Now what???

So we had an appointment with Dr. Kenawy today for Julia. We went to see if there was fluid in her ears. We saw the A.R.N.P Beverly and she checked Julia's ears and guess what! No Fluid! Surprise, we knew that. So she referred us to Dr. Tran (the best E.N.T in the tri-state area so I hear) and he will do a Tympanometry, a test used to detect disorders of the middle ear. This will allow them to see if there is fluid in the middle ear. Doubt it, she has never had an ear infection, fluid in the middle ear would most likely cause one or two.
Tuesday we have an appointment with the school boards Dr. to have her evaluated. She will have a hearing test again with her and we should know more then.
So now these are the possibilities in a nutshell. 1. There is nothing wrong and just needs lots more intensive speech therapy. 2. She has fluid in her ear and will need tubes to serve two purposes, 1 let the fluid out and 2 to allow sound in and 3. She is deaf and will need to find out why and get hearing aids. I am hoping for the first option. I will let you know more Tuesday.

She's deaf!

OK, so I am a little upset because I toll Julia to the audiologist in February 2009 and when we left the office they said "she is fine no need to follow up." So I arranged for her to be evaluated by the public school service called Child Find to get her in to full time K-3 with the public school and receive speech therapy. She has been in speech therapy for a year and she reached a plateau. So her therapist referred her to Child Find. Jennifer who runs Child find asked for the audiologist report that I said was fine. When I picked up the report to day and it said that she was completely deaf in the right ear and partially deaf in the left ear I was SHOCKED! No wonder she can't talk! She can't hear! So Now I am not sure what to do because I don't trust the Doctor and I can't take her back to the same audiologist. I suppose the next step is to go to an E.N.T. I have always suspected that she couldn't hear because of the way her speech was but then I was told that was not the problem. I am confused and need to know where to go from here!

First Day Frustration!

Hello all! I know it has been a long time since I have written, actually it hasn't been that long I was blogging for a while from my phone but they all got lost in cyber space. So much for that, oh well.
You haven't missed much.

So allow me to set this up a bit. Last school year Jacob was in an E.S.E K-4 class at Cedar Grove and we all thought that he did not belong there. But he got stuck in the system and labeled and E.S.E. I called his new school (Cherry Street) when the teachers all stated and pleaded with them to get him in to a main stream class. When I went to enroll him that is where they put him, in main stream. So I thought that was where he would stay. I thought wrong. I got a call yesterday from the guidance counselor saying that by law he has to be placed into an E.S.E class until we can have an I.E.P meeting. So we took him to his E.S.E class this morning. Guess what I found out about it. Jacob is one of 3 students in the class, the other 2 are 4 year old mentally handicap children. So I went home and vented to everyone who would listen. When my mom came home two hours later we decided to go get him from school. We asked them how soon we could get an I.E.P meeting and she said that she was trying to get it done as soon as possible. She said that she has already seen Jacob in his new class and she and his new teacher both agreed that he is definitely not suited for that class. He is much to advanced to be in that class. All I have to say is why didn't they listen to me in the first place? It would have spared me a lot of trouble. So we pulled him out of school and filed papers for him to be home schooled until we can get an I.E.P meeting because by law he has to stay in that class until one is scheduled.

So that is pretty much what is going on in my life. I will try to get back soon and let you know what is going on.

What is going on in his head?

So I really Don't want the first time back in a long time to be full of my depressing thoughts, but tonight I feel like I need to vent and get feedback. So Jacob has had very good days at school up until the last week. His teacher says that he has been very angry and hitting other kids a lot. 3 in one day. I have been very concerned with the recent behavior and tonight I saw a whole other side of him. He was like a beast tonight! Allow me to paint a picture for you.

Both kids were upstairs at my mom's house watching a movie and having popcorn. (Just so you know the two of them asked to be up there) Meme has to get to early in the morning so the kids couldn't spend the night. I went up to bring them home and Julia ran down stairs before Jacob. Apparently this infuriated him because he ran to my mom's room and started slamming doors and throwing everything he could get his hands on. My mom and I both went in after him and tried to calm him down. I told him to go home and we would deal with it there. He ran passed me down stairs and jumped on top of Julia and seemed to have rage that he has never had before. He was really beating her up I had the pull him off of her and it wasn't easy. He was really trying to hurt her. Thank God he didn't, he scared her to tears but there were no bruises after the redness went away(so far) and only a few small scratches. He has never be violent like that toward her. Sure he had yelled and pushed her away but never in a really mean way not anything like this. I have never seen this in him before. I was scared.

I plan on calling a counselor in the morning to see if we can figure out what is going on with him and help him get through it. Any advise is welcome along with much needed prayer!

I guess it's that time again.

I know you haven't heard from me in a few weeks and that's because I started working full time 5 weeks ago. I am liking my job so far, so much drama at Sprint coming from the people that call in I could write a book.

Life here at our house has been pretty normal, even calm. Jacob is doing so well in school, I am so happy for him. He comes home and tells me all about his friends. The other day he came home very upset because on of his classmates had eaten something off the floor. I asked him if the classmate had dropped a piece of food on the floor, he quickly corrected me and said "NO MOM HE WAS EATING TRASH!" HE was very disturbed. Later that week he came home and told me that the classmate was sick and he thought it was because he ate trash. Who knows?

Riding the bus is his favorite part of school. He can't wait to see the bus pull up to our house. HE has been doing really well on the bus too. There are two kids in his class that ride his bus so he sits with them. I have found that being like the other kids is very important to him. He wasn't eating much lunch at school so I made him a lunch to take with him and he said he didn't want me to do that any more because the other kids eat school lunch. Another thing is the uniform. He seems to be very impressed that they all have the same clothes. He very much likes for thing to be the same. So far his social skills are really coming along.

He has also been taking less medication than usual. He takes 2.5mg in the morning and another 2.5mg in the afternoon around lunch time. He is doing great on this dosage. He isn't a zombie in the morning when he takes it. It is just enough.

Julia is growing so much and she had decided that she is a Mermaid. Every morning she asks me if she looks like a mermaid, and if I can see her tail growing. She is determined that she WILL be a mermaid if she wishes hard enough.

She also has an imaginary friend. Jacob had one for a day or two so this is kinda fun to play tea party with her and her friend. She also plays beauty shop almost every day, her nails are never the same color two days in a row. Another thing she has started doing is trying to be just like me. She wants us to match every day. I think it is fun.

Julia has recently started drawing. She draws "people" an just about anything we will let her. I will have to scan one to show you. It is so cute, it's just a big circle for a head and body with two line for arms sticking out of each side and two legs out of the bottom with eyes and a mouth drawn in the circle. It is one of her new hobbies and she names each one of them.

Jacob and Julia both have really been getting along very well lately. I guess with Jacob having something to do outside of the house it gives him an outlet. They have been going for scooter rides together every day. There has also been a lot less arguing between the two of them. this makes for a much happier house all around.

As for them adjusting to me being at work, they are fine with it. When they aren't in school (Jacob longer than Julia) they are with family having a blast. When I get home we have been going for a walk around the block. Julia picks flowers and Jacob collects rocks. When we get home we all sit down and have dinner and then a bit of down time with whoever is not in the tub. Then I sit with each of them in their beds and talk about their day before they go to sleep. I miss being here at home but it makes me feel better that I know they are having a good time with the people they love so much.

God has been good to us so far and helped us all adjust to the many changes that have gone on the last few months. I look at it all as a blessing and a lesson in patience and peace.

I am back!

Whew, what a week! First off Jacob started school on Monday. He loves his teacher at Cedar Grove, her name is Mrs. Gibbons and Jacob loves her. He even had a best friend! How about that? There are only 8 kids total in his class. So it is small and that is good for Jacob. He has had great days all week this week, but the teacher keeps going to the 1st grade class to get stuff for him to do. He gets bored and the temptation to get in trouble is lurking. He does well when she gets more work for him to do. Today they did a Valentine exchange and he had a good time with that, he was very excited to pass out his stuff to his new friends.

Now to what I have been up to this last week. As some of you know I started working at Sprint. Last week and the next 5 weeks are training classes. So far I think I will like it. They pay is GREAT! And free phone unlimited phone service Gotta love that! I work now from 8-5 Monday-Friday, but when I get done with that I will most likely be working nights, which I love! I am a night owl. So that is pretty much it for now, I am enjoying an empty house for a while. Julia wanted to spend the night with my mom (Meme) and Jacob went with Daddy to Pier Park for their weekly movie night. So now I am going to get cozy on the couch and watch a movie I have been dying to watch for ever. Good night everyone!

Happy days are here again!

Whoo Hoo! I went to Jacob's IEP meeting at Cedar Grove to talk to them about what we are going to do with him. They have a great plan. He will start Monday and he could not be happier! He will ride the bus starting Monday, wow! This will allow him to feel independent. It is a special bus with an aid who rides with him and a few other Pre-k kids from his class. He will get to school early so he will eat there. They think this is important because it provides him an extra opportunity to have a learning experience of manners and socialization. I was concerned at first when they said "will he ride a bus, we recommend it" but after they explained it I felt alright with it. No we have to find some shirts for him to wear. They have a uniform and that stuff is hard to find this time of year, but we will get what we can. Please pray for him and the rest of us.