ESY, Office Moves and Other Random Stuff

Okay, I officially suck at this regular blog posting thing lately. I want sooooo much to write, but there's never a good time these days. I guess that's a good thing--I'm busy! I think that since we moved and now have the computer in the 3rd bedroom upstairs, I can't just multi-task and blog while watching tv and being social with my husband in the evenings. It becomes a whole separate venture to be on the computer. I seriously need to be doing at least two things at once.

On a more exciting note, my office moved from Tysons to Reston this week. While the move itself was pretty tedious (I assisted in the prep, planning and execution), the commute in the mornings is now soooooo much better with us living in Ashburn instead of Arlington. No more 1 hr. 15 min. drives to get to work--it's now down to about 30 minutes. Whew! And I got several comp days from my boss for my help with the move, which is particularly exciting. Extra vacation time = good. I do feel a bit for the people who had a long commute to the old office and now have an even longer commute to the new office. Eh, who am I kidding? I'm just glad it's not me...LOL

A few weeks ago, we missed an appointment with the geneticist. A real bummer since rescheduling means a 6 month wait, unless they call us in on the waiting list if someone drops off. I think their waiting list is a mile long, but we've gotten in that way once before, and it wasn't so bad since Steve is able to take Samantha at any time if they call. But the thing that had me worried was that we always want to stay on top of Sammi's bloodwork results every 6 months, and that we were due to have her AAI x-ray prescribed. Luckily, when I called the office, the nurse said she would send prescriptions for both the bloodwork and the x-ray, and they both arrived today. For those of you whose children have had the x-ray done at age 3, what does it entail? Does she have to be sedated? Will it be very traumatic? I am thinking I'll take time off work to accompany them.

So, Sammi turns 3 in a few weeks! Where on earth does the time go? My baby turning 3!!!!!! Okay, so we didn't accomplish some of the goals we'd hoped for before this date, such as potty training. Definitely a disappointment. I don't know if we just thought it would happen on its own or not, but I know my mom will read this and say, "I TOLD you, you have to just do it! Take a weekend and just do it!" LOL I know, I know, I know, Mom! :-) Gotta just do it. However, my mom also tells about the time I was potty trained--her mother came over and said, "Why isn't she potty trained yet?", and trained me herself in two days. Mom, be my guest...hehehe. Samantha does sometimes tell us she has to use the potty, and I also just put her on it all the time when I'm home with her. She pees in it pretty much every time we put he on it, but pooping is another story altogether. She's only done it a couple of times over the last few months. At night, when I put her to bed, she gets into bed, curls up with her blankie, then suddenly sits up as I'm about to leave her room and says, "potty!" Seriously? "Potty!" "Are you sure?" "YES!" So, off we go, pulling legs out of 1-piece jammies and keeping wandering, distracted hands off of drawers, hair accessories, toilet paper, etc. so I can set her on the seat. Granted, she usually does go, but we go through this twice at bedtime every night. She's a champion staller.

Okay, I did mention ESY (Extended School Year--the only way she can receive services during the summer break). This morning, we had Samantha's ESY determination meeting at her school. We left the ESY portion of her IEP blank a few weeks ago, with the provision that we would reconvene to discuss her eligibility today. A few weeks ago, they had to deny her ESY eligibility due to the fact that they couldn't prove that she'd regress over the break (she's never had a break like this before!) and they couldn't prove that she was on the edge of any breakthroughs (she's only been in Loudoun Co. schools for a month which wasn't enough time for them to evaluate her--she takes a little while to warm up to the teachers and therapists). I may have mentioned this already. Well, her old Speech and OT therapists in Arlington wrote letters stating that they felt she was at a breakthrough point (speech--she's starting to use 2 and 3 word phrases spontaneously, and is working very, very hard on intelligibility) or would regress due to not completing one of her goals (OT). Speech services were approved immediately, and after some irritating and pointless debating, they reluctantly approved OT. The PT from Arlington never submitted anything, so I'm a bit disappointed that she won't be receiving PT this summer. She's got so much to work on with her gross motor skills. I really, really want her to build her trunk strength so she can navigate playground equipment with the other kids! I'm hoping ESY is the right thing for her. I don't know what the other kids there will be like, but one person had cautioned us that there were often kids with behavioral issues that you wouldn't want your child modeling. We'll see. I'm just glad she'll continue to have services and instruction. She really thrives on routine.

The weather's way too crappy for photos lately. Our back yard looks like a jungle with all the rain, and I think I'm starting to wilt from lack of sunshine. Hopefully the weekend will look up.