Post by Chris too on Apr 21, 2011 10:50:55 GMT -5
She's doin' great! After a somewhat rough start with the swallowing issue, sleep apnea, and thus "failure to thrive" at 3 months of tininess, and mostly thanks to a great feeding specialist and a surgery, Stevie has been drinking thin liquids without any reminders not to "guzzle-gut" it 
She is right on track for height and weight (considering that she's got my genetics - short), and has had no further apnea events.
Believe it or not, she will soon be 6. She is so good with the gross motor stuff that I just waived all PT without evaluation. She takes both dance and kung fu (you should see her mantis form adorable) and has two older brothers who play with her almost constantly - very rough and tumble 
She stinks with a pencil. No, really it's not that bad. She can draw circles till the cows come home, she's beginning to get squares, and is very good with drawing people; but ask her to copy her name and you get ... chicken scratch with or without doodles of people She can trace her name, the experts tell me, with 50% accuracy - whatever that means (looks like she's hitting the dotted line about 10% of the time to me, and that largely by odds alone). She isn't interested in naming colors much, nor in naming the shapes, but that doesn't concern me since none of my kids were very good with those things until about age 6 or 7 
She recognizes her own name in a field of 5, will tell you her name (first and last) and age (sometimes gets it right), and is the favorite kid in the class according to her teachers - "Everyone wants Stevie to be their partner or sit next to them." That does my mother's heart good. She's always willing to try new things and shares and takes turns better than most. She cannot count past two. Well, she CAN, but only when she agrees to the standard rules for counting - otherwise any number at all can come after two and thereafter 
She can sing/say the alphabet WITH you, but loses interest if she is doing it by herself so is likely to switch to singing one of her favorite songs ("Monster" by Skillet or the theme for "Iron Man" 
)
Stevie can talk your ear off, but she usually doesn't. She has good clarity for a half-decent listener, and generally makes grammatically correct sentences of about 4-6 words. But not for the speech therapist You should hear examples of Stevie's sentences with her Cute little sand-bagger ;D I think that the SLP will have her number in a couple of weeks, but until then she'll have an easy time with ST
What did I miss? Second dance recital coming up the second week of June - tap and ballet Kindergarten round-up went well (social butterfly...) IEP went as expected (we have a fantastic special ed director - knows the law, wants no fights, and nice, nice, nice) - Stevie starts Kindergarten next year, one year delayed (my choice - we loved the preschool), in the regular ed classroom with an aid in the room (not dedicated), OT coming in to class for 30 minutes per week, ST mostly in the resource room 3 times a week for 3 weeks on/3 weeks off, and a shortened day. I didn't want all that change to happen so quickly: new school building, new teachers, new therapists, new kids, new buses and drivers, just a lap belt on the bus, other kids on the bus, two more days of school ... that's enough change for awhile, I think. I am mainly concerned that we might go from having no behavior issues in the classroom to having them if she had to spend more than a few hours away from home. So half days - maybe with lunch at school, maybe with recess - for at least the first couple of months, then we'll see. I will be giving a talk at the beginning of the school year with all the staff who may encounter Stevie to tell them what to expect and what not to expect with Stevie as a child who has Ds and as an individual. I am concerned about elopement during recess and lunch - maybe at bathroom breaks, but it's all in the IEP, and these people are so easy to work with that I know if changes are needed, we'll get them.
I think that this is quite long enough. I will try to get some newer pictures of Stevie up on here soon - though these are quite cute ;D
She is right on track for height and weight (considering that she's got my genetics - short), and has had no further apnea events. Believe it or not, she will soon be 6. She is so good with the gross motor stuff that I just waived all PT without evaluation. She takes both dance and kung fu (you should see her mantis form
adorable) and has two older brothers who play with her almost constantly - very rough and tumble 
She stinks with a pencil. No, really it's not that bad. She can draw circles till the cows come home, she's beginning to get squares, and is very good with drawing people; but ask her to copy her name and you get ... chicken scratch with or without doodles of people She can trace her name, the experts tell me, with 50% accuracy - whatever that means (looks like she's hitting the dotted line about 10% of the time to me, and that largely by odds alone). She isn't interested in naming colors much, nor in naming the shapes, but that doesn't concern me since none of my kids were very good with those things until about age 6 or 7 
She recognizes her own name in a field of 5, will tell you her name (first and last) and age (sometimes gets it right), and is the favorite kid in the class according to her teachers - "Everyone wants Stevie to be their partner or sit next to them." That does my mother's heart good. She's always willing to try new things and shares and takes turns better than most. She cannot count past two. Well, she CAN, but only when she agrees to the standard rules for counting - otherwise any number at all can come after two and thereafter 
She can sing/say the alphabet WITH you, but loses interest if she is doing it by herself so is likely to switch to singing one of her favorite songs ("Monster" by Skillet or the theme for "Iron Man" 
)Stevie can talk your ear off, but she usually doesn't. She has good clarity for a half-decent listener, and generally makes grammatically correct sentences of about 4-6 words. But not for the speech therapist
You should hear examples of Stevie's sentences with her Cute little sand-bagger ;D I think that the SLP will have her number in a couple of weeks, but until then she'll have an easy time with ST What did I miss? Second dance recital coming up the second week of June - tap and ballet
Kindergarten round-up went well (social butterfly...) IEP went as expected (we have a fantastic special ed director - knows the law, wants no fights, and nice, nice, nice) - Stevie starts Kindergarten next year, one year delayed (my choice - we loved the preschool), in the regular ed classroom with an aid in the room (not dedicated), OT coming in to class for 30 minutes per week, ST mostly in the resource room 3 times a week for 3 weeks on/3 weeks off, and a shortened day. I didn't want all that change to happen so quickly: new school building, new teachers, new therapists, new kids, new buses and drivers, just a lap belt on the bus, other kids on the bus, two more days of school ... that's enough change for awhile, I think. I am mainly concerned that we might go from having no behavior issues in the classroom to having them if she had to spend more than a few hours away from home. So half days - maybe with lunch at school, maybe with recess - for at least the first couple of months, then we'll see. I will be giving a talk at the beginning of the school year with all the staff who may encounter Stevie to tell them what to expect and what not to expect with Stevie as a child who has Ds and as an individual. I am concerned about elopement during recess and lunch - maybe at bathroom breaks, but it's all in the IEP, and these people are so easy to work with that I know if changes are needed, we'll get them.I think that this is quite long enough. I will try to get some newer pictures of Stevie up on here soon - though these are quite cute ;D
Give her big {{{HUGS}}}} from me and The Brookster 
&
Susan, Proud mom of Michael (32), Justin (25) Emily (22ds), and Jordan (20).
