Preschool is cool - Aria MacDonald

Preschool is cool

29 Jan at 3:54 pm by Hamish MacDonald

One of the highlights of Aria’s days is having visits from the play specialists and preschool teachers. Today we had two visits, one from each department. This worked out well as this morning Aria had a bit of bleeding which meant she needed to be sitting still as much as possible.

First we had the intern for Child Life (the play specialists) come in and make playdough with Aria. This playdough was king of special as it smelled really good as it was made with Kool-Aid (kind of like raro or refresh for you kiwi’s). Aria got to mix all the ingredients together (flour, salt, oil and water) and then was offered a range of Kool-Aid flavours.  There was green, yellow, orange and purple, for those who know Aria there should be no surprise that she chose the purple grape flavour. After it was all mixed we were left with some lovely smelling and pretty looking purple playdough. She was pleased with her result and thoroughly warn out from all her mixing.

Later in the day her preschool teacher visited. The teacher had a whole range of activities that she could choose from, she chose some counting, teapot and beans. The teacher also had a story and a craft activity planned for them. For about 45 minutes (a long time in Aria’s world) she sat and worked through all the activities. They read the story of the three kittens who had lost their mittens, then traced around Aria’s and my hands the shape of mittens and painted them. The teacher gave Aria a pair of mittens to have and wear so they could play with Ice to see the difference the mittens made. They then counted the mittens, had a wee tea party (Aria stole the teachers cup of tea while she wasn’t looking and drank it all down), did the tea party dishes and then played with some beans. After each activity Aria would say “finished”.

These people make hospital life a little brighter for Aria. They add a new wrinkle to her day to keep her stimulated and keep her growing.

Oh yes, on a prayer request note, can we pray for her nunu, this is the tube that takes stuff out of her tummy. It is playing up at the moment and we are wrestling with keeping it in place and working properly. She will lose this post transplant, so God might decide to fix those two issues at once, He’s good like that sometimes.