on my MS in Chemistry and that's already enough for one person to handle.  Trying to take courses at a school, would most likely be "overload" on my part.  However, I won't begin the courses until either end of December or January.  Mainly because I am still taking classes at UNCW for the graduate program and right now, that's my main focus.  I've dedicated almost a year to the graduate program and I just can't let anything else get in the way.  But until I take the courses, which there are 4 on the site I am looking at, I will be teaching myself (and of course Mimi and Kai).  I went to Barnes and Nobles the other day and purchased:  The Pocket Dictionary of Signing by Rod R. Butterworth and Mickey Flodin.  It gives more than 600 signs of ASL and a few phrases.  Gives me time to practice, so once I do start the courses in a few months, I won't be as lost.  Also, I ordered Mimi, Signing Time DVDs, Series Two, Vol. 4-7.  I will be ordering Vol. 1-3 in the next few days, if it's still available at a reasonable price on Amazon or Ebay.  Vol. 4-7 focuses on the different seasons, going outside, sports, and the days of the week.  Something Mimi has NO clue about, but I got a great deal.  I really want Vol. 1-3, since it focuses on how to communicate with individuals when you meet them, birthdays, and moving your body phrases (dancing, walking, jumping, etc.).

With my hectic schedule, I admit, it's hard to fit in teaching myself ASL or even sitting down with Mimi.  But I am going to work very hard on making it a priority everyday, for at least an hour a day.  There's so much I can teach myself and Mimi in just an hour.  Well, mainly me.  It takes a great amount of time with Mimi, but all she needs is repetition and assistance, and I know she will get the hang of it all.  What I would like to do is eventually teach ASL (not the whole ASL, because Lord knows, I probably will never get that far) to families who can benefit by using it to communicate with the children, whether they have special needs or not.  Most importantly, I hope it will better help myself and Mimi, communicate a lot better, since at the moment, she's still not talking, but trust and believe, she gets her point out.  

This week, I am working on teaching myself the manual alphabet.  I know it pretty well, but there are times I get caught up and have no idea what I am doing with my fingers.  It looks easy, but you have to be able to learn it well enough so the person reading it "knows" what you are attempting to spell to them.  Eventually, I should be able to do the whole alphabet at a pretty steady speed, but right now, I am slowly taking my time.  I am working on words in the book to fingerspell, since just knowing the alphabet from A to Z is not enough.  You should know what sign "F" is right away, without thinking about it for 10 seconds.  So, this is my working progress for the week.  Also, learning the numbers and a few phrases.  Hopefully by the end of the week, I have this down pretty well.  I don't expect myself to go as fast as those who have been doing ASL for years, but feeling comfortable showing someone else is good enough.  Also, I will gradually work on words in The Pocket Dictionary of Signing in which I feel Mimi can benefit from at the moment, while reviewing those she has already been introduced to.  

So, this week is going to be an ADVENTURE of learning, if you ask me!     :)    And I'm READY!