Tuesday, October 14, 2008

the school pic

Ohmygoodness...could she be any cuter if she tried?!? I just love how her picture turned out this year! And just so you know, i ordered the photo CD with her school pics, so i'm legal having a digital copy of this :)

Things are going really well in school for Maelin. She's right back into the swing of things and loving school. I'll share a couple of cute stories, just because i can ;)

Last week she was saying/signing something that i just couldn't understand....which is really not common, because i truly understand about 99% of what she says/signs. She kept saying, "Where is the speech .....?" and i just couldn't get the last word. The sign wasn't accurate, the speech wasn't helping...finally i figured it out ... she was asking, "Where is the speech THERAPIST?" I didn't know she knew that word!! I was glad to have figured it out, and i was impressed at her growing vocabulary!

Here's another one: today i had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so there was a sub teacher for a couple of hours. When i returned, i found out that some of the students, including Maelin, had not behaved well during Morning Meeting time, and they'd had time-outs. I sat them down and told them that i was sad, upset and embarrassed about their behavior for a substitute. Maelin said, "You sad, Mom?" I said, yes, i was upset with their behavior. She said, "But you still love me." LOL!! Yes, my sweet...even when i'm sad about your behavior, i still love you to bits!!!

That's all for now...

xoxo,
Shonda

Thursday, October 2, 2008

18 MONTHS :)

Happy one-and-a-half years to US!! Some days i can hardly believe that our Little Miss MaeMae has been home that long...and other days i just want to take a nap! LOL! Here's what we've been up to this past month:

We're back to school! Maelin is now in her 2nd year of preschool at the Michigan School for the Deaf, and i am her classroom teacher again this year. She is doing amazingly well...her language, both spoken and signed, is really taking off. I think her signed vocabulary is between 700-800 words. I lost track around 600! She is learning more and more spoken words but still relies on signing often, especially when there's any other noise around.


Look!! Maelin has glasses!! Here's the long and winding story: our journey into the world of vision problems began last spring. At our yearly spring vision screening at school, Maelin failed both the vision and acuity parts of the test. Uh-oh. The nurse initially diagnosed her with 'nystagmus,' which (as i understand it) is an involuntary movement of the eyes, which in itself doesn't impair vision, but doesn't have any treatment, either. Upon our school nurse's recommendation, i made an appointment for Maelin at a doctor in the Flint area who specializes in vision therapy. Getting her to do the eye exam was frustrating and comical - the kid can't see far away, and she can't see close up. For the problems seeing far away -- glasses! The problem seeing close up is called 'convergence insufficience,' not nystagmus. Basically, her eyes are working really hard to come together and focus on something up close, and therefore they shake. The doctor gave me the example of me trying to pick up a 20lb bucket of cement -- my arm muscle would shake with the effort (okay, my arm would break from the effort...!). Fortunately we've caught it really early -- most times it's diagnosed when kids are failing at reading in the 1st or 2nd grades. And fortunately it's treatable -- she needs vision therapy one hour each week for 6 to 9 months. Unfortunately, vision therapy is damn expensive!! We're not sure if our insurance is going to cover a portion of it, but we're hoping!!

Choosing glasses was somewhat of a nightmare. I tried to pick them out myself after the first hour-long vision appointment, but she'd had enough, and i was pretty overwhelmed by all of the new information i'd just received. We took Daddy with us the 2nd time, and Maelin was so uncooperative (which is really unlike her) that she almost knocked over a table at the doctor's office! We ended up going to the optical department of JCPenney's at the mall; we walked in, and Maelin put on the first pair and said, "That my favorite" and we bought them. LOL! They're somewhat purple (somehow i'm going to have to get over the fact that they don't match what she's wearing every day...i may need therapy myself...) and somewhat cute. My biggest fear was/is that the vision and hearing loses are progressive. Ushers syndrome is a scary prospect, but we'll deal with every ounce of everything that is Maelin with all the love in our hearts.

I guess that's all for now. Love to all :)

xoxo,
Mommy, Daddy and bespectacled MaeMae!