This Morning's Meeting

Hi guys! Sorry I've been away from here the past two weeks.  After my last post the weather just kind of kept on being crummy and it sort of bummed me out, and so blogging didn't appeal to me at all.  Then last week was spring break for the kids (and Josh) which meant that blogging, once again, didn't really appeal to me.  But now the weather is FINALLY getting more "spring-like" and the boys are back in school, so now I am back to blogging.

 

 

Today I had our yearly meeting to go over Zeke's IEP (Individual Education Plan).  I met with Zeke's case worker, his speech therapist and his teacher to discuss how he's been doing and what would be the best course of action for him for the rest of this year and next school year.  Side note: what I didn't realize before scheduling this meeting is that due to the way his IEP was written, he had been labeled "Special Ed".  I have no issues with that label, and it makes sense given how much help he needed in preschool and kindergarten.  I just didn't realize he'd actually been labeled that. I only mention this because at today's meeting, it was decided that he should no longer be classified as "Special Ed".  We figured if he wasn't getting any of the services associated with that label, why label him that any more?  He still qualifies (and NEEDS) speech services so he'll continue to work with the school's (wonderful) speech therapist twice a week.  But he's doing really well, and his teacher said he's exactly where he should be as a first grader, so I'm happy.

 

Now, I was going to write how I got a pleasant surprise during the meeting when Zeke's case worker told me that he'll still get bus services to and home from school, since he'll still be getting services at the school.  I was going to say super pumped I am about that because busing the boys is SO much easier and convenient for me.  However, as I was about halway through the above paragraph, Zeke's case worker called and said that she had misspoken and he does NOT, in fact, qualify for busing next year. Dang it! Now I'm sitting here wondering if that will go into effect this year, once his new IEP is written, or if it'll go into effect starting in September with the new school year?  Only because if the military was in charge, they'd go with ending his busing services as soon as "technically" possible. I put a call in to the case worker.  Hopefully she'll get back to me on that soon, because the more I think about it, the more I can see it happening either way.

 

Anyhoo! To recap, no more "Special Ed" label, but he still needs speech. He really has come such a long way and I am so proud of him.  Maybe we will be completely IEP free by the time we move from NJ, like I hope?

Of All the Places!

Sorry for the break in posting there.  Josh actually had a few full weeks at home.  But he's gone again now, for practically the entire month of October, so buckle up because there's going to be a pretty steady flow of posting coming at you.

 

I'm starting with Back to School Night.  A few weeks ago we went to B2SN at the boys' school.  It's always nice to hear good things about your kids. Apparently both boys are adjusting well, and doing great things in school already.  Both teachers seem really nice and I'm excited to see how this year goes.

 

I think I posted this in the first day of school post, but when I picked up Deacon after his first day of his school, his report of the day was that "kids called out and didn't stay in their places."  I bring this back up because when we were talking to Zeke's teacher she said that on the first day Zeke was SO EXCITED to be back at school that he had a hard time staying in his seat and kept calling out.  Deacon would have been SO embarrassed if he knew his own brother was behaving in the manner he found so abhorrent in his classmates.

 

By far the funniest thing we saw that evening though was a display outside of Deacon's class.  It was labeled "Oh the Places You Will Go" and there were pictures of each kindergartener and they named a special place they went over the summer.  A bunch of kids had Hershey Park on their carts, one kid had China (whaaat?!) and Deacon, well, Deacon put this:

 

 

The commissary?! Really, Deacon?! THAT'S the special place you went over the summer?  Oh son, you are a funny kid.

 

In speech news, we met up with Zeke's speech therapist and she was amazed at how much his speech improved over the summer.  Of the 7 goals she has for him for the year, he's already mastered 4 of them!  I also got a call this morning from the school's speech pathologist who let me know that Deacon needs a little help with his phonetic skills, so she'll be taking him (and a few other kids from his class) out of class for 20 minutes a day to work with them for as long as they need it.

 

Otherwise, both boys are loving school.  Deacon was so pumped to have homework the other day he insisted on doing it as soon as he got home.  He wouldn't even eat lunch first.  Zeke, on the other hand, is all, "I'll wait until you're making dinner to do it."  And I'm loving having Deacon in school.  This past week he's walked to bus stop with me, holding my hand the entire time, instead of running ahead like the other boys do.  And when I pick him up, each and every day, he runs and tackles me, saying rather excitedly, "MOMMY! I was missing you today!"  Really makes a girl feel good ya know.

 

But now my oldest is asking me to sit and read with him, so I'm going to go ahead and take him up on that.  Especially since the other boys are playing elsewhere in the house rather nicely.  Toodle-pip y'all!

Finally, Some News Worth Sharing

It's been a week here in Trailerville. Way too early Monday morning Josh left for Arizona for 3 days on his first "business" trip with his new job here. And, of course, it rained 2 of the 3 days he was gone. This meant having to find alternative ways to spend our mornings instead of going to the playground.

So, I used those rainy days to register Zeke for school, and yes, it took me both days to get it all figured out and settled. Monday I met with the school liason lady and she was very little help. So i went down (keep in mind I have all the kids with me) to the school I thought Zeke was going to be attending and could only find a 3rd grade teacher who told me I had to go to the board of education building in a completely different part of the...area of New Jersey we're in. (I would say a completely different part of town, but it was in a different town. And it's not like it was super far, just kind of out of the way in a little place.) By this point though, all of us were tired, hungry and cranky, so we went back home.

Tuesday we headed back out and met with much success. I found the board of education building (which is WAY closer to our trailer than it is to the elementary school we were at on Monday). I was originally told that Zeke was going to have to have a physical here because the school wouldn't accept his physical from Alaska because he HAD to be seen by a doctor in the TriCare Remote system. I was also told they probably wouldn't accept his birth certificate since it's from Germany. But I went down there with what I had anyway and it all worked out. Since his physical was done in January they were more than happy to accept it, and since I also had his passport with me (even though it is expired) they accepted his German birth certificate. Of course, his passport was made when he was born so his picture is from when he was 6 weeks old. The secretary and I had a good laugh over this.

Here's where things get somewhat exciting. One of the main issues I was having with trying to decided what kindergarten to put Zeke into out here was his IEP. His IEP is written for a full day kindergarten since that's what they have in Alaska, and Alaska is where it was written. I was told that the base has a wonderful full day kindergarten, but they don't have any services (speech/OT/the things he NEEDS). The elementary school that the base sends their kids too has a kindergarten with a wonderful speech teacher, but it's only a half day school. And it was made to seem that these were my only 2 options.

A little side note here that will come into play later, there is an elementary school essentially right outside the back gate of the base (Dwyer is it's name). It is literally a 5 minute drive, if that. Yet, for a reason unknown to everyone I've talked to about it, they send the kids to a school that is on the other side of Route 80, a good 10 or so minute drive (O'Brien). Why? Anyhoo...

So, as I was handing in Zeke's paperwork on Tuesday, I explained about his IEP being written for a full day kindergarten and yadda yadda, and the secretary said, "Oh, then he can go to Dwyer." Hubba what?! That's the school that's 5 minutes away. That's the school that made me so excited about Zeke maybe going there when I first saw it. That's the school that made me feel bummed and confused when I found out it's NOT where the kids from base go. AND, he still gets to ride the bus! Of course, I could drive him if I wanted to, but I know how much he loves the bus, so yeah.

And since it is a full day kindergarten, they call it a "transitional" kindergarten, meaning he'll be in a classroom where all the kids have IEPs. It'll be the same cirriculum as a "regular" kindergarten, and he'll still move on to 1st grade next year (if he's ready), but there are extra aides in the class, so he'll get more help and all the services he'll need and require. So, now I'm super excited. God totally had all of that under control, and I just let myself stress out over things He was already working on. I really should learn that lesson some day.

Also, as I was trying to get things together on Monday for Zeke's school, one of the things I needed was a letter from the housing office stating what our address was going to be and that we do, in fact, live on the base. So, while I was at the housing office getting this letter, the housing lady told me that she was doing final inspections on our place this week and "fingers crossed" our place would be ready to move into any day next week we wanted. So, on Tuesday, after I got Zeke registered for school I took a little leap of faith, if you will, and called the movers to schedule them to bring us our stuff on Wednesday (it's the earliest they could get here), even though we wouldn't hear until tomorrow whether or not our place was going to be ready.

Well, Josh got the call today(!) and it is good. to. go. He will go in on Tuesday and sign the lease, then the movers come Wednesday and we will be out of this trailer and into our own "big home". Yay! I'm not sure when we'll have a home phone number, but our cell numbers are staying the same (for now at least). I have the address and if anyone would like it let me know and I'll send out a mass email/facebook mail some time...soon-ish.

Now, if we could just hear back about whether or not they're going be having the preschool class I want Deacon to be in we'd be all set. But hey, 2 out of 3 is very, very good. Thank you, Lord.

Plugging Away

Let's see...where were we...ah! Water in the bathroom from a leaky sink. So, the rest of the weekend went fine. Deacon was super tired Sunday morning and actually fell asleep during children's worship....lol. But that's about it for the weekend.

Monday morning the plumber came. He was able to get here and get the jobs (yes, jobs as I noticed the faucet in the tub was also leaking this weekend) done before Zeke got home from school, but he got here at just the right time so I wouldn't have enough time to go food shopping with just the little two before he showed up. But it's all taken care of, and he was very nice, and we got the food shopping done after naps. I guess that worked out well too since it allowed Zeke to pick out his own summer jammies, which he is totally pumped about. So much so that when we were checking out, he put them on the belt and said to the 16 year old (male) cashier, "These are my new superhero jammas!" And the kid, being sweet, said, "Wow. Those are cool. I want a pair." Which, just made Zeke's day.

Yesterday was our anniversary. Eight years. I spent my day doing laundry, vacuuming, hacking away at more ice, you know. While I was making dinner Finn got into one of the cabinets and broke some of my dishes. No one was hurt, and they're just dishes, so it's fine, but I really did like those dishes. Josh says it's one less thing to pack when we move. I say it's one more thing I get to buy when we move.

Today I had a "transistion to kindergarten" meeting at the elementary school Zeke would be going to if we were still going to be here in the fall. I'm a little sad now he won't be going to school here as all the ladies we met (the kindergarten teachers, the speech therapists, and the occupational therapist) were super nice. The special ed teacher had actually met Zeke before and was SO bummed we were moving. "You mean, I won't get to have Zeke next year? He's just so sweet and I just LOVE him already. I'm so sad now." I think she put that out there 5 or 6 times in the 40 minutes I was there. But, we had to have the meeting as a formality, plus this school is where his paperwork will be should we need anything in the future. Zeke's current teacher also went through the paperwork with me and went over all the guidelines and suggestions she made to help him do well in kindergarten next year. So, hopefully, all of her hard and wonderful work will help and he'll be good to go when we get to New Jersey.

Aaaaand the hubs is calling so I'm off. Caio!

More Speech News

I guess it was about 2 weeks ago now, that I went in to Zeke's school for a meeting with his teacher, his SP (speech pathologist), and the school's OT (occupational trainer) for Zeke's yearly IEP (individualized education plan) review. Normally, it's just his teacher and SP, but a few weeks before two weeks ago (so maybe a month ago?) Zeke's teacher sent home an "invitation" to meet with the school's OT because they think Zeke needs some more help with some of the physical components of his life. I met with the OT, she explained her concerns, told her to go ahead and test him to see if he'd qualify for OT, and then met with the 3 ladies to discuss how Zeke is doing.

So, how is Zeke doing? Great in some ways, still behind in others. He does qualify for OT, which is what the meeting started with. Basically, Zeke has a "hard" time with things like buttons, as well as how he holds his pencil and how he cuts with scissors and the like. It boiled down to the fact that he does, in fact, have all the skills to do these things, but he has a weak grasp, so he's not doing them as well as he should be for his age. Since we've been focusing so much on Zeke's speech the past year, it's not altogether surprising to me that some of his physical skills would be a little behind. At the same time I'm also feeling like, really? There's something else? You know. But the OT said he's not that far off and it's just a matter of strengthening his hands and that he should really only need 3 semesters of work to catch him up - so by December.

Zeke also has a hard time transferring skills. For example, in the fall, he learned how to zip up his jacket. When it started getting colder, and I got out his winter coat, he had NO idea how to zip it. It was a different coat, so it required, in his head, a whole new set of directions and a new process that he had to learn. He can put his snow pants on just fine when he has jeans on, but when I had him put his snow pants on one day when he had brown pants on, he didn't know what to do because his pants were brown. It's really kind of interesting. So there's that.

After the OT, the SP took her turn. She said Zeke is doing great and has made so much progress. She said he's 95-100% intelligible, but still needs help with his grammar. His sentence structure and syntax make him hard to understand still. You can figure out all the words, but the order he puts them in makes them make no sense, mostly when he tries to make longer sentences. For example, instead of saying "I look just like Dad in this" he says something like "I am look Dad this". He also tends to put his adjectives after the words he's describing, like he's European or something. Instead of saying, "I want the purple hat" he says "I want hat purple". So, grammar is our main concern now.

As for how Zeke does in the regular classroom, he's great. His teacher did say he likes to rush through his work to get to whatever's next, but that's him. He is always looking to what's next, and planning things out 4 or 5 events in his head. They say kids thrive in consistency (or something like that) and it's so true of Zeke. He will get up in the morning and plan out his day step by step. It's really kind of fun. But otherwise, his teacher (as well as the OT and SP) say that Zeke is SUCH a joy to have in school. He's kind and helpful and sweet. Which, of course, every mother likes to hear about her boy.

So, to recap, Zeke is doing great at school, improving in leaps and bounds. He needs to work on his grammar skills, taking his time, and strengthening his hands. They love having him there, and we're all going to be sad when the school year is over and he doesn't get to go to school there anymore (which would be the case even if we weren't moving to NJ since he's not technically zoned for the elementary school he's currently going to). Zeke is a bright boy, a funny fellow, and just a great kid, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with as he gets and understands more and more.

My Boy

Zeke had his 5 year check up yesterday. I originally made the appointment early so that I could get him there, get him seen, and get him out in time to still make it to school. However, when I realized it was on a Tuesday, and that he's due to see the dentist again, and that the dentist only sees kids on Tuesdays at the clinic thing he sets up at the indoor playground on post, I changed the plan. Josh took Zeke in for his appointment, then brought Zeke to work with him where he was supposed to hang out until I got there with the other 2, to take them all to the dentist. However, when I called the dentist in the morning to make sure they were still doing the Tuesday morning clinic thing, the woman on the phone told me that they are still doing it but that the dentist is gone until February. So I called Josh, let him know this, and asked him to bring Zeke to school, which he did, because he's wonderful.

When Zeke came home from school I asked him how school was, and all he wanted to talk about was going to work with Daddy. He was so excited by that part of his morning, he talked about it all day long. Listening to him talk, you'd think it was the best 10 minutes of his entire life. But for those of you who are curious, Zeke weighed in at 41 1/2 pounds (50-75% for his age) and was measured at about 3 foot 8 (75%).

Now that Zeke's speech is really coming along, he says some of the funniest things. The other night I was teasing him and asked if he wanted broccoli or bananas with his waffles for dinner (yes, we have waffles for dinner sometimes). He looked at me and said, "Why don't we wait a little bit and then see where we're at." Zing! Nothing like hearing your own words coming right back at you. The week before Christmas we moved Zeke's speech lession from Saturday morning to Tuesday afternoon. It was dark out when we left, which is different from leaving and having the sun come out like usual. So as we exited the building Zeke said, "Hey! Who turned on the dark?" I laughed and said, "I don't know. Who did turn on the dark?" He replied, rather matter of factly, "Miss Kathie (his speech teacher) did it." There's also his way of making verbs like "picturing" and "teachering". Or when we had spaghetti two nights in a row (leftovers) he sat down and said, as he slapped his hand into his forehead, "We're having this again?" followed by heavy sighing and head shaking. Yeah, he's a funny kid.

He's also a big help around the house, and apparently at McDonald's. Today, I overheard a boy on the play equipment saying, "I need help" (he was having a hard time navigating the spiral staircase). Immediately after I heard Zeke say, "I will help you." As I looked up I saw Zeke take this little boy's hand and lead him up the stairs. He also chose to sit in the middle row of the car on the way to McD's last week so he could help Finn, should Finn need help with anything on the way, instead of sitting in the back row with his friend Evelyn.

Zeke is also starting to understand more about emotions. One of his new things that started last week is that, when he gets home from school he "slams" his hat and mittens into the bag we keep them in and says, "I'm angry." Or he'll stomp around the house, kind of grunting, and say, "I'm angry." He's never angry when he does these things, but he's displaying that he does understand what the word means. Yesterday he took it to a new level though. Since he was overtired from getting up way too early to go the doctor's, he took forever to decide which episode of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he wanted to watch. I told him if he didn't pick soon, I'd pick the one I wanted to watch. Well, he stood there and said, "Um...um...um...um.." so I played the one I wanted. He got all upset with me and went behind the couch and sulked. After a few minutes I said, "Are you okay, Zeke?" He said, "No. I'm mad at you." If it wasn't so cute and funny my feelings might have been hurt. He did eventually get over it, but he's said that to me at twice more since yesterday.

My sweet boy also enjoys the usual things like reading, coloring, trains, cars, trucks, balls, football, dragons, etc. To counter all the "boy" things, Zeke also enjoys a good princess movie. His current favorite is "Beauty and the Beast", although we did play "Enchanted" for them the other night, and he's asked for it a few times since. I saw it's because of the talking animals (or talking household [castlehold?] items) but I think it's the storylines. He gets so excited at the end when the prince and princess get together. I have recieved so many kisses when the prince and princess kiss in the movie, usually because he's so overcome with happiness and excitment himself.

He's such a great kid. And even though he does have "moments of attitude", and even though he does get a bit "over sensitive" about things sometimes, I'm having a lot of fun watching this boy grow up.

Speech News

It was suggested to me, one day, that I should look into bringing Zeke to a private speech therapist because he is so behind grammatically, that the speech teacher he sees at school will not be able to have him ready for kindergarten next year. I have to say I was a little crushed at first to hear that, but God has been so amazing at putting it all together that I know it was the right call. I was told to seek extra help in September, right before Zeke started taking the bus, actually. I got a list of private speech therapists from his speech teacher, and started calling down the list.

The first woman I got was not very encouraging. She said if I couldn't get our insurance to cover it (because those of us in the military know how trying TriCare can be sometimes) that it would cost $400 for an evaluation, then $150 or so a session after that. And that it would be about 4 weeks between his evaluation and his starting sessions, if she could find a spot to fit him into. So I kept calling. Eventually I got a hold of this lady, who was wonderful. She accepts our health care and said she's worked with them before so if paperwork ever starts to take too long, she'll help out. When I told her I was hoping to have someone come to our house because of the two little ones, she went online and looked to see if there were any options like that, then went on the TriCare website so see if any of those options were part of their coverage. Wow. She then told me what all she found and said that she does see kids on Saturdays and has at least one Saturday slot, but is working on getting a second one (she had a kid that was going twice a week, but really only needed to go once).

Totally enamored with this woman, I had Josh drop off all of the necessary paperwork at the clinic to get the referral process going. This is where I figured I'd have to wait forever. Josh dropped the paperwork off on a Tuesday, and on Thursday I got a call saying our paperwork had been approved and we should hear from the referral office within 7 to 10 days. The Wednesday following, I called the speech therapist and told her where things were with the paperwork, and how we were just waiting on the referral to come through. The next morning, her office called to say that they got the referral number and Zeke could start that Saturday morning! I have never seen anything involving our health insurance move that quickly. God is good. To top it all off, Zeke has been to see Miss Kathy a handful of times now, and LOVES her. He loves "speech school" just as much as regular school, and it's so great to see him so excited by it.

Look out world (and poor Finn), Zeke is on his way!

Maybe He Does Get It

One of the more frustrating parts of "speech delay" is when something's bothering the boys and they can't tell me what. If they're hurt, they'll eventually understand I want to know what hurts and provide the proper information, but if they're just sad or upset for some reason, the most I can get from them is "I sad." That makes it kind of hard to help them through whatever it is that's upsetting them. And besides repitition and providing possible answers as to why they might be sad, I am not sure what else to do, and I wonder why they just can't understand what I want from them.

However, this morning I overheard this conversation:

Deacon as Deacon: Hello Egg. What's wrong?

Deacon as Egg: I'm sad.

Deacon as Deacon: Ohh. You're sad? Why are you sad?"

Deacon as Egg: I'm sad because I'm hurt.

Deacon: You're hurt?

Egg: Yes. I cry now.

Deacon (as he gently pets the egg whisk): It's okay Egg.

It was seriously, too sweet and almost too funny. But it makes me wonder if he is starting to understand more about how to express what's wrong with him, you know, when something is wrong, and how to comfort someone who is upset (by the way, comfort is one of the new "word on the street" words on Sesame Street this season, and I'm linking to it because it's Jason Bateman, and I like Jason Bateman...anyway). It was pretty exciting for me. Then he and the egg went into the playroom and had a blast doing something that caused Deacon to squeal with delight and occasionally say, "Silly Egg!"

Silly Egg indeed.