First Day of Preschool!

Kiddo is enrolled in a preschool!
We've been on the waitlist for a while at one Christian preschool, all the other preschools in our area were either sketchy and I refused to have my child go there, or would not accept him since he is still not potty trained yet, or was a forty minute drive from our house.  BUT, God has provided an affordable Christian preschool....get this...right across the street from our neighborhood.  Yeah.  It used to be a day care that went out of business, and I kind of jokingly told the hubster it would be awesome if they made it into a preschool Kiddo could go to.  And they did!  A Christian one at that!

All of his therapy appointments through the county (twice a week speech, once a month physical and occupational therapy) will be occurring at his school.  This is huge folks.  A total answer to prayer.  I just have to take Kiddo to school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8-12 each week and he will receive his therapy by the therapists he's been working with since August right there at his school.  His appointments used to take me 20 minutes to get to, I'd wait around with Little Brother during the half hour appointment, talk to the therapists for a minute or so, then it'd be a 20 minute drive back.   But did I mention this is across the street from our neighborhood?    I strapped the boys in their double stroller and walked over one day to tour the school and get the paperwork and timed how long it took me.  Nine minutes.  Pure awesomeness.


Kiddo's first day of school:

Kiddo was so excited to pick out his Angry Birds backpack this past weekend.  This morning, on his first day, when I told him we were going to school he ran to get his shoes and his Angry Birds "kackkack".  He went into his classroom and immediately began playing, not even bothering to give me a wave goodbye.  No tears.  I was proud of him.

When I went to pick him up, (I'll admit I got there 10 minutes early, I was eager to see/hear how he did on his first day) his teachers said he did just fine.  That he had fun with the other kids, had a blast playing outside on their playground, and painted a picture.

So excited about the opportunities he'll have to learn and grow at his new school. :)

Oh, the Difference a Year Makes

Well folks, it's been remarkable the progress we've made in a year.  Feel free to relive the struggles, the progress, the busyness, and the victories with me as we go month by month through 2013.

January: Kiddo had only three "words" ('ow', 'uh' for up and 'uh uh' for no) but otherwise was silent.  My first post was about Kiddos' journey before 2013.  We also started fish oil supplementation which gave us some hyperactivity but more importantly, the beginning of him making sounds and attempting to imitate the sounds we asked of him.

February: I recorded Kiddos' first speech video of him working with our awesome speech therapist.  I'll be honest, sometimes when I get really discouraged with how far he still has to go, I watch that video again and remember how far he has come.  I remember how excited I was just that he was making sounds when we recorded this video.  I'm posting it here so that you can celebrate with me how far he has come. :)

March: Kiddo could imitate several vowel sounds and two consonant sounds, and could spontaneously say six words.

April: I initiated Operation Overcome Sensory Issues and began to see ah-mah-zing results.  :)  He is no longer bothered by the noise of vacuum cleaners or other loud noises as long as he has warning about them.  He is much less bothered by wind, and will let me wash his hair without screaming as long as water stays out of his ears and eyes.  Huge progress.

May: Kiddo started saying his animal sounds, his colors, and imitating sounds and words.  May 14th was also the first Apraxia Awareness Day, in which I shared the blog with the Facebook, Google+, and Twitter world.

June: Kiddo turned three. :)   We also started biomed--which really just entailed lots of research and introducing a few supplements other than fish oil.

July: Went to CHAMP Camp at George Washington University in DC, where we received the official diagnosis (severe Apraxia of Speech and a moderate receptive delay) and a week of intensive therapy with Ms. Katie and the fabulous Jodi Kumar.  During that week, Kiddo went from about 20 to about 30 words and learned how to make the "k" sound.  I made some awesome friendships with parents who could relate.  I then got to guest post about our experience on one of my favorite apraxia blogs.

August: Met with a DAN doctor to discuss nutrition and supplementation for Kiddo.  Celebrated Little Brother's first birthday.  Met a new friend in our area with apraxia, and started working with a new speech therapist.

September: Kiddo's vocabulary increased to about 100 words.  Check out the speech videos.

October: Missed a lot of speech therapy, but had lots of fun on two family trips out of state.

November: Finally got around to recording a video of Kiddo reading his sight words.  Yep, he can read!  Kiddo also started speaking in phrases which means we can now have conversations!  Whoo hoo!  Here's the video of him reading his words on his flashcards.

December: Kiddo now says about 300 words spontaneously, and is beginning to use two or three word phrases with prompting or spontaneously.


Overall, I'd say 2013 has been a very blessed year and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in 2014. :)