Charlotte and her hearing.

Alright, some of you have already heard but on Monday Charlotte's audiologist did a hearing test and said that currently her hearing is at 20-30 decibels. FANTASTIC. With her hearing aids, the best she could get was between 40-45 db. About 2 weeks ago, she heard Aunty Crystal's phone ring. She loved it and would talk and talk and talk on the phone (look at the video a few posts back for a cute example). About a week later, she started turning to her name again. A few days later, soft sounds were audible to her. And then the good news on Monday where her hearing levels are. The above chart is called an Audiogram. Left to right is frequencies or pitch. (think of music). So the left side is the lower sounds and the right is the high sounds. Top to bottom is essentially volume. So the top of the audiogram are the soft sounds and the bottom are loud sounds. You can see that the majority of the sounds are between 20-50 db. They call this the speech banana (hence the shape in the audiogram). So for Charlotte to be right in the middle is a miracle. There's a lot more tweaking of the CI and a long road for Charlotte to develop speech but we are so happy with how things are going. The Lord truly has been in control this whole time and I am so thankful for that.

Raglan.

Raglan. My most favorite beach EVER! Here are some beautiful pictures that we took. The family ones were taken by Crystal (Wade's sister). She did awesome! Thanks Crystal.

Click here if you are curious about the post I did on Raglan earlier in the month.

Um, it's WINTER in New Zealand right now. And this crazy boy decided to play in the sand and water! Oh Ryan! you're awesome!

See, Charlotte was FREEZING. Here's the proof! : D

More cuzzies playing in the sand. CRAZY.

Wade and Jack.

Overlooking Raglan to the right.

Overlooking Raglan to the left.

Scenic shots:

I just LOVE this picture of Charlotte running to Wade.

I've got a zillion of these photos and picked one. It's the header picture too. Raglan is SO gorgeous.

Jack playing.

Here's a little video of Jack playing with a toy Auntie Lian gave.

Jack

Jack has accomplished so many things! While in NZ he:
1. Has pulled himself up to stand.
2. Toddles along the furniture or you.
3. Says Go. Which actually has turned to go car and also has learned to sign go and car while saying it.
4. Says no no no and shakes his head.
5. Signs eat.
6. Got 2 extra teeth. Total : 6.
7. Gives you kisses! more like a open mouth nose dive at your cheek but loves to give them!
8. All you have to say is "clap hands" and Jack claps his hands! I don't know who taught him this but I will give the credit to Crystal cause she showed me!
9. When you say hello to him, he likes to put his arm/hand up to his ear and pretend he's on the phone. If he's holding a remote or anything that looks like a phone he'll use that instead! He's a smart boy.

Charlotte

Here's Charlotte feeding the ducks.
Just wanted to share the amazing thing Charlotte has done while in NZ. Mainly it's about recognizing sounds like the phone and other things but the most important is that she's recognized her own name. Absolutely wonderful.

Charlotte and the phone.

This was all happening at Crystal's house (Wade's youngest sister).

Just another video from a different angle.

There are many awesome things that happened while in NZ for both kids. This one is about Charlotte in particular. The first thing she has recognized with the implant was the ring tone of the phone. There's a cool thing in NZ where you dial 137 and hang up and the phone calls you right back. Well, Charlotte would go and answer the phone and talk and talk and talk like she's having the best conversation of her life. It's SO cute. I'm so proud of her!!

Back

Jack's birthday party

Aaaaaah. I'm back. Unfortunately I haven't been so good at keeping up on the blog. I did at first and then it just was too much! But all in all we've had a fabulous trip. You're going to see a BILLION photos. So if you're not interested, that's okay! I'll still do it anyway : D he he. We miss being around family. The kids are bored I think. Charlotte asked for cousin Ryan today. But it's all good. We'll be excited to have Lian, Jonathan and the kids with us for Christmas! I just hope the rest of the family can come and visit soon!! Thanks for the fabulous time and for being so kind to us. We miss you already!

Agrodome

Here are some of the pictures from the Agrodome! We had lunch at a Bakery in downtown Rotorua and Charlotte just LOVED her pie with mashed potatos on top! A true Kiwi indeed. She seriously is. Yesterday I offered her some jam on toast. REFUSED it. Wanted Vegemite. No joke. She'll come up to me in the kitchen if I'm there and ask for bread and then open the cupboard for the Vegemite. Have you tasted the stuff? Yeah, it's not my cup of tea but makes me happy she AND Jack both LOVE it.

If you go to New Zealand, this is one thing you need to see! Such a fun place for the family, especially the kids. Plus you get to be entertained by sheep!! ha ha

You can go into the nursery where the lambs and puppies and milking cow and ducks are. Charlotte just loved it. Kept going in and out of this lamb pen. Thought it was the best thing in the world. Until she actually got to feed the lambs!!!

The guy asked Charlotte if she wanted to feed the lambs because she was in the front row and because she's just darn cute ; )

Look at that smile!!

YUMMY!!!

Day #9

Well, had another relaxing day despite having two nights of awful sleep because of Jack. We think he's teething again and are assuming that's why. If he's just doing this for fun then I'm done. he he. We went to a couple of shops yesterday and then decided to make dinner for Lian and Crystal. It was yummy. We made Bakd Chicken Cordon Bleu pasta with cheesy garlic bread. I made a really yummy different kind of rice krispie treat: peanut butter and sugar mixed with rice krispies with butterscotch/chocolate (melted together) topping. Yummy. Although the corn syrup was a miracle to find here it was STIFF which ended up making beautiful pumice stones for the bath. ha ha. No but seriously. had to be warmed in microwave to chew it. I think Wade's family didn't like it too much but that's okay. More for me to eat. Surprised? No, I'm a piggy!! We just hung out the rest of the night and talked. A fun day.

Cat door

So Lian and Jonathan have a cat door next to the front door. Charlotte saw their cat, Bella, sitting in front of it and kept trying to let her in. It was so funny to see her open and close the door. The cat is scared of her though. Not surprised though.

Day #7 and #8

Day #7 was awesome. After the yucky (he he) fish breakfast, we all headed out to Raglan beach. First we ate lunch at the wharf before heading to the main beach. Gorgeous as ever. It's the middle of winter and it was absolutely clear. There was some slight wind that was FREEZING cold but it was beautiful. We took some awesome pictures and can't wait for you all to see them. But our kids were so cold. Charlotte borrowed her Uncle Jonathan's beliclava (sp??) and loved it but got a good workout carrying the kids back to the car. We then had a fun birthday party at the church institute. The school holidays are on so Ian (Wade's father is the director) is able to use the institute for family functions. Cool! And the food was SO good. I pigged out. PIGGED out. Thankfully I went on a walk that night to make me feel better.
Day #8 was just plain ol' relaxing. Just went to a lot of shops we haven't been in awhile and then bought the stuff we've missed to take home for us at Pak N Save. Had a family feed, again, for Rex who left for Utah last night. He should be or almost in Utah now. So there it is! More journal to add to the blog! : D

Ryan and Elle have been having a great time with Charlotte and Jack. Elle has been a great mother to Jack. Feeding him, helping with a bath, playing with him... And Ryan's got a little shadow named Charlotte. She signs for him ALL the time. It's so neat to see how she just loves him so much. We love seeing the kids be with family. Makes us wish we lived closer to family.

Day #6

We went to The Base...a big outside mall yesterday. Had a good time and found some cute things which of course were good deals. For lunch we had some chips and kumara chips. oh man. They were absolutely delicious!!! Wish they could make something like that in Utah. Then had a great evening and dinner with Wade's parents. Had yummy hamburgers and wedges. Charlotte just loved being at Ma's house and Jack loved all the attention. But Charlotte's been having Ryan withdrawals. It's kind of funny. She just kept signing for Ryan but he was having a sleepover at his Aunty Crystal's house with all the other cousins. The kids slept in this morning til 7 again! YESSS! And Jonathan and Uncle Rex came home after going out at 3am to Raglan to go fishing for Flounder. They caught 5 fish and a SHARK. I took TONS of pictures and will post pics soon. But we then went to Crystal's house where all the kids were and they cooked up the fish after gutting it at Lian's (gross). Apparently it was good but I don't know. It's off to Raglan for the rest of the day and a fun family feed tonight. Oh man, I love eating!!!

LAX on the way to Air New Zealand to check in.

So, yeah, this is what we were hauling around in the airports. SO crazy!!! Thankfully SWA's terminal is next door to Air New Zealand's terminal cause that would be a forever walk dodging people. Kind of funny. But had to take this picture with the Air New Zealand airplane in the background. Wade was so excited. Really, he really really was! So cute.

It's finished!!

The week before we left to NZ, Wade and I decided to sell our house. It has been a difficult decision but we have decided to build a house about 6 blocks south in a little community. So we had stayed up til 3 or 4 in the morning getting all the painting done, baseboards in, deep cleaning and most of all, finish up the peninsula we've been trying to finish. Wade made the countertop. We saved 400 dollars for the cheapest way of doing it. I think it cost only 120 dollars? Can't remember. It might be even less than that. But our friends gave us a great idea for the edge of the counter: stain some moulding and put it as the edge. And it looks SO posh. I found sound neat shelf supports (can't see them in the pic) for only 3 dollars each. They look like fancy scrolls. I'm good. We wanted to paint all the cupboards black but didn't have time. So we used some special oil to bring back to life the cupboards. We're pretty proud of ourselves!

Day #5

Well, I've got the photos in a folder but don't have time today ... yet....to post any of them. But I will. I'll keep promising til I do it! But today was a nice relaxing day. Visited Grandmother and Pop Pop and two families (Ora Ngakuru and Rachel and Matt Jaunay) and another therapist (an O.T. Eleanor). So it's just been nice just hanging out. Oh, I did have a delicious Apricot Danish for breakfast. Can't really compete with NZ for their pastrie. DIVINE!! Tonight we are having a late dinner because Aunt Tracy is coming in from Aussie (she lives in Draper, Utah). So we're excited to have her and the cuzzies to hang out with. It's nice not having anything to do for a few weeks. yeah!!!

Day #4 Agrodome and Rotorua

Rotorua's geo thermal museum. Only 3 places in the world with geysers/mudpools : Yellowstone, Rotorua and some other place. Can't remember! Cool eh! This is at Te Puia.

We got this off of google. Just so you can see!

I have to find the chip reader and then I can post pics. So I'll try and do that tonight!! Anywho, today Charlotte woke up at 3:45am. YES. You read it right. I couldn't believe it. I was about to cry. So I came down, put on Curious George. Held Charlotte on the couch, closed my eyes and dost my ears decieve me she started to snore. I looked over and her eyes were closed! YAY. So I took her upstairs to bed except it took like 4 pit stops to keep her from waking everyone up every time I moved towards her bed because she cried so much. Thankfully her cousin Elle is a DEEP sleeper and didn't hear Charlotte cry in the room. Wade came and asked if I needed help/benadryl and I said let's juice her up. So it took almost an hour but I got to go back to sleep and slept in til 7am! YAY! ha ha. But today we left Jack with the family and took Charlotte along with an elderly missionary couple down to the Agrodome (sheep show) and Rotorua. The missionary couple were returning home to Boise from 2 years as an office couple in Vanuatu. So now we've got a place to stay in Boise when we go and visit Portland. yay! They were really nice company. Charlotte just had a fanastic time looking at all the little sheep and was able to feed a lamb! She seriously loved it. After the show, we headed to downtown Rotorua and dropped the couple off for a little Maori culture/geo thermal walkabout and we went and had some lunch and walked around the shops. That's about it. We're about to have pizza for dinner and a fun Family Home Evening together. I missed Jack so much but he had a blast and didn't seem to have a hard time with us being gone. Glad we've got family to count on.

Day #3 July 4th

It was July 4th yesterday. Nothing too exciting except Charlotte sleeping in until 4:45am. Wade and i went out to another store to buy some stuff for the bbq we had. Then I made some cookies and 7 layer dip for it. All the family came. We had steaks, pasta salad, green salad, 7 layer dip, carrots and dip, focaccia bread, coleslaw, potato salad, etc. and for dessert, two chocolate cream pies, cookies, cheesecake and ice cream. We were going to do a pinata but we forgot to actually do it. Ha ha ha. Charlotte ate a little bit of the potato salad and dip but was going at the steak hard core. My kinda girl. then we just sat around and talked for hours. We all thought it was like 11pm but it was only 9pm. Hilarious. ha ha. Now, today it's sunday morning. I don't think Charlotte slept in but I stayed in bed with her for a long time. And was 5:10am when we came down. And she went to bed WAY later last night! I was like, come on!! SLEEP child. SLEEEEEEP. Well, it's sunday here. Church is at 11am. I think we'll definitely make it in time. ha ha ha.

Day #2

Today was very relaxed. We went to Pak N Save grocery store and bought a couple of things and then got ready to have our family photos taken by the Waikato River. Has some beautiful NZ forestry in it. I really hate my picture taken. And I saw some of them today and am quite depressed. Everyone looks so good but I really don't. I know you'll all say otherwise but you know what you want or have seen pictures that you really like of yourself and then when you see one that is not ideal it makes you want to cry. Yeah, I thought by losing 25 pounds I would look good but it just shows that I have a long ways to go. And I can't compete with my beautiful Sister in laws...not like I am but yeah. Oh well. Now, don't go writing that I'm beautiful or skinny either. Anywho. then we came home and I went and did my exercise! Needed to. And then went off to Enrichment in our PJs Had a good time. Saw a couple of people that I knew so it was good to talk with them. Now, it's Saturday Morning. 4th of July here. They want to throw a 4th of July party so I'm excited! Charlotte "slept in" today. Woke up at 4:44am. I hope she keeps sleeping in. This won't be fun if this is the normal time she wakes up. Jack and Wade are still asleep so I hope it stays that way for awhile!

KiaOra

I haven't taken any pictures since I've been in NZ but wanted to say hello! HELLOOOOO!!! We've had a wonderful day yesterday. We actually had to spend another 1/2 hr in the air because of some U.S. military exercise in the pacific ocean so we had to detour around it. Let me tell you. spending over 12 hrs in the plane originally and then adding more time does NOT HELP! ha ha. We have never been treated SO well on any plane. Air New Zealand was incredible. i.e. The stewardess in charge blocked off a whole row besides the one we had just for us. Jack had a bassinette to sleep in and I went back with Charlotte and she slept on two seat and I had my own. We were on a 777 so it was sets of 3 for each row. Including middle. LIke you really wanted to know that. ha ha. The kids were SO good. Charlotte was terrified of the plane while walking down to our seat on the SWA flight. She was clingy the whole time were were on both planes. Freaked out the second I would stand up, etc. But she didn't cry and slept for 7 hrs or so on the NZ flight. Jack slept the same amount. In fact both kids fell asleep before we took off which was nice. I was able to get a total of 5 hrs of sleep. So that was nice : ) I rarely sleep on plane and usually it's like 20 min. here or there. The only thing that happened was an hour and a half before we landed in NZ Jack threw up everywhere. EVERYWHERE. But can't complain.
We arrived and had a great breakfast at Lian's house, Wade's sister. I went shopping with her and Elle for a few hours. While Wade just reminisced, etc. Had a beautiful, yummy dinner with the rest of the family and by 7:30pm NZ time, I was wasted. ha ha. We tried to keep the kids up as long as possible so they could get used to the new time zone. Charlotte fell asleep on the dining chair at 6:30 (12:30a.m. Utah time) so that was a sign! ha ha. I put the kids up first and then I went to bed at 7:30. After being up til 3am for the last week and then the flight I don't think anyone blamed me. Wade followed my example 5 min. later. he he. And the kids woke up at 4:20am NZ time (10:20am Utah time). Not too bad I think. It's just going to be a day or two more until they get used to it. And when I went to get Charlotte first thing she told me was ear and signed for her implant. YAY! I was so happy. She's wanting the implant because it's working. Just going to take a little time to recognize sound and I'm fine with that. Things are different with Charlotte and once she gets something she takes off. It's going to be wonderful! And today, we're off to do family pictures. And that's it! So we'll just have fun going shopping, visiting friends, family, etc. I love having nothing to do...no pressures!!!