Tsunami warnings

dear Helene,

Today when we were leaving Wellington to go to Waiheke on the airplane, there was a tsunami warning. Janet's daughter was texting her to put the cats in a bag and drive out of town. But she didn't do that. She drove us to the airport instead. The Tsunami didn't come to Wellington and so we flew to Auckland. It didn't come there either.

Then we rented a car and got on the boat and came to Waiheke for my holidays. It is very nice here even though it is raining. There is a new floor in the bathroom because the old floor fell down. It had soaked up too much water each year.

I hope you are well.

lots of love

Rose Helene

School holidays

dear U. Simon,

It is school holidays here at my place. Today I went downtown and had sushi. There were 8 pieces with salmon and avocado. I squirted soy sauce over them from a little bottle. Mummy stole the ginger.

Then we went to Gloria Jeans and had coffee. An afternoon nap at home and some music with XinXin and then Carolyn, it was out to Bill and Janets for dinner with Lamb crusted ribs and champagne. Quite a nice day actually.

lots of love

Rose Helene XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Carli's cut

dear Jamie,

Look at my lovely haircut. It is so cool. Carli cut it. She cuts mummy's hair and she cut my aunty Jenny's hair and now she has cut my hair.

I got to have my hair washed and conditioned in the big basin. I had to lean backwards and be held up as I was a little small. Then she cut it and I was given a spray bottle to keep wetting my face throughout.

Then she used the hairdryer but I had to stop squirting the water at that stage.

It was so much fun.

lots of love

Rosie XXXXXXX

School Report

dear Kelly,

It is the end of term. There was a meeting to review how I am doing. Here is the report

" Rosie has made signficant progress in her ability to concentrate on tasks, follow instructions, understand language and with her co-ordination.
Rosie has learned to sign 'please' appropriately however she tends to use this sign to request all deisred objects and has reduced her use of the 'more' and 'me' signs (well- why bother if just one sign well do? ).

We are now encouraging her to use two signs together, for example 'more please'. Rosie is now beginning to put two words together e.g. 'bubbles please'. She continues to sign 'toilet appropriately. She is developing consonant and vowel structures and can consistantly say 'ta' for guitar. Rosie is starting to imitate more which should help her develop her communication skills.

She continues to be able to activate her communication aid but requires assistance to use it in a functional way. Rosie continues to use Picture Exhange Communication System (PECS) and is working on discriminating between the pictures (level III).

Rosie has improved a lot in her spatial awareness and her co-ordination skills. She is very capable when climbing up and down a variety of different height steps. Rosie has recently started to learn how to jump on the trampoline and is becoming more confident with this skill. Rosie has plenty of time on the bike and is able to pedal 10 metres independently. Her next step is to gain an awareness of steering and control.

We continue to work on Rosie's toileting programme. She often has success on the toilet and particularly enjoys using toilets out in the community Rosie is able to pull up her underwear independently (Hey you, mummy, typing this, how embarrassing is this..).

Rosie can concentrate on tasks for longer periods of time which has had a postiive influence on her learning. Although her politeness and ability to wait have improved this continues to be an area that she needs to develop. "

lots of love

Rosie XXXXXXXXXXXxxx

Wellington Hospital

dear Grandma and Grandad,

The hospital has tiles on the walls. They are all of cool nursery rhymes- so I got lots of pictures taken

when I was there the other day.

love

Rosie XXXXXXXXXXX

Happy Future Birthday Yasmine

dear Yasmine,

It is your birthday in two days. I saw it on the facebook. That is a good way to let us know. You will have to come round and see Vespa and me.

This is a photo of my eye and inside it you can see the person taking the photo, which is mummy.

Heaps has been happening. Daddy has been gone for 2.5 months and now he is in Uganda and yesterday he saw the beginning of the nile and he went in a traditional boat. He also saw lots of birds.

lots of love and a big happy birthday,

Rosie XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

dear Jodie, police woman,

Thankyou for taking me to school in your police car. I didn't realise how bad I felt after all that blood was taken from me. It was 8 test tubes full in two hours.

And I just felt sleepy. That is why I lay down on the back of Vespa when mummy was driving. So it was good you saw me sleeping and thought I would like the trip in the car better.

They really liked seeing you in my class room as well. And that is good if you can now send some 'hunky' policemen in a marked car for us all to play with.

love

Rose Helene

Morning at the Hospital

dear Jenny,

It was very nice you came to see me. This morning I went to the hospital when I woke up. See the bandage on my arm. The nurse took blood out of my arm 8 times and now it is having tests for hormones. It took 2 hours and I was very tired afterwards.

I had to stay in the trolley. This is me at the Fuel cafe buying my breakfast.

love

Rosie XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Very very late belated birthday to Grandad

dear Grandad,

I am not always good at remembering birthdays. In fact there is a lot I don't remember but that might be also why I am so happy.

Aunty Jenny is going home tomorrow. Tonight we went to the Mediterranean Warehouse. It sells italian food and we had pizza there. It was yummy but it doesn't have the crisp base that we have at home where we make it with their dough but on a pizza stone in the oven.

love

Rose Helene

Vespa and I

dear Glenda

That is so cool you have your motorbike license. When Vespa comes to Waiheke in Summer we can all have fun together. Yesterday was fine and we rode down to Island bay and back.

I am safely attached with a belt to the driver and I can lean over and peer out around her to see the traffic and the road. Don't want to not be able to see all that is going on.

Vespa and I dropped in on Bill and Janet and said hello to his parents and had a ginger kiss. Caitlin was there and she got to sit with me on Vespa for a while.

love

Rosie po XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxx

p.s. this is me and matt in helmets