Ohhh what a day we have had today and it is only 1pm. Sarah had a pretty severe tongue tie and today it was snipped. So I was up about 5 am (blaaaaaah), no coffee- don't want to torment the starving dehydrated child in the back seat. It is such a short procedure that i hardly had time to grab a coffee. And when I did return with it, I had taken only 2 sips when the Doctor came in to tell me that he was all done and going into the office to see the rest of his patients for the day.
I am pleased to say that Sarah made a huge liar out of me. Yeah!! With her anxiety disorder I feared that we would not be able to get her through those huge double doors without me, and that when she woke up, she'd freak. But she loved her VERY pregnant nurse Rachelle who took her away, and her "sleeping lady" Lauren. She let Sarah choose what flavour of mask she wanted. Of course Sarah chose strawberry. But she was quite uneasy when she woke up. They called me right away because there was only 2 of them expecting 3 kids back about the same time. Sarah had a mouth full of Tylenol when I walked in and when the nurse told me, I was a little alarmed because Sarah does not swallow Tylenol. She holds it in her mouth then gags on the little bit that floats down her throat. So we convinced her to swallow with the promise of a Popsicle. And it worked.Again giving the nurse a heart attack because of course she gagged and heaved it down. But in recovery, she was great. While hunting in our bag for snacks, she found her stickers and sticker book, and her A B C white board, and ate a blue raspberry Popsicle, and the time flew by. She did try a green Popsicle, but gagged that. Not her favourite flavour- now we know. So we were released by 10:15 and on our way to get a new Webkinz. She chose a beautiful Pinto horse and named her Rebecca.
The hospital is totally different than 4 years ago when Matt had his surgery done (twice) on his face. I relived that day all morning. He was such a little trooper. Poor 7 year old scared to death little man. The second time was waaaaay worse than the first because he knew what was going to happen. It is being questioned right now whether or not he has an anxiety disorder as well. I have one, Sarah has one so why shouldn't Matthew.
So here I sit with a now crying Sarah behind me (mom said she could not have cottage cheese right now) and I am thinking about everything else that is going on in our lives.
Stephie. Matt. Summer. Kindergarten. Funding for kindergarten. Spring Fling acts that I need to find and book. Mostly I am thinking about the Disability tax credit that I applied for in September and found out yesterday that they approved and are going to pay retroactive to 2004. While unbelievably exciting. It is making me nervous. I suck at money. I rock at spending it-but suck at doing the right thing with it. I love my Darryl endlessly, but the man has no backbone when it comes to our money. If I spend it there is no "Take it back and put the money back in the bank." He might shake his head, but he really says nothing. I don't know. I love him so much, I don't care.
Oh man!! psycho dog! Charlie- our 8 month old 10 lb cock-a-poo was neutered on Tuesday, and will not stay down so he can heal. He is this wiry little high strung beast that just needs to be on the go. But we have been told that he MUST, MUST, MUST relax and heal. But 3 days out and he is back at impaling the cat when she comes in the living room, doing the psycho run around the living room when someone besides me lets him in from outside, and trying to jump the baby gate to eat the scarf people who live in our entry way. Silly beast.
Lol. Sarah had speech therapy on Tuesday. She was trying to build a puzzle on our table (which is covered in craft stuff, and just general crap. She was leaning further across the puzzle than she can reach to put a piece in. When she couldn't get it in, she mumbled under her breath "get in there you...silly billy!" I was really afraid of what she was going to say after the pregnant pause in the middle. She mad a good choice.
Speech is going o.k. I am sick of hearing how cute Sarah is and that is her therapists favourite thing to say. I have asked her to stop, but she won't. Oh well, bigger fish to fry. a lot makes me giggle these days. The school division called me to let me know that they received our application for funding for kindergarten. She said that they were looking forward to spending time getting to know Sarah at pre-school. I laughed-of course offending Mrs. Kathleen.Why did I laugh?... Because how well can you possibly get to know a closet developmentally delayed cute girl in just 10 minutes- the average amount of time spent at whatever facility they go to? then to close the phone call Mrs. Kathleen said she was excited about our upcoming meeting at the division office. It's going to be so fun and a great opportunity to focus on Sarah's strengths. I didn't quite "Ha!!" again, but I giggled and said"Yea. Well I'll see you there." It is not advised for us as her family to go in there boasting about her strengths. The child is 4 1/2 and not toilet trained. She cannot retain the letters of the alphabet or any number besides 4. She only knows the colour yellow and only 60 % of the time. Sure she has a decent yet still delayed vocabulary, he mother talks ALL THE TIME!! This meeting is not about her strengths at all. It is to focus on the areas that she is going to require funding for. Her meltdowns when there is a deviation from what she thinks is the routine, the fact that she is there to learn and has trouble comprehending more than one simple step. We already know they are going to be asking us to hold her back to do kindergarten a second time. If she is showing retention and progress throughout her first kindergarten year, I'll consider it. If not, she'll be moving on with her class.
I know some people think I am a little nutty. But as a parent, I do struggle with having a special needs child. I am past the why her? stuff and accepting of her delays and lack of a reasonable diagnosis. But I still feel that I am the best to teach her as she learns best in a one on one setting. But man am I burnt out. I feel that i have very little left to offer her without going crazy. As far as I know there are no specialty schools other than an institution and then the kids are severely disabled. Not many people out there see Sarah's disability until they really know her and the relationship is old and there are no more things to learn about Sarah. Then they see that she's just not all there. She is still the nicest kid there is and she is damn cute. But she is not smart academically. Lets face it, she's 4, she is not street smart either. She is Sarah. that's all.
So my answer for the stupid meeting with the school division is simple; "Sarah's strength is that she is unbelievably cute and quite capable of falling through the cracks because of this. She is great at copying the child next to her whether it is the desired or undesired behaviour. The expectation is that she learn to the best of her abilities and seeing as I am not there to ensure that happens, she will need someone that is." Oh well. As long as we are prepared.
I am pleased to say that Sarah made a huge liar out of me. Yeah!! With her anxiety disorder I feared that we would not be able to get her through those huge double doors without me, and that when she woke up, she'd freak. But she loved her VERY pregnant nurse Rachelle who took her away, and her "sleeping lady" Lauren. She let Sarah choose what flavour of mask she wanted. Of course Sarah chose strawberry. But she was quite uneasy when she woke up. They called me right away because there was only 2 of them expecting 3 kids back about the same time. Sarah had a mouth full of Tylenol when I walked in and when the nurse told me, I was a little alarmed because Sarah does not swallow Tylenol. She holds it in her mouth then gags on the little bit that floats down her throat. So we convinced her to swallow with the promise of a Popsicle. And it worked.Again giving the nurse a heart attack because of course she gagged and heaved it down. But in recovery, she was great. While hunting in our bag for snacks, she found her stickers and sticker book, and her A B C white board, and ate a blue raspberry Popsicle, and the time flew by. She did try a green Popsicle, but gagged that. Not her favourite flavour- now we know. So we were released by 10:15 and on our way to get a new Webkinz. She chose a beautiful Pinto horse and named her Rebecca.
The hospital is totally different than 4 years ago when Matt had his surgery done (twice) on his face. I relived that day all morning. He was such a little trooper. Poor 7 year old scared to death little man. The second time was waaaaay worse than the first because he knew what was going to happen. It is being questioned right now whether or not he has an anxiety disorder as well. I have one, Sarah has one so why shouldn't Matthew.
So here I sit with a now crying Sarah behind me (mom said she could not have cottage cheese right now) and I am thinking about everything else that is going on in our lives.
Stephie. Matt. Summer. Kindergarten. Funding for kindergarten. Spring Fling acts that I need to find and book. Mostly I am thinking about the Disability tax credit that I applied for in September and found out yesterday that they approved and are going to pay retroactive to 2004. While unbelievably exciting. It is making me nervous. I suck at money. I rock at spending it-but suck at doing the right thing with it. I love my Darryl endlessly, but the man has no backbone when it comes to our money. If I spend it there is no "Take it back and put the money back in the bank." He might shake his head, but he really says nothing. I don't know. I love him so much, I don't care.
Oh man!! psycho dog! Charlie- our 8 month old 10 lb cock-a-poo was neutered on Tuesday, and will not stay down so he can heal. He is this wiry little high strung beast that just needs to be on the go. But we have been told that he MUST, MUST, MUST relax and heal. But 3 days out and he is back at impaling the cat when she comes in the living room, doing the psycho run around the living room when someone besides me lets him in from outside, and trying to jump the baby gate to eat the scarf people who live in our entry way. Silly beast.
Lol. Sarah had speech therapy on Tuesday. She was trying to build a puzzle on our table (which is covered in craft stuff, and just general crap. She was leaning further across the puzzle than she can reach to put a piece in. When she couldn't get it in, she mumbled under her breath "get in there you...silly billy!" I was really afraid of what she was going to say after the pregnant pause in the middle. She mad a good choice.
Speech is going o.k. I am sick of hearing how cute Sarah is and that is her therapists favourite thing to say. I have asked her to stop, but she won't. Oh well, bigger fish to fry. a lot makes me giggle these days. The school division called me to let me know that they received our application for funding for kindergarten. She said that they were looking forward to spending time getting to know Sarah at pre-school. I laughed-of course offending Mrs. Kathleen.Why did I laugh?... Because how well can you possibly get to know a closet developmentally delayed cute girl in just 10 minutes- the average amount of time spent at whatever facility they go to? then to close the phone call Mrs. Kathleen said she was excited about our upcoming meeting at the division office. It's going to be so fun and a great opportunity to focus on Sarah's strengths. I didn't quite "Ha!!" again, but I giggled and said"Yea. Well I'll see you there." It is not advised for us as her family to go in there boasting about her strengths. The child is 4 1/2 and not toilet trained. She cannot retain the letters of the alphabet or any number besides 4. She only knows the colour yellow and only 60 % of the time. Sure she has a decent yet still delayed vocabulary, he mother talks ALL THE TIME!! This meeting is not about her strengths at all. It is to focus on the areas that she is going to require funding for. Her meltdowns when there is a deviation from what she thinks is the routine, the fact that she is there to learn and has trouble comprehending more than one simple step. We already know they are going to be asking us to hold her back to do kindergarten a second time. If she is showing retention and progress throughout her first kindergarten year, I'll consider it. If not, she'll be moving on with her class.
I know some people think I am a little nutty. But as a parent, I do struggle with having a special needs child. I am past the why her? stuff and accepting of her delays and lack of a reasonable diagnosis. But I still feel that I am the best to teach her as she learns best in a one on one setting. But man am I burnt out. I feel that i have very little left to offer her without going crazy. As far as I know there are no specialty schools other than an institution and then the kids are severely disabled. Not many people out there see Sarah's disability until they really know her and the relationship is old and there are no more things to learn about Sarah. Then they see that she's just not all there. She is still the nicest kid there is and she is damn cute. But she is not smart academically. Lets face it, she's 4, she is not street smart either. She is Sarah. that's all.
So my answer for the stupid meeting with the school division is simple; "Sarah's strength is that she is unbelievably cute and quite capable of falling through the cracks because of this. She is great at copying the child next to her whether it is the desired or undesired behaviour. The expectation is that she learn to the best of her abilities and seeing as I am not there to ensure that happens, she will need someone that is." Oh well. As long as we are prepared.
Well, off to watch High School Musical 3 for the 7th time since Tuesday. Priorities ya know. On surgery day, you can do whatever you want in my house!!
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