Pre-School and Other Events

Before I state what has happened in the past few weeks- I just want to say that I am so excited for this weekend. I get to spend the whole weekend with my baby- no daddy- no Aiden- just me and the baby! I am so excited!? Did I say that already? We are going to go for a walk with a friend and spend the day at some family camps...but the rest of the weekend so far is unwritten. I might take advantage of some naps and try to get through my pile of college books that I still have and try to sell them or donate or recycle them or something...not sure yet.

This past weekend, my niece got married, and I made her a wedding cake. It was a four tiered square cake with an extra cake on the side (due to my nervousness and error of removing the cake properly out the first time!). With only a few hiccups, the cake came out great! I was very pleased with the results. She had a beautiful day, and I am so excited that her husband is in our family. I think he is wonderful and sweet!



Aiden started pre-school yesterday. This was the school I had originally signed him up for before I started going through CDS to get him services. CDS agrees with me that this is still a good option for him for socialization and getting him ready. He hasn't been in regular daycare since he was 21 months old. He is now 40 months old. I wasn't sure how Aiden would handle yesterday. Sometimes he can surprise me...but I was the parent with the screaming child. His teacher was really good, and within 10 minutes, he was settled and in the mix. Although, I think he takes after his mom, and he peed 4 times in a 2.5 hour session. Nerves???



Elijah is starting to use more syllables. He still isn't talking but he is making more attempts to get his point across. People always say that the younger one starts to talk sooner because they have someone to copy- and with Aiden being delayed, I am not so sure how that is going to go. Aiden is talking plenty, so it could go either way.



That is the cuteness I get to spend my weekend with!!!!

Let the Skies Open Up and Sing!!!

I am sharing this post at http://thingsicantsay-shell.blogspot.com

Phew! We have some results! So much weight has come off our shoulders!

Monday, we had an appointment to visit with Aiden's case manager at Child Development Services (CDS). I received a call while at the playground. Our case manager was no longer there, and this new case manager received Aiden's file just that morning. She would not be able to conduct a meeting. I was not thrilled with this because Russ and I took Monday off in order to attend this meeting. I also had lined up a sitter so that we could focus on the meeting and get down to business! I expressed my concerns and asked that she note a few of them while she was reading through the files. I told her that I wanted to find out if Aiden could receive services in the next county over because he has daycare and we have our jobs in the next county. It would be a logistical nightmare to have to drive all over creation if he was to get services almost an hour away from daycare, etc. (Just a reminder- my mom takes care of my two boys, and she is 67...so she is already dealing with them and is exhausted.) I also expressed my concern in speech therapy. I wanted to know ASAP if he would be getting services in the fall or in the summer or none at all. I told her that if not, I wanted to know so I could get him into a program myself, and that I was aware of the fact that most likely, CDS would not provide any program until the fall. She took this all down and told me she would call me back in a few hours. I honestly didn't believe her and was quite disappointed that they would until the same day of his appointment to assign him a new case manager.

Fast forward a few hours...after we left the playground, our play dates came over for lunch. My phone had been charging in my bedroom. When our play date ended, I grabbed my phone to go and do an errand. I had two missed calls. Both were from the new case manager. She wanted to meet Aiden as soon as possible and believed from her reports that he needed to be in an extensive program! I was so giddy with excitement. I called her right back. We talked at length and made arrangements for her to meet us the next morning at my mother's house so she could observe Aiden.

Fast forward to Tuesday...our case manager was promptly at the house at 8am. She observed, we made notes, she made sure all the paperwork was complete, and all the while, Aiden had taken apart my mom's screen door, he let himself out of the house without permission, had a temper tantrum and hurt the dog!

The result: Aiden will be getting three days of school (I am assuming half days), and if speech therapy isn't at the school, he will be getting that separately! And...if she can work it, she will make sure that he can attend the summer preschool program I already set up for him as it is only one day a week, and she believes it will be a good social experience for him!

We are thrilled. We are anxious to see how he blossoms and grows and changes! There is always a chance that as his language grows, his other skills may not follow, but we firmly believe only good can come out of this next step!

Step Three- Results

Last Thursday, we had the call with the behavioral psychologist. It was a forty minute call! Russ was suppose to be on the phone with me but with two kids with colds, and the kids not ready for bed, it resulted in me taking the call solo while he dealt with the kids.

In a nutshell:

- He recommends that Aiden be put in a special purpose preschool so that he can have more one-on-one attention to help with his attention and behavior. He doesn't understand boundaries.

- He recommends that we see a behavioral psychologist for behavioral counseling. We need to figure out what is that one thing that will motivate Aiden to correct his behavior.

- He recommends that we do keep him at the preschool we signed him up with for at least the summer program.

- He also recommends speech therapy.

- He stated that on the standardized test, Aiden scored in the top 3-5% for attention which doesn't mean "Woo-Hoo- he can pay attention." It means, he is very likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, which didn't surprise us.

- He recommends after much therapy, he gets re-evaluated. He wants to see if as he language grows, his behavior issues, lack of play and lack of social interaction interest changes. If it doesn't, then he wants Aiden to be tested more to see if he needs a diagnosis of some sort. At his young age of three (very early three, I mean), sometimes language development can delay all of the above...sometimes, it doesn't.

How do we feel about this?! Great! We agree, and we are now just crossing our fingers and saying our prayers that he does get put in these programs, and that we can afford what we need to contribute for him.

Ironically enough, after we called CDS- what a month ago, he started trying to link more words together. This week, he has taken an interest in block building and using his tool belt. First time for everything...and man, they know how to try to prove us wrong when they don't even know they are doing it!

Dang kids!

Mother's Day Present

I am finding it harder and harder to come up with ideas for our parent's for holidays. I feel like all I do is give pictures. I saw this idea online:



I thought it was an excellent idea to capture the moment, and it can be easily replaced every year or so...it was easy and quick! Here is my finished product: (the thread for my hand is an aqua color and can be seen but hard to see in the photo- just click on the photo for a better look)

Step Two and Three of Many in Process

We had Aiden's speech evaluation on Monday. He did perfect. Meaning- he acted and tested the way I wanted him too. I wanted him to be the way he is for us. It sounds horrible, but I really want him to get services so in order for him to get them, I need him to be at his worst! Don't get me wrong, he was trying so hard to be good and for the most part he behaved, but his personality and lack of attention came through.

It was nice of the evaluator to note that she thought it was great how well I follow through when disciplining Aiden. It is so tiring to always follow through but it was nice to get it noticed.

My mother got the call from the behavioral psychologist this am as well. Do I sink my head in shame when he says to her, "God Bless you," when he was referring to how she has provided daycare for him for most of his life or do I laugh because and smile with glee because he recognizes what we deal with???

Case in point- Aiden is three and knows there are certain things he shouldn't touch. You say but he is three. Well, I have friends that can keep their phones on end tables or on the wall, and their children or child does not play with it. With Aiden- you have to baby proof everything in sight because he just can't resist. He climbed up and got ahold of a Sharpie and wrote all over my mother's rug, wall, oak table, window and window sill yesterday...

The day before, he unlocked the door and went outside where traffic speeds up to 50 or more in a 35 mph zone.

STRESS!!!!!

Great Gift Idea

Looking to do something different for your hubby this father's day??? Or for an anniversary or birthday??? Hire me to make a video for you! Regardless of time spent- it is a flat rate of $40 with a custom label on your DVD. I will ship it to you or deliver it to you. I just need you to get me the photos you want to use. If you have special music, you can send me a file or let me borrow the CD...or I can download it. I will work with you to make a special video for your special someone. Here is a video I created for my husband for his second father's day...The one I made for last year won't post- I guess it is too big- over 17 minutes long! I have made these videos for each Father's day as well as for our 10 year anniversary. I have also made these for close friends as a special way to say, "I care about us and cherish our friendship."

Step One of Many In Process...

Aiden had his assessment with the behavioral psychologist yesterday. The doctor went through our own personal history, Aiden's health history, daycare history, etc. Then Russ and E went into the waiting room, while I observed Aiden interact with the doctor. He used Connect Four to get him engaged and get him talking. Aiden quickly lost interest and the doctor took out a playhouse for them to play with. Again, Aiden quickly lost interest when he saw a Sesame Street game. This went on like this with every activity. which didn't surprise me.

Russ and I still have more assessment forms to fill out and mail back. The doctor is going to call my mother since she is the daycare provider, and then we have a call next Thursday evening to hear his report.

His initial feelings- he feels Aiden is very speech delayed and he is concerned about him going into preschool without anyone giving him one-on-one time.

My mind is swimming with thoughts, and I already feel drained. What does this all mean??? I know we are doing the right thing so I am not questioning that---just wondering what else will be determined and how we go from here.

It was interesting because the doctor asked us what we wanted out of this evaluation. We told him we were not sure what we could get out of it but we wanted to know why our child isn't motivated to learn how to talk, why he isn't motivated by any stimuli to change his behavior using both negative reinforcements or positive reinforcements. Why does our child not like to play?

I am anxious to hear his thoughts...