Catching Up

I have seriously been lagging behind in the blogging world. I just realized that it has been nearly 2 months since my last post. So I thought, as I sit here waiting on John at therapy, this would be a great time to do a little catching up. But honestly, there hasn't been that much going on.

In August, our summertime nanny, Caitlin, went back to school. We really liked her and John LOVED her. She was exactly what we were looking for and worked perfectly with John. You could see how much she genuinely cared for him and that it wasn't just a job to her. Caitlin was a life saver to me this summer, because I think I might have gone crazy without her. She came to work 5 days a week at 1pm and stayed until we got John in bed. That was perfect because it gave me and John the whole morning to be together. But in the middle of August, it was time for Caitlin to go back to school. We knew we were going to miss her greatly, and we didn't have anyone lined up to take her place. So on her last night with us, we took her out for a nice dinner as a show of our appreciation for helping us this summer.  We were very sad to see her go, but hope she'll be able to work for us again during the holidays.  Here is a picture she took with John her last night.  Can you tell how much he loved her?

Just after Caitlin left, we had an interview with another potential nanny.  Her name is Kirstin and she is a student at the University of Houston.  We actually had two interviews set up and we weren't going to make a decision until we interviewed them both.  But when Kirstin got here and we started talking to her, we quickly changed our minds and decided to hire her on the spot.  So she has been working for us for about 1 1/2 months now.  She comes every afternoon when John gets out of school and hangs out and takes care of him until bed time.  She works an occasional weekend as well.  John has gotten very comfortable with her and really enjoys spending time with her.  She is a huge help to us also and we are very happy to have found her.

John has continued his Occupational therapy and is really making good progress.  The therapist seems to be really impressed with how quickly he is progressing.  He goes every Monday morning at 9:00 so he misses the first 2 hours of school.  But he is beginning to make better attempts at chewing some of the food she puts in his mouth and he is using his tongue better to move the food to where it needs to go.  If he keeps this up, maybe we'll be able to start introducing cheerios to him and continue to progress from there.  It will make a huge difference to us if he is finally able to eat solid food without me having to puree it first.  Oh I hope that day comes sooner rather than later.  He has also been approved to start Physical Therapy again, so I'm waiting to hear back from the coordinator so we can get him on the schedule.  She was holding the 10am spot on Mondays for me so he could do both therapies back to back, but I don't know if it's still open.  I'm sure hoping it is.

This weekend, 3 of my best girl friends from college came to town.  We used to make a point to get together at least once a year, but it had been 5 years since we were all together.  So we had a lot of catching up to do.  You know you have true friends when you can go that long without seeing each other and then pick up right where you left off.  We had so much fun together and laughed so much.  A weekend just felt like it wasn't long enough and it was hard to say goodbye to them.  But we are already thinking of our next get together and we sure won't let it take 5 years.  I have to say a great big thank you to my husband for taking care of John all weekend so that I could have the time with my friends.  It was exactly what I needed.

School is going very well for John.  I was a little nervous going in because I knew there were all new special education teachers.  But everything seems to be working out great.  First I found out just before school started that our school got a new nurse this year.  She was the nurse at Holland Elementary when John was there for PPCD.  She is fantastic and it was so comforting to have a nurse who was familiar with John and who is great at communicating.  Then, just a few days before school started, I met at the school with the new nurse, her assistant, both special ed teachers and the two teacher's aides that work with John in order to go over how to take care of his trach.  I showed them what the trach looks like and where I kept extra trachs in case his comes out.  I showed them how to clean the area and how to suction.  The teacher took detailed notes and the nurse wrote on some of the supplies so it would be clear how to use it.  This is John's 4th year in school, and they have maybe had to suction him 5 times and have never had the trach come out at school.  Well, after 4 years in school, it finally happened.  The trach came out while he was standing in his stander.  The best part about it is that the teacher noticed it immediately, which shows me she is paying attention, and the nurse came down right away and got a new one in for him with no problems.   The nurse called me after the fact to let me know what happened and then after school was out, the teacher called me as well.  So already the communication between me and the school is improved 100%.  Anytime I have emailed the teacher with a question, she has either returned my email that day or called to talk about it.  She is very involved and very invested in her students' education and that makes me feel 100% comfortable with John being there.  Tomorrow is John's ARD (or IEP meeting for those in Louisiana).  This is when we go over his current goals and either decide to keep them the same or change them to better meet his needs.  His Special Ed Teacher will be there along with his 1st grade teacher, his PT and OT, his speech therapist, his Auditory Instructor, and the diagnostician and a principal.  Because his teacher hasn't know him but for a couple of months, she asked me to come up this afternoon when school is out to meet with her before the ARD tomorrow.  She just wants to make sure we are on the same page.  I have to say that I feel very blessed to be in a school district who goes above and beyond to take care of our children and to make sure they are reaching their full potential.  I can't wait to see what the future holds for John through his time at school.

Waking up the first day of 1st grade.

Ready for school!

This coming weekend, John and I are going to Kinder.  My mom is going to Indiana to celebrate her brother's birthday, and my brother Jimmie and his family are coming to Kinder for Jimmie's 20th high school reunion.  So I'm going to help my dad keep the kids while Jimmie and Chrystal attend the reunion festivities.  I can't wait to see them and spend time with the kids.  It should be a fun weekend.

I think that about catches you all up on what's been going on over the last two months.  I started writing this while waiting on John at therapy, but concluded after I got home.  I will try and do a better job of updating the blog from now on.