May 31, 2011

ME+MY PERFECT PAIR:The untold brief history of me, my children and what my blog shall be.


hi. lets get right into it.
my name is queenie. i am an illustrator, a designer, a wife and a mother of two. i love to create. i love to draw. i love fashion. i love patterns. i love all things cute. i love stuff. i love kids (especially my kids no doubt). AND i love to consume. oh! i almost forgot that i love bread and tart. basically i am human. i started this blog because i want to share with people my illustrations/characters and all the goodies i find from fashion to design to food to travel and pretty much anything that makes my eyes drool. the blog is my bff where i could just go and share all my findings and i could comment about it without having to stop and wait for feedbacks. i was able to let it all out (and my mansomedude a.k.a my husband did not have to hear all about it)without comments. he didn't really want to be my human blog.

just recently i decided that i wanted to find a better theme to my blog even though if you look at my past postings you get a pretty good idea of what its all about. i guess i should really say that i want to add something else to my blog and to do so i need to give you a little intro/update. i want to talk about raising special needs children and mainly from my own experiences.

i have two kids. milo is my three year old (just turned three last week) and matilda is my almost 5 month old. milo was born with a rare congenital eye defect where he has no vision on his left eye and very limited vision on his right eye due to glaucoma and FEVR. he has had many surgeries since he was 10 days old until now due to his conditions. he has these super cute blue glasses that he has been wearing since he was three months old (he is super near sighted). under the state of California milo is considered to be legally blind. matilda was born this januray and she has microtia in her left ear and conductive hearing loss as well. both of them are more powerful on their right side than their left side. i always say to milo: its okay if you cant see it, just listen. now i will have to say this to matilda: its okay if you can hear it, just look.

with milo's vision impairment since day one (on top of being a first time mom), i learned A LOT about the whole process from the State to different programs available and of course, dealing with your health insurance to just taking care of your special needs child. its definitely a lot of information to take in when you have a baby and especially when its your first one. i was very overwhelmed when we had to go through all that as milo is our first baby and with the very unexpected findings of his vision. with matilda, my husband noticed her deformation left ear as soon as she came out. i only noticed it when my husband said something to the doctor since i didn't see her left side when she was handed to me. we both acknowledged her left ear nonchalantly and was just thrilled that she arrived. milo had us trained too well with his conditions.


milo has been enrolled in Early Start Education with our county since he was 7 weeks old and he will be graduating from them after this summer because he turned three years old. then he can transferred into the district (which is a whole other system with meetings you have to go through). matilda got accepted into the same program due to her hearing loss. i got one kid in the vision class and the other in hearing class. we are the first family that the school has seen with 2 kids with a completely nonrelated conditions. in a way, i am happy to know that matilda will get to experience the same school that milo was in because the teachers are wonderful and its such a safe and friendly environment. and i get to see the teachers for another three years.
i told my husband that we should play the lottery because the chances of having both a vision and hearing impaired kids are very very rare especially since both side of the families have no history. maybe when i do go and get a lottery ticket and win you will see me on the news with those giant fake checks (wait, do they do that or am i thinking about the publishing clearing house commercial?).

i've been through it and still am and i want to share it with you and i think i am a pretty good advocate for families with special needs kids especially with hearing and vision impaired. we had no support when we first went through it (we had families to support but to be honest, its very different since its a whole new topic) and i want to be here for those families going through it.

i am not only going to talk about my kids on this blog, i will continue to do what i am doing but i want my blog readers to know that i am here if you have any questions. and i know this is the longest post ever but really theres no short brief way to introduce. (i am fancy like that.)

xoxox
me

19 comments:

  1. I got to your blog post via Plastic and Plush's tweet, and I was riveted.

    Your two kids are so precious, and are truly lucky to have parents like you and your husband.

    I'm a translator based in Israel, and if there's anything I can do to help you - anything at all - feel free to contact me.

    Keep writing this extremely important blog. I'm sure you'll be helping many more people than you realize.

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  2. Hi Queenie!

    It's been a long time since we got in touch with each other but I do visit your blog ever now and then.

    Even though we haven't stayed in touch personally, I want to first congratulate you on your two beautiful children. They are soooo soooo adorable!

    You are doing such a great thing here, to offer your experience and support to families with special needs children. I am now working in the field of education and have worked with special needs children in my experience. They all have so much to offer and when you look at them, play with them and work with them, you see that they are bursting with life just like any other kid.

    You are a strong and courageous mother. You kids will learn so much from you.

    xoxo,
    Charis

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  3. CHARIS!!thank you thank you for your kind words. my kids are pretty AMAZINGLY AMAZING! we MUST get together. email me and lets talk details!

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  4. Queenie — Your children are so precious and gorgeous — such happy, smiling, loving kids!. Keep doing what you are doing — sharing your story because I know that there are parents out there in similar situations that may be lost and your blog may just be the right comfort for them to know that they are not alone.

    Milo's glasses, by the way, are super cool and I love Matilda's sweet smile! I also love that Matilda's birthday is in January because both my kids are January babies.

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  5. Thank you Cathe. There's this great place in Burlingame called Solo Bambini that carries the most amazing selection of glasses from infants and up. It's so great to have them in the bay area and I love how Milo has such fantastic eyewear. ( and his favorite color is blue.)

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  6. I love me some Milo.
    I love me some Matilda.
    I love me your fashion posts.

    All together? Hell YEAH!

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  7. KSD??! are you my jumpsuit-octopus-loving sexy ladyfriend? or am i just crazee. xoxo

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  8. Hi Queenie,

    Even though we have been through the similar situation, i.e. Jocelyn's hearing loss, but I am not sure I can deal with what you have been through so gracefully. You are truly amazing, not only the love you gave to Milo and Matilda, but you also share it with other people you don't know, it shows you have a BIG HEART, and I am so fortunate to have a friend like you.

    Keep doing the good work, remember, you are NOT ALONE either, you have us here to be with you whenever you need it.

    Love, Stella

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  9. Super cute kids! Amazing story.

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  10. This is great Queenie. You are a fantastic MOM. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and support. Love you much.

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  11. Love the all around cuteness! Your strength and experience helps other families. You doing the good work so just keep at it!

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  12. Queenie,
    Wow! Your kids are absolutely adorable and you are a fantastic mom. I couldn't believe it when you sent my daughter Claire the Super Juicy T-shirts and other stuff after I emailed you to tell you how much she loves her 2 Super Juicy Chickens! Claire had almost the exact same glasses as Milo when she was 18 months old. Keep up the good work. Please let me know if I can help in any way. You are awesome!!!
    Susan

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  13. thank you susan! let me know if claire or friends would like some more tees. and please say thank you for loving her superjuicychicken plush! i love that she loves it! yeah.

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  14. KSD is your jumpsuited octopus lovin' sexy ladyfriend.
    Although I would never actually call myself that publicly without your prompting. :)

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  15. my KSD! i am proud to have you as my sexy funloving jumpsuit octopus crazee ladyfriend (as long as your jumpsuit is not octopus pattern). we need to get on with our date and your date with milo to that goat farm!

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  16. Très très beaux bébés, et votre histoire est extrêmement touchante!

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  17. alexandra:je vous remercie beaucoup pour répandre le mot pour moi et pour vos aimables paroles! Je l'apprécie vraiment. S'il vous plaît signet mon blog comme un blog quotidien et conserver la propagation. bestbest.

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  18. I found your blog from Thomas Marshall Does it All. I hope you dont mind if I follow you and your adorable family via this blog!! :)
    My daughter is also legally blind. My blog is here at
    http://jennohara-theblindspot.blogspot.com She has an unofficial diagnosis of FEVR as well. She's pretty much a mystery, but she is also, my hero. Your kids are both so precious, and I'm looking forward to getting to know you better!!
    Jenn

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    1. Jenn! So sweet of you and I am very excited to hear from you and your girls are amazingly beautiful! Yeah and I can't wait to get to know each other and see your girls on your blog. Thank you for reaching out!

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