Ein Hammie Wong

A recap of what went down in August:

• Sprint Progress: started the month with 2 hours a day off the vent and ended the month with 3 hours a day off the vent
• Physical milestones: cruising more with confidence, as long as I’m holding onto something even if just a finger, I’m good. I have been climbing up stairs more properly and coming down stairs safely. But I prefer it when the uprights give up on me and just swing me past all the steps. I started taking a few steps on my own from sit to stand but it usually ended up with me diving into the sofa. Loving the independence of getting to go where I want when I’m pushing the V-tech around. When I’m feeling confident and distracted enough (like bubbles being blown in my face), sometimes I will stand on my own and forget about the support I’m always looking for.
• OT/Speech highlights: Rather than throw everything out of containers or boxes, I’ve started to put things back into containers. I do tastes of water directly from a bottle. I prefer playing with food rather than eating it. I am starting to get a hang of signing observations / needs / wants. I like signing “open” / “books” a lot. My grandpa (Gung Gung) taught me to Ching-Ching by interlacing my fingers together and doing up and down movements, to show politeness and respect in greeting elders. I attempted to scribble on the magna doodle but tend to prefer using my left hand.
• Exploring the world through my mouth: I like licking all types of things including park benches, my food truck, the edges of tables and chairs. And since mommy always freaks out when I do, it makes me even more motivated to do it again next time!
• Visited Daddy’s work place and even got the chance to ride my gait trainer walker throughout the whole building with nice flat smooth walkways.
• Went to Hsi Lai Temple, one of the largest Buddhist temples in North America. Situated in Hacienda Heights, the temple’s architecture, gardens and statuary were quite the sight.
• Hopkins Wilderness Park: developed in 1977 as a center for camping, nature study and conservation. The 11-acre site includes; four ecological habitats: forest, meadows, streams, and a pond. We saw lots of turtles hanging out 🐢🐢🐢
• Patches and Pins Expo in Orange County: an array of pins, patches, art, fashion, food and live music (which I found too loud). Mommy kept darting from booth to booth and we lost her pretty quickly. Daddy kept me cool under the shade and tried to avoid the massive crowds and loud music. I got to see a life size pizza planet truck, the mystery machine and the ghostbusters car (Ectomobile, or Ecto-1)
• Beach city exploration: I cruised in my wagon checking out the Hermosa Beach coast, past the sea lab and all the way to the King Harbor Marina. We saw sting rays from the dock! The day before school started, we spent a relaxing day at Manhattan beach under the new sun shade tent I got last Christmas. I started getting use to playing with the beach water from a bucket but it was a whole different story when we neared the crashing waves. I was NOT happy when the cold water touched my feet! I’m also weirded out by the sand but eventually started playing with it.
• 8/21: First day of Early Start school at Alta Vista Elementary in Redondo Beach. It’s an early intervention program for ages 0-3 for kids with special needs, delays, disabilities. I was the only student for the first few weeks since the program is new and they were still recruiting kiddos but I was showered with tons of attention from the teacher, 3 aides, the program specialist, visitors to the classroom, and my nurse of course. I’m glad to finally have friends in class to parallel play with rather than uprights hovering over me.
• Visitors: Karen, Albert and Jasmine. Grandparents (Po Po and Gung Gung). Uncle, auntie and family from Pleasanton.
• Kicking off grandpa’s 70th birthday bash festivities! Mommy and daddy took them to 71Above in the heart of downtown Los Angeles for dinner while ditching me at home. Fun fact: 71Above is almost 1,000 feet above ground level and the highest restaurant west of the Mississippi with spectacular 360º views. Then we went to polliwog park the next day for a family picnic along with cousins getting to ride their bikes everywhere. We then ended the day at Getty Center in Santa Monica with a lovely dinner at the restaurant on site. The architecture and garden views are wow there!

After feedback from our loyal readers, the Board has approved an upgrade of 1 second everyday to 3 seconds everyday for the videos. The Pro version also includes music, an additional snippet per day, and the option to remove branding (thank goodness 🙄). The videos were a bit rushed and the essence of my amazingness fell short. But this also means that the Editor-in-Chief had to redo each snippet to trim it at the right length. If you have extra time or are super bored, the June highlights video recap has been redone with longer and extra snippets. Check it out! https://ein.cool/2019/06/30/june-2019-highlights/

We now present to you, the July recap, best viewed in landscape mode if you’re on your mobile phone:

A look back on what happened in July:

• Sprint progress: beginning of July – started at 45 mins off the vent, once a day in the morning. Moved to 1 hr -> 1 hr 15 mins -> 1 hr 30 mins -> 2 hours (by end of July)
• Figured out how to get up from sitting to standing in my crib, while holding onto the rails. I then started pulling on anything within my reach like wiring, tubes, feeding line, etc because I was bored or wanted attention 😇
• Starting taking tiny steps on my own but in a very wobbly manner where I end up scrambling/diving to hold something rather than stabilize first, then take steps. I’m working on it. So much coordination!
• Got fitted to my very own gait trainer walker, explored my environment outside of home on the driveway, at the park, at the hospital, and at the Google office.
• Point Vicente: did a mini hike to the lighthouse and interpretative center. Beautiful views of the coast in Palos Verdes.
• Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach: Weather was a bit muggy but the views were very nice. I even got the chance to get out of my stroller at the scenic points.
• Earl Burns Miller Japanese Garden in Long Beach: scenic garden featuring stone carvings, a koi pond where you can buy food to feed the fat fish, bonsai trees and a waterfall. It was hot under the sun and that made me fussy but I was okay under the shade.
• Started tasting formula or water by drinking right out of the syringe / bottle. I must put my little grubby fingers in there first to test it out beforehand!
• Getting more comfortable with water a bit more. The uprights have been making it fun with tons of distractions during bath time and water activities in the backyard in the ball pit. I like to use my hand to splash in buckets of water.
• Experienced one of those Arcade mall rides on a moving truck but was terrified by it. I just didn’t expect that noise and movement!
• Emilie and Aby came to visit! We met their friends Alice and Roy who happen to have a little boy who is a year younger than me! We also went to Santa Monica pier, Tongva Park and enjoyed pizza + hand rolls.
• South Coast Botanic Garden, Palos Verdes: former landfill transformed into a botanical garden with themed areas including a discovery garden, Palm collection, garden of senses and a Rose garden.
• A visit from Auntie Queenie and Uncle Nate: most everyone including mommy ditched me for Disneyland but I got a buzz lightyear bubble machine out of it! Thank goodness this bubble machine does not make noise, just lights.
• Arts and crafts at Redondo beach library
• Having fun throwing everything to the ground with my new hot dog ice cream food truck
• Nurse taught me how to give kisses and everyone seems to respond so I’ll keep doing it!
• Mommy’s friend, Catty, made a special visit to meet me for the very first time!
• I learned that I could start throwing balls out of my ball pit, one by one, to get attention.
• Visited lots of cool new parks. One in El Segundo had a crazy saucer looking swing that I was able to swing in with my nurse. I started enjoying going down slides with mommy. And I even cruise now on the apparatus as long as I hold onto something. It’s fun exploring the whole park now rather than being a bystander.