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Nine lives? Our iPad has gone thru two already

Nov 15th, 2011
by Zendette.
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Let the kids play with the iPad, but be aware that at 3 yrs old, they may find alternative games that put the very existence of the iPad at risk. Matan brought death upon the iPad twice in one week, but like the proverbial cat with 9 lives, the iPad abides.

First, Matan still enjoys throwing things. These days he usually manages to throw things in the house, rather than out the window which is where we were last year. He still throws the occasional dishtowel out the window just to watch it flutter in the breeze, but it has been a long time since we had to deal with wooden blocks hurled from our fifth floor living room.

But the iPad must have been too much of a temptation. Either that, or Matan just got annoyed with what he was playing, and tossed the offending machine from the nearest window. We searched and searched, and after a day or two, discovered that the Force must have been with the iPad. Matan threw it out the window where we hang laundry. There is a wide ledge under the window to catch any falling laundry, and we discovered the iPad sitting, unharmed, a few feet below the window.

Fast forward 2 days later. Matan is again playing with the iPad, after a harsh admonishment that it is never to be thrown anywhere again. This time the application was a game that involved fish swimming across the screen. Matan loves watching fish and really wanted to release them from their iPad prison. Out of pure compassion, Matan gently placed the iPad in the bathtub then turned on the water and began to create a fishpond in the tub. I caught him before the iPad was completely submerged, but clearly it had reached clinical death. Although fully charged, the monitor had gone black.

DH was upset as was K, who spends a lot of time playing math puzzles and other games on the iPad. We began looking into buying a new one. Meanwhile, we shelved the dead one, hoping against hope that it might dry out and still work. An Internet search turned up stories of wet iPads resurrected after a drying out period.

And lo! Two weeks later I plugged it into the charger and turned it on. First only the apple appeared on a black screen, but moments later it lurched back to life and our home was once again filled with joy and the sound of two children fighting over who’s turn it is to use the iPad.

Matan says, “iPad”!

May 5th, 2011
by Zendette.
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The past few weeks have been action packed. Among other things, Matan has finally started really speaking. Not just Abba, Ima (Daddy, Mommy), but real words! He’s still hard to understand much of the time, but he’s actually interested in trying to repeat sounds and words after me. In the past, he showed absolutely no interest in even trying.

I don’t know if we can claim it’s due exclusively to our work with the iPad, after all, he has also been going to speech therapy for months. But it can’t be denied he’s finally really begun to speak, and it’s after he began using some of the free iPad talking animal games like “Talking Tom”. His word repertoire has grown so much that I can’t list all the words he now says, but one word he says very clearly, is of course, iPad :-)

Ready for speech therapy?

Apr 5th, 2011
by Zendette.
2 comments

Since first posting about using our iPad to help Matan with speech therapy, this blog has been inundated with readers searching for different variations of “iPad” and “speech therapy”. It appears I’m not the only one interested in using this tool that’s so much fun for the kids.

I’m no expert, but I can affirm that since we began playing with the iPad application characters that repeat what you say to them, Matan has been adding vocabulary at the rate of almost one new word a day. It may not sound impressive to some, but from a child who did little more than grunt and say “na, na” for the first year, it is a huge improvement.

Of course, part of his interest in the iPad game is based on his readiness to speak. Earlier in the year, when we were working intensively with our occupational therapist, she advised that he was not yet really ready to begin speaking. His level of play was at a very infantile stage. But with her help and the wonderful caretakers at his pre-school, his play has evolved into something much more sophisticated than the passive wheel spinning, swing set riding and button-pushing-for-music that he thought was the end-all of fun when we first brought him home.

It was especially disconcerting to see him sit and spin wheels, whether on cars, stroller, or anything else for as long as he was left to do so. We put a lot of effort into working with him on less passive play, and today, while he still enjoys those things, especially when he’s tired, his play, overall, is a lot more active.

When we first met him, he was a 20 month old child with the development level of a 6-9 month old. Today he is still delayed, but much less so. We are hoping to continue closing the gap. He’s no where near the level that our daughter was at his age, but he’s made huge improvements in year+ that he’s been with us.

iPad for speech therapy

Mar 13th, 2011
by Zendette.
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My iPad has become the fav device of both children. Karen loves to play games and puzzles on it, and Matan likes the talking kitty cat “Talking Tom” application. This talking app seems to offer better speech therapy than any of the tips our speech therapist has recommended. Matan loves petting the cat and hearing it purr, but his favorite is to screech at it just to hear it playback what he said. Luckily, the yelling is only for venting during more than 10 minutes of “iPad therapy”. I sit with him and clearly enunciate some of the words he already knows, and a few that he should be working on. The cat repeats after me, and then I try prompting Matan. Although we haven’t significant speech improvements yet, he’s still fairly new to the application and it already maintains his interest and has him repeating sounds, something he didn’t enjoy doing before.

For Karen, the puzzles are great for brain development, and she absolutely loves playing all kinds of games and puzzles that DH downloads for her.

The iPad that DH lovingly bought me for my last birthday is almost exclusively used by the children at this point. I hope DH doesn’t run out to buy the new iPad. We have enough gadgets and I really want to invest in a bigger apartment……

10 essential items for Ukraine adoption trips

Aug 28th, 2010
by Zendette.
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People seem to like lists a lot.   I also remember my panic, even with extensive international travel under my belt, when forced to pack for a trip of unknown duration where I could have found myself stuck in a remote village for more than a month.

Keep in mind that you may find yourself spending lots of time with nothing to do.  You need to stay busy and stay connected since your friends and family provide a lifeline to sanity when you are going through an international adoption.

So here’s my top ten list:

  1. Books – we were unable to find English reading material anywhere, even in major cities.  Pick long books, at least 3 of them.  Some recommendations:      Shantaram ~ Gregory David Roberts;  The Source ~ James A. Michener; World Without End or The Pillars of the Earth ~ Ken Follett; Shogun or Noble House ~ James Clavelle;  An Instance of the Fingerpost ~ Iain Pears.  Please feel free to list your own recommendations in the comments section. You may also want to bring along a book about adoption. I brought Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents~Deborah D. Gray. Links featured below.
  2. Portable DVD player – we took this with us primarily for Karen, but it was nice to have when we rented an apartment with no DVD and no TV in English.
  3. DVDs – you will not find anything in English. All non-Russian movies are dubbed.
  4. Laptop computer – yes it’s a hassle, but we found we were able to get Internet in most rented apartments, after a lot of hassles.  But it was our lifeline.  Since even most  TV cable companies offer nothing in English, we found that the only way we could keep up with news and stay in contact with our support network at home was via the laptop.  We Skyped on a daily basis and kept up on news, email,  blog.  the laptop also served up games for Karen and DH to play.
  5. iPad, if available.  You should even be able to use this to buy ebooks to read in iPad’s great reader options.  Note however that buying items online from Ukraine may be difficult, especially if you did not notify your bank of your travel plans ahead of time.
  6. Quality toys – Fisher-Price, bring from home.  Cheap Chinese electronic toys are readily available at local shops.  Bring at least one toy as a primary gift to your new child.  We found bringing a pack of balloons kept toddlers happy and playful.
  7. A full course of antibiotics for each person travelling with you.  Consult your doctor to determine what will work best for the type of problems you are most likely to encounter.  We took amoxicillin for Karen and Axetil for us adults. Luckily we did not use any of it.
  8. Ensure you have enough money on your Skype account to call freely.  You may not be able to add money later on since credit card transactions originating in Ukraine may be blocked as suspicious.
  9. Xanax and 2 months of any prescription meds you take on a regular basis.  You may find yourself in extremely stressful and emotional situations.  Unless you are completely unflappable in the face of adversity, you will want Xanax as a backup.
  10. Extra gifts, mostly for women.  Especially appreciated are known brands of perfume and cosmetics.  My Dior gifts were very popular.  Although you will already be packing gifts for the baby home director and your facilitator, always have extra gifts available for translators, or anyone else who may be involved in helping you.  Boxes of chocolate can be purchased locally.  These are good for the team of caretakers.

Book links:

Vacation in the Golan Heights

Aug 20th, 2010
by Zendette.
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Ahhh, love coming home after “roughing it” with the kids for a week. We had a zimmer in a small village called Had Nes in the foothills of the Golan Heights. We drove there, via Tiberias. It was Karen’s first time seeing the Kinnereth (Sea of Galilee). I had my new iPad with me, and it would have been Eden had it not been quite so hot, 43 C, about 109 F!!!!

We were there with another couple and their two, beautiful children. All four of our kids are adopted from Ukraine. They have become good friends of ours through our four adoptions, and were our biggest cheering pit while we were in Ukraine to adopt Matan. It’s nice to have a close connection to another adoptive family and it’s good for our children who get along like siblings, playing and fighting, but loving every minute of it.

We were very aware of the border tension as fighter jets practiced over our heads during the day. Each village is enclosed and gated at night, but otherwise life seemed very calm and slow paced, exactly as a vaction village should feel.