I can't seem to find the time to blog these days. Life finds a way of getting more and more chaotic. We are in high gear with therapy. We are at a max of nine a week but there is usually a hiccup and we we end up at 8. However, we also usually have some other appointment taking the place. Two days a week I have been driving downtown for therapy twice in one day. A day in our life right now looks like this:
5am (ish) Everett's wake-up call - I rock him until I barely have enough time to shower and get everyone out of the house by 7, 7:30 or 8 depending which day it is. Shoveling in breakfast, dressing, and the rest of the works. If I have to bust out early which is most every day, Andre takes Clara to school. We get to therapy, work hard and make the best of it, some days two sessions in a row. Home in time to shovel some food into my little mans gullet and down for a nap, or more therapy, Wednesdays are crazy with sessions pretty much all day. Let's just say Everett is a really hard worker. Monday, he just started speech class which is after speech therapy and it lasts an hour and a half and we bust our butts home so I can hand him over to Abbey in the driveway and get to work ten minutes late. Tuesday nights Clara has violin and Everett and I play in the playroom with some friends. Tuesday - Thursday we have therapy/violin so Monday night we enjoy coming home and NOT rushing out the door. I have no idea what next year is going to bring, other than more chaos, so I try not to think about that yet.
Everett is always making gains. He is in a really fun frustrated two year old stage where he doesn't want help but gets TICKED if he can't do something and typically throws it or squeezes a limb of whoever is close to him, other than strangers, usually Clara or myself. It's so strange to see him get so upset but his therapists keep reminding me that it's "developmentally appropriate" so I guess I should just be glad. He can hold one of my hands right now and walk, fairly stable. He is pushing furniture all around and scaling the walls trying to get from A to B. He wants to be up, I think he could walk, but he's just not ready and I am continuing to dig deep and try and find more patience. We are both ready to get him off my hip. He is being quite stubborn with talking, he can get most sounds now and is making two letter blends. He will surprise us sometimes and bust out with words like cat, but it's not often. Motor planning is definitely hard for him. When I expand words one sound at a time he can get most, "o" and "oooooh" he has yet to get which will help with lots of words He is signing more now and "hurt" is one of them. He is stringing two words together with hurt and can almost tell us he hurt a part of his body but the first time he hurt himself and got it, it was his head and he wants to sign head every time something hurts instead of the actual location of injury. I went to his first of 4 "transition" meetings that gets us ready for school. I basically stated my intentions for him since not everyone goes to school at three, but that's the only way we continue to get services through the state. I also think it's the best choice for him, although I'm petrified about it. He will get services in school but it'll be small group and I see it regularly, it's not the level of therapy he needs. So, we'll take what we get but he'll also be needing therapy outside of school, somehow. Those are going to be long days for him so I'm not sure how that's going to go, time will tell, trying to keep the cart behind the horse the best I can. The next meeting is March 7th which is his assessment, two hour long assessment. :/ It's also 6 months before he goes to school soooooooo, not sure if that'll benefit or hinder things. I guess we'll find out. I'm trying not to stress about what he might not be able to do and focus on how much he can do and just how far we have come. The next two meetings will be about his IEP for school which is a legal document that tells what his teachers will need to do to meet his needs. I want him to have an aid, that's pretty hard to come by, time will tell. He stops getting service through the state funded Early Steps that started when we left the NICU the day before his third birthday. That's three sessions a week currently, in the home. His interventionist, Justine has been with us since he was three years old. She comes twice a week and I let her know what we're working on and she spends an hour working with him. We also started speech in the home about three months ago and so we'll lose the hour we spend with her. Her name is Danielle, she is cute and pregnant. I'm so sad to lose the help and the connections we have made. Justine has seen it all. She has seen both homes, good days and bad, each terrible babysitter before we found Abbey...it's going to be a rough transition. That's why I'm fine with being so full with therapy sessions because soon it'll be slowing down. We're going to cut back with PT in April to give him a break because he's going to start a therasuit program which is intensive PT and OT in June. That'll last three or four weeks. It'll also take over for our current PT and OT sessions. It's 4 hours a day. One of our therapists said most kids cry through it, so I'm not sure I'm going to be able to follow through with it, again, cart and horse.
Clara started gymnastics this Saturday. She was super excited about it and did so great. Girls bigger and older than her, she must have just made the 4.5 year old cut off. It's the first time she's been the smallest or smaller one and I love watching her excitement. She runs right into class, knowing no one, no hesitation. It makes me so proud how independent she is, she gets super excited and already asked to go back tomorrow. As stated earlier, she is also in violin. She likes seeing Juliet's (another little friend her age in class) little baby brother Lio more than her lesson but she gets excited to go. Mrs. Matz is probably in her late seventies, and gives lessons for free. She is very proper and professional, the little girls adore her. They have been doing lessons with another older student but will go back with Mrs. Matz again before the recital, not sure when all of that is, but it's all super cute and she is learning a thing or two. I don't think she'll be playing a tune anytime soon but the routine and discipline of it all is great. We also get a mini play date with Juliet after which she also loves. Clara's class in my school, the PK3 class is pretty much a disaster. They have two really big behavior issues, they have to many kids and have yet to hire another assistant. Four of the kids are in diapers now that two three year old twins just joined the class. The kids are babies and Clara and another little girl Sadie are the older ones. She loves her teacher but she is pregnant and has been out a LOT. I feel terrible she has so many personal things going on but it's pretty much a waste of our money and Clara's time. She brings bad behaviors home, although she behaves perfectly all day. The school has been FLOODED with the flu which is what her teacher now has and should be back Monday. I took Clara one day last week and there was no teacher at all, so I stayed for thirty minutes and ran the class until they figured it all out. Thank goodness I was the one that took her that day so the parents could go and I could easily get in touch with admin to make it smooth as possible. I'm so dissatisfied she's not in a place that challenges her and enriches her. I really want both of them there next year, even though Ms. Wright will be on maternity leave for Everett's first three months. I trust everyone in school, I know what's going on, everyone looks out for my kids, and I'm hoping in the pre K class next year she is learning more. However, all the same kids will be going so the behavior issues will follow right with her. :/ I lose sleep over this, it's what's bothering me most in my life right now. I don't know if I should start searching for a new place. Selfishly, I want her with me. There could be these things going on in another school and if we dropped her and picked her up I'd never even know about it. The Montessori school we saw is killing me, it was the perfect setting but ten thousand dollars a year too much. I'm constantly debating. Although she's not excited to go to school she admits she likes it and loves her teacher, when she's there...I keep waiting for a more obvious direction to slap me in the face. Next year she and Everett would be at recess together if they were at my school.
Other than all of that, the fight to stay healthy and avoid this flu is our main goal. I've had 8 kids in my class with the flu, 2 with bronchitis, and 2 with strep. Clara's class has spread it and it's in every classroom. Abbey our sitter's mom and brother had it and she was coming into our home each day, I haven't the foggiest how we have avoided and feel it's only a matter of time. Hoping for a miracle and steering clear.
Pics of the cuties and gymnastics soon. I hope all my friends/family who take the time to read my jabber are healthy and well. :)
