I'm awful

I'm apparently as good about updating this blog as I was my junior high diary.

To make it simple -- things for Nikki have been going great.

We learned last year that she had a problem with excess fluid in her middle ear, and while it took some work, we finally found a med combination that helps keep it to a minimum. About a month ago she finally passed a hearing test on one ear and was borderline on the other.

We've noticed a big difference as well. She's back to reacting strongly to loud noises (so much so that we won't be trying the Wiggles show again this year). And in the last few months she's really begun to try more words and sounds.

Her signing has really exploded as well. Mommy still holds her back some when it comes to that. School is working on things such as colors and animals, but at home we sometimes try to give her the words she really seems to need (food, etc). The Signing Time series for videos is just fantastic.

My husband is also very impressed with her arm (we've been working with her on throwing balls). He started teaching her how to throw over hand but every once in a while she switch to underhand and she can wing the ball right at you -- thankfull we only use soft balls because she would have really hurt my father last week. Now we have to work on teaching her control.

We've already started talking with her teacher about the plan for next year and we think we may have struck on a great idea. It looks as if Nikki will have the same teacher next year and will be moved to the afternoon class -- which is mostly young 4-year-olds and older 3-year-olds. She'll then move to the 4-year-old class the following year for a half-day and there's a good possibility she'll do the other half-day in a kindergarten classroom. The following year, she'll be in full-day kindergarten. With a September birthday, and the pressures from NCLB, we had some concerns about starting her in Kindergarten the year she turned 5.

If it all works out I'll be thrilled.

Once Mother Nature actual decides to let it become spring I can't wait to get her out to the Boundless Playground near us. She enjoyed it last summer, but she'll be able to do so much more this year.

The big news in our family is that in late June or early July, we'll be welcoming a baby boy into our family. We're all getting very excited about his arrival.

Partially because of our coming addition I've also decided to make this blog more general (in hopes that I'll update a little more frequently. I'm also going to be posting sewing and knitting projects I'm working on or finished as well as some of the house projects my husband and I have done. I really want a place to keep track of some of this stuff.

Communication gap

Nikki lags in expressive language skills. It's the biggest delay she has; but until the last few months it wasn't a problem in relation to her peers.

Now it's becoming a problem.

At home we are trying to expand her vocabulary using both words and signs from ASL but daycare has been left out of the loop a bit when it comes to her sign vocabulary. We made sure to let them know the signs for basic needs -- more, eat, drink, play; but as we added new words we've forgotten to teach daycare the "sharing" signs.

As a result Nikki is walking around with a bite mark on her cheek. She apparently signed 'give me please' and reached for what she wanted - the other child, not recognizing her request bit her when she took a toy.

So over the weekend I'll be creating a sheet of signs and our daycare center has agreed to send them home with her classmates. We're also going to see if her speech therapist will go to daycare once a month to work with Nikki and teachers.

Maybe we can bridge that gap.

Big changes coming

She's two and one half.

I just signed the paperwork today to start the process of transitioning my daughter from early intervention to the school district, where she will start preschool on her third birthday.

Sending my baby girl into an elementary school at three-years-old scares the crap out of me. So does having to go through the process of crafting her IEP with our local school district.

I wish there was a way to keep my little girl a baby forever.