Happy Holidays

Everything year since Jake was born, I made our own Christmas cards. I use a software called Photoshop to do all the creating and editing. It is a pretty time consuming project but I really enjoy doing it. It gives a very personal touch to the occasion and gives me a reason to refresh my already limited Photoshop skills. This is our 2007 Christmas card, there is a minor little imperfection, but I won’t tell.

Here is one I made for Jake back in Feb. 2004, Jake was a little bit over a year and half years old. I still look at this one often, the words “Dream will come true” remind me to always have dreams and hopes. Whenever I feel defeated, I look at this picture and remind myself that as long as we don’t give up, and work hard with Jake, one day our dreams and hopes for Jake will come true.

Now a days, I don’t make as many of these home made cards as I use to. I used to work with a group of young web designers; it was that environment that stimulated my creativity and imagination. I actually designed and made our own wedding invitations. It was not as fancy as those you can buy commercially, but it was most definitely very personal. Yeah, those were the days…..

Anyways, I hope everyone have a very healthy and happy holiday season!

Jake's grant plan to escape intensive suit therapy

For those of you who are waiting to hear about Jake’s amazing progress after his latest suit therapy in Michigan, I am sorry to give you the most disappointing news – Jake was too sick to participant in therapy.

Yeap…. Jake got sick the weekend before he was scheduled to start the 3 weeks intensive suit therapy. Initially we were still hopeful that Jake would fully recover within a few days but unfortunately he got sicker and sicker as we stayed in Michigan. Here is a picture of Jake watching DVD in bed, while getting his breathing treatment in Michigan. (Not exactly the kind of therapy I had in mind for him). By day 10, we had no choice but to packed out bags and drove back to New York. The good news is now that we are back at home, Jake seem to be recovered rather well. Sometimes I think it was his grand plan to escape therapy! But then again, probably not, poor kid; he couldn’t keep any liquid or food down for almost 3 days. I think he has lost a few pounds.

On a good note, Jake is making great progress in using his augmentative communication device.He has a mini-merc (http://www.assistivetech.com/p-minimerc.htm).

Jake can navigate through 3-4 pages to get to where he wants to go and make his choices. He is really eager to communicate through his device as well as use his manual theme boards. For example, before we brush teeth, he has to point to his teeth brushing manual board and say “brush teeth”, “get toothpaste”, “get tooth brush”, “get cup”, “get water”. During meal time, he independently points to his meal time manual board and say “eat more”, or “drink”, or “napkin wipe face”, or “finished”, etc. I am also working on teaching him read sight words. We just started a little bit of it but reading sight words will be my major push for the next year. I am very hopeful that one day, Jake will be able to communicate through his ACC device independently.