also. abacus has taken to peering over the side of her pushchair, watching the road or the pram wheels or something, it must look so strange to the other pedestrians, this baby just hanging over the side of her pram. When she isn't doing that she is sitting upright, refusing to recline back into the seat, she sits there as though some alert sentry, surveying everything around her, the only problem is when the pram stops suddenly and she bangs her head into her toys in front of her.

also. we went to get a dvd out on her library card, but weren't allowed to because the dvd was rated for adults. haha.

abacus the star

yesterday abacus had her paediatrician appointment. After waiting around for a long time, because apparently we had been misplaced (we were waiting in the room where the nurse had measured and weighed her), we had a really good meeting with the doctor. It couldn't have gone better. Dr Richardson loves Abacus and we would love for him to be in her life forever. He was so impressed with her progress and gave us so much positivity that any doubts we had by michelles report a few days earlier were completely put out mind. He didn't want to bother taking bloods because she was so obvioulsy not affected by any of the things they would be testing for and deferred them for her next appointment in 6 months. Her growth is phenomenal, she is above the 100 precntile in height for downs kids and about midrange in weight, so tall and skinny, bucking the trends - as usual!

She has been giggling a lot lately and giggled a lot at the hospital while we were waiting. She has also taken to a very pained expression in the face of strangers (and potential babysitters), which the dr thought was good. He was impressed also with how she was social at creche, not feeling anxious around other kids or adults, smiling at those she knows, watching situations carefully. We can't wait to visit Dr. Richardson again, as we left he said he had a family of four kids to see next and smiled that he wasn't looking forward to it. He walked out with us and yelled playfully the family name of his next patients and they came running as he bit his finger nails in playful overacting, while yet another of the clan emerged from the play house and followed his siblings into the office behind the dr.

Such people as Dr. Richardson are indespensible in this world.

I already knew the conclusion from the letter, as Danielle had told me. Even so, reading through it myself I think I had the same reaction as her. It was a letter from Abacus's neurodevelopmental therapist to her paediatrician. It went through all of the things Abacus can do and it reads like a proud list, but it's in the last paragraph where it is concluded that this list of accomplishments puts her at the average ability of someone her age with downs syndrome, that kind of takes one back a bit. I don't know why this makes me feel anxious, I shouldn't, but you want to know you're doing the best for her and you wonder what you can do to make things better, we can't know what that means at this point in her life, and maybe it is only because her progress is so meticulously scrutinised and documented that we're exposed to such grading. . .

kia ora.

Abacus had a good day today. She still has a bit of a cough and her face is still pretty oozy around her eyes and nose, and she woke up this morning with a snotlock ( a dreadlock formed by snot), but she is very happy. She went to creche where she met with her neurodevelopmental therapist. She impressed her with all her sitting and vocalising and rolling around to get get things, she is very inqusitive and reaches everywhere for objects out of her reach, even to her own detriment as her scratched up nose will attest. She really likes baths again(in Thailand she had grown some aversion to the small baby bath we'd bought her and we had taken to washing her in the shower with us, which she didn't mind, except she got a bout as slippery as a bar of soap!), since we've been back and in our new flat with a big bath, she loves splashing around and playing with her sponges.

a message from abacus

h, cxz
"".L;.PP

Abacus has been a bit sick the last couple of days, which makes her quite cuddly, but also snotty which makes cuddling less fun. Her voice sounds like a cross between a rusty squeeking gate anda  chalkboard, which occasionally, when said in sharp bursts sounds like a dolphin. While she is more cranky she is also manically happy, last night she cried so much when we put her to bed that we let her watch tv on our bed, she stayed up for another 2 hours happy and wide awake before slowly falling asleep i think she just wanted to be around us. Unfortunately though this morning, after waking up at 5 crying, she had to miss creche, and consequently her neurodevelopmental appointment who was to have a session with her there, but she'll meet her on monday instead.

back

i have completely neglected this site and flickr for tooooooo long!

abacus had her annual heart appointment the other day, we took the bus out in the rain and found our way too quickly and easilly to the cardio rooms in the new hospital, which looks now like a real hospital and not like some menacing soviet era place of suffering, and so were stuck with half an hour between us and her appointment, which would stretch to 45 until we were seen. In the mean time Abacus brought smiles to all the other uneasy people waiting for their own exams in the waiting room, she chirped happily and smiled cheekily and snuck glances at everyone around her, and i read her a book and in the book it had p is for pants, and aside from the obvious joke, it was accompanied by an illustration of pete showing poly his new pants, and he was holding out the front of them and he and polly with broad grins were both looking down the front of petes new pants. hrmmm. in the same book it had tom tripping, and with an absence of any reference to ground, the illustration rendered tom floating through space with toys floating around him, tom trips indeed. i don't know what kind of book this was supposed to be. 

Abacus' was about 15 minutes overdue for her nap when I carried her tiredly rubbing her eyes onto the hospital bed, the contact between the ultra sound wand and her impatiently tired scream were instant and so the sonographer went in search of toys while I quickly made her a bottle of milk in the hand washing sink. The bright flashing millipede only intensified her anguish but she sucked soothingly on the bottle and settled immediately without another peep, suspiciously pacifying herself with her milk while she watched with interest, her own heart in granular resolution, and listened to the mechanical beats accompanying it like some vj drum and bass show. 

The sonographers of course are not allowed to tell you anything, but I heard in a quiet conversation between them, they mention "turbulance", Danielle later translated this to mean the murmor is still present. We have a pediatrician appointment soon, which is when we find the results of such tests, but we are still hopeful the ASD will heal itself within the next 4 years. 

Aside from that Abacus is just going from strength to strength, she sits now like she could always do it, she plays with her toys, rolls around to get to them, she gorges herself on bread and loves marmite with avocado and loves peanut butter, she's happy to see us when we pick her up from creche or when we come home. She talks in her baby language almost non-stop and she seems to get cuter and cuter!