25 April - 30 April 2011

Thank God for a fruitful week. Charlene has gone back to sleep soundly through the night. She will be awake for about 6-8 hours in the day. She has been more positive and happy in sitting (which is good). She also will smile happily for prolonged periods. She also will respond to certain key words. For example, if she hears praises of her being pretty and clever, she will grin. If u scold her naughty, she will protest. If we refuse to pick her up from bed or give her what she wants, she will throw tantrum by kicking her legs wildly. We thank God that Charlene is learning and developing. Yes, she is very slow. She is not a normal child so please don't use a normal yardstick to compare her.

24 April 2011

On this Easter Sunday, we will like to give our praise and thanks to our Living God! We believe in him and that He is in control, for He has conquered death and nothing is impossible to Him. 

We will like to thank God for His guidance in our hunt for a renovation contractor. 

It has been a month since we got our keys. We started off getting contacts from our friends. The first contractor was a straightforward person and was highly recommended by 2 of my frens. It was tempting to go ahead with him, get reno done asap and shift in.

 I was held up by Charlene's visit to the hospital etc and by the time I wanted to call him to confirm the deal, I had a miss call from the 2nd contractor. We decided to give the 2nd contractor a chance, at least to see his quotation. The 2nd contractor's pricing was lower. Also, the 1st contractor did not warn us that our request for a full length wardrobe will not be feasible as it will block out the passage way.

One week passed. And just as we were going to finalise with the 2nd contractor, I was reminded by Holy Spirit  to call HDB to check. Goodness gracious, both of these fellows do not have HDB licenses. They claimed that they have but it is under the name of another company (which they claimed it's the parent company or owned by same boss etc). Oh man. So it's back to square one and we are currently looking at 3 reno companies at Yishun Central. And all the quotations were cheaper than the 1st contractor!

We thank God for His timely intervention! He must have also planned us to go through the different contractors, because we learnt to look out for different things from them, which we will probably not be aware of if we have gone for 1.

22 April 2011

Good Friday!
We brought Charlene to church office to attend our church first Good Friday service. We went through the 7 sayings of Jesus before he died on the cross for us. We reflected on our sins and wrote them on a piece of black paper. Then we used a nail to pierce through it and nailed the paper to a chunk of wood with a hammer. I found this activity to be meaningful. We were reminded of the gruesome death of Jesus. How he was nailed to the cross. But more importantly, we were reminded that through His death, our sins are forgiven. Thank you Lord Jesus for being the sacrificial lamb for us.

21 April 2011

Charlene slept through her second hydro therapy session. She is very clever. She woke up after bathing. It was as if she knew that it was going to be play time in the multi-sensory room and soft-play room. Charlene touched the vibrating beam and looked at the lights happily. When it was time to 'pick diamonds' (basically we left Charlene on those rough textured surface that will prick her), Charlene was 'protesting' with her cute sounds.

Once again at playroom, Charlene responded to Teacher Adeline's cues. After Teacher counted 1,2... Charlene will make a soft 'eh'. We slide her down and then she will 'protest furiously' at he bottom of the slide when Teacher asked her if she wanted more. Really amusing!

20 April 2011

After being so ignorant and stupid last week. I google on swim diaper. Huggies disposable swim pants cost $16.10 for 10. From a website rating, I found Konfidence swim diaper. Dez bought it at Mothercare at $21 after membership discount. It was rewashable, with Velcro and buttons and could fit from 6 months to 3 years. Definitely can wear more than 10 times and pretty design too.

We also bought a new interactive toy. Fisher Price Rumble n Learn Driver. $72 after 10% kiddy palace discount. What I like most about the toy is the vibrating gear, key and steering wheel, which is similar to the school multi-sensory room lava lamp. It also has music, sounds and lights. It is really freaking ex, but for the sake of simulating Charlene....

17 April 2011

Charlene has been showing improvement in her self-regulation. This was something she was really weak in due to her brain injury. I was reminded cos Teacher Melody asked if Charlene has hypersensitivity. When we first brought Charlene home, I couldn't even do the facial exercises for her. Each time u touch her face, her face will 'crumple'. Previously, when she yawned, she will scare herself and then fail to regulate and throws fits. The same happened when she sneezed. But now, this seldom happens. Though sometimes, she still scares herself but at least that did not lead to fits. Praise the Lord!

So it seems that some of the fits were triggered by her inability to self regulate; her brain failed to process that yawning and sneezing are her normal reflexes, and mis-interpreted them as external events.

Charlene is also showing more behavior of a normal child. She seems to be looking for mummy to carry and will cry for attention. She will cry when she has a soiled diaper and goes back to sleep immediately once that is changed.

We thank God for these normal cute sounds that Charlene is making. She never fails to amuse us.

15 April 2011

Charlene started coughing badly. She probably got a cold from her hydro session yesterday. Oh well, can't go to cell group tonight!