Long time no post

Once again, I must apologize to you all for neglecting the blog. Life has really gotten hectic!! Ryan is currently in training so we have been soaking up the Daddy time while we can, knowing that as soon as training is done life will get even more hectic!!!

Nolen has passed the 6 months since illness mark, and we have accepted that a full recovery is not to be expected buy we still hope for it. I will post more on him later, but his health and GI issues have improved. His blood levels aren't normal, but don't indicate Leukemia/Liver/Kidney failure as of yet. And he is making some great strides in therapy. Which brings me to why life has been so crazy.

--We have our application in for Disability, our Social Worker Stan thinks we have too much money in savings and unless we can get them to look at Nolen separate from us we probably won't qualify. The application process is absurd! It took about a week of nothing but working to post his medical history! I'll send you guys the picture of "The Stack" so you can fully appreciate the amount of work that goes into just the beginnings of the application process!!

--Nolen has been evaluated for Occupational therapy (adding it once a week), Developmental teaching (to help with his cognitive, social, emotional and language delays). He qualified for both and we will be adding these two therapies to our existing two for a total of 4 therapy sessions/week (maybe five because our CHOPS therapist wants to add OT as well).
We are waiting on referrals for a hearing test and developmental pediatrician as well.

--Nolen has these precious braces to wear

-My Darling husband and my best friend from Oklahoma arranged for a quick getaway to NY. It was amazing and much needed...as I was and am probably quickly approaching therapy burnout. Tips anyone??

Here are some snapshots from our trip
--Prom-- the Awesome 80s Prom, an interactive improv show where Em and I partied like it was 1989.



Breakfast club anyone??



Then we went on to Ellis island and liberty Island...where we did not act our age an ended up with some awesome pictures.



I co-hosted a Kraft First Tasters party! Lots of great food and free stuff!!


And...I was contacted by word of mouth for my first sewing job! A passion made a modest profit.

Custom Colts Baby Bedding
-Bumpers-



Pillow


Crib Skirt


And Blanket



I also painted this for my girls...







We have been making some serious progress on the homeschooling front, which has also cut into my blogging time.

Along with my job...my sister in law is due in July and keeps handing over some items to me to handle while she peeps for baby and I get my feet wet as her replacement come the arrival of her little girl in July!

Thanks for hanging in there and for checking up on me! I miss you guys too!


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Kaelyn's Dreams

My girls (and possibly Nolen, but I won't know until he is much older) have always seemed to have dreams. Both good and bad. So part of our morning routine is to talk about what we dreamt about the night prior. Yesterday morning, Kaelyn shared this gem of a dream  with me...

 "I had the craziest dream last night mom"
"Really, what did you dream about darling" expecting to hear about the latest princess dream in a LONG line of princess dreams
"I dreamed that Dad, Me and Anna went swimming. And *insert gigle* Dad was wearing a little *hold her hands really close together* girls swim suit. Isn't that silly!"
"That is really silly!"

So, I made her repeat the dream and video taped it so that Ryan could see it when he got home. He didn't find as much humor in the situation as I did! I spent the whole day imagining my husband in something like this...

And it made my heart happy. Do your kids dream?

My homeschooling Secret Weapon

Audio books are my secret homeschooling weapon! The girls LOVE them, they buy me about 15 mins while also counting as "educational". Matter of fact, this post WOULD NOT be happening if it wasn't for an audio book rented from the library!

I like to say it works on Anna, my 2 year olds, listening skills....she is now very good at knowing when to turn the page, while Kaelyn has excellent listening skills, it teaches her how to use inflection with her book as well as reading comprehension. I've picked up a few really cheap audio books from the Dollar Tree (Jonah and the Whale, Jack and the Beanstalk, Noah's Ark and Cinderella). While the biblical ones have songs following the story, the classics have questions. Kaelyn has started answering the questions outloud.

In addition to audio books, my lovely Mama Dot (aka my Grandma) bought the girls a subscription to Highlights and it has an audio book option on it's website! LOVE IT! The girls will sit and flip through their stack of three highlights while I cook dinner.

I know my posts have been scarce these past few weeks, and there is a LOT going on in my life (I'd really enjoy a slow down) and to better serve my family, my job, my volunteer position, I've had to let things slide. Once I get the handle I'll be back in full force, but for now I am going to squeeze in a shower while Snow White finishes on audio!

What are your homeschool secret weapons/tricks? I would love to diversify!

More Preschool corner visit here!

Denial-What is it good for?

I struggle sometimes to balance my want to live in denial with my NEED  to keep a positive but realistic outlook. I want to ignore  to vehementantly deny the possibility that my son might have delays and special needs for the rest of his life. But, I can tell you one thing that I have learned in the past 6 months...having a special needs child radically changes YOUR life....even if his "specialness" is just possibly temporary.  These radical changes permeate more than the big picture aspect of your life. Even the mundane day-to-day living has become completely different.

Almost everything I do with Nolen is calculated, from how I try and pick him up by coaching him from laying on his back onto his side, then to sitting as opposed to just grabbing under the arms and going  to how I carry him differently then I carried my girls, trying to keep the pressure on his hips and not under his butt (so that he is encouraged to lengthen his body and not curl up). I try to make every moment and every interaction with him an attempt to instruct him, strengthen him, and encourage him.

 I push my son. I push him more than my girls were ever pushed, I stand for hours in the toy aisle analyzing which toys encourage suplination in his forearms. (Any suggestions?)  I sing ridiculously loud lullabyes over the sound of the EEG monitor being glued to his scalp and his screams. I spend hours at therapy making crazy sounds and faces and popping his binky in trying to keep him from screaming the entire session. (Again, any suggestions?) And in those session in which he just isn't having it and I would have whisked my girls up in my arm and walked away, I fight the urge and push him through it. Why? Because he needs to be pushed and my emotional need to protect him has to be ignored by HIS needs for therapy.

  I live, breathe, eat and sleep his difficulties daily. I watch his progression and jump for joy when a new skill is mastered, but I am constantly aware of the other milestones he should have reached but hasn't.  This is why I am so quick to recognize denial in those around me...I know and see his issues on the most intimate levels, I hold him when he has bad nights full of residual pain, I worry when he sleeps for a full day and doesn't show interest in eating, I watch and hear his frustration when his hands don't perform as he needs them too. I simultaneously beam with pride and cringe with realization when he adapts to using his wrists to move things because he can't open his hands. I spend hours on the phone with my sister adjusting his lab levels and demanding further test because 6 months later his liver and other levels SHOULD be normal, but aren't. (Any suggestions on how long post Encephalitis abnormal labs are  considered acceptable?)

I get that every parent or loved one of a child requiring different needs wants to ignore them, wants to gloss over them, wants to give their child more time, begs that it's just a time thing and not a real issue to be faced head on. But what good does glossing over do for a child who *might* have real issues? None. Just like becoming overly emotional when my son was in the hospital didn't help him it only exhausted me.


Because I am his mom, I don't struggle with denial because I am faced with this one hard truth---Denial has no value other than to make me feel good.

     Denial does not make a problem go away. In fact denying that your child has a problem only makes it a  bigger problem because you neglect to push them and seek out assistance and therapies that can make a HUGE difference when you start early.

   Denial is not the same thing as being optimistic. Optimism is choosing to hope for the favorable outcome. I hope, pray and believe that Nolen will be well, but I am very realistic about where we are, and less than comfortable with the fact that he might not be "normal". Ryan said it best, "Nolen just wants to be loved, and regardless of what happens, I am more than happy to love him"


So,  help me out here (since I did just let you read my diary)...how do you balance Denial with Reality? Worry with Optimism? Do you think you can be Optimistically realistic? Am I in denial about being a Pessimist?

That little snot!

The girls have our old iPhones because I have become *that* parent...the one I swore I would never be! I figure all you "No video games for my kids parents" can talk to me after multiple doctors and physical therapy appointments in one day...and then judge my decison. But be forewarned...this is one of my best parenting concessions to date.

This morning...Kaelyn, in all her sweetness, walked up to me holding her phone, "Mom check this out" and holds up the phone to show me the pictures she took.

I feigned interest, expecting yet another montage of random blurry shots. She could tell and decided to narrate with a very proud grin.
 "These are the towels on the floor," she succeded in getting my full attention as I saw the blurry shape of white which could only be the pile of towels waiting to be washed,"and this is a picture of my blanket on the floor, and these are the toys on the floor, and this is a picture of the dishes in the sink. This house is a mess! See all these things"

*she keeps flipping photo after photo*

As I mentally thanked her for the digital "to-do" list, I looked up and said "Well, now you know what needs to be done".

Preschool review: Hearts and more Basics!

So this week has been pretty awesome as far as homeschooling goes.
Kaelyn continues to  progress with Reading and she enjoys her new reading corner (I'll put up pictures later), Anna has started signing her alphabet although she really doesn't like to actively do anything yet.

Kaelyn worked on cutting...so she made this cool fence.

Then we sorted colors, counted and graphed the results. We "predicted" which color would have the most hearts, which would have the least and the "evaluated" the results.


We made "heart snowflakes"!!! And decorated them.

And we also talked about recycling. We turned toilet paper rolls into heart garland and took the broken crayons and made them into heart shaped multi colored crayons for our friends.

The girls painted them, and I cut and poked holes. Then the girls threaded the ribbon through!

Visit Preschool Corner for more!

Preschool Corner- Getting back to basics

I know, long time no see! I now have a computer and although I don't really have any pictures of the kids in action, I do have some shots of their work!

In order to actually get homsechooling done, I've had to eliminate some of the fun themed aspects because they take time, planning and often require us to be at home. The basics, and adapted fun activities have become our staple since we spend a lot of time in the car and at doctors appointments.

KAELYN: 

MATH: We are counting past 20 without mistakes, and if she could remember the tens changes past 40 she would be well on her way to counting over 100. We are doing great at manipulating items to solve word problems for both addition and subtraction using "key words" like gave, added, earned, etc to determine what type of problem she is doing and to manipulate her manipulative's to find the answer.

WRITING: I have had her practice her penmanship and spelling by using Progressive Phonics handwriting pages. She has started coloring her drawings and illustrating scenes from books...and her artwork is impressive!

Both the flash card and hearts are from the dollar spot at Target. We use those hearts as manipulative for Kaelyn and for Fine Motor Skills work for Anna. Anna uses a spoon and moves them from one container to the other. She seems to really enjoy this!

READING: We are READING PEOPLE! It's so exciting. She is using phonics and sight words to sound out and read!!!! Below are some of the books that she is picking up and bringing to read to me regularly. What I love, is if she can't figure out a word, she spells it out, tries to sound it out and THEN brings it to me for help! Her confidence is there, and she is tackling reading with excitement and pride.

See the colored picture in the middle??? Kaelyn colored it!

SCIENCE: We are reading aloud Magic School Bus Whales chapter book as a family at nap and at bedtime. The girls are really enjoying it and we are discussing the difference between Baleen Whales and Toothed Whales. Due to the snow, we have been reviewing states of matter (what does snow become when it melts, etc) and talking about the seasons and why some trees still have "leaves" and others do not.

ANNA!!! 3 in August
I just started really working with Anna on learning some of the basics that she refuses to learn "naturally". It was around this time that I started actively working on Kaelyn's attention span and teaching her to sit and learn for longer periods of time. Anna struggles with colors so we have been doing a lot of sorting, coloring and labeling in our everyday environments. Shapes are coming along easily, and we have a fun game that we play. In addition to I spy (numbers for Kaelyn Colors for Anna), I give Anna a hand drawn list of shapes and ask her to "call out a shape" to Kaelyn. She points and says the name of a shape and Kaelyn is suppose to try and find it. Obviously I might have to help find the less common shapes (heart shaped lettuce anyone?). Anna has taken to signing her alphabet with me which makes me very happy!

NOLEN:
We have been working on rolling over and Nolen is a rollin'! We are also working on opening and closing his hands by using puffs to encourage him to open, grasp, release. He can't get the puffs in his hand but it does encourage him to move his hands  with purpose towards a small item, which is difficult. Anna loves "helping aka eating" Nolen's snacks during this exercise, but at least she is sharing!

Here are some great weekly recaps at Preschool Corner!