Top Notch Kid

Yesterday morning Rex figured out how to spin a top.  We hadn't had this toy out in a long while and when I handed it to him again after that period, he almost instantly knew how to work it.  I remember a time when he wouldn't have had a clue what to do with it and also a time when he could rotate the top between his fingers but not let go.

Today I captured this little video of Rex, mostly for his Oma who gave him the top as a present and his OT who will be excited to see the fine motor progress.  By the look on Rex's face, this new skill is already an old hat.  Nonetheless, he's my top notch kid, learning all the time.

IAC 227 Results

The following referrals were issued in IAC Session 227 which was held on July 10, 2012:

1) Italian dossier from September 2009 referred a female child aged 6 years and 4 months

2) Spanish dossier from January 2011 referred a waiting child (#1704) with a profile on the MOJ site

3) French dossier from March 2011 referred a male child aged 7 years and 8 months with a family history

4) Italian dossier from June 2011 referred a waiting child (#1638) with a profile on the MOJ site

5) Swedish dossier from November 2011 referred a waiting child (#991) with a profile on the MOJ site

6) Italian dossier from November 2011 referred a male child aged 8 years and 6 months

7) US dossier from November 2011 referred a brother and sister, aged 3 years and 5 months and 2 years and 3 months, with features in health status

8) US dossier from March 2012 referred a waiting child (#1157) with a profile on the MOJ site

9) Italian dossier from June 2012 referred a waiting child (#1617) with a profile on the MOJ site

10) US dossier from July 2012 referred a waiting child (# 1534) with a profile on the MOJ site

11) US dossier from July 2012 referred a waiting child (#1673) with a profile on the MOJ site

12) US dossier from July 2012 referred two waiting children (#357 & #3) with profiles on the MOJ site

13) US dossier from July 2012 referred a waiting child (#1671) with a profile on the MOJ site

14) US dossier from July 2012 referred a waiting child (#1728) with a profile on the MOJ site

Snickerdoodles

It may come as a surprise, but for someone who experiments in her kitchen as much as I do, I had never made snickerdoodles.  A few days ago, I finally baked my first ever batch as a treat for good friends who had a very rough start to their week.

The cookies turned out great and even Rex gave his stamp of approval by eating two.  And trust me, Rex is not a sweets person and has been known to turn down a cookie, so this is high praise from my little guy.

Picture Of The Day

My Guys

Summer Camp 2012

As of Friday, Rex has completed two weeks of day camp at his preschool. We were using camp as a transition to get him familiar with the classroom, the approximate daily routines, the teacher-therapists, the pools, the playgrounds, and the other kids.  He really did very well while at camp and had some wonderful opportunities for learning.  Outside of the daily swims and crafts and circle times, a visit from the zoo with animals allowed Rex to pet a colorful bird.  He was able to touch a real life digger and a snow plow.  And he met his first fireman, too.

As a mother, it felt quite surreal to me to be opening up my son’s backpack at night and pulling out little projects and teacher’s notes.  These were the first ever:

Even though Rex handled his time at camp very well, we did see him struggle with processing the changes at home.  As we expected, there have been some behavioral regressions in regard to throwing tantrums and auto-aggression.  Fortunately, it’s all been very manageable, but it’s still tough to see your child go back to something you thought he had overcome.  We are confident that once Rex finds his new groove in the school year, he will not feel the need for his old familiar patterns of handling frustrations, anger, anxiety, and overstimulation anymore.

Rex has also been very clingy to Craig and needed much physical and verbal reassurance from us, so we have been cuddling for hours and talking about families and home and how we will always be together.  We have repeated many times over that Rex is our son forever and that we love him and that we will always come back for him.  We have also allowed Rex to sleep in our bed for a few nights again which seemed to help a lot.  Once we decided to do so, we saw an immediate difference in his morning mood and cooperation with getting ready for camp.  As the camp days went on, Rex also came home with a better attitude and less need for sensory regulation.  He is truly a resilient child and quite adaptable.  My baby boy is growing up.

Now we have two more weeks at home before the start of school on September 4.

Emilia - Thirty-Nine Weeks Home

Today marks thirty-nine weeks home for Emilia.

Let’s start with the heart because a few days ago we had Emilia's big cardiology appointment.  The echo revealed that while her VSD is very small, it is impacting her aortic valve, causing a tiny leak.  At the moment, this is trivial and does not require any treatment, but she will eventually have to have a one-time surgery to correct the problem.  Until that time comes (when the leak gets to a mild/moderate stage), Emilia has no restrictions and needs no meds, but she has to be monitored every six months.

While Emilia was under anesthesia for the echo, we also had an ABR hearing test administered. Since she is not speaking, many doctors and service providers have been pressuring us for this test.  I knew her hearing was fine, but this was a great opportunity to be certain.  Sure enough, Emilia's ears work perfectly and her brain stem is receiving auditory signals in a clear and organized fashion, so she passed the ABR with flying colors.  The audiologist told us that she cannot discern with the ABR what happens to the auditory signals once they move past the brain stem.  Those kinds of things can only be tested when a child has attained some level of language.  The audiologist did make an interesting observation though. She asked us how long Emilia has been home and we told her nine months.  She then said, "Well, her orphanage background might mean that she had little to no input for speech development for the first two years of her life. So, right now, she is like a 9 months old when it comes to speech.  She's babbling, imitating some sounds, listening, responding to noises, blowing raspberries, etc.  That's all normal for a 9 mo old.  A one year old will say about 3-4 words, so I expect you will see that soon unless she has some kind of auditory processing disorder."  Fingers crossed she’s right on this one.

Emilia has enjoyed some one on one time with me while Rex has been at summer day camp (more on that soon).  She did miss Rex a lot on those first days home without him, but adjusted quickly.  That said, she gets very excited when her big brother gets back in the afternoons.  Since Emilia and I have had more time, we have been working on inset puzzles, shape sorters, reading books and verbalizations.  It’s slow going, but she is not quite as resistant to it all as she used to be.

In recent weeks Emilia has finally started finger-feeding.  For now, she seems to be limiting herself to a variety of crackers and shortbread for this undertaking.  Last night I offered her some pizza crust and while she clearly wanted to taste it, she did not want to touch it, so sensory issues are playing into her finger-feeding progress as well.

As always, our little girl is so happy and marching to the beat of her own drummer.  One of the meanings for the name Emilia is “industrious” and I recently told Craig that we chose well.  Emilia is like a tiny ant, always on the move, always after something, always looking, carrying, exploring, laboring over her own small endeavors.  She is, as her name and middle name attest, our industrious pearl.

Singin' In The Rain

Okay, so they weren't singing, but Rex and Emilia did have a great time playing in the rain in Evanston, Illinois.  They both have such a zest for life.