Our first meeting

We had our first meeting yesterday with the school psychologist and speech pathologist yesterday, along with Kinsley's Early Interventionist. It mostly consisted of me answering questions and signing paper work. They did a vision and hearing screening on her also. She failed the hearing part of it so they are send her to an audiologist to have further testing done. At a very high decibel, she could hear the bird tweeting and put the block in the box as they asked her to do. However, as they lowered it a little and changed the pitch, all of us in the room could hear it through the headphones, and she wasn't even blinking her eyes. She made no facial expressions or anything. So, I guess we will add an audiologist to our group of professionals that see her. They also noted her voice being hoarse. It has been hoarse for several months now, but I was kind of trying to wait until her 3 year old checkup. However, they want me to go ahead and take her to an ENT because of possible nodules on her vocal chords. Anyway, they all agreed she needed the full evaluation, which will take place at the end of September.

My special little girl

I have known for a very long time, probably since birth, that something just wasn't the same with Kinsley as with the twins. The twins were born 2 months early, but yet, Kinsley wasn't even reaching milestones by the time they did. She wasn't way behind in rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, and other milestones, but even so, she did it later than most. At a year to a year and a half, she never babbled, and she had very little words in her vocabulary. At 2 she still had little vocabulary so her pediatrician referred her to a speech therapist. To make a long story short, the S.T. that did her original evaluation referred her to Baby Net. Baby Net did their own developmental evaluation and starting sending an Early Interventionist out to work with her. Both her Speech Therapist and Early Interventionist refereed her to be evaluated by an Occupational Therapist. So, yes, we are currently in 3 different therapies each week. When Kinsley turns 3, Baby Net will no longer cover the expenses of her services, which is ok. They are then turned over to the public school districts and start services at an elementary school they day they turn 3 if they qualify. When I was first told about this program, I declined the package and said, "No, I had rather keep her in her private pre school." Well, last week I got her 6 month evaluation from her Early Interventionist, and it really hit home....my child is developmentally behind, more so than I thought. Here are her overall scores: Cognitive: 22 month old level (33.24% delay) Receptive Language: 26 months (26% delay) Expressive Language: 23 months (30 % delay) Gross Motor: 25 months (26% delay) Fine Motor: 20 months (41% delay) - This one really boggles my mind. She can get out of her car seat, but yet she can't do the simple task they ask her to do. Social Emotional: 25 months (27 % delay) When I saw this, like I stated earlier, it really hit me hard. I starting worrying and was a little upset. No mother wants to hear things like this about her child. I then realized that maybe private school is not the right choice for her. Maybe she does need to be in a classroom with teachers trained to teach special children. With that said, I have my first conference with the school district tomorrow and a more in depth evaluation in September. I don't know if she suffered some mild brain damage from it taking so long to get her thyroid levels into a safe zone from birth, or if she has some other type of disability, or maybe she just needs a little extra help. Everyday she is showing more and more signs of mild autism and I've never even thought she could possibly have this until I read a high school classmate's blog about her 3 year son that was just diagnosed. I then started researching, and she indeed does have a lot of the symptoms. I'm not saying that's what she has because I have no idea. I have just been trying to research and try to find out as much information as possible. No matter what the outcome of the testing, how smart she is, how delayed she is, God has BLESSED me with this beautiful and very special little girl and I am so thankful he chose me to be her Mommy:)

4th graders

Wow....I can not believe my girls started their last year of elementary school. My babies are growing up way too fast.   Kelsey will have her official first day of 4th grade tomorrow considering she was sick the first few days of school.   She had been crying because she was in a lot of pain, so needless to say, she was faking the smile.
 

 

Potty Training

Up until about a week or so ago, Kinsley was absolutely TERRIFIED of the potty. I mean screaming and stiffing her body when you go to put her on it scared. I was ok with it and was in no hurry to potty train her. Well, I did have a goal to have her using the potty before summer was over. After all, she will be the last baby in the house unless, God decides otherwise considering there is about a 1% chance of me getting pregnant. So, on with the story... About a week ago, she decided the potty might not be so bad after all and wanted to sit on it with her toddler seat on it. So, we sat on the potty and talked about what should happen. Still, I was in no hurry and not getting my hopes up. The next couple of days she started wanting to sit on the potty all the time. In fact, she started climbing on the big potty all by herself. Then it hit me, whether I was ready of not, Kinsley was ready to be potty trained. A few days ago, while we were home, I put in her big girl panties and started taking her every 30 mins or so while we were home. We read books, turned on the water, sang songs, and even put her hands in warm water. Guess what...she finally PEE PEED. The child was SO EXCITED!!! The next day we did the same thing. She had several accidents, however, it made her realize what was happening. Today she has been amazing! Earlier I heard her yelling, "Mommy, I did it." I didn't realize where she was and I found her sitting on the potty smiling from ear to ear. She said, "I put pee pee in there." Of course her big sisters and I all jumped with joy and praised her and rewarded her. She has went ALL DAY with no accidents. Well, pee pee accidents anyway. She did poop in her swim diaper at the pool. She hasn't pooped in the potty yet. Hopefully soon. She has basically potty trained herself.

Gymnastics pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Official "Gym Mom"

So, it appears I am going to be a "Gym Mom".  My girls have been taking a 2 hour strength training class since September and at the time couldn't even do a cart wheel with their legs straight.  They received an invitation to try out for a competition "team", and out of 120 girls that tried out, only 26 made it. Guess who was 2 of those girls...Yep, Kelsey and Kaley.  I am truly amazed at how far they have come. So after talking with them and trying to make them understand what a serious commitment this is now only to themselves, but to the gym, their team, and to us as a family.  It's a big financial commitment as well, as I'm sure any competition sport is.  I am very excited in watching them grow and to see what the next year has in store for them as far as Gymnastics:)
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Developmental Delays

Since January, I have been told by several different "professionals" that Kinsley has some sort of delay. Me, as her Mommy, never saw any of this and have been overwhelmed with all the comments and concerns that have brought to my attention. To me, with the exception of her speech, her falling a lot, and the excessive drooling, she is a completely normal 2 year old. After hearing this stuff time and time again, I obviously start worrying, "Ok, is my child going to have learning disabilities, does she have something wrong with her brain, etc." I think because it took them so long when she was a newborn to get her thyroid levels down to a safe range, has affected her and caused this. The question is, "Will she catch up?" Honestly, I still don't see her as being that much different than other kids her age. Maybe I just don't see it because I'm her Mom. She had her speech evaluation back in December and of course she qualified for speech therapy. The speech therapist refereed her to a program called "Baby Net". They provide services to any child up to age 3 in SC that has a special need based on their testing. So, Baby Net sent someone out to my home to test her and she did poorly on the speech and language portion, the cognitive portion and another portion. They send an Early Interventionist out once a week to my house to work with her, mostly on her fine and gross motor skills. Kinsley looks forward to her coming and "playing with her." She love it. Her EI asked me if she had ever had an occupation therapy evaluation and I told her no. Later that week, her speech therapist asked me the same thing. She sent in for her an OT evaluation, and once again, she scored low on several areas. So now we have added OT to our weekly therapy. They are still trying to figure out the pattern with her "drooling". To me it is much worse when she is excited, nervous, or concentrating on something like working a puzzle. She doesn't even realize when she is doing it. She falls and trips a lot more than normal and she has a very high tolerance for pain. She will have blood running down her leg and she doesn't even realize it. She has a lot of sensory processing stuff going on too, but to me, that's normal. Maybe not to the extreme she takes it, but in some sort or fashion, it's normal. She has a very hard time following simple directions, especially 2 step, unless you walk her through it, which is something they are concerned about. Some things she catches onto very fast, such as learning shapes. She knows all the basic shapes, plus diamond, star, heart, etc. and caught on very quickly. But yet counting and colors she just can't grasp it. She is doing better on counting but no matter how much we work with her on colors, she just can't get it. It almost makes me wonder if she is possibly color blind. I could go on and on, but just needed to vent I guess. I question myself everyday and am trying to prepare myself that she may have some sort of learning disability. If she does, I do not think it's severe. No matter what, I do thank God for my little blessing and I accept her just the way she is.