All About Your Child

How often do we complain about our children?

How often do we focus on their flaws instead of their awes?

How often do we remember their little mistakes and forget their moments of serendipity?

This mother tackled all the above with one simple message on a video.

She touched my heart so deeply, I see no reason why I should not share on my blog to keep me inspired in my parenting journey.

A mother of a blind baby boy inspiring millions, I hope she inspires you too….

Mother’s Inspiring Video About Her Blind Baby Boy :~

Here’s a recap of her simple message that is so POWERFUL to all Mothers…… and Fathers too.

“When I was 15 I met Chris and we fell in love.
Chris + I got married when I was 21.
When I was 23, we found out that we were going to have a baby.
We were SO excited!!!
At my 18 week ultrasound, we found out we were having a BOY!!
We were even MORE excited!!
We named him Christian :)

A week later, we got a phone call. Something was wrong with Christian.
We were crushed.
As Christian grew, doctors became more and more unsure.
What was wrong?
Would he live?
Would he be mentally impaired?

On February 18th, 2011
Chris and I went to Vanderbilt to deliver Christian.
We didn’t know if we would come home with Christian or not.

At 9:32am
Christian came into the world…
Screaming!

He was ALIVE!!!

But it wasn’t that simple…
Christian’s condition was MUCH worse than we originally thought.

He was born with a Tessier cleft lip + palate.
He couldn’t even close his mouth.
His condition is only 1 of 50 in the entire world.

But it got worse…
Christian’s eyes were also clefted.
They just didn’t form.
They just weren’t there.

Our baby boy was blind.
We were heartbroken.

We didn’t know what to do,
or how to raise a child who couldn’t see.

Christian had surgery at 4 days old,
and stayed in the NICU for 4 weeks.

When we brought him home from the hospital,
things were hard.
Anytime we took Christian out in public…
People would stare…
and whisper behind my back “Look at that baby”
Kids would ask their mom what was wrong with “that baby.”

I couldn’t go anywhere without someone doing something to point out Christian.

Some people would even ask me “What’s wrong with your kid?”
One girl even told me I was a horrible person for not aborting Christian in utero.

I was miserable :(

But as Christian got older,
he started laughing and playing.
And when people would stare,
Christian would start giggling…
And they would giggle too.

People started finding me on Facebook…
or recognizing Christian from hearing about him.
And so we made a TON of new friends.

People started telling me how Christian inspired them.
And how beautiful he is.
And things got a little easier.

And Christian is growing and Healthy!!
And anyone who meets Christian falls in love with him pretty quickly.
Those judgmental glances + whispers don’t really bother me anymore.
Because I know Christian is beautiful…
Inside + Out

I also know that I did the right thing by not aborting Christian.
He is the love of my life!
And he is a Miracle!”

A Mother of a Blind Baby Boy Inspiring Millions

More than a month ago, I mentioned about a workshop which my boys attended. The results achieved after the 2 days workshop made my parenting life so much easier. See blog post “Your Child Needs This”

Ever since that blog post went live, I received emails of all sorts, but one question came up quite often: “Is This For Special Needs Children too?”

My answer is “Yes and No”.

No, I am not trying to be cheeky. *laugh* Let me explain.

If your child has:

1. ADHD
2. ADD
3. ASD
4. DCD
5. SID
6. Dyslexia
7. Seizure
8. Global Delayed
9. Learning Disability
10. Speech/Visual/Hearing impaired

do let me know.

I would arrange for a private meeting for you and your child with the Chief Trainer. I understand that many parents with special needs children have their personal concerns and would prefer to have a one-to-one session than join the crowd in the Preview.

After the one-to-one session with the Chief Trainer, she will be able to assess your child and let you know if your child is suitable for the workshop. The Chief Trainer is someone with a Big Heart and has many years of experience with special needs children.

So you can rest assure that she knows what she is doing. You will be there with your child during the one-to-one session, so you can ask all the questions you want. *smile*

Which is why my answer to that question is “Yes and No”. “Yes” your child with special needs can join the workshop when the Chief Trainer says “Yes”; and “No” when the Chief Trainer thinks otherwise after the assessment.

I thought it would be good to do a proper post to address this question which kept popping up after “Your Child Needs This” blog post was posted.

===

With that said, I came across this video of an Autistic teenager, Carly Fleischmann, and sincerely hope in my heart that one day, all parents with Autistic kids would be able to truly understand the world that their child is in.

Now that her book ‘Carly’s Voice‘ is published, I think it will help many parents with Autistic kids.

Meet Carly….

No matter how busy I am, I MUST get this out before Chinese New Year is over!

Yes, my boys are back to their yearly ‘Lion Dance Chasing’. So long as the sound of the drums and cymbals are heard, they would shout, “Papa! Lion Dance! Lion Dance! Go see…Go see!!!”

They were lucky that their doting father is also one who appreciates Lion Dance. So even if he needs to change his course of direction, he would, which was exactly what happened after swimming lesson today.

However, sad to say, none of the Lion Dances they saw in year 2012 so far was comparable to how much this Lion Dance (below) had captured their hearts.

What can I say? The lions danced to my boys’ favourite song!

Guess, in time to come, all Lion Dances might evolve into such…..

Now I can say, “my CHILDREN are Primary School kids.” What a great summarising sentence, compared to last year, whereby I had to say, “One is in Primary 2 and the other is in Kindergarten 2.”

It was great to see how excited Binbin was, when he woke up at 8.30am this morning.

So different from his elder brother’s level of excitement.

Binbin was constantly looking at the clock and asking frequently, “What time do we need to leave the house? I don’t want to be late for school.”

“What time do I need to start bathing? I don’t want to be late.”

“What time are we going for lunch? I don’t want to be late on my first day of school.”

“What time do I need to finish my lunch. Cannot be late leh!”

etc… *laugh*

It was even more wonderful to have Keatkeat ‘sneaked‘ into the canteen with my camera phone to take this shot! ‘First Recess’.

Its something that I could not capture when Keatkeat was in Primary 1. *sigh*

Binbin’s buddy was as shy as Keatkeat’s buddy and was also a Primary 5 student.

Keatkeat really looked like a Primary 1 student when he went in to look for his brother. Ohhhhh Keatkeat, please stop slouching and grow taller…. faster!

They loved this big chess ‘board‘ because its painted with their favourite colours! Keatkeat loves blue and Binbin loves green!

Binbin was as cool as a cucumber today! I am so proud of him. *Grin*
The ONLY thing that makes me frown is the 30mins break on every school day.

Binbin needs to be in school at 12.30pm
Keatkeat is out from school at 1pm

30mins to go home and come back is not a sensible move because I could only stay at home for 5mins before I had to come out again. I can hardly do anything decent in that short time.

So loitering around the neighbourhood with Allan was what we did today. But the thought of doing it for ONE WHOLE YEAR ?!?!? *frown*

Binbin’s First Day as a Primary 1 student

How To Create a Sound Bomb
My boys were so excited to teach how to create a sound bomb after they learned it in one of the school holiday classes I signed them up for. So I thought, I might as well film it down. *wink*

If only Keatkeat could prevent doing all his bad habits, like the retarded action (mentioned in this post “Does Your Child have these Bad Habits“), frequent blinking, twitching of his body…, this video would have been flawless. Oh well, it IS Keatkeat at his most natural self, what more can I say. *eyes rolled*

Here’s what Keatkeat said:

“Today I am going to teach you how to make a sound bomb. First, you just need a pencil and a paper. First, you fold the paper into half, just like a paper aeroplane. But it is not a paper aeroplane.

Then after that, you must do this. You must fold one side first and after that, next, you just need to fold it half. Corners to corners. (Mumble mumble) Yup! And its done.

But before we finish it, we must use a pencil and to poke it. You must let the hole be very big or else you can’t make a bomb. The bigger the better. And after that, you do this. Put two fingers here, like this, and put the triangle there. The smaller the triangle is the better. But it is not too small.

Whenever you do this, you must make sure you see a heart-shape, like this. And now… the sound bomb is like this.

Thank you.”

Binbin and Keatkeat had slightly different understanding of how the sound bomb is created. So here’s Binbin’s version:-

Binbin was so nervous, his English sentence structure was in a mess! *laugh*

Here’s what Binbin said:

“Today I’m going to teach you about a bomb sound with make with paper. And remember to only fold one line up here not both lines. Then you fold half again like this.

Then you push this down with two fingers like this, then you just smack it DOWN!

Thank you and Bye Bye for now.”

Both were trying to correct each other after the video was taken, but I told them, “Its not how you do it, its that you have succeeded in doing it. Both sound bombs worked didn’t? That’s all that matters.”
*wink*

How To Create a Sound Bomb