Mar 30, 2009

Though we'll be back to QM this Wednesday (Apr 1st) for Adrian's post BMT vaccination, we couldn't help but call the day clinic for the VMA/HVA readings from his last urine test (collected on Mar 16th). It's a relief to know that both readings are WITHIN the normal range this time (VMA at 3.7 and HVA at 8).

Mar 29, 2008

It's amazing Mama hasn't been cooking for almost 2 days! Because we were out the whole day yesterday (Field trip & b'day party) and therefore no time to cook, Adrian had "HK style baked Pork Chop rice" at Cafe de Coral for dinner. With the help of his private hand held TV, he finished his non-homemade dinner without much fuss. We continued to take him out for lunch/dinner today with the Grannies where he had Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch and sampled different Chinese dishes at dinner time. We are pleased with the progress and hopefully he can be more receptive to different foods.

Mar 28, 2009

Adrian had his FIRST field trip from school - a day trip to the Lions Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung. It was fun seeing the little kids all excited for the trip. The kids first played together in groups, then the teacher led us to check out the Shell House and the Fish Aquarium. We later took Adrian to the Insectarium, Field Crops and the Chinese Herbal Garden after lunch where Adrian used his magnifying glass and crayons to complete his worksheet. All of us were so tired on our way back to the school.









Shortly after we got home, we changed and got ready to go to a birthday party at McDonalds in Shatin. It's the FIRST birthday party Adrian has ever joined. While we thought Adrian would be in a bad mood as he didn't nap much and was so tired after the field trip, he actually behaved the opposite. He socialized with almost everyone at the party as if it was his own party. Instead of having McD French Fries and other junk food, he's only willing to have corn the whole time (not even b'day cake). It was a great party and we are happy to see Adrian enjoyed being there as well.





Mar 27, 2009

We're back at DK for the yearly Neuro-Developmental assessment this afternoon. The first one was done a year ago and this is the first follow up visit in 12 months' time.

Adrian has developed a lot during his "first" year post BMT. First, we met up with our Physiotherapist and Adrian was asked to perform some motor tasks such as hopping, running and riding on a bicycle etc. We were then given a short written up report from the PT to see the doctor. Secondly, a hearing test was performed and Adrian cooperated with the technician this time and managed to finish the whole test. The result matches with the BAEP test and it confirmed again that he is hearing impaired on high frequency (mild with his left ear and moderate with his right ear).

After measuring his weight and height, we then proceeded to see the doctor. The doc was the doc whom we know at QMH and the nurse was surprised we know the doctor. As this was a follow up appointment, it's not done as thorough as last year's. The doc first went through the PT report - we're surprised to find out that Adrian still experiences a 10 months delay in motor skills. Adrian did a good job when asked to do a few small things. The doc is pleased that he had no problems on comprehensions except his speech in terms of expressing his wants/ideas. Again the doc concluded that he's delayed because of the fact that he's been hospitalized for too long and suggested we keep monitoring on his progress. We'll be back again in a year for the next follow up appointment.

Mar 21, 2009

We had a day trip to the new Ma Wan Noah's Ark, an event organized by the CCF. It is a new construction of a full-size replica Noah's Ark according to the bible. Adrian is excited to see the different animals surrounding the Ark and later explored the Ma Wan Park nearby. The only downside of the trip is we only got a "preview" of the whole building without exploring it in detail (The Ark is not open to the public yet and we only had a glimpse on the amenities as some of them are not yet finished). Nevertheless, the kids had a good time!









Mar 16, 2009

Adrian took a day off from school and headed to the day clinic at QMH for his 8-weeks follow up appointment. As usual, we collected his urine first thing in the morning for the routine VMA/HVA test. We got assigned to see Dr Chan this time and were told Adrian's last urine collected in January was a bit elevated (VMA was normal but HVA was high at 18, it's considered normal < 10). Doc suspects it's nothing major but just to play it safe, our next follow up appointment will be in 4 weeks time. Dr Chan later examined Adrian's abdomen and also booked him a MIBG checkup in May.

Mar 13, 2009

Adrian can finally 'mimic' sounds that utilize his lips such as "b" & "p" etc. For example, he's been saying "bye bye" & "ball ball" as "dye dye" and "dall dall" for the longest time. So he always prefers to call Papa as "daddy" as it's easier for him. Just recently, he started calling Papa as "Baba" sometimes and that's how he uses his lips more often. He needs to be reminded to use his lips to say these words though but he's definitely improving!

Mar 9, 2009

Made TWO trips to DK today, eye check up in the morning and ST workshop in the afternoon. The annual eye check up appointment with the optometrist only took 30 mins where the optometrist used different cards/tools to examine Adrian's eye. Adrian cooperated and managed to finish most of the tests except the colour blind test (he's simply not interested in the test) but the optometrist said it's fine as it's a bit too early to tell if he's colour blind or not at the age of 3 (2 months shy of 3). Again, his eye sight is normal with no evidence of short-sightedness. However, kids his age are supposed to have +1 long sighted but he only has +0.25. Mentioned to the optometrist that Adrian loves to roll his eye balls left to right and vice versa. He said it's a good "exercise" that he can roll his eyes freely. We are booked again for another annual eye check up on Mar 8, 2010.

Mar 8, 2009

We spent the day at The Tso Kung Tam Outdoor Recreation Centre, an event organized by the CCF. As day campers, we were supposed to access a lot of activities like miniature golf etc. But a lot of them were closed that day for no reasons??!! So, other than playing outdoors and in the children's playground indoors, at least Adrian tried a few different games such as Air Hockey, Badminton & played Hopscotch! Overall, as adults we found that there's really not many activities to do other than catching up with other families but kids did have a good time there. Guess that's what it matters....









Mar 5, 2009

It was raining when Mama went to pick Adrian up from school... while we were waiting for the bus to come, Adrian got his hand out his raincoat and said "it's raining" (in Chinese). Mama was delighted to hear such comment and began to recall that Adrian picked up quite a few new vocabs these days.

Mar 2, 2009

Today Adrian began his 1st speech therapy workshop at DK this afternoon. There's a total of six sessions with approx. 5-6 kids including Adrian in each session. The session run in an hour where the therapist used different toys to encourage each kid to take turns to come out, play and speak out. It was all good with the exception that one kid has some ADHD symptoms that his mother was so busy chasing after him. We doubted the effectiveness of the session but think it's not a bad idea for Adrian to attend it simply to gain social skills and Mama at the same time, learned some techniques to encourage Adrian speaks more at home.

Feb 28, 2009

While the grannies were away this weekend, we got access to the car and so we explored a few places today.

- We started off the day by checking out a nearby Fire Station!!! It's a Fire Station open day and Fire Safety Carnival and we got a chance to take a closer look at various fire trucks, fire appliances and ambulances etc. Nevertheless, Adrian got so excited seeing the fire engines and we even ran into a nurse (and her kids) whom we know from K8N.











- Picked up Aunt S after lunch and we all headed off to Railway Museum in Tai Po. Adrian napped on the ride there and he wasn't in a good mood when we arrived as we had to wake him up. He refused to walk and wouldn't let go of the stroller all the time. We explored the historic station building and a few historical coaches etc.







- Then, our dear friend took us to visit Lake Egret Nature Park in the nearby area. Though we were not able to see any Egrets, but we had a good time seeing little black goats and riding the water bicycle.



Feb 27, 2009

We had a small gathering with a couple of Mama's prenatal class moms and kids in a "karaoke room" at the clubhouse. It so happened ALL of us have become a stay-at-home mom taking care of our beloved ones. We noticed that Adrian is REALLY into singing! He held the microphone the whole time we were in the room and wouldn't let go of it. He identified many of the mother goose songs by humming the tune or tapping the rhythm. The kids later followed the Daddys to play in the outdoors and playroom where all Mamas stayed in the room and continued our conversations. It was a very relaxing afternoon and we went shopping & sushi afterwards. Adrian behaved very well and it's the first time he fed himself half of the meal at dinner time.