Deaf Santa

This was our first year visiting deaf Santa at Pearlridge mall. Along with HSDB, other schools attended the event. Seemed to be a big deal for the deaf community, which was awesome to see. All the schools performed a skit or sang Christmas songs. It was a great way to get everyone of the deaf community into the Christmas spirit. Also love attending these events where I can socialize and get to know parents of deaf children. Carter and his classmates did a great job in their performance!

Annual Gingerbread Family Tradition

Who wouldn't want to decorate gingerbread houses during the holidays? We love it! Carter had a blast this year... By making a total mess! Hehe, I wouldn't want it any other way, as long as he had fun doing it. 

Big Brother Carter

Huge announcement! Carter became a big brother on November 20! He loves to help mommy take care of his new baby brother and to kiss him all up. He couldn't be any more loving :)

Happy Halloween!

So I know this is really, really late but I needed to share! 

Carter had a school parade on Halloween and I went to check it out. All students dressed up in their costumes and went from classroom to classroom for candy. I thought it was going to be more like a parade rather than trick or treating, but he wasn't complaining about all the treats! 

By the time we finished, the kids were exhausted and hot. I wish they made sleeveless costumes for Hawaii, hehe. Later that night, we tried to go around the neighborhood to experience it all with him but he was just too tired and grumpy. We only visited about 5 houses and called it an early night. Seemed like he understood the concept of going from door to door, holding out his bag for candy, lol. 

It sure was an eventful day for him! Glad he enjoyed Halloween this year. Now onto the bigger holidays... Can't wait!

Busy, Busy Day

Carter had his parent/teacher conference yesterday at HSDB. His teacher said he's thriving! From August to now, he's learning to follow directions and to stay within boundaries. There's still a lot more work to do but I'm so happy he's progressing nicely! 

After school, we had to do his ear molds at Kapiolani. Just sharing a few pics from our busy day!

Waimanalo Pumpkin Patch

We took Carter to the Waimanalo Pumpkin Patch this past weekend. There's not as much things to do like the Kapolei Pumpkin Patch but Carter still had a lot of fun! An open space to run and dirt never fails! Along with their field of pumpkins, there was a hayride, corn field maze, and food stands. Carter could've cared less about the pumpkins but climbing up and down the fields was all he wanted to do anyways :). We picked out two pumpkins to carve and decorate next week!! 

Special Olympics: YAP

This program is the best! It's called the Young Athletes Program and its part of the Special Olympics. YAP is for ages from 2 years to 8 years old. They're not able to participate in the Olympic Games yet, but YAP prepares them for it. We get together once a month, every third Saturday. They do activities that will help the kids focus on following directions like circle time, singing and dancing, coloring, and other sports to get their hearts pumping. Every month, they have themes, such as jumping, batting, or balancing. They set up about 8 different courses for them to practice. 

The entire staff are caring, understanding, and encouraging! You can tell that they have a passion for working with special needs kids. It's a "safe" place where you can let your child be "himself" without judgement from others. I love it! Not only does Carter get the socialization with the other kids but he's working on his motor/gross skills all at once. He loves it and I love seeing him smile and laugh along with the other kids. I would definitely encourage all parents to put their kids in this program!

Wish I took more pictures but Carter was such a handful! :) :) :)

Gluten Free Snacks

Here are some lovable gluten free snacks for kids! I love that these type of foods are becoming more and more popular now days. There's so many options to choose from!

Pirates Booty is Carter's fave! It's a cross between popcorn and Cheetos. The brown rice crackers are really good with tuna. And the snap pea crisps are a lot healthier than chips! Carter loves them all as snacks for school so I always make sure to pack one of these in his lunch bag. All are from Costco. 

The more expensive snacks! These can be pricey but I splurge here and there for the little man. What kid can live without a little sugar?! Hehe. Most baked products like cookies, cake, and brownies all contain gluten, so I only splurge on these type of snacks that are labeled gluten free from the more 'organic' stores to be sure and completely at ease when Carter eats these. All are from Whole Foods. 

Then there's the normal, every day sort of snacks. You'd never would have guessed huh? But yes! Read the labels good, and you'll find that these are made of real potatoes or corn. Cheetos are Carter's fave!

New Learning Materials!

I attended Carter's open house at HSDB tonight, and I swear every time I go to a school function or family ASL event, it gets me so fired up to learn more about the deaf community and ASL. So! I bought a few things at the book fair to help Carter and some family members with learning new signs.

The book and flash cards are pretty self explanatory. The book has a lot pictures and is easy to read, so it's super kid-friendly. The DVD is a story told by an interpreter that's very expressive, and it was recommended for Carter by the lady at the library. She said kids love this DVD. And lastly, I bought labels for the home. It's pictures of things around the house with the sign shown next to it. I plan to put Velcro on them and place them on the actual objects. For example, the label for table will go on on our actual dining table, that way Carter can relate to it better, and hopefully will pick up the signs easily. 

I didn't buy these flash cards tonight but I've been working with Carter on these for a while. I'll show him the flash card, then do the sign with it so he sees it's related to each other. I try to do the alphabet every night, and I'll do the other two every other night. I know one of them says Spanish but I mostly use those for the pictures and "sayings". See below. The alphabet and Spanish flash cards are from Walmart and the other one is from Amazon. 

And these are what the alphabets look like...

Happy 5th Birthday

I debated for weeks on what I wanted to do for Carter's 5th birthday. It's a HUGE milestone! I finally settled on taking him to  Wet n Wild (water park) with just us, then Chuck E Cheese with the whole family and friends. 

Since we've never been to the water park, Carter had a blast! We stayed all day in the kiddie section that had small water slides and water falls. He loves the water so he just jumped right in... No fear, I swear! Wish I took more pics!

His actual birthday landed on a school day, so I made 'dirt cups' for his class. Because Carter is on the gluten-free diet, the pudding was perfect for the kids. They all 'sang' happy birthday to him in ASL... It was the cutest thing ever! 

Later that evening, we met with friends and family at Chuck E Cheese. Everyone had a great time mingling while eating pizza (which btw, is the best pizza ever!). And it was a total bonus that they serve gluten-free pizza now! And Carter and his friends of course couldn't get enough of the games. He hated the show though. He just wanted the cupcakes! Haha. 

The birthday boy!

Make a wish!

The goodie bags

About to open presents!

So much fun!

And so many to open

Happy, happy boy!

Meet Carter-Zion

If I had to describe my son in three words, it would be... ecstatic, strong, and carefree. He's definitely the light of my life and even though, he's a handfull, I wouldn't change anything about him for the world. On August 19, 2008, God gave me the sweetest, littlest blessing. It was a bittersweet moment. He was so perfect! I couldn't believe I made this beautiful thing, I needed someone to pinch me to make sure I wasn't dreaming. Touching him for the first time took my breath away, sounds so cliche, but really, it did! A couple days later, we were told by the doctors that he was diagnosed with ring partial trisomy 13 - a chromosome disorder. Supposedly, this is a rare disorder. The doctors couldn't really give us much answers, other than it is somewhat related to trisomy 18 and 22. It was really disappointing not knowing what to expect. We did a lot of research on the internet and found that ring parital trisomy 13 means that Carter has extra and missing information in his thirteenth chromosome. Where the information was cut off, the chromosome created a ring or circle. Some of the effects of this was polydactyly in both hands and feet, hearing impairment in both ears, and celiac disease. Because of this ring partial trisomy 13, we were told to expect developmental delays. Carter is now 5 years old... and thriving! It's been a long and encouraging journey for this first-time mom, but wouldn't ask for anything more or less. This blog was created to share the beautiful moments of Carter's life and hoping that it will inspire each reader. Enjoy!

Carter Zion - 5 years old