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 |  Being a stay at home mom is never as cut and dry as you think it is. |
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Originally my pregnancy blog, now continuing on as the life of a mom and her two wacky kiddos thing till I don't want to write in it anymore  . So come on in and see what's going on in my world for a bit if you like...Be careful where you step, as the kids have all their Pokemon cards out! Feel free to hug a Hello Kitty plush! Come join in the fun, Super Mario Bros. and Hello Kitty style!![Merit Badge in Parenting
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Congratulations on your pregnancy*^*Smile*^*. You already are a wonderful mom to your son and I know this baby will be very blessed also
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In the midst of how you are feeling right now, know that it can be fixed & I'm proud of you for writing the poem that reflects how you feel. The love of your children clearly shines through. *^*Heart*^*](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/genre-Family-584.gif) ![Merit Badge in Journaling
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I'm so glad to be back blogging and reading yours. The kids have grown so much! I'm so glad that you, myself and T are still here journaling together!](https://images.Writing.Com/imgs/writing.com/writers/badges/type-Journaling-2180.gif) the wonderful badges my "Sister", silversara, graced me with. Thanks Sis, I  you! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Thanks to all of you for your support, your comments, your love, your generosity and your time! Never met a greater bunch of people then on here! Besides, who else would want to listen to a rambling crazy mom, both during and especially after pregnancy?
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| Thanks to the magic of Hello Kitty Phonics books, I'm able to teach Journey how to read. Well, I could teach her how to read with any old book really, but these ones are particularly good to start with, because they use repeating words, as well as repeating phonetic sounds. The books focus on the short e sound, or the sh sound, or the ch sound, the long a sound, etc. There are 12 books in all, and they are fantastic. We've read these stories so often to Journey, that she has them mostly memorized now. When the time comes to read her a bed time story, she picks a Hello Kitty book and asks if she can read it to us. Right now, she doesn't connect that the words she's saying are also the words on the page, but we will get there. When she's more aware (which I'm planning to teach her to be aware this summer), she'll be able to look at each word on the page and realize she already knows that word. Then it's onto recognizing all those same words in different books. This is how I taught her to read her first word: cat. First, I sounded it out for her. "C says kuh. A says ah. T says tuh. Kuh-ah-tuh Cat." Then, I had her recognize the word on each page. "Where is the word 'cat' on the page Journey?". I'd help to guide her by always sounding out the first letter. "Kuh...look for kuh". She'd point to C, and then we'd sound out the word again. Finally, she recognized the word cat. It clicked and saved with her when she was able to type it on the keyboard. Writing, or typing in this case, reinforces the word she already knows, so now, she can write it, and read it. She is able to find the word "cat" in any variety of print. Slowly but surely, I'm working with her to recognize each word. Right now, I'm working with her on phonemic awareness. Each letter makes a sound; this she knows. Which sound goes with which letter, however, is something she needs a little more practice on. We have an awesome magnet set from Leap Frog that sings all the letter sounds that each letter makes, only problem is that the letter magnets are holding up a lot of papers and things on my fridge, so I'd need to clean the fridge off really well in order for her to play with it correctly and get the most out of it. I can also sing her the song that the toy sings, in which to get her used to each sound. This is what I'm planning on doing. Right now, I'd say she knows about 80% of the letter sounds. She still doesn't know that the vowels can each say their own name at this point, or that Y can make a vowel say it's name. Double e, double o, all of that she's unaware of as well. Just as well, we'll worry about those letter pairings a little closer to Kindergarten, where she's supposed to be learning these things from. I just want to get her a few steps ahead of the program so they don't need to work with her much, you know? So yesterday, she realized for the first time that she could read and write a sentence. "A cat can hop.". She typed this out to a friend of mine, who was quite impressed. When we asked Journey today about the cat that can hop, she giggled and said cats don't hop. "What does hop?" Don queried. "A frog!" Journey replied. "Well, how do you spell 'frog'?" So together we sounded it out. "Fuh" "F!" she cried. "Ruh" "R!" she rang out. "Ouh" "O?" she questioned timidly. I nodded my head. "Guh" "G!" she called. "F-R-O-G! FROG!". So now, if we can get her to write the word "frog", it will stick with her better. Then she can write her proper sentence "A frog can hop.". I'm so excited to work with her on this, that I attempt to work with her during her nightly bedtime stories. She'll be "reading" the story to me, and before we turn the page, I'll ask her to find me a word. It's usually one of the highlighted words for the phonetic sound of that particular book. She will usually find it after a try, especially if that word starts with a phonetic sound that she knows quite well. I usually ask her to find me three to four letter words. I never ask for the same word twice. I want her to be able to find new words in each book and learn them. And as with reading will come writing. I'll let her type the words to have a better sense of being able to read and spell the word, but I do need to help her work on her penmanship as well. One of her biggest skills that she will need the most will be her ability to write. She will need to do this EVERY DAY. And more than just her name, she'll have to write out EVERYTHING. I've bought her a writing pad that has risen lines on the top and bottom so she'll know where to start and stop when forming the letters. I'll be working with her every day on each letter. I know that I'm going to need to buy more than one letter pad, as one pad only holds 40 pages, and she'll need more than that if she's going to practice every day. I just hope she doesn't get frustrated with me on having to practice it. However, she does practice with her Special Ed teacher most days, so I figure if she can get away with it, hopefully so can I. I just want her to be able to write more than her name when she gets into that classroom. This I'll practice with her after she gets out of school. Other than that, not much else going on. Got word of Journey's last field trip from school, which will be going to pick strawberries from the same farm that she went to pick a pumpkin from in October. I'll be a chaperone, so I'll be riding the bus with her. I'll be taking pictures of that and posting them to Facebook.  |
| Just some pondering thoughts on this rainy day. As I said before, Journey probably won't be getting Extended School Year services. My biggest concern is how I can help her stay on track during the summer vacation. I hope that they give me some materials to work with her with, or lead me in the right direction of materials that I can provide for her to keep her on track. I don't want her to forget what she learned during her time in Pre-K during the summer and have to pick it all up again during the first few weeks of Special Ed in Kindergarten. The most I can do for her is work with her academically if they don't supply me with materials. I'm going to try to teach her how to read, and work with her penmanship. I'm not sure she can write other letters than what's in her name, though the day report says that she's been working with her Special Ed teacher on her handwriting. I bought her the same primary journal that she'll be using in Kindergarten for home for summer, so she can learn to write on the pages. I think I should work with her every day, just to keep her on track. I'll probably switch off and on each day, one day learning to read, the next day learning to write. I want her at least caught up with the rest of the kids in her Kindergarten class. The least I can do for her this summer is to get her ready academically, even if I can't continue on the teachings that the Special Ed department has done for her. We discussed with the Special Ed team what kind of classroom atmosphere we want to put her in. I'm going to put in a letter request to the principal as well. We need a classroom that's going to feature some familiar faces from Pre-K so she won't be scared or alone, a class with easy transitions so she can handle moving from one task to the next with little complication, and an active class, that takes song and dance breaks throughout the day, to keep her engaged in the class. Each class is going to focus on certain academic skills, which I'm aware of, so that's the least amount of worry to me. The grades work together as a team to keep each classroom focused on the same academic goals, so that won't matter in the placing honestly. But I do hope they can meet those three criteria that I'm looking for, so it will give her a greater chance to succeed in class. Our school is participating in a new school supplies ordering kit, and I'm half tempted to do it, just because it's so convenient. But the other part of me doesn't want to do it because I get so excited around July when they start putting school supplies on sale, that I just can't help but start shopping. I think it's because of all the pictures of the new, shiny school supplies on the cover of the order form that it has me excited. I'm sure when the beginning of August comes and the school supply lists are out and they start putting stuff on sale, I'll be just as excited and start buying stuff up immediately. I'm very strange that way, I love school supply shopping. Speaking of school... I've been thinking about going back and making up for one of the classes that I let fall by the wayside. It's going to cost me out of pocket to take, and I have the money saved up for it, but I'm not sure I can pull through and finish like I need to. Don told me "You have to understand that this is OUR money that you're spending, so you NEED to finish this class, and pass it, otherwise it's a waste of money". I understand that completely, but I'm deathly afraid that I can't do it. I've never finished a college class before, in the two times in my life that I've attempted to. Now would be the best time to actually finish for the first time ever, and I feel like if I can just get that one class under my belt to prove that I CAN finish a college class, then I'll be set from here on out to finish MORE classes. It's just that first step that scares me the most. I don't know if I can do it, but I'd really like to try. There's just a lot of pressure to finish it because this is our money, not a grant, or anything like that. I wish I could just get this done already without flipping out. Other than that, not much else going on. 24 more days left of school, and then the kids will have officially ended 2nd grade and Pre-K. Journey gets off four days earlier than Ryan does. She also has an end of the year show that her whole class is putting on, which doubles as a Pre-K graduation ceremony. Journey will be playing a pumpkin and a butterfly in the show. I'm very excited to see it, and I'm going to take lots of pictures like I did when it was Ryan's ceremony. I just JUST posted those on Facebook, 3 years later...LOL. Oh well, now we're ready for Journey's! |
| So after a little bit of searching around, I was able to produce the paper that I wrote of Ryan's tale of Ryan Land. He was 3 years, 8 months, 4 weeks and 4 days old when we wrote this story, which eerily enough, Journey is almost one year older than he was when he wrote this story with me! She's just about 3 weeks off, so it's amazing how close we've done this. So here it is, the story of Ryan Land! We cook biscuits and then my song is going to be springy and boingy. That will be my favorite! And then ummm, we wear sunglasses and rain hats and stripey socks. A Ryan statue is in Ryan Land. It looks like a blue, big statue. There's a pyramid too. (Tell me who lives in Ryan Land?) Umm, Papa...Nana, Grandma and Uncle Jason. Uhh, Uncle Sean and Alan...and then you and Daddy and Journey, and then me! We're all going! You be the boat and I'll be the plane! I hope there's one, or there's two...one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, I hope there's ten Ryan Lands! And if the biscuits cook in the stove, they're gonna go on fire and then we're gonna have to turn on the fan, and then there will be a problem, that's what I told Papa. We cook them in a little stove. It won't start a fire, because it's not. I hope there's toys at Ryan Land. Ummm, there might be potties in Ryan Land. And I will have a Disney Cars party, and all my friends will be there! I want a red Mack at Ryan Land. When it's dark, there might be moons and stars, and there might be a Disney Cars race for Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks and the King. And that's the end. Thank you for telling me about Ryan Land, I'm glad that you told me about Ryan Land! Do you want to comee to Ryan Land? There might be a radio that says "97.7 the Rocket" and plays "Life would be a dream doo sh-boom sh-boom": See the similarities? Precious, no? I seriously adore my kids! |
So when Ryan was 3, I asked him to tell me about a place called "Ryan Land". He was big into "Cars" the movie, and "Charlie and Lola", so there were lots of answers involving biscuits (or cookies as we say in America), and lemonade, and Mater and Lightning McQueen. I treasure that piece of paper to this very day, and am so thrilled that I asked him to participate in a story with me. So today, after reading a note that Kåre Enga in Montana   posted on facebook about asking kids to finish a story for you or tell you a story, I was inspired to ask Journey the same questions I asked Ryan those nearly 4 years ago. I'm posting them here, so I will never lose them. And now, a trip into Journey Land, as told by Journey. What if there was a Journey Land? I'd play with blocks. I'd make cakes with the blocks. I'd make a tower! I'd go to centers. Just like at school. And I'd spell "hi", then I'd spell "kitten". There are kittens in Journey Land. They live on the pumpkin patch. They eat cat food. They are black and white. I'd drink water from the water fountain. I'd go to the carnival, play games and get candy...and play tag. And go with Gina, Daddy and Papa. I love to go to the dragon rollercoaster! That was so cool! I love to go to the carnival! I make numbers. Then I do my work. Then I write kitten. (again?) Mmm-hmm. Then I go to sleep at night and I see the twinkle stars and we get ice cream. (at night?) No, at day! After I wake up! Then I get dressed, then I wake up this morning...I see a butterfly, I love butterflies! Then I see the moon! Then I go to school to ride the bus. I'm a nut! (Anything else?) Mmmm-hmm, I see the sun come up, and I get a piece of pizza, then I spell kitten again, then I spell "q". Then we go spring day, to find the eggs. They have polka dots! Then I spell "Journey", then I wear a Princess Peach costume, then I check on this phone, then it's Briauana's name, then your blue flower. I'm all done. |
| Yesterday was a great day! It started out kind of late, as I refused to get out of bed (I was really tired!), so the boys got ready for the day before I even got out of bed. Finally, Journey and I woke up, and we got ready to go. We started out on the road, but then I remembered that I forgot the camera. We turned back around, grabbed the camera and headed back out. We stopped along the way for some lunch and a few of potty breaks before we made it to the Metro station. Our day was headed well! We made it to the Smithsonian, and there was no rain! We brought umbrellas just in case though, because Don had seen that it was storming in D.C. before we left. The weather was looking pretty good as we waited in line to go inside. The first thing we did was make a bee line for the Butterfly Pavilion. The line for the tickets to get in was ridiculous, but as this was the main reason we were there in the first place, we waited it out. The tickets to the Butterfly Pavilion were free that day (as they're free every Tuesday), so I'm guessing that was the reason the line was so long. I didn't know what time the Butterfly Pavilion closed, so we decided to wait it out and get tickets as soon as possible. Our time stamp was for 3:30, so we had time to wander around and look at other things. We wandered around a little bit, then headed back over to the Pavilion to take our turn. Once Journey was inside, she was absolutely amazed. She let out gasps and oohs and ahhs to every moving creature inside the Pavilion. I took a video of her and Ryan in the Pavilion, Journey spending most of her time sticking her finger out to each butterfly she could see on the flowers. We got to see butterflies up close eating off of fruit, which was amazing. Their tongues were stuck in melon, banana and pineapple! It was such a cool thing to see! We wandered around some more, Journey still sticking her little finger out to try and catch a butterfly. What she didn't know was that a butterfly landed on her head for a brief moment! I wish I could've taken a picture of it, but it happened so fast and was over so quickly that I missed out on that opportunity. They had a case of butterfly chrysalises, and butterflies coming out of them, it was amazing to see. Before our trip was up though, I was crowned the butterfly lady, as I had one land on my hairband and stay there nearly the remainder of the trip, and one land on my stomach! One landed on the front of Ryan's shirt, which he was very happy about, as the last time we were in the Butterfly Pavilion for his field trip, not one butterfly landed on him, and he was very discouraged. The classmates we went into the Pavilion with all had butterflies land on them, and Ryan was feeling left out. Yesterday, he got that opportunity, and was very thrilled about it! Before the end of the trip, I gently took the butterfly off my hairband, to where it stuck to my finger! Ryan and Don tried to blow it off, but it was stuck there pretty good! I tried to get Journey to take it and put it on her finger, but when she finally saw up close that a butterfly was an insect, she was none too interested in having a butterfly land on her finger anymore. I think the butterfly wanted to be a part of the family, because when the girl at the end of the Pavilion tried to brush it off my finger, it landed on Don's shirt and tried to stick there, until she used the paint brush to take it off again! We wandered around the museum a little more after that. Don went to the Cyprus exhibit, while I dragged the kids through the Geology, Minerals and Gemstones exhibit. The kids were all amazed at the minerals and crystals as well, letting out excited calls as we found new crystal formations. I love my kids for this exact reason; we can take them to a museum, and they're interested in the exhibits there. Most little kids would be bored out of their minds, but mine were interested in the Geology exhibit, and the Dinosaur fossils exhibit as well. After the Geology exhibit (where Don met up with us), we went to grab something to drink from the Fossils Cafe, where we walked through the dinosaur fossils. Journey found it absolutely fascinating, stopping at fossils and looking at them, even though we were trying to get to the cafe to get something to drink! We finally got to the cafe, grabbed a few waters, and decided it was time to head home for the day, the little ones were worn out from all that walking. We walked down to the National Mall, and decided to find our tree again. This was the fourth time we've found our tree, and we sat under it with the kids picking dandelions and running around. I can't believe that nearly 10 years ago, I said yes to Don after he asked me to marry him under that tree. We started off to the Metro station after that, but ran into a few snags. Don was able to put more money on just one of the Metro cards, but couldn't on the other two, because it kept declining his card for some reason. This has happened to us before, but I had my purse with me to use it to get more tickets for us when his card was declined. This time, I didn't have my purse. So then we had to try and find an ATM somewhere. At first we were told that the closest one was three blocks away, which the kids really didn't want to walk. Then Don went to a refreshment stand to see if they could give cash back, and found out there was an ATM inside the American History Smithsonian. So the kids and I squirrel and pigeon watched in the Mall while Don went to go get money for us to ride the Metro with. Finally, he came back with a $20, and we were ready to go...or so we thought. We tried to put the $20 through to buy tickets, but they wanted to put $17 of fare on one card. Don and I came up with the idea to ask people at the Metro farecard machines if they could break a $20. Luckily, one woman could, and gave us 5 $1s, a $5 and a $10. We FINALLY purchased the tickets to ride home! We got on the train, and headed back. By the time we got home, it was 8 o'clock, and we were all starving (as lunch was at 12 p.m.). So I came in the house, dropped some stuff off, and we headed out to dinner at Red Robin. All in all, it was a great day. I hope we have more of them in the future. |
| Happy soon to be Easter! Just thought I'd throw that in there. Spring break has hit, and the kids have a few days off to clean their rooms, and veg out, and play outside...provided there are no bees. Journey freaks out with bees; as soon as she sees one she lets out a shriek and insists on going inside. She's only ever been stung once, and I don't believe she even remembers it. Still, bees are not her thing. We're also going to take the kids to the Natural History Smithsonian (where Ryan had a field trip not too long ago) so Journey can see the Butterfly Pavilion. I took a video of it when Ryan and I were there to show her, but I don't think she got as much out of the video as she would seeing it in person. There's an awesome deal going on that if you go on Tuesdays, the tickets to the Butterfly Pavilion doesn't cost any money to get into. We get to go see it for free, and save money to buy a souvenir instead! I hope Journey likes it. There were also a lot of exhibits we didn't get to see when we went there on the field trip due to bathroom breaks and time constraints. We figure if we go there during a weekday (even though it's spring break), we'll have some time to see everything we want to see and head home. I hope it doesn't bore the kids too much...  . I talked with the Special Ed teacher on Friday, who told me that Journey was doing wonderfully with her Special Ed workings. She doesn't see any problems with her retaining the information that she's learning, as she seems to keep it day after day, so she probably won't recommend ESY. (Extended School Year.) I just hope they give me some materials to keep her reminded all through summer. I'm also going to try and teach her to read if I can, as I don't want her behind when she hits Kindergarten. We got report cards back on the 12th, and I was extremely impressed! Ryan got very good grades, which I'm very pleased about! His teacher says he's advanced in all his work, and she's pleased with his progress. He also got his test scores back from the OLSAT test that they took during January, and he scored above average and high on ALL subjects. I'm very proud of him! He's very good at studying, even now, in 2nd grade. If he keeps up his good habits, he'll go far! Journey's report card was so good, it made me cry. At the beginning of the year when she was first graded, she got a lot of "N"s (Needs to be taught, can not demonstrate indicator), which I was upset about. It's hard to see that your child isn't doing well in school, you feel so helpless. She started receiving a lot more "I"s (In process, can demonstrate indicator with some assistance) the second marking period. This time, she's received a lot of "P"s (Proficient, child can reliably demonstrate indicator without any assistance) and some "I"s. I was so proud of her! She's come such a long way! Pre-K has done her a world of good, and I think she's going to flourish in Kindergarten.  Journey and I got a fun night in on Friday; Don took Ryan to a Caps playoff game, so Journey and I stayed home and watched movies, and painted our nails and ate popcorn. She had a grand time, as she got a happy meal for dinner, we watched Ni Hao Kai Lan, and she got her nails painted for the first time ever! I think she enjoyed it. She even waited up till the boys got home. The boys had a good time, as the Caps won that night. We'll be having some more family outings in the not too distant future-and that includes the trip to the Smithsonian on Tuesday. |
| Well hello there. Been extra busy doing millions of things, hence the reason I haven't been around much. Life of a mom with two young kids is a busy life, full of school functions and whatnot. So, Journey's been getting her assistance through Special Education since January 6th. The Special Ed teacher comes in and works with her nearly every day, and she always sends home a sheet telling us how much of her lunch she ate, which center she was in, who she played with, the big thing that she did for the day, and what she worked on with the Special Ed teacher. Journey enjoys her time with the Special Ed teacher very much, even though she doesn't talk about it too often. The parent conference with the developmental pediatrician felt like a fall through to me. He said the only thing he can find wrong is that she simply has a developmental delay. He did however, say that high blood sugar while pregnant is cause for developmental delays, which made me feel horribly guilty, and nearly spiraled me into depression. I tried very hard to keep my blood sugar as normal as possible with her, but it could be the case that my inability caused her to be this way. It made me feel like I was being attacked. I'm not too thrilled with the developmental pediatrician anymore. There are still things she does that make me wonder if she really is mildly autistic, but he says he did the CARS test on her, and she only scored a 24 out of 60. I don't know exactly what that means since he didn't give much detail, but I still wonder if there are things he might have missed. We have another appointment with him in July, as a follow up. I'm not too sure I want to go, but I suppose we will. There's nothing more he can really say to me at this point anyway. What more can he tell me that he hasn't already said? We're holding another IEP meeting for Journey in May. This one will be to fine tune the IEP and tailor it more towards her Kindergarten year, as her IEP continues through most of it. I'm thinking we may just recommit to another IEP once this one expires next January, as she'll still need help. She's not quite as caught up socially or in a few other aspects as they would like for her to be. I wonder if we'll discuss giving her extended school year services. I wouldn't mind them working with her through the first part of summer, and I'd be happy to walk her to school and pick her up every day. I'm just afraid of her losing what pieces of information she's learned so far because she's out of school when summer hits. It would be very unfortunate, and it would give the Special Ed teacher a harder time trying to work with her at the beginning of the year. I can bring this up I suppose, but I feel kind of strange being the one to suggest it when it's up to her Special Ed teacher and the head of Special Ed services to decide it. Journey was chosen to be Citizen of the Month in her class for March by her teacher. We're very proud of her! I know she has trouble in class with following step by step directions and such (which she's getting help with from the Special Ed teacher), but she must have been doing such a great job in class lately that they chose her. Journey doesn't get chosen for daily jobs like Center Inspector, nor does she get chosen for Honor Seat or Top Banana. Honor Seat is chosen by the child who does their daily job quietly and efficiently (which, like I said, she doesn't get a daily job, because the teacher feels that's too much responsibility for her to comprehend), is a good friend to all the children, is helpful, listening, follows directions well, gives 5 (quiet hands, still feet, listening ears, quiet mouth, watching eyes), cleans up their center, and basically is the most responsible student of the day. Top Banana is the most responsible student of the week. Seeing as they don't give Journey any big responsibilities (as she can only follow one or two step directions right now and doesn't comprehend the same way the other children in her class do..she's basically got the mind of a three year old still. She's developmentally behind by over a year.), she doesn't really qualify for these honors. I can understand that. I never thought though that they'd give her Citizen of the Month because she doesn't have responsibilities, and she has trouble following directions. I told Don, I think this was her teacher's way of recognizing that she's doing a wonderful job within the classroom and with her Special Ed services, and she deserves to be recognized for it. Again, we're extremely proud of her for the award! Well, other than the kids going through a bout of strep throat, there's not much else going on. Hopefully I'll be around to update more. This time I bought a 6 month subscription to an upgraded membership so I won't run out so quickly. |
| Journey has been visited by the Special Ed teacher all this week so far. I keep asking her if she's seen her, but I never get a straight answer from Journey...as usual. The Special Ed teacher told me that she'll be starting to work with Journey at the end of the day to see if they can't come up with a way to let me know what happened for the day, since Journey is unable to tell me at this time. I can't wait to get those reports back, which is something I've been wishing to hear since she started school. The Special Ed teacher is also going to be sending me her approved IEP so that I'll have it to show the developmental pediatrician when we next see him again on January 19th. I know, that's next week. We're having a "parent conference", which I'm unsure what it is (other than us discussing Journey and her behaviors with the pediatrician, obviously), but I know that Ryan is not allowed to be in the room while we confer. I offered Ryan the option of either going to school that day, or going with us and playing the DS in the waiting room while we went in for the meeting, he opted on coming with us and playing the DS (surprise surprise.) I really don't mind it though, because I worry when weather is bad and we're driving far away from one or both of the kids. I'd much rather have all of us together when we go far than leave someone behind. I'm very anxious to start getting some answers. I want to see how Journey responds to her work with the Special Ed teacher and if we start getting homework we need to implement with her during the week. as well as what the developmental pediatrician has to say. I doubt this will be the last we see of the developmental pediatrician, but I'm still anxious to hear what we've come up with so far and if he has a report for our regular pediatrician yet. Wish me luck all. |
| Today was an IEP meeting for Journey. We discussed her IEP, how often they'll be implementing it, and all the goals they're trying to achieve with it. We also learned that her IEP is in effect until January 6th of 2012, but we all decided that we would be re-tooling it for her at the end of this year considering her IEP this year is for half day program whereas next year will be for a full day program. I think the special ed teacher was surprised when I told her that I was working with Journey on how to write letters, and writing her name, and getting her to read. I want Journey to be at the same level as all the kids that are going into kindergarten, I don't want her to be at a disadvantage because she's behind. I'm working very hard with her to keep her caught up with the rest of the kids her age, if I can. In about two weeks we have the second appointment with her developmental pediatrician, and I'm anxious to hear what he has to say. As soon as we get word from him, I'll be sure to let both her teacher and her special ed teacher know. So her IEP hopefully starts tomorrow. We'll see if she has any homework tomorrow or not. |
| I thought that I had come on here to talk about meeting with the developmental pediatrician, but perhaps I just mentioned something about it on facebook only.... So we went to the appointment. I was very surprised on how quickly they took us in, and how soon we were able to see the doctor. I'm hoping that we can do the same for the next appointment we have scheduled. We went on back and didn't have to wait long for the doctor to appear and speak with us. I laden him with TONS of papers, reports, evaluations, a report card, emails, etc. I venture to guess I had about 30 pages worth for him, if not more. He sat through with the patience of a saint, reading everything I presented him with. He had a medical student with him, who also proceeded to read over all the information I had handed them. He didn't say much as he was reading, but he did ask a few questions. I believe I know what direction he was going in with them, but I know that neither he nor I want to go down that avenue unless we're absolutely sure that that's where we're headed. He then advised us that he was going to gather up all the paperwork, and try to map out what all of this could mean for us. He said if I had any more information for him, to not hesitate to call him at all, and gave me his card. He then wrote to have us schedule a parent conference with him on January 19th, so we could be interviewed, and discuss what his findings are. Ryan is to be left in school that day, so he doesn't distract Journey from what we need to ask of her. Hopefully we'll be back in time to get him from school, if not, we'll ask Russ to keep an eye on him from the front office while we make it back. Either that or we can just take him with us and leave him in the waiting room while we go in for the interview. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet. Other than that, we had a great Christmas. The kids got almost everything they asked for, and I'm really proud that we were able to pull off such a great Christmas with no help from my brother and his usual Christmas donation, or from Don's aunt and her usual donation. Both were unable to send us money this year, but we were equipped with enough sense to start buying Christmas early, and did a good job getting everything. It also helped that our kids knew what they wanted since before November, so all November and December we were able to buy everything. The kids are outside right now with Don, enjoying the snowfall that we're having. Me? I'd rather stay inside and keep warm! |
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