Contacted Westerville Schools

So I finally contacted Westerville schools to see if I could get Adam into speech therapy through them.  We love Columbus Speech and Hearing but with a new insurance year and $70 a visit, I thought we would try something we're already basically paying for.  I emailed the special needs preschool secretary to find out how to go about getting an assessment.  The first red flag was "after the second screening...if your child is eligible, would write an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and get him ready to start school in our program”.  Umm, start school in your program?  So I asked if that just meant starting therapy through the school or actually taking him out of Central College and sending him there (Adam would NOT be happy about that).  She said normally the child would come to their school but they offered "itinerant" services where I could bring him to the ELC each week.  But I would be contacted by someone soon to discuss any questions I had.

Yesterday I got the call from Ms. O'Leary.  After asking some questions about Adam and his speech and development, she said she was sorry but his issues are too minor.  She said they could come and do a first screening if we wanted but she could pretty much guarantee there would be no second one and he would not qualify.  Apparently, much like the birth to 3/Help Me Grow Program, if your child does not have major delays, you don't qualify.   She said to try again through the schools next year once he is in Kindergarten but speech for preschool is only offered through special needs. As thankful as I am that his Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome has given us very few issues, it's still a little frustrating.  

Snowflake Castle

***I thought I posted this a couple of weeks ago but noticed it said draft so pretend this is Dec 9th***

Friday I took Adam to Snowflake Castle here in Westerville.  It used to be held at the Senior Center but this year they moved it to Everal Barn and Homestead to make it more like the elves workshop and Santa's home.  For $5, your child got to help the elves make a toy and get a picture with Santa.  When we got upstairs to the elf workshop, Adam was like "Is this all there is??"  I'm not sure what he was expecting - there wasn't that much at the Senior Center and this was way cooler. The kids got a choice to build a wooden castle, a wooden bear or a wooden train.  I thought the train was the best but Adam decided on a castle.  He was handed a grocery bag of parts and told to wait until an elf was free.  Once one was free (it was only a couple of minutes) we handed him our bag of parts.  The first thing he had Adam do was stamp the bottom (it smeared but I think it said Snowflake Castle, Santa Cringle, Elfin Mike).  Then he got out the power tools!  Adam got to drill some holes and hammer in some nails to put his castle together! It even snowed once while Adam was drilling.  Magical elf workshop!  Once it was complete, they had an area with smocks and paint to finish their creations.

After that, Adam spent some time watching the model trains.  That was always his favorite part at the Senior Center so I'm glad they were able to set them up here.

All that was really left to do was to check out Santa.  We walked over to the house.  There was only one other family in front of us so the elf went ahead and punched our ticket for the photo with Santa.  Adam was wavering (he really doesn't like Santa for some reason).  I told him I would stand next to Santa and he could stand next to me like we did for some of the Disney characters. Nope! He said he would rather go to the Santa at the mall.  So we headed home.  Halfway home, he tells me to turn around and go back.  I asked why.  He said he changed his mind and wanted to get a picture taken for daddy to give it to him for Christmas. (Aww - that's sweet!)  I explained that they were closing soon and by the time we got back they would say no because they were closing.  Plus, they already punched the photo spot on his ticket and they might not believe that we didn't already get our picture taken.  So - we may be going to the mall this week...

Bag of parts

Learning how to use the drill

Putting the nails in the drilled holes

Hammering

Painting

Done

Trains

Finished front

Finished back

Christmas Songs at School

Christmas party at school

Here is a video of Adam's class singing some Christmas songs.  Adam's lips are bright red from a chocolate and red sprinkled covered pretzel.

 

 

 

"Rudolph" Lego that he made without any directions

Olive right before she fell off the couch the other night.

5 yr check-up

Adam had his 5 year check-up today.  I brought in my assessment forms that his 2 teachers from school, his speech teacher, and Dave & I filled out.  Apparently he is pretty good at school. The only problems they have are him occasionally disrupting class and sometimes leaving his seat.  At speech, he never sits down but he gets his work done.  Based on their reports - no big deal.  Based on Dave and my reports, Dr. Niland would classify him as ADHD.  BUT - since it isn't across the board for everyone, she suggested going to counseling. Adam did display a lot of his "best" behaviors for Dr. Niland.  She said something to the extent of "this is a little more active than normal".  As I was trying to talk to her, he kept trying to jump off the exam table into my arms.  When I moved away, he started yelling at me and threatening to jump.  (Actually, I think he said I'm going to f-ing jump.  I told her how he has been into the f-bomb lately). She said, "Go ahead! It's only a 2 foot drop and if you get hurt, I'm a doctor!"  He jumped and was fine.  Then he stripped naked and she told me to ignore him because it was just attention seeking behavior.  Then he started to hit me.  At one point I was holding him trying to just get him to be quiet so I could hear Dr. Niland and he unzipped my sweater (I had a t-shirt under it) and he started kissing my boobs!  WTF?  So...she got to see a lot which I was actually grateful for.  She doesn't start discussing meds this young so we have a list of counselors to choose from.  Fun!

Another F-  story:  Yesterday, Adam and I were playing Shoots and Ladders.  After one of his turns he quietly said, "I really wanted to say freaking fucks."  I said, "WHAT?"  thinking I misunderstood.  He said it again, "I really wanted to say freaking fucks, but I didn't."  Well, Buddy, you just said it twice.  Maybe you should just keep it in your head next time.  I'm telling you, we do not say that word very often around here! 

Disney

We had a fun time at Disney last week.  I'm slowly weeding through the copious amounts of pictures and it's making me tired all over again.  The Magic Kingdom was open until 1 am every night but Friday (midnight) and Adam stayed up until at least 1:00 pretty much every night.  He was NOT happy to have to leave. As we were packing up our stuff Saturday morning, he said "I hate you Fucks!"  I had to turn around really fast so he couldn't see me stifle a laugh.   Thankfully Dave kept it together and gave him a stern talking to.  More on the trip later...

The Ear Doctor

Yesterday I took Adam to the ear doctor to see if there was anything we can do about his hearing loss.  The appointment started off with another hearing test.  When the audiologist finished, she said that the loss at 4000Hz was still there.  (Adam had said that the ringing had gone away almost completely so I was hoping the loss had too).  She said that Columbus Speech and Hearing had thought the loss was conductive (which would have meant there was some kind of blockage or something more physical causing the problem) which didn't make sense with his history of being noise induced.  I said that is why we were there because Lisa (the audiologist at CSH) said things seemed kind of weird.  Well, after doing her couple of tests, this audiologist said that it was sensory - meaning nerve damage and most likely permanent.  Great! 

We had to wait a little bit before seeing Dr. Ryzeman.  That gave Adam enough time to jump all of the couch and play with the chair that goes up and down in the exam room and just get crazy!  Once the Dr. came in, Adam started freaking out and putting his hands over his ears and wiggling around.  I had to restrain him so the Dr. could check his ears and heart.  Then I handed over my phone so the Dr. could talk to me with out a bunch of whining in the background.  He basically said that if we had come in soon after the noise exposure, he could have given Adam some steroids that would have stopped some of the inflammation that caused the damage.  Being nearly 2 months out, steroids wouldn't do anything now.  There's nothing that can be done for it.  His ear might continue to heal on it's own but it would be slow and could take a year. We are to follow up with our audiologist in 6 months and a year to keep an eye on it.  As for the tinnitus - Adam will just have to habituate to it.  He already has to an extent since he said he doesn't really hear it anymore at home but could hear it in the super quiet hearing test booth. 

Thankfully, the loss is only at 4000Hz and not the whole spectrum so there's no need to worry about hearing aids or anything like that.  We feel a little stupid for not taking him to the dr. right after but we both figured it would be like when you go to a concert and the ringing goes away shortly after.   Live and learn, I guess.

Smart Kid!

A couple of weeks ago, Adam got to spend the night over at Aunt Brelle and Uncle Stefan's house while I got to spend the evening at my 20th high school reunion.  As I was unpacking his backpack, I found a rock (well, actually I wasn't sure what it was at first because it didn't look like your usual rock).  I asked Adam if someone had given it to him.  He said, no, that he snuck it into his backpack!  I told him that that was stealing and we had to tell Aunt Brelle and find out (what and) whose it was.  I sent Brelle a picture and asked if it was something important because from Adam's initial description, it sounded like it was from a warmer or something. I later got out of him where he found it and Brelle figured out that it was part of Evan's rock collection.  Adam asked if he could keep it.  I said, no - you stole that - but asked anyway because you never know, ya know?  Nope- Evan wanted it back.  I was going to bring it to the going away party for Alex but had put it out of Adam's view (and mine) so I forgot it...and kept forgetting it.  That is, until I got a reminder from Stefan last night. So I put it in my purse and got out a card for Adam to write an apology for his thieving ways.

This morning I told Adam we needed to drop off the rock and he should write that he's sorry.  I left the card on the table and went upstairs to go get dressed, thinking Adam would just eat some breakfast.   When I came back down, Adam was writing in the card.  I was all like, "Nooo!  Waaaiit!"  and then I looked at what he had done.  He had run upstairs and grabbed the "SORRY!" board game  and wrote SORRY all fancy in the card!!  How smart was that?!! 

The picture he drew was kind of funny.  It started off as his usual stick figurish guy.  Then he added big circle hands and feet with 5 fingers/toes each and some hair.  He wanted to add clothes because it was chilly out so he colored on a long sleeve shirt and pants.  Then he covered the big feet with some big brown shoes and the hair with a big blue hat.  That's probably the first fully clothed guy he's drawn!  Usually he just draws a belly-button.  Ha ha!