Year: 2006

Edda is using the little shelf that holds the computer to learn to walk. Today she spent hours just holding on to the shelf and then letting go and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. I figure if I leave the house it’ll be 2 fewer hours of her practicing her balance, so we are stuck at home. Vince played computer games all afternoon and managed to turn our computer screen a rainbow of colors with a magnet he found. Jeremy had to work late today as things are heating up with BIG meeting happening on Friday and projects are coming to a head. We are making an appointment with a speech pathologist at the American School on Monday who will help guide us with the therapy options here in Singapore. We are starting to fill out long paperwork for the therapy place and hopefully we can start that next week. Blah.. I’m tired, but nothing really scheduled for the rest of the week…

Okay, so I stole one of Doris’ New Year Resolutions – I’m selling something on ebay.

I’m in the middle of reorganizing all my stuff since Choon moved, and I had half my stuff at his place. Now I have all this junk I don’t need or use.

Here is the link to my auction

I decided to join the knitting olympics – goodness knows I need something to distract myself. Wish me luck. Maybe mom would like to join me… Click on the icon on the left to find out more information.

OK, so we were in the hospital from 9 am until 1 pm and we got Edda’s vision looked at by the senior doctor in charge of the eye center at the Children’s hospital. Everything is fine, nothing abnormal. So, hearing is fine, vision is fine. Those 2 things check out OK, yah!

There were a lot of people in the waiting room, at some point it seemed as if there were over 150 people waiting, you have patients, siblings, parents all milling about the place and you can see that lots of kids have lots of problems and everyone is dealing with it and is OK. We pretty much saw it all, kids with Downs syndrome, developmental problems, wheelchair-bound, surgeries, etc, etc, etc. It kind of reminds us about problems that everyone has, that not everyone else is perfect and living problem-free lives.

Now our priority is getting Edda into physical/speech and language therapy. The doctor at the clinic is referring us to public physical therapy places, but these places will take 2 months to get through the waiting lists. I’m working connections at the American School to figure out what private programs are available.

Also, on Thursday, we are suppose to talk to the developmental pediatrician who is going to refer us to a neurologist to do an assessment on Edda.

Edda was a trooper today, lots of eye drops and people shining bright lights into her eyes, but hardly any complaining from her. Vince also did great with the babysitter next door, no complaints going home with her and eating lunch at her house.

So as soon as I realized that I’m going to be spending a lot of time in doctor’s offices, I needed to find someone to take care of Vince. Auntie Helen, our neighbor, is so kind to help us out. She actually runs and home-based child care thing-y. She’s raised 4 kids (all grown) and usually has 2 toddlers in her care. She’s going to pick Vince up from school today and look after him until we get home. This is what we packed for lunch today.

Soy milk
PB&J sandwich
Banana
Apple
Carrot sticks
Yogurt
Gronola bar
Cashews

It’s a lot, but Vince loves packing lunch.

We are leaving one week later as scheduled, next week. Will report to work in SC on February, 6th.

So tomorrow we head back to the hospital for a vision test for Edda. I guess if the initial vision screening is OK, then it won’t take that long, but if something is wrong, it may take 2 hours or so. But now that it’s been a few days since the diagnosis, we also need to talk to them about getting Edda into therapy ASAP. Last Thursday, we could only hear the words “mental and physical retardation” and the rest of the details were a little lost on us like who was going to call when and where these programs were. The doctor mentioned something about waiting lists and we looked on some
web sites and we might not even be eligible because
we aren’t permanent residents or citizens. But I
don’t know if that’s only the public ones or if
there are private ones available as well. We will know more tomorrow.

As requested, here’s the summary…

It went reasonably well. Her name’s Anna. She’s a product manager at a wireless startup. She teaches aerobics on the side. She’s a talker that’s for sure. 😛

We met up at Verdi’s, a bubble tea place in downtown Mountain View. She almost got away with paying. That would have been a bit of an embarassment. We talked a bit about our family’s. Apparently her father is from Penang, and went to the same high school that my friend Choon went to. It’s basically a big frat, with social events all around the world. She’s from Toronto and apparently her father had dragged her to all these high school events. Apparently, at some point, she was trying to find a job in Singapore to improve her Chinese.

Other than that, we commiserated on the fact that all of our friends are married and have mortgages. We had a fairly nerdy conversation about computer games. She found out that I was 29. (She’s 32.) She sounded surprised, tho I can’t imagine that she didn’t know. It’s right up on my friendster profile.

I’m unsure about what’s going to happen now. We had a good talk, but dunno if there’s a lot of chemistry. Then again, Choon thinks this is my problem in that I never think right off the bat that I have chemistry with someone. So I’m thinking at least a second date would be in order.

It’s funny how you have to shift your mode of dating when you get older. It’s less about hanging out with single friends than it it trying to make conversation and figuring out something interesting to do on a date.

anyhow. we’ll see.

As you can kind of tell in Edda’s picture I posted a few days ago, she has started trying to stuff her whole hand into her mouth. I don’t know why this started happening, I figured that her back molars were growing in and that it helped to ease the pain. It makes a big drooly mess, usually slobber covers her whole chin and her shirt. I was pretty sure that she was going to give it up after the teeth came in, but now I’m not sure that it’s going to stop. It’s not really a pretty sight, doesn’t really add to her allure.

Before we went to see the doctor and got Edda diagnosed, I was trying to convince her not to stuff her hand in her mouth, it’s pretty disgusting and a bit germ-y, especially after crawling on the floor. But now that I understand that she doesn’t really understand me as a 21 month-old would so I’m letting it go right now. I think it gives her some comfort and I’m all for making Edda happy these days, so I’m letting her do it for a little while longer, no pestering from me.

While I was dropping Vince off at nursery school this morning, I had Edda in her stroller and another mother looked at her and said, “She’s putting her hand in her mouth.” First of all, it’s hard not to notice someone trying to stuff their whole hand in their mouth and second, I’ve got other things I’m concentrating on this morning, thank you very much.

Donald, a post on the coffee date would be much appreciated. We are all curious…

Well, Edda has been diagnosed as having both mental and physical disabilities. We took her to a specialist at the Children’s Development Clinic at the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital downtown and the doctor did a full hour-long assessment on Edda. So what we had suspected for many months finally got medically diagnosed.

So, what will Edda be like when she grows up? Will she walk? Will she dance? Will she talk? Will she read? Well, these are questions I want answered, but I won’t be able to answer for a while. Lots of crying around here, but also some sort of relief as we go forward with therapy, testing, etc, etc.

She’s a happy girl and enjoys being with us. Well see what happens.