And here we are…

14 years after the sudden, unexpected arrival, she is now a proper teen, graduated with honours and entering high school in a couple of months. Playing clarinet and badminton, and off to a 3 week long French camp in a small town 900km away from home. 

We are so proud of you, Emilia. You continue to amaze us!

Emilia is 6 years old!

I haven't updated this blog for so long. Working full time and raising two kids, I have been neglecting  my duty to keep recording the journey of raising a preemie.

Emilia turned six not too long ago. She is taller than average on the growth chart. She is definitely taller than most of her classmates. She weighs more than average too. She is in good health - for this, we feel very fortunte because she was sick so often until about age 4.

She graduated from kindergarten in June. She was already reading at Gr. 2 level six months ago. She is a bookworm, for sure. Loves fiction, non-fiction, and even  the dictionary. She plays chess. She is now learning French. Also she started to take piano lessons few months ago. She is very intelligent and most of all, she enjoys learning.

Physically, Emila's left leg and ankle remain a bit stiff. She appears normal to others but we still notice her walking is still a little "off". Nobody else seems to notice though. She is not the best skater but she skates well enough to go on the ice and have fun. She loves riding her bicycle (still wih training wheels).

If any new preemie parent is reading this, I hope Emila's case gives you some comfort in the difficult and trying time you may be having. I remember having so many questions about Emilia's future - is she going to be walking properly, is she going to have learning disabilities, is she going to have respiratory illnesses for the rest of her life? Sometimes the prospect does not good and the statistics are all telling you what you don't want to believe, but believe in your child, not the stats.

Emilia is 3 years old!

Our Emilia is already 3 years old. I stopped counting her corrected age a long time ago. She is fully toilet trained (didn't even go through the pull-ups), knows alphabets and can read numbers (0-9). She's into Dora, Diego, and now even Thomas and Friends. We are really trying to not fixate her on TV or iPad or computer (Netflix) but she's already been exposed and loves watching shows on Netflix. I let her watch a few episodes a week, usually on Friday evenings.

Aside from her small problems in her left foot and left thigh (very mild cerebral palsy, which is not noticeable to an average person), she's perfect. In fact, this past winter, she had only a few colds and even those colds barely made any dents. So, after 2 years in day care, she's finally building some immunity to all those germs. This coming hot season will be a test for her. Let's see if she catches HFandM Disease yet again.

All things are good. I am still so grateful for what she has become, considering how small and weak she started off in this world.

Potty Train

Emilia started potty training about a week ago. She has been sitting on the potty for a while now, though she never actually peed. I guess she just liked imitating what some of the older kids at the daycare were doing in the bathroom. At home she would follow me into the bathroom and do exactly what I was doing, on her own potty. When she was moved up to the Preschool class, the first thing the teacher wanted to do was potty train Emilia, because 1) she was refusing diapers, 2) she loved sitting on the toilet, and 3) she was able to put her pants down and pull them up by herself. I was reluctant to do it because I thought it would be too overwhelming for her: a new sibling, then moving to Preschool, and then having to use a potty for real pee-pee.
Any way, she finally is able to pee on a toilet. She understands the urge to pee and she knows that when she gets that urge, she has to either run to the potty or alert a grown-up that she needs to go to potty. Over the past week there was lots of progress, though she stills gets an accident here and there. The daycare was right, she was ready. I am glad I didn't give up after trying for only 2 days. She is a big girl now, for sure...

D-D-D-D-Dora the Explorer!

These days Emilia is all about Dora the Explorer. I never knew I would become one of those parents leaving a smart phone or iPad in their children's hands to bribe them to be quiet in public places. We do it occasionally and I cannot help feeling embarrassed when a passerby gives Emilia and us a glance. I know that look. I used to give the same look too.

I never knew either that I would be one of those parents who buy their children TV character merchandise. Now she has at least 6 Dora colouring and sticker books, a Dora jigsaw puzzle, a Dora doll (a gift from her uncle), and eats Dora graham cookies. We bought VIP tickets to the Dora the Explorer Live show in December, which cost us $95 each person including Emilia, but the VIP tickets will give Emilia a chance to have a photo taken with Dora and a Dora-themed backstage party before the show. The other day I was shopping for Dora underwear (but couldn't find any so didn't buy). My brother just told me two days ago that he had bought some Dora toothbrushes for Emilia.

I start to wonder whether it's me who is fueling this frenzy by surrounding her world with all kinds of things Dora. Yes, she's a kid and she can be crazy about Dora, but am I feeding her desire and getting her hooked more and more on Dora? Naturally I want to give her what she likes and make her feel happy.

Any way, it's too late now. Emilia is absolutely crazy about Dora and there is no way we can back track it. We don't even show Dora shows too often, but Netflix made it very convenient for us to show it to her at any time we want and Emilia also knows that it's on Netflix anytime she wants. Right now, Friday night is Dora night for Emilia. We play 2-3 episodes and log out of Netflix. Of course, turning it off creates such a drama, to put it mildly. There will be about 10 minutes of crying and screaming (she cries "Doraaaa... Booooots...Dooorraaa...Boooots") until she gets distracted by one of her Dora colouring books. I need to give credit to Dora though. Emilia picked up quite some words and phrases by watching the shows, including, to our dismay, some Spanish words. I wish the Canadian version Dora would teach kids French instead.

I hope this is just a phase... or is Dora simply going to be replaced by another TV or movie character? As my husband says, maybe we should be thankful that she's not into Thomas and Friends, which would have cost us a fortune to collect all the toy engines.