Playing catch up on my posting... :-)

Well if it is not enough for me to be such a busy little angel, now grandma too is running about helping care for a dear friend of hers. I think she and I have that in common, like to be busy and running about. :-)

Spring break was nice, but I was ready to go back to school. Lots for me to learn as of yet and I don't want to fall behind on things that I have accomplished. My IEP meeting is coming up and I am working with grandma on sharing the things I like to do, what motivates me and a few of my body signals and what the mean when you see them. Grandma is hoping it will assist in others understanding me easier if they know what certain actions mean like when I want a drink or am hungry. I tend to get dehydrated and my cheeks get really pink if I am not consuming enough fluids. Most don't know that my body temp is out of whack so we are hoping to share that with them at school.

I caught a cold again at the end of Spring break. Geesh! I guess I cannot complain as that has been about the worse for me this winter unlike others. It must be all those supplements I am taking. Daddy and grandma give me lots of healthy things to make certain I stay healthy. And since I love veggies and fruits so much we all think that my eating is assisting in keeping illnesses away. So everyone do eat your fruit and veggies like me! They are very good for you, honest. :-)

I just outgrew my shoes again and we had a difficult time finding shoes narrow enough for my long slender feet. Finally grandma bought a pair and had her friend alter the straps a bit so that I could wear them. It seems everything that she found that was fairly narrow had velcro straps and they all tend to be too stretchy for me. So her friend cut the straps shorter and sewed them back together for me. Pretty cool huh?

Oh yeah, I got my report care too and have mastered almost ALL my goals for this year. Yippee! That means new stuff is coming for me to learn. How cool is this? My reports seem to get better and better all the time like my big sisters. I think we are competing with one another now. LOL

Well I have to get ready to go to Aunt J's house. She is our daycare provider and is really a sweetheart. She does lots of things with Tori and I when we are there. We ever have tea parties! Aunt Sherry hooked us up with a wonderful care giver and we are so fortunate to have her.

Have an angel of a day!

Busy week for me....Spring Break and what a hoot!

Well it was Spring Break for this angel and Aunt J my new daycare provider found me to be quite a treat. :-) My sister showed me how to topple the dining chairs over and Aunt J being of the artistic nature quickly found a way to tie them together with ribbon so I could not continue to topple them! I just love that woman and so does my family. She IS a Godsend to me and Tori. And we all thank Sherrie for finding her for us!

Aunt J has been reading up on Angelman Syndrome so she understands me better as we go along our journey together day to day. My grandma is so thrilled that she has fallen in love with me and sees that though I may be a bit of a challenge at times, I AM A LOVING LITTLE GIRL WITH SO MUCH MORE TO ME. That is the hardest point for my family to get across to others, but Aunt J has managed to see it rather quickly and we like that.

I "get it" more than most realize. And though I do not speak like others do, I do my best to let you know what I want or need. You simply have to pay more attention to my actions. Remember the old saying; "Actions speak louder than words." Well, I AM speaking just through my actions! Please take a few extra seconds to watch me and you will see that I too have wants and needs. That I AM communicating constantly to you, I just express them differently because I cannot vocalize yet. Key word is yet~my grandma is convinced one day I will speak. May not be perfectly but I will speak simple words and get my desires across to others. I love that so many have faith in me. :-)

Aunt J's hubby, Uncle D is already planning our summer time with them when school is out. Aunt J told grandma and daddy that he is planning to fence a section of the yard for us to play in. Grandma was delighted of course to hear that as they have a pond that we all know will draw me to it. After all water is my game and Miss Emma is my name! LOL

Tori was challenging Auntie J a bit in the beginning of our change to a new daycare provider. But it did not last long as daddy, papa and of course grandma sat her down and explained that it would not be tolerated to misbehave or argue with Auntie J. So, needless to say they are nipping that it the bud accordingly and it appears she is catching on fast. The remainder of the week she was a good girl and that pleased all of us greatly. Aunt J even curls her hair for school. How cool is that to have our own stylist???

Oh, I have to share something really neat with you. Grandma and Papa went to dinner Saturday with several parents of Angels in our area! Yes, your reading this correctly. Finally we have found a few angels to introduce daddy, Tori and I too. How cool is this????? They were lovely people and quite joyful to be around as grandma and papa told us. They too see hope for all of us in various ways and Andrea and Matt have created a foundation that will one day build a special home for us to live in when grow up. Can you beleive that? To know for the first time that I too will have a place of my own to live in when I gradudate from school. (And I WILL graduate from school one day). Daddy and grandma will see to this.

My family clearly wants my education to be all that it can be in my situation and intend to fight for such. After all, no child left behind is what the law says. I too have a right to a proper education that meets my individual needs just like my big sister Tori does. Only my needs are a bit more unique than the average child. And that is okay. WE all have our own individual weeknesses and with those we also have our special areas of strength. So we have to include and share both sides of the spectrum specific to me and open up our IEP this year to address all of them more agressively. Especially my communicating with others.

Not going to be an easy road, but one we beleive that can be done with those educating me at this time. Miss Cathy would like to keep me one more year with her so we are leaning towards this if the IEP is directed at offering more challenges than in the past to help me prosper more as a 5 year old and that is what I will be this summer. And personally five years old is an interesting time to move forward with new challenges and goals beneficial to my needs. To be able to communicate and thrive in the real world. Wish us luck as we should be getting our IEP appointment soon.

So as you can see........what a week we had in Miss Emma's world. We even got sent home early from visiting our mother as she called daddy and said she wasn't feeling well and wanted to cut the visit short. Some days it is like riding a yo-yo with our visitation time. We go, we want to go home and now she wanted to cut it early. I hope this does not go on like this forever. Its no fun being tossed about and me I like my routine too much to be jolted about like a doll. I must have a routine to thrive and daddy and I know this to be the best thing for me. I am a creature of habit and consistency. I like 'repeatition" in my daily life and have proven to all who work with me and live with me that it is my best attribute. I am thriving these days and healthier than ever before because I finally have consistency in my home, my school and now in my daycare Aunt J.

Life is good and I hope yours is also. Miss Emma signing out. Big hugs to all the familes of angels tonight.

P.S. My bus aide had a great term for indentifying my personality. She said I am "contagious" and grandma told everyone that says it all....Contagious. I kinda like being contagious to others. Opens a whole new world of freinds for me. LOL

This weeks update. :-)

This past weekend my big sister Tori finally got to have her birthday sleepover with our cousin Olivia. It was suppose to happen last weekend but we got hit with a big snow storm and it had to be canceled. But for those that live in Ohio, we all know if you stick around long enough the weather will change . LOL And it did.

The best part of the canceling of the sleep over birthday celebration was Tori got not 1 but 2 birthday cakes! Woo hoo! I just found out that I like Dairy Queens ice cream cakes! I turned in a bit early the night of the sleep over as I came down with the change of weather cold and stuffy nose thing. Boy do I hate having to have my nose wiped so much. :-( Daddy rubs me down with cherry Vick's vapor rub and off I went to sleep. I guess they had a pizza party without me? Hmmm. That is okay, I don't like pizza anyway!

My cold is on the downside now and I am starting to feel better but I think I passed it on to Tori. Oops! Kinda hard to keep it to myself when I am all about hugs and kisses. Sorry sis......but it comes with the territory of sloppy kisses and angel hugs. Well off to bed for me as I have school tomorrow and need my rest.

Angel hugs and sloppy kisses to all,

Congratulations Miss Jordie and family. :-)

Congrats to my classmate Jordie. She has finally been given a diagnosis and she is more rare than we angels. She has CFD (Cerebral folate deficiency) which is an extremely rare disorder and her parents are celebrating finally having a name to her syndrome. Strange as it may sound to some we know what it was like not knowing for 4 years precisely what my diagnosis was and how thrilled my family was to finally know. And then to find out that I was an angel was just too cool as it led us to the Angelman Forum.

So please, all my angel friends and family celebrate with Halle, Bill and Jordie's family as we do tonight. :-) And please take a look at just how beautiful my classmate Jordie is..her mommy let me share her picture with all of you. Take a look to the right column of my blog page and meet Miss Jordyn. :-)

Look what my teacher Miss Cathy sent Grandma!

Hi everybody! If its not enough for my grandma to get all excited about my recent milestones, check out the pictures below. My Pre-K teacher Miss Cathy is taking pictures of me at school too! She snapped a few shots of me while I was busy at our classroom work station. Don't I look studious? LOL

I am putting a 4-piece puzzle together in the first picture, then picking up pennies and placing them IN the honey bear bank. Miss Cathy put a towel down for me so the pennies would not slide around on the table. But that is me picking them up and placing them into the bank slot!

Before starting the Clonidine and Omega 3 (Nordic strawberry soft gels) I would just throw the puzzle pieces, never even thought about actually putting the puzzle together. Now look at me go! Grandma says she isn't sure which supplement is helping me most but I can assure you she has no intentions of ceasing either of them at this point. And truly, the Omega 3 gel caps are kinda fun to eat. The "pop" in my mouth when I bite down on them and I giggle when I hear the sound inside me mouth. :-)

I've been practicing my fine motor skills... :-)

Well once again grandma thinks I have mastered the world. Who am I to tell her differently? She brought me erasable markers Saturday and a little book to write in thinking I might draw for her. Silly grandma, I was far more interested in the marker itself.

Adults want us to do one thing and as usual we angels want to do our own thing!

Well, lo and behold....though I wasn't overly interested in drawing for her she got the biggest charge out of my ability to place the cap back on the marker! I am not sure why..... but hey I am going to let her enjoy the moment. It takes so little to make my grandma happy and let face it, happy is what I am all about! :-)
Reminder: these are erasable makers and I AM being monitored at all times.

Who would think eating yogurt would be such a big deal? Only my grandma.....

Hi Everyone! Grandma wanted to show all of you how well I am doing eating on my own. I am not sure what the big deal is but she certainly is proud so bear with her on this. She really does work hard with me so when I do something well she likes to video it to show all our family and friends.

If you listen carefully you will hear me say "goo grl" for good girl. That is what grandma always calls me so I guess I thought I should praise myself this time as I was eating my yoplait yogurt with such finesse'. Did I mention I am only eating yoplait kids now since we found out it has DHA added and grandma is all about Omega softgels with DHA and thought the extra would just be additional "brain food." The things my grandma tries to assist me in reaching new milestones. :-)