Monday, September 17, 2012

EVERYTHING!

Have I told you all that I love you lately?  I do.  I love this space, and your spaces, and that my whining last night about some seriously first world problems is met with sympathy & pats on the head, not the eye rolling it probably deserved.  And, as these things often do, the moment passed and today I am filled with Yes, I can too do EVERYTHING.  All Half the laundry is folded, I ran(!), I'm here - about to gift you with some hyper adorable pictures, AND I got that work thing done today, that I'd been avoiding for weeks, that I'd lugged home for the weekend and then (obviously) felt guilty about not doing.  I swear it was like a giant evil eye glaring at me from the kitchen counter all weekend.  Never, never, never bring work home.

 Yes, sort of like this evil eye.  

[I did not get a chance to read YOUR lovely posts, fold the other half of the laundry or spend any time with the kids who were already in bed when I got home.  And I only got 6 hours of sleep, which might account for the giddy tone here.]

Miscellanea from last week ~
IEP meeting update:  I didn't want everyone's guard up and I didn't really know what I was asking for, so I requested an "information gathering meeting," to talk about The Girl's communication in class.  The Girl's teacher, who at first meet just seemed too young and waaaayyy too well put together to be spending her day with preschoolers really impressed me (proving once again my first reactions are always wrong).  She showed me some of the matching/selecting activities they do, that she can do without ASL, and it sounds like she really is trying to pick up some signs.  The SLP's office is between the two pre-K classes so she (apparently) pops her head in during circle time or at the activity tables and demonstrates the sign of the hour or something.  We talked about iPads and assistive speech apps and they're going to try out some of the iPad programs to see what works before we sink a bunch of money into something.  No one thought signing AND using a speech app was a bad idea, even though the one speaker at the NDSC conference said we should stick with one system...?  Facebook was all for "multi-modalities".  I dunno.  I can make the argument either way - we'll try it out and see how it goes.

Yup, just keep pressing buttons to see what happens.

Oh, and I brought cookies.  They never eat during these meetings which I suppose is the professional thing to do, to not smear crumbs and chocolate all over the official IEP document, but I hope they dug in later.  Somebody better enjoy them since I spent a whole seven minutes in the store picking them out.

Did someone say cookies?    

Also, since I am mom of the year, I completely forgot to ask about PROMPT training and apraxia.  Since this was just a "chat" we're going to have a formal IEP meeting in a month to touch base again, so we'll cover it then.  I still want to observe the classroom at some point too, though the logistics of that might drown me.


Did I mention The Girl is the proud new owner of an iPad?  Shortly after this post, my SIL ran into a mom and her daughter, who has Ds, and she was raving about their iPad and Proloquo2go.  My super-awesome SIL then plotted with my other super-awesome SIL and my super-awesome MIL and they all combined funds to gift The Girl with a very early, exceedingly generous Christmas present.  WOW, right?  I am terrified I'm going to break it.  I'm terrified she's going to break it.  I had also gone to dinner at SIL's home the night before they gave it to us and completely forgot to bring anything, not even a bottle of wine - I am a HUGE schmuck.
Ha!  Mommy said "Schmuck!"

And, last, right after the IEP meeting last Monday we drove for an hour into town to get labs done at the Children's Hospital.  We've had them done closer to home before but it would have been easier to lop off a finger and hold the bleeding stump over a bowl, for all the trauma and random useless needle pokes inflicted on the poor girl.  At Childrens we were in & out with only a single tear shed.  Results came back today & we're good!.

The pout.  Practicing for next year's labs. 
Actually this was right before The Boy's 8:30am soccer game and we had the unmitigated GALL to go thru McD's drive thru for coffee without getting her anything.  MEANEST PARENTS E.V.E.R. 

17 comments:

  1. Glad to read you're feeling better in general! Love the park picks, looks like a fun time and beautiful day!

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  2. Thanks for the IEP update--I have been WAITING to hear how it went :) btw, Otterbox for the iPad. I am serious. It is wonderful. We had an incident where it went flying from an exam room table to the tiled floor and it survived.

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    1. It seems a little anti climatic but I *feel* better about the situation.

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  3. Okay, Pic #3 in particular got me -- that's what they call an ear-to-ear grin. Exciting to hear about the ipad; I've heard great things about the various accessibility apps. I've always been of the multiple modality school, until and unless it becomes clear that they're interfering with each other. Even then, what looks like interference might just be a slight delay in all of them, and once you're past that there's a robust outcome -- the way that kids in multilingual households often show a minor speech delay at first, but eventually have stronger language skills than peers and two languages to boot. But in the end, I always think it's best to go with what your Mom Gut tells you about these things.

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    1. Agreed! We'll see how it goes. I'm excited about all the other apps too. Suppose I should take it out of the box, huh?

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  4. Hi! It's Kali. You have a blog! So I'm stalking you here. :) I wish you were closer (I'm assuming you're far away? I don't know. I'm in SoCal), I love working on ASL with the wee ones.
    I second the Otterbox for iPad, but if you're looking for something more fun, they actually make stuffed monster/animal cases for iPads so they're super cuddly and kid friendly.

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    1. KALI! How are you? Welcome! Send me an email if you want to chat. krlrtrialrun@gmail.com

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  5. Oh it's about time I can read without suicidal ideation... :)
    Love ya back. Those pics are just killing me with cuteness and I am so jealous! Of that iPad. But soon, I'm plotting now!

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    1. What the what? And, yes, I am powerless against that face.

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    2. kidding about suicidal- psych humor sorry. I think that the tone of your posts are just perfect would've been better to say.
      It's the ipad I'm referring to with jealousy...
      Does that help?

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    3. You have psych humor & I think chopping off limbs is a punchline. It's a perfect match!

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  6. Btw we call that the 'big lip' and it is hard for me cause it breaks my heart!

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  7. Oh, I'm just now catching up. I read the earlier post where you were complaining about the "balance" and the few hours in the day, and that explains why I haven't been reading your blog--or really anybody's. I will say that your meeting sounds very good, and I'm sure they ate the cookies. AND in response to the previous post, I totally am not the mom helping Maybelle put beads in egg cartons. I do work on reading with her because I personally love that, but I've gotta say we do a lot of sitting in the rocking chair together, or on the front porch swing, or watching tv. Things that aren't in any way therapeutic, but are pleasant for me.

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    1. Exactly! Spending lovely time with one's children.

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  8. Coming here after your difficult day. Sending more support and crying uncle on your behalf.

    You girl is so beautiful and strong and so are you and you both will find your way through this latest. Even though it may or may not,after the neuro appointment, suck.

    iPads are awesome for kids. And sometimes even more so, our kids. That si why I felt so compelled to begin Mission iPossible. Which is slacking bigtime but has yielded the gifting of I believe 28-30 iPads to kids who could benefit from them most.

    Okay, sending all good things your way tonight.

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    1. Thanks - update on the neuro as soon as I get a call back. Or track them down & corner them in the parking lot. Not sure which will happen first!

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