According to a new Christmas time tradition,
a second power meeting was held.
Emilka, Laura and Leo.
The CCHS Company.
In comparison to last year, kids have become more mobile and independent,
hence the parents’ problems with taking a shot of all three of them together with their smartphones.
Not to mention a photo of them facing the camera.


At first, the children looked at each other rather suspiciously,
however, after a while, all barriers were broken.
To cut a long story short, there was action ;-)


Apart from that, Leo bruised what he likes best…

And parents exchanged information.
On ventilators. Sucking devices. Orators. Speech pathologists.
Cardiologists. Physiotherapy techniques. Nurses. Pulse oxymeters. Massages.
Ventilation parameters (…) and so on, and so forth.

PS. The previous meeting: http://leoblog.pl/29-grudnia-2011

As a result of Sunday’s children party no child or adult was hurt.
(Apart from the fact that Mr Leo couldn’t sleep out of excitement the whole night after).


Integration!!!

Lemon tart made by Leodad (instead of a cake)

After festively entering his third year of life, Mr Leo decided to:
- never go to bed before 22.30;

- sleep in his parents’ bed;
- be assertive and clearly express his disapproval;
- fall into despair because of any, even the tiniest sign of objection to his will.
After these three days Leoparents think that anyone who looks after two-year-olds
should be eligible for a refunded relaxing sessions and therapy
to clear their heads at least two times a week.

…and went on,
and on,
and on,
and on,
non-stop for 36 hours until 16.55,
when Leo (at that time known as Muzungu) came to the world. 

He weighed 4025 grams, and was 57 centimetres long;
he had wrinkled skin and got 10 points on the Apgar scale.
And on the occasion of second anniversary of this event
Leoblog has caught up with real Leotime for a moment!!!
It found Mr Leo in panic,
getting ready to receive his Birthday guests ;)))

Happy Birthday, Mr Leo!!!!!

On 15th December 2010, that is exactly on the day pointed by the doctor,
around sic o’clock in the morning,
it began...

And went on…

The sight of a flame going out caused gales of laughter from the usually silent Leo,
so that day poor Leomom blew out a candle about a million times...
Also, St. Andrew's Eve fortune-telling took place:

With the following result:

According to the in-house expert on divination, magic,
spells ans superstition, it's a pill for restoring breath.
It surely is!

Ladies, Gentlemen,

To continue his family traditions, Mr Leo took up the technique of collage.
In reference to “Dollies” made 10 years ago (How is it even possible???!!!)
by the Hueckelserafin duo, he started to create his own,
and how well-considered and detailed compositions :)))

Leoart, No title, , 2012

Hueckelserafin, Dollies, 2002 2002

The accounts of the events are pretty chaotic.

Leoparents were far away.
Leograndmom was playing with Leo in bed.
Leo gambolled and capered about.
At one point (as always), he jumped backwards, to his back.
He started to crepitate. He lost consciousness.
He went grey-blues. He became floppy.
Leogranddad came running.
He started ventilating Leo manually (with the help of AMBU).
In the meantime, Leograndmom tried to connect Leo to the pulse oxymeter.
No sensor worked properly.
Finally, they made it.
Leograndmom called the ambulance and home ventilation programme.
Leogranddad continued with resuscitation.
Leo remained unconscious.
Leograndparents made an attempt to connect him to the ventilator.
Respirator generated too big (or too small,
it’s hard to establish that) lungs capacities.
Saturation was dropping fast.
Leogranddad went back to AMBU.
After half an hour (sic!) the ambulance and Home Ventilation came.

Leo suddenly opened his eyes.
And he returned to his own breath.
He was thoroughly examined.
Everything was fine.

As if nothing had happened.

And yet, it happened…


SHAGGY JOY
versus
MAD STUBBLE
Or a very sad story with a moral:
”You cannot trust anyone in life, not even your parents!”


And an even shorter report of the grim events:


I jeszcze krótka fotorelacja z ponurych wydarzeń:

 

Leoparents have been looking for a speech therapist for a while now;
someone who would take up the challenge of teaching Leo to speak.
Private sessions at home, without stress.
They have made hundreds of thousands phone calls, pulled all possible strings.
They asked and begged, yet all traces disappeared in the mist of ignorance,
over the wall of aversion or under a wave of impertinence:
- With tracheotomy? No! I don’t work with such children!
After a long search, by a sheer coincident,
they came across the Programme for Early Development Support.
And it turned out that Leo, because of his disability,
is eligible for sessions with specialists.
Two times a week! For free!
Leoparents went to Psychology and Pedagogy Help Centre,
where they were guided through all the procedures by a super nice lady,
and Leo was qualified for the programme.
However, this is where difficulties arouse,
as we couldn’t find a centre that would agree to accept Leo under care.
It started to be unpleasant without a reason again:
- No. I will not put your son on the list. We have too many children. There are no intakes!!

- And when will there be any places?
- There are none. The intake has been suspended.

- Forever?
- Maybe there will be some places next year.
But don’t think we will take yourandomly, just like that, out of nowhere. You will have to wait.

- How long?

- I don’t know how long. Year and a half. Two years.
I don’t know. You should have come with your child earlier.
And so on, and so forth…
Finally, we made it.
Leoparents found a facility.

Unfortunately it is packed to capacity, so instead of two times a week,
Leo will get only one speech therapy session a week, but it’s not that bad for a start.

Some questions arise, however:

Why during dozens of doctor’s appointments nobody has told Leoparents about the programme?
Why isnn’t this kind of information automatically
given to the parents of children who are sick?
Why do we have to take care of (almost) everything completely alone?

Soon, Leo will turn two.

He missed around 170 hours of these sessions that could have helped him
in a very important period of his development.
But they didn’t.
Because we should have come earlier.


 Walter Schmögner, Tyrannentreppe 2011 

However, big thanks should go to these people:
– Mrs M.W. from Tricity, who made time for Leo during summer holidays and saw him a few times!
– Mrs G. from the Psychology and pedagogy Help Centre in Ochota,
whose involvement and conscientiousness are beyond compare!!!

– Ladies A.&A. From the Cetre of Early Development Support, who will be seeing Leo!!!
Thank you!!!!
P.S. Leofamily is still looking for a speech therapist. Has anyone heard something?
Does anyone know?

On the Day of the Dead, Leo went to the cemetery.

He watched colourful candles with curiosity.

During his less than two years of life,
he witnessed deaths of many children…