Signing Time LIVE Concert Ticket SALE ends Today!

Today is the final day of the “Friends of Signing Time” SALE – all tickets are discounted by $7.50 until midnight tonight (Mountain Time)

Visit www.smithstix.com and come sign with us Monday October 8th 7PM
Cottonwood High School Salt Lake City Utah
www.signingtimefoundation.org

If you are coming to the concert, you might be able to join us on stage!!! We need your kids for the Signing Time LIVE Family Concert!! We need to fill the barnyard at “Leah’s Farm.”
We are still looking for:

7 children who fit in 12-18 months

Please send your child’s:
SIZE:
NAME:
AGE:
along with YOUR:
NAME:
EMAIL:
PHONE:

Child(ren) and 1 adult/guardian must be available for a fitting and dress rehearsal Wednesday, October 3rd. 6:30pm at Cottonwood Highschool.

Child(ren) and 1 adult/guardian must be available for final run through on October 8th at 2pm.
If your child fits one of these sizes and is available on the following dates, please email leahsfarm@signingtime.com
If your child cannot yet walk, please plan on joining them on stage. You will need to wear jeans and we will give you a Leah’s Farm bandana!

Cue the theme song from The Jeffersons! Two Little Hands Productions just moved into a big, spacious, beautiful building. Aaron was pretty much gone all weekend, loading trucks, taking apart desks and moving everything. Crazy to think that 6 years ago we were working out of some borrowed space of a friend’s. Then we moved to my spare bedroom. When I answered the phones, I said “Two Little Hands, this is Rachel.” I was often met by a gasp on the other end of the line… “Not THE Rachel!!!!” To which I replied, “Yep, THE Rachel.” I was answering calls, shipping packages and tracking down Fedex… I also usually had a grilled cheese sandwich cooking for Lucy. Oh yeah, there was no air conditioning in the house.

Then we leased a room in an office building. I am not kidding. It was one small room with 2 employees, 2 phones a microwave and a copy machine. Soon it was 3 employees. When we were hiring our 4th, we could see that one room was not going to cut it, besides were only allotted 2 parking spaces. We bought a small building as we grew to 5 employees. Now we could have meetings on site. We had a kitchen and our own parking. That was 2 years ago. We just moved out of it since we were bursting at the seams with 14 employees!!!

On Saturday it rained. Both Leah and Lucy still had their soccer games in the rain. We left soccer and went straight to my nephew’s 1st birthday party. Alex came home from the party with us. When we arrived home, Lucy read books, A & L played video games and I showered and got ready for a TV news interview. We all piled back in the car and drove to my interview. All 3 kids were still sporting soccer gear. Aaron met us in the parking lot and he sat with the kids in the car while I was interviewed by Channel 2. When the interview was over, Aaron went back to moving and I sat in the car and laughed, how perfectly “Signing Time!” for me to drive all over town with the kids and then meet up with Aaron for 20 minutes so I can run in and have an interview! LOL!

NEWS~ Get your Signing Time Live Concert Tickets at www.smithstix.com Tickets are discounted this week through Friday for Friends of Signing Time.

CHAT NEWS~ I am unable to make it to the chat tomorrow night (9/26), Arcade Fire is in town and we are going. The following week (10/3) I have a concert rehearsal.

Yesterday was another great day, full of big milestones. Emilie and I signed off on the final “Signing Time!” episode for Season 200 AKA Series 2. This has been a major project since December of last year. After the screening, Emilie and I hugged and then we jumped up and down and screamed. The best part is, EVERYONE is still on speaking terms! LOL You have NO idea how stressful a project this big is, in terms of time, deadlines, expectations and money.

But the bigger personal news is that right before the screening, Lucy got her brand new walker! Let me back up a bit. When Lucy was 3 she said “I am going to sit up all by myself when I am 4!” I sort of smiled and thought to myself, well I guess we will see. Sure enough Lucy turned 4 and started sitting up on her own. I was stunned and I asked her (half jokingly) so, when are you going to walk? She looked me in the eyes and said, “When I am 6!”

Lucy’s walking journey began when she was 6. She had surgery last summer on both her legs to release retracted tendons and to help her legs stop crossing. Before her surgery she asked her doctor, “Will this help me walk?” He assured her it would. Yesterday, we got to Shriner’s Hospital and Lucy was all but jumping out of her wheelchair. When she is excited she “bucks” for lack of a better word. She called her cousins to see if they would come watch her. Cousins were on their way. We made all of the adjustments and put her in. She practically took off running! The word to sum it up is FREEDOM! She spent more than 3 hours in her walker yesterday and probably would have been content to sleep in it. She ran herself ragged - her body must be exhausted, but she was upright and so tall and once again she was “shining.”

Check back for videos of Lucy walking!

CHAT UPDATE:
Last week during the Signing Time Weekly Wednesday Chat, Leah and I were making Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal Cookies. The other chatters were wishing for a bite. This week you join in the chatting and cooking fun. Tonight we are making Lemon Bars. Come CHAT and COOK with us.

Now you know that you might just run into me crying in a discount department store. Big deal right? Ok, I’m not afraid. But on the other side of life’s ups and downs, I have to share what happened yesterday. I picked Lucy up from school to go straight to her occupational therapy appointment at Shriners. A little background, she has been going to Shriners weekly for years and I think she is over it! We have tapered her appointments down because the full hour of screaming was a little more than anyone could bear. I finally realized Lucy saw Shriners as torture, not therapy and torture does not produce results, since she is resisting the entire time.

Yesterday’s visit was a follow up to look at Lucy’s hands. A year ago we were looking at doing botox to mimic the potential results of a surgical release on her hands. When we met with the hand doctor a few months ago, she was stunned at Lucy’s progress. And stated that she just does not see children with cerebral palsy who show improvement on their own and yet Lucy’s hands continually improve. She was pretty stunned and was shaking her head in disbelief. I told her that Leah’s sister is deaf, so we sign all of the time and Lucy is always working on improving the clarity of her signs. Her doctor said, “That HAS to be it!” Lucy is no longer a candidate for botox or hand surgery. (Whew!)

Sign language just saved Lucy from surgery on her hands!

Yesterday her OT agreed Lucy’s hands are improving. We refitted her for splints (with no tears or complaints from Lucy) and her OT suggested a second splint with a hole cut in it to hold the pencil for Lucy! Lucy was in heaven! She no longer has to worry about hanging on to the pencil AND moving her hands. She immediately started drawing and writing letters (which has been a big issue since Kindergarten). It was SO much easier for her with the pencil splint. She kept asking, “Can I keep this? Do I get to take it home? Is this my own?” I wanted to stand up and cheer. I whispered, “Lucy you are shining!” We now have a solution to the hand writing issue that she has struggled with for years!
(Her OT also suggested a slant board for her to write on, so she doesn’t have to hunch over so far and a book holder for reading - both will help her posture.)

One of “Those” Days

It would actually be more appropriate to say it has been 2 of “those” days. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I just cruise along at a pretty good speed. Managing all of the things to be managed. Checking things off my list of things to do and people to call. Then out of nowhere “KABAM!” I am leveled! Seriously, I had a “why me” day. I had a “it’s not fair” day. I had a “can’t I get a break!” day. I had a “I have to get out of here before I break something!” day.

Just tell me we all have them. Please tell me you have them too.

So, I left because I was not handling or managing much at all. I didn’t know where to go to get out, so I drove around and found a Verizon store, they recently replaced my broken phone (it was dialing numbers without my permission) with a new one. A new one that was also broken (every other word cuts out on the speaker phone setting). I stood in line for 35 minutes and when it was finally my turn I got exactly what I was expecting. “THIS store doesn’t do repairs. You have to go to another store, but we will call ahead so you won’t have to wait.” I arrive at the new store and no one is aware of any call saying that I was coming. Again, I’m not surprised.

They were out of my phone, of course, so they are mailing one to me. I spotted a Ross Dress For Less across the parking lot and headed in. I recently lost my sunglasses and figured at the rate I lose them, I should pay an amount that makes them feel more “disposable.” I wandered through Ross, with no real idea of what I was doing or why. I walked through the toys and saw a Dora Bike. I almost sat down in the aisle and cried. It was just one of those things.. I was thinking about Lucy and how much she would love something like that, until reality kicked in… oh yeah the small fact that it would only frustrate her, since she can’t use a regular bike. SO there I was practically bawling in Ross (now I REALLY needed those sunglasses!)

I called my sister Emilie. And she said, “Ray if you’re sad… BE sad. Don’t pretend you aren’t. If you’re mad… BE mad. Stand where ever your feet are.” Well, my feet were in Ross. I walked out with a new dress, a swimsuit and 2 pairs of sunglasses.

My Future’s SO Bright…

See COMMENT #8 This is the sign for MOMster

Today is it! The last day to cast your vote for the Stand on A Better World Award. If you haven’t voted, PLEASE do!! You do not have to sign up for anything or register for anything. You don’t even have to enter your name. Just use valid email addresses and be sure to CONFIRM your vote when they email you the link to do so. One vote per email address is allowed.

If I get the most votes, Mannington will donate $10,000 to the Signing Time Foundation!! So, PLEASE take 30 seconds and vote. Ask your friends and family, co-workers and online communities to vote. Today is the final day!

I just thought I would put it out there to the universe and all who read my blog, (No, I don’t think the whole universe reads my blog:-) that it is totally 100% wonderful, PC and preferred to say someone is “deaf”. Actually 4 out of 5 deaf people prefer the term “deaf” rather than the term “hearing impaired.” (I have no poll to back that up, but seriously I have met enough deaf folks to know. If I did have a poll, it would probably be 5 out of 5.) I mean think about it, would you like to be called “impaired”? So, wonder no more my friends!

It cracks me up, in interviews I say “Leah is deaf.” and “When we found out she was deaf…” and time and time again what they print is “Leah is hearing impaired”. Most recently, one article said that “Leah was diagnosed as profoundly hearing impaired.” Another article talked about “Signing Time!” benefitting the hearing impaired and the non-hearing imparied.

“Deaf” is not a dirty word. You can quote me on that!