Long Time, No See!

Ok, so I have been MIA for a little while.  I really want to keep this going so let’s play some “catch up”.

Updates:

Kayleigh - It’s really amazing how far this little girl has come in the last couple of months.  She is now singing her alphabet (not 100% accurate, but it’s a working progress); She is requesting a lot now even without verbal prompts, which is awesome (drink, snack, she will even request kisses); her vocabulary is steadily growing; She can name and make the sound for about 20 animals; She has finally started correctly identifying body parts (eyes, nose, mouth, hair, ears, tummy, foot); She is labeling things like crazy.  As I am typing this I hear her in her room saying “eyes, nose, mouth” to which I am guessing she is identifying body parts on one of her stuffed animals, which she loves to do (all the time).  It’s really too cute to watch.  Maybe I will get a video and put it on here soon.

I would like to also note for the record, that she said “I love you” to me before bed this week.  I can’t describe how that felt.  I know both of my babies love me beyond any doubt in the world, but hearing those three little words did something to me in that moment.  Did I cry?  Do I even have to answer that one? haha

Ashton – My little guy is doing his thing.  Last night when he was done with his dinner, he said “all done” and did the sign!!!  Did I cry..omg YES, I did.  He amazes me every single day, he is a trooper for sure.  During a recent conference with Ashton’s teacher I was told that in a 30 minute session they have recorded as many as 20 random words from him.  That just blows my mind.  He is loving singing and will request for you to sing his favorite song to him by saying “winkle winkle”, which of course is Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.  He even sings along.  I catch him singing and saying things all the time but they are ALWAYS on his terms. Hehe 

I am really going to try and make an effort to keep this blogging thing up.  Not only is it nice to look back on the progress of the kids, but it’s just nice to write sometimes. 

I did notice that I have some new followers, welcome.  Hope you are enjoying it here. =)

Self-Discipline

Kayleigh has been throwing her food on the floor, when she is finished, for as long as I can remember.  She is two now and is old enough to know better.  We have been working with “all done” and setting her things to the side when she is finished.  When that fails, I have been making her clean up the mess when time permits.  These seemed to have almost put a stop to the food/dish/cup/utensil throwing (for a day or two at a time at least).  She has started again, with a new twist.  Now when she has eaten all that she wants, she will throw everything on the floor and promptly yell a variation of “KAYLEIGH”, “Kayleigh, uh oh”, or my favorite “Kayleigh, NO!”  She will then keep repeating it until I address the situation.  The first time she did it I couldn’t help but laugh.  You know you have been there, when you know the last thing you should be doing is laughing at a disciplinary situation but you can’t help it.  Well yeah, now she does it and smiles looking for her daddy or me to start laughing.  She reminds me a lot of my sister in that regard.  All she had to do was get my mom to laugh when she was in trouble and she was off the hook.  Kayleigh is taking after Aunt Shawna. ;)    

On the positive side, it seems she is finally gaining a sense of self which is one of her areas of delay.  She is loving school.  Her vocabulary is picking up like crazy.  She is addressing her brother by name, which is something new.  It’s so cute to hear her say “Ashton”.  Don’t ask her to say frog though….it totally sounds like another four letter word that begins with the letter “F”.  YIKES!

I totally should have played the lotto!!

Kayleigh’s latest “thing” is counting…well numbers in general.  I find myself feeling like an extra on the set of Sesame Street at times.  I gave birth to Count Von Count ,“One little bat..ah ah ah”.  My mom calls her the “counting queen”.  She is obsessed and I mean OBSESSED with it..Not only rote counting but just spouting random numbers all day long. 

A couple days ago Kayleigh starts muttering numbers (which has been very typical lately) “one…toooo…fwee…twenyfowe…tirtyseeiix…ninynyeeee“ WHAT?   99…really?  I need to start writing these down, she might be on to something here.  Mega Millions here I come!!

On a more serious note, yesterday morning my baby girl did something I had never seen her do.  She was flipping through one of my magazines on the couch beside me and turned to a page with an advertisement on it.  The price of the item was $24.99 in somewhat large print.  She pointed to the 2 and said…”twooooo” (awe cute, what a cute coincidence) then pointed to the 4…”fowwee” (Is it possible? No way…crazy coincidence) then was the “Nyeeee”.  Ok, this girl might really know her numbers.  I didn’t have the time to really test that, as I had to get her to school.  However, as soon as she woke up from her afternoon nap, I broke out the flash cards.  I will note that these are the same exact flash cards that I use with Ashton, the same cards that she has cried and screamed about every single time I try and use them with her.  This time she not only enjoyed our flash card session, but correctly identified every single number 1-10 in sequence first then out of sequence.  It was not a fluke; she can not only count but can correctly identify numbers 1-10.  I am so proud of my counting queen, Kayleigh Von Count.  =)



I survived...

...Winter Break AND my baby's first day.  Is there a T-shirt that comes with that? ;)

I woke up this morning (after a coffee IV) with a feeling of accomplishment.  Breaks from school, or any routine activity, are always a bit of a challenge for Ashton.  He thrives on routine and when that gets disrupted there is fun for all...and by fun I mean like the joy of sticking a hot poker in my eye, ok maybe not THAT bad.  However, after grabbing my morning cup of coffee and waking up by reading status updates on Facebook (my daily "feeling" of connecting with the adult world)...I see many mothers posting about how much they are going to miss their kids after winter break.  REALLY?  Deep down there has to be some sort of rejoicing, right?  Maybe I am just a bad person but I was happy that my little buddy was going back to school.  While he was eating breakfast all messy haired and groggy eyed, I caught a little smirk on his adorable face.  He was nothing but cooperative this morning and got so excited when it was time to get dressed.  It turns out we were both happy winter break was finally over.

Kayleigh on the other hand was rather ticked off when her beauty sleep got interrupted at 7:15am this morning.  My little princess is used to waking up on her own terms.  She was crabby and didn't want to eat, didn't want to dress...didn't want to do anything!!  However, by the time we had pulled up to the school, she had had time to wake up.  She was all bright eyed, bushy tailed (never really got that analogy..but anyway) and ready for her day when we got out of the car.  I was so proud of my little girl as she took the teacher's hand and walked with her down that long hallway, not even taking a second glance back at me.  I felt the tears building as I rushed out of the school hoping to at least make it to my car before I fell to pieces.  I did thankfully, but lost it at that point.  All the worries rushed to mind as I drove away from the school parking lot.  A special heartfelt "thank you" to the special people who were there for me today.  It really meant a lot.

The couple hours seemed to fly by and before I knew it I was back at the school picking up my little munchkin.  That little punkface walked right past me when I went to hug her as the teacher brought her out of the building.  She had a really good day according to her teacher and for that I am thankful.  So guys, I did it.  I made it through today with only a little self-pity and crying.  HA! 

***Side note..yes its 3am.  I awoke to some heavy snoring and couldn’t for the life of me, fall back asleep (I seriously think I may have some sleeping issues lol).   Off to try and sleep for the last couple possible hours.  Wish me luck!***

Oxygen please?

OK, so my little Kiwi (Kayleigh) is starting school on Monday.  Her IEP (Individualized Education Plan)meeting was completed on the last possible day before winter break.  For those that are not familiar with an IEP; basically its the written plan designed to help develop specific educational goals for a child with disabilities. It identifies the disability, describes the child’s strengths and areas of need, lists goals the child should reach in a year’s time, includes short-term instructional objectives that represent a series of skills to master or goals to accomplish and identifies programs and services.  What it really is...

Basically you start out thinking that schools and professionals will offer your child everything they possibly can to help him/her succeed.  Unfortunately, that is not the case.  Every parent of special needs children quickly finds out that they are their BEST (and sometimes only) advocate.  We know our kids the best and have to fight for the services we know are "appropriate" for our children.  Even if its not in the "budget" for the school system. 

That being said, I knew what to expect and had everything prepared for her meeting.  They did the eligibility meeting and IEP meeting together and it went with minimal conflict and pain which I was happy about.  I walked out of that meeting feeling good.  Well as good as you can.

With Ashton's birthday "party" and the holidays that followed the meeting, I have had little time to digest the fact that my BABY girl will be starting school on Monday.  Today was the first day that it has really hit me...and boy oh boy did it hit me, like a freaking MAC truck.  My little 23 pound 2 year old is starting preschool.  Did I realize that before I made the decision to go forward with the school system...of course I did.  I spent months and months going over and over it in my head.  Weighing each option, the benefits and consequences.  There have been some naysayers along the way but I am happy with the decision I have made to put Kayleigh in a preschool class.  Afterall, its a couple hours a day, a few days a week and I feel in my heart that she will progress better being around other children.  Even though I feel this is whats best it's still hard to "let go", she has been by my side since she came home from the NICU (minus a few days with grandma over the last 2 years).  Alas, I know I am going to be a freaking mess on Monday.  Hopefully it will be better than when Ashton started school, I called my mom in tears every morning for a week. 

Thanks for reading!