Pre-school is here

Josh has officially started to transition out of full-time ABA therapy.  He has been attending his therapy center for 1 1/2 years now and was there 5 days per week for all of 2010.  He has made tremendous progress, becoming one of the most social children there!  It is a good and a bad thing.  His progress is great, but he was starting to turn more to adults because a lot of the children there were not responding to his requests.  So, he gravitated to the adults who responded to him.

We discussed a transition plan with his therapy team for him to attend a regular pre-school 2 days each week and remain in ABA the other three.  After a lot of back and forth, I decided to put Josh in the pre-school program in our school district.  Basically, the services you get depend on the district you are in and the elementary school you route to.  The one in our neighborhood does not have a pre-school program, so we go to a nearby school.  They have a pre-k program for typically-developing children who qualify and they include the special education pre-k kids in the same classroom.  This seemed a good fit - Josh would be working with teachers who want him in their class (I had such fear of us getting rejected in many pre-schools!), he would be included in a regular classroom, but have the special needs support he needs.

He started a few weeks ago and I was so nervous that first day!!!  The special ed teacher was out sick and I thought all the prep work I had done was out the window when we were greeted by a substitute teacher.  Of course, he did fine and has been excited to return there.  He has done well going back and forth between his ABA school and new pre-school.  Slowly, he's starting to tell me tidbits about his day.

I am hoping to find somewhere Josh can attend in the summer 3 days per week, so we can go down to 2 days of ABA, then plan for him to be in pre-school 5 days per week next school year.  Next school year will tell us a lot and help us to plan for whether he can be in a regular kindergarten class or not.

We are still battling something with Josh's gut.  During the fall, he had high levels of clostridia, a bacteria.  We did a few rounds of Flagyl with amazing results in his behavior, skin irritation and night itching.  Unfortunately, there is still something else going on.  He has not slept through the night consistently since last June.  Needless to say, we are tired.  Sometimes, he wakes up aggitated for hours at a time.  Other times, he is itching all over his body, like there is no tomorrow.  I have logged everything we do to see if it could be tied to a food, a supplement, anything, but nothing consistent.

We sent off another stool sample to the lab which just came back.  There are new bacteria we haven't dealt with before.  Clostridia is still there, but in a more normal range.  No signs of yeast, which was our main battle the first year of treating Josh.  I have an appointment with his doctor at Thoughtful House tomorrow.  Once I learn more and the plan of action, I'll post about the new bacteria.  I'm hoping knocking these bacteria out will bring back night-time peace and remove the major tantrums that come and go.  That will make me a much happier person.  :)

Happy 8th Birthday, Emma!

A slight delay in posting, like a month, but who is surprised?  Had some pictures to find from earlier birthdays, and that is a side effect of having 2 kids with birthdays in the middle of the holidays! 

It's hard to believe it has been 8 years since I became a mother!  I had no idea how much my life would change.  I thought I knew what the word "love" meant, then God entrusted me to care for one of His angels.  I remember looking into Emma's eyes for the first time and I knew she came straight from God.  He picked her to be our first-born, to be the one to challenge us, to be the best big sister for Josh and Kate, to inspire us to be better people. 

8 seems like such a big age!  Emma is her own person.  She has her own style, her own personality, her own desires, her own way of doing things.  I am so proud of her!  She is the best big sister I could ever ask for. She seeks to do good and stand up for what is right.  She is smart and has a great sense of humor.  She loves to read books, do art (especially painting), watch football with her daddy, wrestle with her brother and read to her sister.  I knew I loved her from the minute I knew she existed, but I didn't know how much I would love being her mom!

Happy Birthday, Emma!  We love you more than you'll ever know!
Now, a trip down memory lane...

My, how the years have flown by...