Happy Birthday Isla!

Check out little sister's 1st year video at ielsplace.blogspot.com

Therapy Transitions

What is M up to these days?

Play based pre school at a local public school, 3 hours a day 4 days a week
It's an inclusive classroom for 3 and 4 year olds. I love that they don't separate the ages; 3 and 4 year olds are together. Up to 1/3 or her class are kids with special needs, another third are kids that are considered "at risk" due to socioeconomic background and/or for whom English is a second language and the rest are "typically" developing with no "at risk" designation.

She has transitioned well and much more smoothly than we were expecting.
Some of her early accomplishments ... She takes off her coat, hangs it up and empties her backpack into her cubby upon arriving. She chooses activities for herself, listens intently and participates during circle time and cleans up her area after snack time.

PT (physical therapy), OT (occupational therapy) and ST (Speech Therapy) are integrated into her time at school. She qualified for 60 minutes of ST a week, 60 minutes a month for OT and 45 minutes a month for PT. Some of this will be one on one, but it's mostly conducted in small groups.

She's still seeing one of her Early Intervention (EI) therapists at Easter Seals, for an additional 45 minutes of speech therapy a week. Now that she has aged out of EI we'll need to get insurance approval for any therapies outside of the school setting and our insurance will only cover 60 therapy sessions per year. That's less than 1/5 of the therapy she had in IE. Yes, school and the therapy she gets there will help, but I'm not sure it will be enough. We'll see.

We've decided the lion share of these 60 sessions will go towards ST with some additional going toward aqua therapy, which she probably won't start until February. Water therapy will be good for her sensory system and she'll work with an OT and PT in the pool.  We'll re-evaluate things in March to see if we need to add any additional appointments.

She is delayed in speech, and large and fine motor skills but is making great strides. She'll use 3 words together to convey her wants and needs. She initiates conversations and uses words appropriately in context. Her receptive language is great so she understands most of what's said and is able to follow simple directions.

Our biggest concern with her large motor is safety. While she has the skills, for example, to navigate stairs or most playground equipment, she is easily distracted. She just took quite a tumble a couple of days ago at the park. She was watching a kid, stepped off of the equipment without paying attention and fell down several stairs as a result.

Our little M. She is such a sweet kid. She often lets her baby sister have her way without any prompting from us. The other day Isla was upset about something and M brought her a toy to comfort her. She gets really excited about going for a walk, taking papers out of her back pack, feeding Maddie (our dog), "helping" with Isla or any of the chores or housework. She loves computers, Cuties commercials, Madeline, cell phones, Pups (the first of her stuffed animals-a dog- that I've actually seen her carry around), and books. Right now her favorites are I Spy books, Madeline, My Two Hands/My Two Feet, The Feel Good Book, Cows that Type, Where is Baby's Birthday Cake, and Sisters are for Making Sandcastles.

More Holiday Pictures

A- 9 months; I -11 months; M- 3 years; O-5 years

Granny and the girls being entertained by Jewl

M was pushing O all over the place -what a workout!

Isles had her turn pushing cousin A

 a rare moment when little A was not smiling

Christmas morning - a quick bite before Santa presents ... everyone else was still asleep

later that morning, Granny brought her famous baked french toast for brunch

a treasured gift to Grandma Jo from C&J - a wooden puzzle made from one of their wedding photos



cute booty and tootsies



Christmas Eve Picts

We spent most of Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Nana Donna's place. Aunt Codie and Uncle Jeremy were there too but I'm sharing mostly kido shots.

dinner was deep fried turkey with the fixin's and this yummy sparkling holiday punch in such a lovely glass

"tiny tots with their eyes all a glow will find it hard to sleep tonight"

Isles is not a fan of my dad's method of getting all the kids to sit still at once for photos. It involves a duck voice

O's eyelashes are simply unbelievable. Little brother was sleeping, by the way, so he missed this photo-op

My Little Big Girl

Helping Dad make soup

Three! I am having a hard time believing it. THREE

M will be starting preschool on Tuesday, which will be my last day off before returning from the winter break. The university starts back Tuesday, but they will be starting without me.

I will be driving my daughter to school Tuesday, with Isla sitting beside her in the backseat for moral support while Ms. Jo, our daycare provider, sits next to me in the front for the same reason.

I'm sure all of you out there who have driven a kid to school know how this goes, but it's a new world for me. I'll have a tag hanging from my rear view mirror with M's name. I'll pull into the unloading zone from the one way street. A teacher's aid will approach my car, open the door, unbuckle my baby from her car seat, take her out, shut the door, and escort her to another aid who will then take her inside the school while in the meantime,  I am supposed to be driving away.

Wow.

She's 10% for height and 25% for weight - what a little peanut!

1- I'm pretty sure this will freak M out a bit.

2- I really hope it's just a bit.

3- I'm pretty sure this will freak me out a bit.

4- I really hope it's just a bit.

5- I know they deal with this sort of thing all the time. If she is really upset I'm sure they'll be sweet, calming and have plans in place for diverting/directing her attention once inside.

6-Maybe if it's a nice day we should just walk, then at least I can walk her up to the door, maybe even help her inside and with hanging up her coat.

7- Yes, I do realize I have a problem.

8- I really hope she doesn't scream and look at me as if to say, MOM! Help!

It will be just fine I'm sure. Transition usually isn't so bad once you are a day or so into the change.

I think play based preschool will be really good for her and you know, it's only 3 hours.

My little big girl. What a helper she is!

3 r d B i r t h d a y

Christmas Pajamas, a Treasured Book and Cozy Hats

tiny pigtails ... easier to see from the side, sorry

they each opened 1 present early

M was so excited when she saw it was a little book

She carries the little Peter Rabbit book around and takes it to bed too

Thanks Aunt S!

I love this gang!

Check out Isla's blog for her 11 month old post!