Lunch

... tastes better when you don't have to eat it sitting down.

Day 11?

I think blogger is keeping track for me. whew

Over the weekend, Madi pushed her big sister. I thought it was awesome since Lily is at least twice the size of her and deserved it. But I realize I can't let that kind of thing go on because Madi might do it to the boys in her class. Who might also deserve it since I heard she got whalloped today. *eyes*

They wore her out again. Miss Janice explained that every week she's going to be adding more and more structure to their day. It's probably too much to get them to do everything at once. Madi did clap twice in circle time. The PT was mostly concerned with getting her in a better chair. One that's going to force her to sit upright so she's not so round shouldered.

I gotta tell you, I'm SO glad she's in that program. She's getting great care and exposure to the world but also professionals are dealing with stuff that I would NEVER have thought of. Does it drive me crazy that she slouches in her highchair? Yes, but I wouldn't have thought of the impact of it on her posture.

whew

And Lily has been a monster the last couple of days. I cannot wait for her to start school! Nine more days............. I still have a half a case of wine so I should be okay.

I don't care

... how many times I watch this it always cracks me up.

Good Deed

I think. There was a small white poodle looking thing running down the road that I came across while I was driving home. We were going in the same direction but he was in the opposite lane and I was worried he'd get smushed. So I put on my hazards and drove behind/side him. I tried calling him but that just made him run faster. I think he got out during the "storm". I didn't notice a storm, but I'm not a wee doggie either.

I collected a small group of cars behind me, but the pup cut across the road in front of me and ran into the grass. THEN everyone got off of my bumper. Cuz there's no reason a woman is driving slow with her hazard lights on, huh Virginia? *grumble* I hope the poor thing gets home. I was just scaring him the more I tried to call him so I figured getting him off the road was the best that I could do.

I have seen footage of Va Beach and I hope everyone there and in the surrounding areas are doing okay. Looks like fun! We have some light rain here. I think we'll be fine. :)

Oh and I'm slowly getting over my cold. Lily keeps on begging to share my food but I don't dare. It's hard to put up with her badgering me but I know that pales in comparison to taking care of a sick kid. :/

Day 10

Well, it's a little hard to concentrate with the cold and lack of sleep. No, it's not Madi's fault this time. I'm so miserable when I go to bed and that it takes me hours to fall asleep. :P

So Madi had speech training today. They never tell me much about that so I'm guessing it doesn't go so well.

Miss Janice worked with teaching Madi to use a spoon and apparently they had a fight so Madi screwed up her mouth into a pout, then squeezed her eyes shut. When the tears didn't come she opened up her eyes and laughed at her teacher.

She might be worse than Lily!

Day 9 or something

Ugh. We're all coming down with colds. I think I'm in the middle of mine. I still went for a run. 2 miles on toast and coffee is pretty good. I usually try to hydrate but I just didn't care. lol

Gosh, I'm trying to remember what the teacher told me about Madi. She had OT today and hated it. The OT came back to work with another child and Madi kept on throwing her side looks to make sure she wasn't coming back to work with her.

She is seriously a character.

At home, she likes walking around me on the floor. Last night, she started stepping over my legs. She was successful about 80% of the time. That's terrific because think of the effort involved in standing on one leg while you lift the other one over. :) Her gross motor skills are vastly improving. We're still waiting on speech and play. Fingers crossed.

The Characters

Both girls kill me. They both have their own quirks. Oh geez. I'm not sure how I'm going to do this now. lol Pictures are all over my screen! I'm not sure I want to know what was happening in this picture....




Lily and I were shopping at Target. She was tired and wanted to sit in the cart and I didn't mind because then she can't run around on me. However, we had a lot of bigger stuff to get so we started running out of room. *snort*














Madi was not really interested in waking up this morning. I think that she slept okay. It's hard to know because we're all coming down with something. I will even hold off going to the gym today so I give myself a chance to get over it. Maybe I'm kind of itching to go, even if it's only for 30 minutes. Sigh.













I finally got Madi's hair cute for her picture today. I didn't order any of the pics. They take pics again in the spring and maybe I'm an old grouch but school pictures don't start til they're in elementary school. Also, I remember we always got class pictures. Weren't those the bomb???













Yes, that's Madi's classroom. It's kind of big for only 4 kids. Madi loves it though. I got a picture of her just before she pulled everything out of the kitchen and threw it on the floor. She throws it all over her shoulders. She reminds me of Henry the 8th. Hoo boy.














And here's my poor girl Lily. I told her that there's a hurricane on the way. Since she's terrified of storms, I thought that giving her a heads up would help. Not so much. She had to make sure there weren't any hurricanes before she'd run out to the store. You try to do something nice.... Sigh.

Day 8

I have a head cold so this will likely be brief. Luckily I survived Pedro's illness last night. How did I survive it? I find men notoriously sissy-like when they are sick. Or at least Pedro can be. There I diplomaticked it a bit.

So today Madi refused to let Miss Nae carry her back from the cafeteria and walked all the way back on her own two feet. Yay! Later Miss Nae told her no and Madi spun around, flipped her hands up and gave her a LOOK.

She cracks her teachers up. She is a pistol but she's also even tempered, if that makes sense. She'll do what you ask but she'll let you know how she feels about it. *snort*

I do have some cute pics from this morning to put up. I hope I remember. Hopefully today I can get a nap without an earthquake interrupting me. *eyes*

Day 7 and hoo boy am I tired

Madi worked with the PT and OT today. Everyone is pretty happy with the progress she's making - as it's related to walking and climbing.

She still holds back in social situations.

Ugh. I must have a sinus infection. My head is killing me. Sigh.

Day 6

I apologize up front for any typos - mama's halfway through her moscato!

Madi really paid attention to her surroundings as we went through school to her classroom. The teacher said that Madi's been paying a lot more attention to pictures during story time. yay! She's being drawn out into the world. :)

They played in the "rice" box today. It's filled with uncooked rice and beans. Madi, of course, flung fistfuls of both over her shoulders. It's okay, Miss Janice has a cordless vacuum cleaner. :)

I didn't really get a chance to nap today - maybe 15 minutes? Between, Lily and the cats.... phew I really don't know what to do about Madi. Pedro and I keep on switching off so neither one of us is too tired. :/ It doesn't mean we feel great, just that we can struggle through our days.

SIGH

It is great seeing Madi progress. I just can't wait for more!

Oh and Lily found some of Madi's "art" projects. I held my breath because I was sure a meltdown was imminent but she asked me if Madi made them for her and I smoothly lied and said "yes". So all was well.

Lily starts school in 2 weeks. Can't wait!

Day 5

Madi was good today. All the boys were crying off and on but Madi was the rock of good-naturedness. :) I'm starting to think about her lunch now, when I make dinner, so she got leftover pasta for lunch and she LOVED it! She didn't even throw much of it. :)

We were playing with her last night and she did a move I'd never seen. Slapped one hand against another and then slid it. I told her teacher and she said it sounded like Madi was trying to do the sign for stop. Lily and I did kind of come up on her fast. So how awesome is that?

They let me know that this week the therapists have been taking it easy with them but next week the kids will be worked hard. Oh boy.

Madi crashed again on the way home and since she kept us up half the night....

The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers

Well, I'm off to put some nail polish on Miss Lily's toes. Wish me luck - I've had a big glass of Moscato. wheee!

Day 4

I don't have to do things in order if I don't want to.

Wow, I reminded myself of someone....

This morning, Madi cried when I left. The TA said that the honeymoon is over. She's starting to realize that this is an everyday thing. Also, another little boy in her class always cries when his mommy leaves so.... They teach each other all their bad habits. :)

Madi's area at the lunch table looked like a tornado went through it. They used a new chair for her, one that forced her upright and held her more in position and she was ticked off at them for that. *snort* So she took it out on the carpet. :)

They do say she's a character. Miss Janice tells her to do something and Madi screws up her face like, I don't think so. The PT was there working with her again today. She's getting such great care. :)

They told me she says "ow" now whether she falls down or not. lol!

It's still a learning process for me. I know not to leave ANYTHING for the next morning. I make sure her bag has everything in it - except for her lunch box because the perishables are packed up but in the fridge. WHEW And soon, I'll be making snacks for Lily too! GAH

First Day

Apparently, Madi wasn't all that enthused about the hand painting as the TA almost got a hand print on her face. Madi might be small but she's scrappy. :)

Day 3

... of school and Madi really seems to be taking to it. She's there from 8:30 til 12:30. We might add in a nap later, we might not. I mean, once Lily is going to school it won't really make sense to have to drive out again later in the afternoon to get Madi.

hahahahahaha I told Lily that I would protect her piece of chocolate cake for her. WHAT. A. FACE. She must know me well or something.

Let's see, today Madi got blueberries with her lunch and proceeded to throw them everywhere. When I came to get her the TA was sitting right next to her with her hands up, ready to catch blueberries. *snort*

She does well in circle time, as long as the teacher doesn't stop singing. We've noticed that she's vocalizing a lot more. Not words but different sounds and intonations. It sounds like she's trying to talk. Sorta.

I've been working on the back deck, trying to make it more of a peaceful oasis for me. When it's cool enough, Lily and I light the citronella candles and sit outside. Me with a big glass of wine.

I'll be honest - it's been a lot easier without Madi in the mornings. I know she's getting great care and she seems to like it. She's not grouchy or crazy. The only thing is that she doesn't sleep like anyone thought she would. Yesterday, she had one 20 minute nap and that was it until 10pm. I'm keeping her up later because we had that awful night when she went to bed at 9. She just doesn't need that much sleep!

And I need to take a pic of Madi's first day at the school photo. The teacher and the TA made them. It's so cute!

Big Day

So some of you already got the news...

The Genetics department, after 2 months, finally called me with the results of Madi's test. She has a minor deletion on Chromosome 5. It's an area associated with Cris du Chat, or cry of the cat because of the noise they make as babies.

Now.

She has a very small piece missing so she does not have CdC but it explains her learning delays. And her small head. And her low muscle tone. But CdC can be quite severe, and a major chunk of Chromosome 5 needs to be missing. So phew.

She will not have any physical problems due to abnormalities, no heart defects, etc. So phew.

It kind of caught me off guard because all of the specialists were pretty sure there was no genetic anomaly.

hmpf

Anyway, she's already started school. ECSE Early childhood special education? She works with an OT, PT and a speech therapist. Pedro and I have noticed her making more vocalizations already.

I spoke with Madi's doc, who is wonderful, and she said I'm already doing all I can. She's in a great program and time will tell where her delays lie. or lay. I never get that right.

Yay!

Wow I'm tired so please excuse any really bad typos. Funny ones are okay.

So we finally met with Madi's teacher yesterday. The meeting was changed two times and I was wondering if we were ever going to get in there. She's still eligible for school and she starts on Monday. I have a lot of stuff to get her. Due to their ages, the school is very fluid on how much of the day they're there. I think most kids are gone by lunch time. But we'll see what happens. It's fine for this month, but next month I'll have to coordinate with when I pick up Lily!

Gah!

Speaking of Lily, she was the best yesterday. I told her what we were doing and that I needed her to be on her best behavior. I also brought my iPod so she could play games but still. :) She was great. She helped me, sat quietly and was just a really good girl for an hour and a half! I was so proud of her. :)

I'm trying to think of what else is going on... Lily seems like she's over her virus although her throat still looks all lumpy. I really hope Madi doesn't get it but I caught her drinking out of Lily's sippy cup last night so... We'll see what happens. The doc did say that Lily's extremely contagious. I guess that's what you get with viral strep throat thingies. :(

I guess that's it. I'll need to buy back to school stuff for Madi this weekend. Wheeeee!