Big brother was tested last week to see if he qualifies for special needs services. His social skills are GREAT! His communication skills, however, are below the first percentile. Not surprising at all to me. So he totally qualifies. We have some paperwork to fill out and he has to go in to the special needs school for some more evaluations, and then somebody will start coming to our home every week to help him learn to communicate. I was wondering aloud to Husband last week, asking why we have kids that can't communicate. Neither of us could figure out what's up. We haven't done that much different with our last 2 than we did with our first. I think Big sister watched more Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune as a baby 'cuz daddy had to study while mommy worked the night shift and she liked to clap. There is a lot of clapping on those shows. Otherwise, we haven't made any major switches in our parenting. When my dad joined us for dinner on Saturday, he was talking about a "discussion" he had had with my mom that morning about his AMAZING communication skills which had resulted in some last minute changes to their Sunday plans. What is amazing is his lack of skills in communication. So it hit me. It's totally genetic. Husband's family isn't exactly fabulous at communicating clearly, either. So they come by it honestly from both sides. What amazes me now is that Big sister doesn't have the same problem! Maybe it was all the game shows...
Little sister had to get her ears cleaned out again. In addition to lack of communication skills, our kids have this incredible ability to produce wax in their ears, to the point that it effects their hearing. They never really get ear infections, they're just waxy. So we went to the ENT to have them clean it out so she can hear more clearly. She was so cute when the doctor was checking her out, being her giggly self. The doctor noticed her birthday is coming soon and asked what kind of cake she wanted. She replied "frosting". He asked if she meant she wanted frosting on her cake. She said "no, just frosting!" She would be thrilled if I would just shape a cake out of frosting and leave out that obnoxious cake part. Maybe I'll make a nice cake and just give her the leftover frosting in the can...Anyway, she was dealing with the doctor's office pretty well. She didn't even seem to mind the papoose they put her in so that she would hold still during the procedure. She was cool as a cucumber. Until they turned on the vacuum. She cried through the whole thing. A major improvement over last time, when she screamed bloody murder so badly that afterward the doctor said he was going to go have his own ears checked. haha. We stopped at Kneaders on the way home and got her a big brownie with LOTS of frosting and she seemed ok. When daddy came home for his lunch break, she announced that she had her ears cleaned! She almost seemed excited about it! But then her chin started to quiver and she almost broke down all over again. Traumatic. I mentioned to the Dr. that she snores like a baby bear. It's so funny to hear that sound coming from my teeny girl! He checked out her tonsils, and they are pretty darned big. He said that's probably why she has a hard time taking normal sized bites. She gags because there isn't room for it all to slide down. Otherwise, they aren't causing problems. He said it would be a good idea to remove them, but not totally necessary at this point. I think we'll pass on it for now, and only do surgery if they really start causing serious problems. If having her ears cleaned is such a traumatic experience, I can only imagine what a surgery would do!
Big sister is really excited about this baby brother and can't wait to see him. She is the best big sister and always willing to help mommy out. Below is a video of the kiddos dancing the other night. Big sister and little sister love for me to turn on the Itunes and let them dance. Big brother joined them and, as you can see, is a total natural. And yes, they are dancing to Beastie Boys "Intergalactic Planetary." The rap seems a good fit for the boy! Oh, and he tends to fall on his head a lot. He is in an average percentile for weight, below average for height, and his head is always above the 90th percentile. So he is top heavy. It's cute.
The girls were so excited that we got snow on Saturday AND that it was warmer than 6 degrees outside so they could actually go out and play! It seems that all winter we've gotten snow and then a deep freeze that makes it too cold to play in the snow. So we made the most of what we got. Daddy even took a break from the basement work to help them build a snowman. He is awesome! It's a good thing I took a picture, because it fell over about 15 minutes later. Poor snowman. And I have now stretched all our nothing out as far as I can! I think that's enough posting for now!
2 comments:
Spring,
Brandt was the same way. He had to go to a special needs preschool and take speech therapy in Elementary because of his communication skills. Also Seth has his tonsils taken out because they didn't fit inside the little pocket area that tonsil set in. He snored as well, but his tonsils would block off his air passage when he sleeped. I didn't sleep much when he was little. I laid awake, making sure he was breathing at night. I hope that she isn't the same way.
Nope, she just has a little baby bear snore if she's on her back. She never stops breathing at all, and the snoring really only happens once or twice a week 'cuz she sleeps on her side most of the time. If she had more real problems with the tonsils, I'd take them right out. I'll probably talk to her regular doctor at her checkup this month, too, just for a second opinion.
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