Lots of.

So much wrapped up in the last 3 days.

 Lots of dr. visits. Lots of costumes. Lots of birthday wishes. Lots of music.

Lots of smiles. Lots of fun.

yes he is standing on the kitchen table. no I was not home.

{I have a picture of Owen's nasty finger but decided against posting it. It started showing signs of infection under the glue on Friday so we had to get him seen. Two dr. visits, a round of antibiotics and neosporin to dissolve the glue and it is looking much better now. Thank Goodness!}

everyday things

There seem to always be something we note as "wow that was a first" in our daily happenings together. So many lately it is hard to keep track of them all. So just as a catch up of ones we haven't posted in a while, here are my favorites lately...

Olivia
- She says thank you to EVERYTHING. Even tells Owen to say thank you from time to time.
- She is now starting to sing songs on her own without us singing along. It was the cutest thing as we drove home the other nite, I hear her little voice in the back singing twinkle twinkle little star and then switching over to ABCs.
- She is fully potty trained now. Even when we are out and about she tells us.
- She is starting to become helpful. I can ask her to get me something and she usually does it.
- Her vocabulary is amazing. With clarity to go along with it.

Owen
- Only 1 week of having the hearing aids and the changes we are seeing have been DRASTIC.
- We were at the dr.s office today and one of the nurses brought us to the room and asked us a few questions then went to get the dr. She said bye. Owen said bye. She shut the door. Owen turned to Jason and said "cute". Hmmm, I think we are a wee bit young for that one - eeek! (Jason and I were giggling pretty hard though)
- His coloring is getting more precise. He used to make huge strokes/the whole page. Now he is isolating the movement in a smaller area. OT homework is paying off!!!

We have some amazing kids.

pinkies sometimes get in the way

There is usually lots or running in our house. It is just what kids do. Well this evening we finally had an accident. I was on my way to the mall when Jason called to say come home Owen got hurt.
He was running around and tripped on something or just fell and somehow his pinkie got caught on something or ran into something. Lots of blood, lots of crying and a little pinkie finger that looked bent out of shape. So we rushed to the ER.
They got us right in and off for xrays. Owen did really well throughout the whole process. I however, got a little queasy a few times just looking at it. I won't go into all the gory details but let's just say the puncture wound ended up having a little bit of finger sticking out of it.

The xrays didn't show anything but the dr. could tell it was pretty badly hurt and the fingertip most likely broken. His nail as a very bad bruise underneath it and everything is pretty swollen. They gave the option of doing surgery to fix the nail. But they also said we could let it be and wait it out. But there will probably be some form of deformity when the nail grows back.

We also need to go see a hand surgeon to have them take a look at it as a follow up.

Never a dull moment around here! Guess we will be taking a break from our home OT exercises.

After 4 hours we finally got to go home and get some dinner. He is doing great now. Happy, doesn't seem to be affected by it too much. I just hope it isn't too painful for him tomorrow.



The kindgergarten process

Seems a little silly to be talking so soon about Kindergarten. After all we are still 10 months away.
But we have the benefit of IEP meetings so we get the extra special attention to these types of transitions.
Visits need to be done. Observations need to be made. Decisions to decide upon. That is our task for the next few months. We will have the official Kindergarten transition team meeting in April but we really need to determine what our plan is prior to that.

See things are a bit different for us. Thankfully we have options. Not all school districts have options. So we are the lucky ones.



The options are:

A. Send him to the neighborhood school. Our daycare neighborhood school as well as our own school both do not have any services available to help Owen 1-1 for tasks which would give him extra support in meeting his goals.

B. Continue for another year at the school he is at (they have a kindergarten program). It is 2.5 hours of school a day. He would be pulled out of the class to work on his goals. But he would be in the regular kindergarten classroom.

C. Go to a school in our district that has a special program for special needs and have him participate in a regular kindergarten class for a full day. This would give him opportunity to go back and forth between rooms based on what needs he would have. There would also be a para in the kindergarten room to help him with tasks as he needs it.

Option C is what we are leaning towards but I need to see for myself what it looks like. We like the idea that it is full day program so he gets more opportunity to participate in the kindergarten class.

I am thankful to be able to plan this far in advance to get the opportunity to do my homework. I know Owen would do great with any option. But we need to determine where he will be best. Nothing but the best for this boy!

The zebras are here!!!

The Zebras have arrived!
We decided to call the new hearing aids his "zebras". Its easier and more fun to describe them like that versus calling them his "ears" or his "aids" or his "speakers".
They fit perfectly.
He is adjusting really well to them.
We are already noticing improvements.

We went into the office on Friday to get them and learn all about them. Owen was a little hesitant at first to put them in his ears. I had to hold his hands down as he tried to block his ears. But once they were in, they were in. It was one of those moments that brought tears to my eyes. The look on his face was unforgettable. He could hear. We showed him the mirror and he kept turning his head to get a good look. And the way he was talking was like someone flipped a switch. His volume went up 5 notches and he wouldn't stop. Just kept making noises so he could hear himself. Then we made our way outside into the street with all the chaos of background noise and again he had this look of surprise. Like he had been missing out on all these sounds. He just kept gasping with eyes wide open. It was AMAZING!

 And now at home things are going really well. He has asked to take them out a few times and pulled them out a few times but he wore them for 90% of the day on day 2.

Tomorrow we venture to daycare and school.

From the front you can barely tell they are there.

Here is the side profile. We chose zebra print to make them fun. And the orange strap is attached to the back of his shirt so we do not lose them if he pulls them out. However, we were on a hunt for one of them today in his room. Lesson Learned already on how to attach the clip better!

A new phase

I often wondered if we would ever get past the constant fighting stage. And then one day they decided they could be in the same room with each other without everything being a battle. So we take this stage in baby steps as they get to know each others boundaries.
I love the days when they make little activities to do all on their own and they can play so nicely without adult intervention. One of the favorites lately is to lay on the steps covered in their blankies.

One of the best parts of watching them is their affection towards each other. They ask each other for hugs. If one is hurt or sad the other tries to comfort.

And then we get into the category of "big sister" for big brother. I have noticed lately on certain occasions Olivia doing things to help her big brother. The first time it caught me off guard. I wasn't expecting to see it so soon. But there it was. She was carrying his toy chair to the couch for him and says "Here you go Owen". It's probably just one of those simple things of kids helping kids. But it really hit me that this role shift will become more and more apparent as time goes on. But I know she will be a great helper for her brother. She's only 2 and does it with great pride.

Oh my goodness!

Picture this...Owen sandwiched between Jason and I in our bed with a big Toys R Us Holiday add on his lap. He was supposed to be napping like his sister but he is trying to ween off of that. So we went page by page. He looked at each page and pointed out different toys that caught his eye. He'd finish looking at a page and then say next page please. So I would flip to the next section of toys. UNTIL I landed on the page with this...

And the let out a huge gasp, put his hand on his chest and exclaimed "Oh my goodness". He proceeded to stare at this page for over 10 minutes. He didn't want to continue looking through the add. He found what he wanted.
He has been carrying this page around with him since he saw it.

It is very hard not to go out to the store and get this for him. It is the first time he has ever identified something he has wanted. But guess what he has a birthday coming up and Santa may already know this is on his wish list. He will have to wait.