Florida Fall/Syksyä Floridassa

While fall might not be as spectacular in Florida as it is in New England, we so have enjoyed the cooler temperatures, and different fall festivities. We visited a pumpkin patch one morning with other homeschool families.




Some of us attended a Trunk or Treat festival at a local church this week. We had a fun time with friends and dressing up. Mei Mei always loves going out, and celebrates with enthusiasm. She loves to wave 'hi' to people, and she loves music and dancing.



The Captain took a quick trip to Maine, and returned with the Mothership - we hope to go on some smaller adventures soon. As soon the Captain arrived, Mr T and Mr D did go on a new adventure, the two of them flew to Kentucky for few a days!

For a family that usually goes where the wind blows, it sure has been an adjustment to live by the calendar....!! It's only for a season, right???




School fills up a big part of our days. The little girls love going to the library, and big kids often do, too, especially Mr D.

 

What would be fall without pies? We have made apple and pumpkin pies so far (Mr A took the picture above, and I just love having one of the boys half way into the freezer in it, haha!)

So far Mei Mei has not been a big fan of the pies, but she sure loves the ice cream that often gets served along the pie.




Even princesses make sure to take good care of their teeth! Earlier in October Little Miss got braces, and this week Missy had to have oral surgery to expose a stubborn tooth that wouldn't come down on its' own.

Mei Mei goes in for her palate repair surgery later this month, too, and Mr T needs wisdom teeth surgery, but he is going to wait a bit, since he isn't in pain at the moment.




While our foliage here in Florida may not be as brilliant as up north, going to the beach in October and November is pretty awesome:) No complaints!!!

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Kaikenlaista syystouhua on ollut ilmassa täällä Floridassa. Ruska ei tietenkään ole niin upea täällä, mutta onneksi ilmat alkavat viilentyä jonkin verran, ja ulkona on ollut kiva olla. Yksi iso paikallinen kirkko järjesti monenlaista syystapahtumaa lapsille: kävimme 'kurpitsapellolla' muiden kotikoululaisten kanssa, ja naamiaistapahtumassa myös.

Koulua käymme ahkerasti, ja lempipaikkoja vierailla viikottain ovat kirjasto ja merenranta - tätä ihanaa Floridan syksy-ja talvielämistä, kun saa mennä rannalle koska vain!

Tämä syksy on ollut oikea hampaiden syksy meille. Pikkuneiti sai raudat lokakuussa, ja perjantaina Missylle tehtiin operaatiota, kun yksi rautahampaista ei suostunut laskeutumaan itsekseen. Nyt marraskuussa on tulossa Mei Mein leikkaus myös, ja vielä Mr T:kin tarvitsisi viisaudenhampaiden poistoa, mutta sen jätämme vähän myöhemmälle.

Kapteeni kävi hakemassa Mothership-asuntoauton Mainestä, ja kun hän tuli kotiin, Mr T ja Mr D suuntasivat Kentuckyyn, tarkasti pitää elää kalenterin kanssa täällä, mutta eiköhän meidän villi ja vapaa arkemme joku päivä tule takaisin taas... :-)

Cleft Clinic/Halkioklinikka

On Friday we brought Mei Mei to her very first cleft clinic here in the States. She had her cleft lip repaired in China at age one, but her palate is still unrepaired. We saw many specialists, and learned a lot - my head is still spinning from all the information we got at our three hour appointment.

(I didn't take photos at the clinic, but these are taken in the last week.)



We don't have a surgery date yet, but expect it to be in the next three or four months. We should know next week or so. The surgery itself will last about two hours, and expected hospital stay is 1-2 days, depending how she does. She might possible have ear tubes put in at the same time, we don't know, yet.

As the surgeon repairs Mei Mei's palate, he will also repair her gum line, which is split as well. The plastic surgeon talked about Mei Mei's lip repair - it's ok, but not perfect. We may need to talk about her lip more at some point. (We, of course think her little lip is perfectly adorable!!)




The speech therapist estimated Mei Mei's English vocabulary to be at about 14 month level, and understanding of English maybe at 16 month level, mostly delayed because of she hasn't been exposed to English very long, yet. The cleft palate does make her sounds more nasal, but all this is very typical. She wants to see Mei Mei again in a year, and also six months from surgery, and then we'll talk about possible speech therapy.

There are many things we can do at help, and signing - as long as we also say the words - is very important. Listening to the things we can help Mei Mei with I realize we already live with our very own speech therapist: Little Miss! She instinctively has known how to help Mei Mei with her speech.

Mei Mei had a hearing test, and we found out she has some mild hearing loss. She also has some fluid in her ears, which could explain it, so it is something they will follow. If the fluid doesn't go away, she will need tubes put in.

We also talked to a social worker and a developmental pediatrician. Both seemed to think Mei Mei is doing great!

A pediatric dentist told us Mei Mei is missing a tooth (where the gum line cleft is), and wants us to get an x-ray to find out if she has it somewhere (ironically Mr D has an extra tooth so it all balances out, haha...!). He said other than that her teeth look great!



I feel like I may have forgotten something... But I think that was probably all the important stuff. We really liked the team, and are thankful Mei Mei will be in good hands. Surgery is no fun, and watching your child experience pain is horrible, but this is something Mei Mei needs to go through, and we will be there for her through it all.

Thank you all who prayed for Mei Mei's appointment - she did great. People were commenting on her big personality, and how well adjusted she is. Of course she didn't sit still during the three hours, but with Little Miss' help she stayed busy and content (for the most part). We covet your prayers for her upcoming surgery as well. We have seen God answer many prayer requests already, and trust He will continue to watch over Mei Mei and us.

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Perjantaina veimme Mei Mein halkioklinikalle ensimmäistä kertaa. Hänen huulihalkionsa oli korjattu Kiinassa reilu vuosi sitten, mutta suulakihalkio on edelleen korjaamatta. Eri erikoislääkärit ja terapeutit tutkivat Mei Mein ja kyselivät meiltä kaikkea, ja klinikalla menikin kolme tuntia. Ensi viikolla pitäisi selvitä kuinka pian on leikkaus. Ehkä vielä tämän vuoden puolella.

Leikkaus kestää noin kaksi tuntia, ja kotiin pääsee mahdollisesti jo seuraavana päivänä, jos potilas voi tarpeeksi hyvin. Suulakihalkion lisäksi korjataan ienhalkio, ja mahdollisesti laitetaan putket korviin. Kävi ilmi, että Mei Meillä oli nestettä korvissa, ei ihan kuullut kaikkia matalia ääniä kuulotestissä. Tätä seurataan.

Huulihalkion korjauksessa kuulemma olisi parantamisen varaa, saa nähdä mitä seuraavalla kerralla sanovat. Meidän mielestä tietenkin Mei Meillä on suloiset ihanat huulet!

Hammaslääkäri kertoi, että yksi hammas puuttuu (ienhalkion kohdalla), mutta röntgen tulee näyttämään onko se hammas piilossa, vai puuttuuko kokonaan. Muuten hampaat näytti hyviltä.

Sosiaalityöntekijä ja lastenlääkäri totesivat, että tyttö näyttää voivan loistavasti!

Puheterapeutin mukaan englannin sanasto ja ymmärtäminen on jäljessä, todennäköisesti vaan siksi, kun ei ole uutta kieltä kuullut kuin vasta kaksi+ kuukautta. Tässä vaiheessa ei ole puheterapiaa vielä, mutta kotona Pikkuneiti (ja me muutkin tietty:) saa jatkaa 'omaterapeuttina' oloa ja viittomakieli on hyvä, kunhan myös käytämme sanoja. Vuoden kuluttua, ja kuusi kuukautta leikkauksesta uudelleen katsotaan tilannetta.

Eli kaikenkaikkiaan hyvin meni klinikalla, ja todella arvostamme teitä, jotka rukoilitte, että päivä menisi hyvin. Leikkauksen ja toipumisen puolesta pyytäisin vielä rukousta, vaikeaahan se on, kun pieni joutuu leikattavaksi. Mutta me tulemme olemaan hänen kanssaan, ja luotamme Taivaan Isän täydelliseen suunnitelmaan Mei Meinkin elämässä.

Täältä löytyy suomeksi enemmän tietoa halkioista.

Reading Gallery II/Lukugalleria II

We had an amazing breakthrough this week!



I have shared here before how Little Miss has struggled through her reading journey. We are so glad we are homeschooling, as it has allowed her to proceed at her own pace. Since she has been making progress, we haven't been worried.

One day this week she got tired of waiting for me (to be ready to listen to her read), and quietly started on her own. To her amazement she got through the chapter all on her own, and actually enjoyed it!



I really really hope this is the start of her falling in love with reading. Little Miss already loves stories, I read to her (we are currently reading through the old Nancy Drew books in addition to our school books), and she listens to audio books just about every night, and we would be so thrilled if she would start devouring books on her own, too!

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Nyt taisi Pikkuneiti oivaltaa itsekseen lukemisen ilon (kun väsyi odottamaan minua kuuntelemaan - joka koulupäivä hän lukee minulle, ja minä hänelle). Hän rakastaa tarinoita jo, mutta tämä itse lukemisen into on ollut vähillä. Yhdessä luemme paljon, mm. Nancy Drew-kirjoja, ja hän kuuntelee äänikirjoja nukkumaanmennessä. Mutta tätä ennen ei ole ollut haluja lukea itsekseen ilman äidin patistamista (lähinnä koulukirjoja). Oli ihana nähdä hänen uppoutuvan kirjaan tällä viikolla, ja onnellisena kertovan minulle, kuinka jännittävä se oli! Eiköhän tämä tästä nyt:)

Friends from Maine at the Beach!

Last Friday we had an hour to escape to the beach. Not enough time to grab bathing suits, only a book and a blanket. No matter - we had been at the beach only minutes when we met up with friends! And not just any friends, we saw our friends from Maine (where our camp is)!




About two weeks ago to our great joy we learned work would bring our Maine friends to our area of Florida for the next three months or so. In fact, they are staying at the same campground we were in in February!




We knew our friends might be at the beach that day, but it was still a fun surprise to run into them:)




I think fun and sun agree with our Maine friends:)



I hope we bump into them at the beach more often:)

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Viime viikon perjantaina treffasimme ystäviimme Mainestä (samoista metsistä missä mökkimme on). Työ toi heidät tänne Floridaan meidän alueelle noin kolmeksi kuukaudeksi, ja oli ihana osua rannalle samaan aikaan - toivottavasti sama tapahtuu usein tänä aikana!!

Rubik's Cube Competition

One early Saturday morning this month the Captain and I took Missy to Orlando for a Rubik's Cube competition.




Missy has been cubing for about a year now, and this was her second competition.




In her first competition she was solving her three by three in about 30 seconds each time, making her place in the middle of the competitors, and giving her a fantastic first experience.




This time she had gotten her average solving time to 20 seconds or so, which really is so fast. It looks as if her fingers fly with the cube. The competition was very tough this time, and Missy placed about 30th in maybe 60 cubers, but she was so happy to be able to participate, and meet others as passionate about her hobby as she is.

She also competed in a Pyraminx and a Four by Four for the first time. What a great experience! We are so proud of our Missy!!

(Little Miss and the boys did a wonderful job babysitting Mei Mei! And Mei Mei did really well. We facetimed and called each other a few times throughout the day, and were so pleased to have a good first 'longer' babysitting experience. It's great having built-in sitters:)

Beeswax/Mehiläisvahaa?

Little Miss loves to watch videos on my iPad. Often, when I become aware of her being clued to the device, I start to give her something else to do. Until I see what she is watching. 90% of the time she is watching videos of science experiments!

(Sheesh, these homeschoolers!:)



This was another one she had given me a list of ingredients to buy for. Since I was going to make this face wash which used some of the same ingredients anyway, I added beeswax to the list, and we spent one of Mei Mei's nap times cooking up something in the kitchen...



Homemade lip balm! We want to tweak our recipe a bit more, making it softer, and adding more peppermint essential oil... But this is one of the recipes we used (Little Miss had another one she had found on YouTube). We also want to decorate the jars a bit more.

(As an added bonus, here's another healthy and inexpensive recipe: I make this to use as a face moisturizer.)

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Tällä kertaa Pikkuneiti teki kotitekoista huulirasvaa maman kanssa. Resepti löytyy englanniksi yllä, kuin myös kasvojen puhdistusaine ja kasvoöljy.

Sharpie Tie Dye by Little Miss

Little Miss is very artistic, just like her older sister Missy. She finds amazing art and craft projects to do, and pretty much has taken over planning and executing her own homeschool art lessons.

Recently she added a few colorful sharpies, a big bottle of rubbing alcohol, and a white shirt to my shopping list. I added blank bags (for Mei Mei's busy bags for our homeschool time), and a fun and colorful art project was ready to be executed!



From start to finish all done by my 9-year old! A few helpful tips:

- we used cardboard in between the shirt and inside the bags to keep the sharpies from bleeding
- we had a glass dropper for adding the rubbing alcohol to the drawn designs
- have the items dry fully before tossing into the dryer for about 15-20 minutes to set the color to the fabric to avoid a fire hazard...

This was a fun and easy project I'm sure we'll she'll do again soon!

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Pikkuneiti on ahkera piirtämään ja askartelemaan. Yksi viime ajan projekteista oli valkoiseen paitaan ja pussukoihin piirtäminen permanent-tusseilla, ja sitten kuvion kasteleminen isopropyylialkoholilla. Kun kangas on täysin kuiva, värin saa asetettua kuivurissa noin 15-20 minuutissa. (Märkänä isopropyylialkoholilla kasteltu kangas voi syttyä tuleen kuivurissa.)

Kaunis ja värikäs projekti! Varmasti teemme hän tekee uudestaan pian!

Reading Gallery/Lukugalleria

Reading, photography, and one of my sweet, wonderful daughters.
Lukemista, valokuvausta, ja yksi ihanista tytöistäni.