Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas at home despite the fact that we had a household of sickies with colds.  We chose to hide the presents in our downstairs bathroom until both kids woke up which turned out to be a good idea because Mark caught Isaiah snooping around downstairs at 4 a.m.!  Isaiah overall did well with the chaos of presents but did get overwhelmed late morning and stated falling apart.  Luckily some quiet time by himself with his ipad helped calm him down.   We focused this year on games, books, and art supplies for the kids instead of toys. 

I got Mark a small batch home beer brewing kit (thank you Chuckie for steering me in the direction of Austin Home Brewing!)   He loves it.

Later on that evening we traveled to Mark's restaurant to cook "christmas dinner" which just consisted of a few snacks and fries for the kids.  It was an amazing experience for Isaiah to be able to run around and explore a restaurant.  It was neat for the boys to watch daddy use a fryer to make fries and to let them watch Daddy batter calamari.  They both enjoyed jiggling the fry baskets and say "shake shake shake!"

Overall a great day.  We are so blessed to have the little boys in our lives.  We kept on saying yesterday how much better Christmas is when you have kids of your own!   We were blessed to have celebrated Christmas with Paw Paw and Nana Bartley earlier in the month, and we will (hopefully) celebrate with Gum (Grandma Girmann) and a few of her kiddos next week.  We also look forward to seeing the Estridges in a few weeks!

Must it end!?!?!

This time of year brings bitter sweet feelings.  On one hand I'm preparing for the excitement of preschool and on the other hand I'm sad that we are down to our last few months of Early Intervention.  I am so appreciative of the professionals that we have had in our lives to help us out with Isaiah and his special needs and a lot of time I feel undeserving of the help.   I feel like the past (almost) year has brought forth so many emotions, and in fact I know it has.  There are times that I have seen facebook posts of moms with "normally" developing children and honestly there are times that I feel like shaking those moms and saying "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW EASY YOU HAVE IT!!!"  You have no idea what it's like to have a three year old who can't say "Mama" that's all I selfishly want!!!  But I know where we were, I know where we are now, and I can say that I thank God every day for the professionals in my life and for Isaiah because God knows that it has made me a better mom.  I know that there will always be people out there with children with even more needs than mine and with God forbid a terminal illness. 

I know that there will be people who criticize me for any of this during the past year, might feel like I'm too opinionated, or like I'm putting my child in too much of a "structured" setting  but frankly I don't care.  ;)  Yep...I said it.  Maybe it's just been too long since I've had a good day with the kids but hey....it's been a good day.  For once I feel like my meetings with our professionals have paid off and I'm not in tears at the end of the day .... every day.  For once I feel like my almost three year old had a really good and happy day.

Parenting is really the hardest job in the world but it's the best job.  I love my children and I wouldn't trade any of it.   I have a bond with them that is indescribable and I thank God every day that he deemed me worthy of being the mother to our boys. 

Tantrums, Talking, and other things

I can't believe it's been almost two months since I've written a blog so hopefully I can figure out a short synopsis of what is going on with us.  I'd really like to take a few minutes to talk about Noah since so much of my blog journaling is regarding Isaiah.   Well my favorite youngest son turns a year old in 7 days.  Much to my surprise he started walking at 10 months!  VERY early especially for a boy.  I had always suspected that he would be a mover from early on and he has lived up to my expectations.  At almost 12 months he is running! 

We reached another milestone last week....Noah's first, second, and third REAL temper tantrum.  I know that most of you are thinking...isn't he too young for this?!?!?   I thought the same thing.  But last Tuesday he got into our Developmental Therapist's bag of toys, grabbed a fishing game, and brought it over to me.  He said "Mama" and showed the game to me.  Unfortunately it was the end of Isaiah's session and Miss Kathy was ready to leave.   I told Noah "No we can't play with the fishes right now Miss Kathy has to leave."  Immediately Noah proceeded to run in place while screaming and pointing to the fishy game.  I was kind of caught off guard because this was his first temper tantrum EVER.   I looked at Kathy who was trying not to laugh (trying not to laugh myself) and calmly said "No no Noah.....we don't scream....I know you want to play with the fishes but it's time for the toys to go bye bye."  Since then he has shown Daddy his tantrum skills, and Daddy couldn't believe it.

I have always been on higher alert with Noah developmentally in attempts to catch any speech or developmental delays as early as possible.  I'm happy to report that my hard work with Noah seems to be paying off.  He has at least 4 or 5 words now.  He says Mama, Dada, ball, dog, and says "da" when I ask him if he is all done eating.  I have also started signing and trying to teach him some sign language.  He is starting to sign "all done" when he is done eating. 

I was talking with a family coordinator for Early Intervention (the program Isaiah is in) and she was pointing out how much knowledge parents gain from having a child in the program.  I couldn't agree more and I feel so blessed to have received the education that I have!

Motor Planning/Apraxia

A lot of people tend to ask me what is "wrong" with Isaiah.  Below I have attached several links.  The first link is regarding Apraxia which is linked to Isaiah's speech delay.  Apraxia or motor planning is genetic.  I feel bad because sometimes Mark says "It's my fault...it's in my genes."  That's just silly of him to feel that way and I tell him that all the time.  While it's genetic....the severity of Apraxia or motor planning varies.  The second link is regarding Sensory Processing Disorder.  This is a very confusing and very wide spectrum issue.  Isaiah only fits into a small part of this and has some high functioning and low functioning attributes of SPD.  In the long run I don't look at any of these as a label for Isaiah...that's not what I set out to do.  I look at Isaiah as himself...my favorite 2 1/2 year old.  And I'm blessed that I know how to help him manage his day.  And I'm pretty sure he knows how to manage mine!

I should note that Apraxia and motor planning are something that he will grow out of....he will talk it will just be a slow process.  And the sensory nervous system keeps maturing until the age of 12 so the fact that we are giving him the tools that he needs now will only bode positive tools and results in the future!
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/voice/pages/apraxia.aspx
http://www.sinetwork.org/about-sensory-processing-disorder.html

6 Month Review

Today we had Isaiah's six month review marking six months since he was first evaluated for the Early Intervention program here in Illinois.  The meeting was great.  I felt so much love in our tiny living room.  Isaiah's coordinator, our social worker/behavior expert, our Speech Therapist, and our Occupational Therapist were all present for our meeting (our Developmental Therapist was on vacation).  I looked around the room several times and I remember thinking to myself that I almost don't feel worthy of the amazing team of experts that are all focused on Isaiah succeeding.  Each therapist talked a bit about Isaiah and it was nothing new ..... Isaiah's speech therapist talked about Isaiah's motor planning and Apraxia and how it would be a slooooooow progress with him with talking.  What really got me in tears was Isaiah's Occupational Therapist.  She is an amazing woman with years of experience and she talked about how well behaved Isaiah is and how he wants to please adults.  She talked about how far he had come and then spent a few minutes telling me what a good Mom I was to him and how I have "figured out" how to best help him with his day to day activities.  Both she and our social worker praised my efforts to follow through on everything all of his therapists have told me to do.  Also for instance...I have figured out Isaiah's sensory issues and how to best help him deal with them.  For instance Isaiah is an EXTREMELY picky eater BUT he craves movement activities.  So before dinner I take him to the park, or to an indoor bounce house...etc.   Or we will sing songs while he jumps on Mark and mine's bed.  I guess most parents in the program don't get that part of it.  I don't really know why....I only want my little man to succeed.  But it helps him to focus.  I'm getting off track.  Shelly (Isaiah's OT) spoke about how much effort I've put into helping Isaiah out with his sensory issues as well as how good of a boy Isaiah is.  She spoke about how Isaiah always hold the door for her when she comes for her sessions, how he knows it's time to work when she arrives, and how he is willing to learn.  We talked about his frustrations when it comes to his lack of language/sensory issues..etc.  I had to tell myself not to cry several times during the meeting because it's an indescribable feeling having such qualified people recognize your efforts as a mom and to care so much for your son.   It was good for Mark to be able to sit in on this meeting with minimal interruptions from work to see what amazing people we have working with us (he is usually working during Isaiah's therapy sessions), and I think it really solidified his realization of what an amazing program Isaiah is in.  In the mean time I still to this day cannot comprehend why God chose me to be Isaiah's Mom.  I feel so undeserving of such an amazing little boy.

11 Months Down...Even More to Go?

Well today marks eleven months in Chicago.  Next month marks one year in Chicago for those of you who couldn't do to math.   Anyway Chicago is in the running to be the city that Mark and I have lived in the longest.  We will either be moving at the end of August or the end of September into hopefully a larger rental house.  Although I've become quite fond of our neighbors in our current neighborhood and will be sad to leave them...especially the kindergarten aged boy who lives across the street and now comes over daily to ask if Isaiah can come outside to play. 

This whole preschool thing has been a huge deciding factor on which suburbs we are considering.  I really can't believe that Isaiah starts preschool in 6 months.  The school district that we are currently considering has an amazing preschool campus with awesome speech assistance for Isaiah as well as having OT's on their staff as well.  The school offers busing as well for the preschoolers, to which my immediate thought was 'Are you crazy?!?'  I'm not going to put my three year old on a bus wondering where Mommy is and where he is going.  No matter where we live I'm planning on driving him to and from school.  It looks like he will have school Monday-Thursday and every other Friday for 2 1/2 hours.  I'm not sure if I'm ready for this.  I do have to give lots of credit for the poor lady whoever she is who answered the phone today and sat through my millions of questions regarding curriculum and speech services offered etc.  Anyway I can't believe that I'm about to be a parent of a preschooler soon. 

In other news Noah who turns 10 months old (really 10 months!?!?!?!?!!) tomorrow is trying so hard to walk!  He will take a step or two and then fall down.  It won't be long!  I will be excited when this biting stage goes away.  I've never had a "biter" before and I don't much care for it!  My Mom cracked me up when she said that Noah needed to come with a warning label.  She was right...it should read CAUTION...will bite, scratch, claw, or pull hair without warning....interact with caution.  All kidding aside these boys are the biggest blessing in our lives and I can't imagine our lives without them.   Children really do bind a family and even though parenting is the hardest job in the world it truly is the BEST JOB in the world.

Ready...Set...Preschool!

So I thought I had about a year before I needed to think about preschool for Isaiah.  With his lack of language creating in the potty training department we don't plan on trying until Isaiah is three, and you have to be potty trained to go to preschool.  This is true for private preschools but not for the local school systems.  It's actually quite interesting how Isaiah's transition from Early Intervention into preschool will be.  In two weeks we have Isaiah's six month evaluation.  It's kind of a check in since it has been six months since he has been initially evaluated to qualify for the program.  We will discuss what they call "transition" at this time.  It turns out that in December or beginning of January Isaiah will be evaluated by the school district in order to qualify him for a certain amount of "speech minutes" each week in the preschool program.  Here is where it gets tricky.  Different school systems are better than others (this is obvious not matter what grade your child is in) and each school district will qualify Isaiah for a different set of minutes each week.  Isaiah's speech therapist is going to push for Isaiah to receive 120 minutes a week of speech assistance however that doesn't guarantee us anything.  With all the budget cuts in the schools there are some schools that are only offering as little as 30 minutes a week!  Yikes!  Fortunately we are renting and we can seek out the better school districts and move to that suburb so that Isaiah can receive services (of course better schools are in the three most expensive suburbs in south Chicago more property taxes!).  So I'm starting to feel the crunch!  We move to a new rental house in two months, three months later Isaiah gets evaluated by the schools, and two months after that we start preschool!  It is nice that EI helps with the transition into preschool and our social worker says she will help me find summer speech programs for Isaiah for when he is done with his first year of preschool.  This is all the plan of action if we stay in Chicago.  Who knows with Mark's work!  In the meantime we feel blessed to have such a wonderful support system for our favorite two year old!