Daisy

Ciaran was given Daisy, the giant stuffed green frog, to take home for a few days. To his bad luck we had horrible weather so Daisy didn't really get too far. That said, part of the reason they bring it home is to allow them to use their imaginations. A paper comes along with it to complete with some statements to complete.

Here are Ciaran's answers:

I slept...."in Ciaran's bed"
I went..."to Target, to the zoo an to the farm"
I had fun..."wearing underwear"
I ate..."Peanutbutter and jelly and pizza pie"
Something else that happened...."She went to the barn and pretended to be a cowgirl"

None of this actually happened. He made it all up. But he does crack me up. Not sure where he comes up with this stuff.

We were also assigned "The detective bag". Each child brings this home and picks an item to put in. They have to come up with three clues and bring it to school and the other kids in class have to try and guess what is in the bag. Colin brought it home. He chose a Knight to put in the bag. Here are the clues he plans on saying tomorrow:

1. He rides a horse
2. He has a shield and sword.
3. He saves Princess'.

I think he did a great job. Let's see how it goes tomorrow. I didn't let Ciaran or Cormac see what was in the bag so they can guess tomorrow.

Last week Ciaran had the Detective Bag. He chose a Koala Bear. Here were his clues:

1. He climbs trees.
2. He lives in Austraila
3. He eats eucalyptus leaves

Cormac hasn't done his yet but it will be here. We will also get Daisy two more times!

Cormac has started reading. It seems to just be clicking all of a sudden. It's pretty cool to watch. I have been told children with hearing loss will sometimes struggle with reading. I am happy he does not seem to slowed down. He asked if he could write the Princess' names and wanted me to spell them. I asked him to do it instead. Here's how he spelt them: Ariel he spelt "Arel" Rapunzel he spelt "Tiana" he spelt "Tianu" which makes sense.

He was also playing a game on Pbskids.org and it was a game from Super Why. I thought the game would be too difficult for him. First, he had to listen to a word and then find the matching word that rhymed out of 12 choices. Do you know he did everyone?? I was even amazed at how well he HEARD the voice saying the first word. I also made him do it with no volume and he sounded out both words! LOVE LOVE LOVE

Some exciting news on my girl. Today, she was doing her normal "downward dog" yoga position. She leaned back into a squat and balanced with no hands. She proceeded to stand up without holding onto anything. She stood for maybe 3 seconds and then squatted back down (still no hands) and stood back up again for a few seconds before falling onto her behind. She was so excited and proud of herself. She started clapping like crazy. It could have also been one Mommy and 3 little boys all yelling with excitement. Tonight I stood her in her room and she was able to hold it for about 3 or 4 seconds. She is well on her way! If she starts walking soon she is going to look so cute. She is still so small and will look like a baby walking! Keep your fingers crossed for her.

Any bright ideas?

Calleigh is doing phenonenal. Her lip looks just amazing. It gets better everyday. It's only been two weeks. She is just moving along. We also got some more good news. She has Kidney reflux. It was grade 3 out of 5. This would indicate surgery would be needed to correct it. We just went yesterday for her ultrasounds of her kidneys and bladder. Her left kidney is showing NO reflux and her right kidney is only showing trace. It could not have been better news. Calleigh doesn't really catch breaks it seems. If it can go wrong it usually does with her. But she finally caught a break! It seems the reflux is correctly itself. Now, we just have to get her acid reflux gone and she will be good to go! I am assuming she will come off the daily antibiotic she has been on to prevent kidney infection but we will wait to see what the doctor says next week.

She has also made great leaps in her motor skills. She can sit on her own for a while. She can roll over in both directions. She is totally making huge strides. To put in in perspective. A month ago she was showing the skills of a 4-5 month old in her motor skills (she was 8 months at the time). Today she is at about 7-9 months and she is 10 months old. I realize she just wasn't given the opportunity to develop her motor skills due to her surgeries and not having access to belly time and sitting in a chair. My underlying fear that she has something else going on with her has seemed to ease. I still worry but now when I look at her I see she is just catching up. She is so smart and alert. She just had a hard time teaching her body to do what she wants it to do. Her body was focused on healing for so long that her development was secondary. Now that her body is healing it can focus on developing and she is flourishing. :)

I am looking for some advice and ideas about Cormac for the summer. He is in school until June 20th. I am not sure what services he will receive over the summer because I have yet to hear back from the school district. Considering they just shot down the school budget I can just imagine where the cuts will come. It's so frustrating when a town doesn't put education first. The future of your town and country depends on the children in your town. How can people NOT understand this? So aggravating.

Anyway, I need some inspiration. I need some fun activities I can do with all the boys that focus on language and hearing. I am in a rut and could use some bright ideas from all you wonderful folks. I use The listening room ideas. But with the nice weather we are outdoors much more.

Cormac has decided he wants to read. We were playing blocks and building towers and the blocks have letters on them. I put together the word POT. I said what does this say? He goes PPP OOO TTTT , you know made the sound each letter makes and then said "Oh, pot!" I switched the P to H and he did it again and said Hot. I am pretty sure this is the start of reading, right?? We read ALOT in this house. I mean sometimes like 20 books a day! I guess it is paying off. Lots more to update and I will when I can.

I am leaving for California a week from today....