Blind legos

This conversation happened as Jack was taking a shower....

Jack: Mommy, do you know blond people lead?
Me: What?
Jack: Do you know how blind people read? With dots.
Me: Yes, it is called reading by brail.
Jack:  I know that. We read about it in school today.
Me: Do you know what blind is?
Jack: What?
Me: It is when people can't see.
Jack: You mean like pin the tail on the donkey with the blind fold?
Me: With that game, you put a blind fold on their eyes so it is dark. Blind is when your eyes don't work and you always just see dark with nothing on your face.
Jack: So you can't ever see your toys.. Your Legos.
Me: Yes.
Jack: I wish there wasn't blind so people can always see their Legos.

Two Conversations with Jack

Here are two conversations with Jack that just proves...
- even when you aren’t talking directly AT him, he is still listening.
- even if he doesn’t ask right away, he stores it in his memory and asks later.
- these “heavy” conversations happen at times you’d never expect them – in the shower, in the car.

We were in the car with some friends and Scott is telling our friends about his sister. In the middle of it, he mentions that she and her husband are getting a divorce and then he kept on talking about other things in her life. Later that night, while Jack was in the shower, this happens….


Jack: Mommy, what is a daorsse?
Me: I don’t understand what word you are saying.
Jack: daorsse
Me: Where did you hear that word?
Jack: Daddy said Aunt Zanne and Uncle Gus were getting it.
Me: Oh, a divorce.
Jack: What is a divorce?
Me: A divorce is when two married people, like Aunt Zanne and Uncle Gus, decide to no longer be together anymore – to not live together in a house.
Jack: Have you ever been divorced?
Me: No.
Jack: Has Daddy ever been divorced?
Me: No.

Jack: Are you and Daddy going to get divorced?
Me: We are not planning on it.

As I’m in my car driving with Jack and Andrew (my cousin's son who is 2.5 years old)….

Jack: Mommy, Auntie Stein in white and Andrew is black – why are they different?

Me: Andrew isn’t black, he is brown; he is Mexican.

Jack: Why is he different than Auntie Stein?

Me: Because she adopted him, just as we adopted you.

Jack: She adopted him from Kazakhstan?

Me: No, she adopted him from here, in California.

Jack: But we are both white, why is he different?

Me: People can be born different colors.. white, black, brown, yellow…
Jack: YELLOW??? No one is YELLOW!

Me: And when you adopt, you can adopt babies/kids from any color.

Jack: Okay.

Me: Did I answer your question?
Jack: Yes.

Done with Speech Therapy

I had a meeting that was a follow up from Brooke's speech evaluation through the school district from last month. It was nice to sit and catch up with Mrs. Denise (Jack's speech therapist). We went through what she tested Brooke for, the types of questions, etc. And as we figured, Brooke does not qualify for speech therapy - which means no more speech therapy!!

But our concern was if she was still behind but not behind enough to qualify. As it turns out, she is just slightly above average! The test was done based on Brooke's age at the time of the test - 2 years and 11 months. Her expressive language was at 70% and her cognitive language was at 45% which puts her just about 61% over all. (Think of a bell curve with 50% being average.) It seems most kids (at this age) are higher with the cognitive language than expressive language but Mrs. Denise said that with Brooke's not hearing English for the first 11 months of life, that this was pretty normal.

Scott summed it up with: Brooke says a lot but doesn't know what she is saying!

Update on Brooke's Speech

Brooke has been going to speech therapy 1 day a week for an hour each session for a year now. She qualified for assistance through the Orange County Regional Center because her speech was more than 33% delayed. But that has now come to an end. The OC Regional Center assist kids up to their third birthday, but Brooke's evaluation was last month and she no longer qualifies -- because of her growth in speech, not because of her age. Although the evaluation showed her to still be slightly behind (13%), she has caught up very quickly and is no longer far enough behind to qualify for services through the OC Regional Center.

The OC Regional Center social worker assigned to us, could not stop glowing about Brooke. She said her cases are mostly of foster or adopted kids, most who are scared of new people, who run from her, who cry in front of her. But not our Brooke.... she climbed into her lap, read her a book and shared toys with her. The social worker just raved about what a happy little girl she is. And that does a mother proud!

When a child reaches age 3, they move from getting services through OC Regional Center to the school district (Jack did this). Although we don't feel she'll qualify, we started the process to get her evaluated through the school district. It is really more to get her in the system because if she ever needed any services, it is better to already be in the system.

So I took Brooke today to get evaluated through the school district. She was evaluated by the same speech therapist that Jack had (when he got speech therapy through the school district from about age 3 to 4), Mrs. Denise. It was great to see Mrs. Denise again and she was so happy to see Jack. The evaluation was about 40 minutes, during while I had to fill out 270 yes/no questions on Brooke. At the end of the session, we made an appointment for 12/16 to formally go over the results, but after Mrs. Denise started to quickly tally up Brooke's results, she said she'd be surprised if Brooke qualified.

Sayings

Kids say the most amazing things. I've tried capturing some of the best of each month on my monthly milestone posts. And my sister does an amazing job of keeping a journal of all the things the kids say. But I wanted to just jot down a few of the cute words that they say as they are learning how to speak. I know we've had both kids in speech therapy to help their pronunciation but I wish they'd always say these words this way....

yeyyow (yellow) - Jack
babloon (balloon) - Jack
bazausted (exhausted) - Jack
bazert (dessert) - Jack
badiculas (ridiculas) - Jack
asmost (almost) - Jack

bableve (believe) - Jack

I rove you (I love you) - Brooke

lellow (yellow) - Brooke

Appointments for Brooke

Speech

On October 5th, I met with the school district for Brooke. When she turns 3 in December, she will no longer qualify for speech therapy through the Orange County Regional Center. So they transfer her file over the school district. My meeting with them was to go over the process -- and fill out a bunch of paperwork -- of getting her evaluated to see if she'll quality for speech therapy through the school district after she turns three.

Our anticipation is that she won't qualify. Her last evaluation through her currently speech therapy center says she is just slightly behind (1 to 5 months depending on what you are looking at) - not enough for her to qualify for therapy through the Orange County Regional Center... so why would she qualify through the school district?

PFAPA (Fevers)

On October 7th, I met with Brooke's infectious diseases (ID) doctor for a follow-up to the last visit where she was diagnosed with PFAPA. Since that last appointment, I've been keeping a fever diary to track her fevers. I also joined a yahoo email group and have learned a lot about PFAPA through other families that are also living with this. So I was armed with a bunch of questions which is really what the appointment was about. Since our last appointment with the ID doctor in July, Brooke had 2 episodes of fevers but coinsided with cold/flu symptoms so the ID doctor wasn't convinced it was PFAPA; and since the fevers weren't too high (ya, 101 - 102 isn't high in our world).

The good news is the ID doctor doesn't think Brooke's fever will cause her to have seizures - since she has fevered up to 105 and is 2.5 years old... since she hasn't had a seizure she probably won't. The other good news is that the ID doctor doesn't think Brooke is severe enough to even need medication. So we just sit and wait about 4 months until the next appointment.

Jack's Speech Wrap-Up

When Jack was 21 months old, we had him evaluated for speech therapy through the Orange County Regional Center. He was delayed by 31% and therefore qualified for speech therapy one day a week for an hour each session. He started just before he turned 2 years old (February 2008). He won over all the therapists and soon became one of the favorite kids at the therapy center. When he started, our hope was for him to get caught up by the time he was 3 years old, which is when the Orange County Regional Center stopped their services.

But at age 3, he was still delayed. So we went through the process of getting him evaluated through the school district. We were apprehensive about doing this -- he was slightly delayed and we wanted him to have every advantage and not fall behind... but we also didn't want him label (later in life) as speech delayed. He was approved through the school district but summer was just about to start, we held off until September 2009. Although speech therapy through the Regional Center helped, we really saw marked improvements through the school district. We had homework (flashcards) to help him with this pronunciation. We practiced with him and he went to speech therapy 2x a week for 30 minutes each session.

And now, after 8 months, he is officially all caught up with his speech. He is no longer delayed and any problems with his speech are typical for a 4 year old boy (getting tenses wrong, sentence structure, not able to pronounce "th", etc.). WOW!! I actually have mixed emotions about this. We've had him in speech for a combined 21 months (time off for summer and when we traveled to Kazakhstan for Brooke). Almost half his life was spent in speech therapy. It has been such a part of his life and now, we're done -- he's done.

We had our last meeting with the speech therapist and Jack said good-bye to her. She was so sad to see Jack leave because, as she said, he was just a joy to have around. She went over all the tests they have him and he literally ranks right in the middle of where a 4 year old should be with his speech.

I'm so unbelievably proud of him. He never once complained about going to speech. He practiced his speech flash cards without any problems -- he'd even ask to "lets do my speech words". He won over all his speech therapists (through the Orange County Regional Center and at the school districts); he was a favorite kid to everyone and they were all sad to see him go. And for me, my little baby boy is continuing to grow up right before my eyes.

He graduated and is all done with speech therapy!

Thank you to Ms. Denise - she did amazing work with him!!

Update on Brooke's Speech

Brooke started speech therapy in November 2009. She was approved for 6 months... so that ends this month. Apparently to quality for continued speech therapy, a child needs to be 33% delayed or for Brooke, speak at an 18 month level (I thought with the budget cuts, it was now 50%, but whatever). Recent testing on Brooke shows her speech at a 21 month old. She is 27.5 months old, so that is 6.5 month delayed or a 23.6% delay.

Scott talk to the therapist because she said that Brooke can say 3 words together, but Scott showed her how we've worked with Brooke to say "Daddy drink please". She can say each word individually but not all 3 together. The therapist said she'd look into it because Brooke is probably boardline to requality. Scott hinted that we'd like to keep her in therapy - although she is talking much better (2 words together, tries to repeat words, babbles all the time), she is still clearly behind.

Brooke's Speech & 2-Year Check Up

Okay, I'll start by saying we probably jumped the gun... I admit it! When we had Brooke's speech evaluate in October (at 22 months old), I felt totally justified in it. She wasn't using more than 7 words and knew only maybe 3 to 5 more. She wasn't even using Mama or Dada (although she could say it) to get our attention. She wasn't trying to repeat words. She wasn't able to recognize objects in books. She wasn't saying 2 words together.

In November, she got approved for speech therapy. Then the light went on. Then speech therapy started. After only three 1-hour sessions, the therapist told us that she has surpassed the goals they set for her to accomplish in 6 months!

Brooke now uses Mama and Dada, even recognizing us in pictures. She tries to repeat words we say to her. She points out many objects in books. She is starting to say 2 words together and really works on it when we reinforce it. And her words are just coming faster and faster. Not clear to strangers, but we know what she is saying.

Now that she is almost two (unbelievable!), here is a list of the words she says:

Mama, Dada, Ja, Ba, Nini, Duh, Mia, juice, water, more, eat, shoes, ya, yes, no, nose, ear, eye, hand, read, book, apple, banana, why, ball, baby, on, off, up, down, meow, ouch.

We had Brooke's 2-year check up (okay, so a few days before she actually turns two!). She now weights 23 lbs (9%), is 33.5" in height (45%) and has a small head circumference of 17" (less than 3%). The Dr. checked her out and all looked well. Her umbilical hernia (looks like a really big outtie) is still there and has another year to disappear before we need to be concerned.

We had plans to ask about Brooke's reoccurring fevers that she has been having. It started in May, then in July, September and last month. Usually around 100 to 101 degrees (but has gone just over 102 degrees) and usually lasts about 4 days. Ironically, she started to spike a fever today. So we got sent to the lab, after the appointment, to have five vials of blood taken to be tested. And the poor baby girl got three vaccinations. Man can she squirm and scream! :)

And according to her 2-year check up, she can do the following:
-removes socks and slippers by herself
-brushes teeth with help
-builds tower with 4 blocks
-combines words
-knows at least 6 body parts
-throws a ball overhand
-turns book pages singly
-climbs up and down stairs using railing
-helps to put on her clothes
-beginning some make-believe play
-begun to prefer one hand over another (right)
-can do simple wooden puzzles
-some interest in bowel control

And according to her 2-year check up, she needs to work on the following:

-washes and dries hands without help (she can do it with help)

-imitates drawing vertical line (would help if we drew a vertical line for her to imitate!)

-speech is understandable 50% of the time to strangers (which is why she is in speech therapy)

-uses pronouns like I, me and you (again, why she is in speech therapy; although does "mine" count?!)

-names a friend when asked (although she has her parents, siblings, Nini, Duh and Mia)

-can hold up fingers to indicate age

-can balance on one foot

-brushes teeth unassisted (would help if we let her do that)

But cautiously saying... the best part of the appointment was that her primary care physician (PCP) could not hear Brooke's VSD (heart murmur / hole in her heart). This doctor, who we love and trust, was the one who first heard it the day after Brooke came home. She referred us to the cardiologist who has been monitoring Brooke. But this PCP has heard it at every appointment... but not today! Christmas miracle? We'll have to wait and see until the end of next month when we have Brooke's 6 month check in with her cardiologist.

Firsts

First day of speech, for Brooke

Earlier this week, Brooke had her first day of speech therapy - a 1 hour individual session. The therapist asked if Brooke has recently made strides in her speech.... because if she got evaluated right now, she probably wouldn't have qualified. Since this month, it seems a speech light has turned on for Brooke. She is starting to use "Mama" and "Dada" to get our attention, she is starting to repeat words that we say to her, she is pointing to and trying to say what a picture in a book is, she can say very clearly "up" (which use to be "ba"), she is beginning to get conversational - answering "ya" to questions. So, yes, she has made great strides in her speech recently. So I'm very glad we got her evaluated when we did so that she at least gets these 6 months of speech therapy... since the therapist doesn't believe she'll re-qualify in April 2010.

I was very nervous about her starting - going off with someone else, leaving us, her being cooperative, etc. But after she settled down crying initially, she did great. She worked with the therapist just fine. The therapist even threw words at her that Brooke hadn't heard before (something more advanced for a child's first day of therapy) and Brooke did wonderfully trying to sound it out. The therapist told us how smart Brooke is!

Here is a clip of her latest saying, which we just love.

First ear infection since tubes, for Jack

We had tubes put into Jack's ears on June 1st of this year. We were told it was a mis-understood fact that kids with tubes can, in face, get ear infections. Tubes do not prevent ear infections.

Late last week/over the weekend, Jack's right ear started to smell. Monday night he had a bad night of sleep (which is rare) and complained his ear hurt (which is unheard of, even when he had his prior 3 ear infections). Tuesday we took him to the doctor and she confirmed he has a slight ear infection. She prescribed anti-biotic ear drops because kiddos with tubes need ear drops, not oral anti-biotics. Sounds all fine and dandy... expect Jack is a champ at taking oral meds, but when he has ear pain severe enough to wake him up from sleeping and crying out in pain, trying to put drops in his ear is, well... painful. Tuesday night was an even worse night of sleep but by Wednesday night he was sleeping through the night again.

First parent-teacher conference, for Scott and Susan

On the 16 year anniversary of when Scott and I started dating (today), we had our first parent-teacher conference with Jack's preschool teacher. From college party to parental responsibilities!

I sort of expected the teacher to be matter of fact and straight-forward, which she was... but it was still strange to not hear someone just gush about Jack (okay, so I'm biased to Jack - can you really blame me?!). She did say he was doing well, his communication, fine motor skill, gross motor skills, problem solving and and personal-social skill assessment showed him above any level of concern.... although it was an assessment we did of Jack at home, that in my opinion, wasn't very in-depth with the availability of responses to do an assessment on... but anyhoooo.... She said that he does well in class and the activities, even though he does rush through the teacher-driven activities. Our take away is to work on his fine motor skills - so cutting, writing his name and drawing (tracing lines, connecting dots, drawing more than just his face - body, arms, legs, etc.). All in all, an expected good parent-teacher conference with an excellent review of Jack!

Brooke Qualifies for Speech Therapy

After the initial intake from the Orange County Regional Center (beginning of October), they determined Brooke needed a speech therapist come to the house for a formal evaluation of Brooke's speech. The speech therapist came (late October) and tested Brooke, and believes she would qualify for speech therapy. To qualify, a child under 2 years old needs to be at least 33% delayed (over 2 years old, a child needs to be 50% delayed). At 2 years old, a child should have a vocabulary of 50 words and proactively tries to repeat new words. Brooke has maybe - at best - 10 words and does not proactively try new words. (Interestingly enough, Jack was this same age and had about the same level of words/speech capability when he started his speech therapy.)

At the end of October, we received a call that Brooke does qualify for speech therapy and that they need to send someone out to do paperwork. That person came out the first week of November; she provided additional paperwork, releases, forms, etc. We learned Brooke is over 33% delayed - hence her qualification - but they didn't give us an exact percentage of delay because since they determined it was over 33%, they don't look at how much further (nice, eh?). She did say that based on what she has seen with Brooke, it is just a delay and not anything else (neurological, physical, etc. to cause a speech issue); and more importantly, that she should catch up with speech therapy. Brooke qualifies for 6 months of speech therapy. After 6 months, she'll be reevaluated and at that time, if she is over 50% delayed, she'll still qualify for speech therapy but if she is less than 50% delayed, she won't qualify for any more speech therapy (through the Orange County Regional Center) since she'll be over 2 years old at that time.

The Orange County Regional Center has assigned us to a different speech therapy center than where Jack went to, but this one is near Jack's preschool so that works out. Starting Tuesday, 11/17, Brooke will attend individual 1 hour speech therapy sessions (1 day a week). Scott will drop her off at 8am, then drop Jack off at preschool 10 minutes later, then circle back to pick Brooke up at 9am... and then back to preschool to pick Jack up at 11:30am.

Brooke's Evaluation & Anniversary

Evaluation

I had heard that kids adopted around a year old actually have a harder time learning English because they had just started the foundation of learning a language (Russian), then you throw in the second language (English) and it is hard for them to understand it is a different language - not just different words of the first language. So we were giving her time to "forget" Russian and learn English.

But at 21 months old, she really only said a handful of words (mama, dada, hi, bye, poo, ju, all done, wa-wa, opin, ba, may-may). But she only uses maybe 7. The rest are only said when asked to repeat after us; she wouldn't proactively use them. She relies on pointing, grunting and crying to get her point across. However, she clearly understands us since she can follow simple command (come here, throw that away, go upstairs, clean up, etc.).

Late last month I called the Orange County Regional Center to schedule an appointment to get Brooke evaluated, mainly for speech. The OC Regional Center is the same place that we went through for Jack's early intervention - they evaluate and provide necessary therapy for kids up to 3 years old.

In the beginning of October, the service coordinator came to the house and spent about 45 minutes with us and Brooke. She asked us a lot of "can she do this" type questions. Questions such as, does she play peek-a-boo, does she eat with a spoon and fork, does she put stuff in her mouth, can she drink from an open glass, does she help to dress herself, does she follow direction, does she draw, does she know body parts, does she play with other kids, does she climb, can she stack blocks, can she go up the stairs, etc.

She then wrote up an evaluation that determined what areas Brooke is delayed in and if she qualifies for care. For speech, a child that is under 2 years old, has to be 33% delayed (due to budget cuts, if a child is over 2 years old, s/he has to be 50% delayed to qualify for therapy). Preliminary results show she is delayed but now we wait for a speech therapist to come out to really assess her.


Anniversary
It really is amazing what a year does. A year ago, Brooke was walked into a room and time stood still. It was a moment I'll never forget; I saw her and had that feeling of just knowing she was my daughter and this was it. As she came closer to me, it was as if she was in slow motion and I was savoring every detail. She was handed to me and she didn't cry, which a year later and knowing her, is amazing in itself. In the past 12 months, her little personality is shining through more and more. And today, one day from when we first met her, she gave us her first closed-mouth kiss -- over and over and over again. So cute!! Although she is more of a high-maintenance child, she completes our family and we couldn't imagine life without her.

Progress of Jack's speech

Okay, so I know Jack has only been to two speech therapy sessions, but we're just in total amazement. Last Wednesday, at his first session, they gave us homework. We had to cut out these images and words to glue them to a note card. We had to go through these self-made flash cards with Jack to have him practice saying words that end in the "k" sound. Sick, pack, hook, yuck, book, back, peek, bike, walk, rock, neck.

They gave us this thing that is like a tongue depressor (think of a stick with a small sponge on the end) that we put in Jack's mouth, on top of his tongue. He then says the word on the self-made flash cards. The stick is suppose to help teach him to keep his tongue down instead of going up to the top of his mouth behind his top teeth, because this is what he does to make a "d" or "t" sound.

So on Thursday, we practiced it -- see first video. It wasn't going well.... he kept manipulating his tongue to go on top of the stick. Friday he had his speech therapy. Saturday I asked him to say "Brooke", but he still couldn't get the "k" sound (came out Broot), so I told him to keep his tongue back and down.... and then he said Brooke - K sound and all. I was amazed!

Sunday night we went through all the self-made flash cards and he did every single one perfectly - without any help with the stick or reminder to keep his tongue back and down. He was just rattling off words right and left with the "k" sound perfect. See second video.

Even the speech therapist was impressed with Jack's fast progress. There is another child that she has been working with to get the "k" sound with the stick; that child is just now able to make the "k" sound without the stick and they've been working on it since February! It took Jack less than five days! We are one set of extremely proud parents!!

First time practicing at home:

Mastering the "k" sound at the end of a word:

Jack's Speech

Today was the first day of Jack's new speech therapy. We were going through the Orange County Regional Center from the time Jack was about 21 months old until he turned 3 years old (the age limit that the OC Regional Center works with). After he turned 3 years old, we had him evaluated and it showed he was still slightly delayed but boarder-line for qualifying to additional help. Fortunately they did put him in the school districts speech therapy called TALK. But they couldn't start him right then or over the summer, so we waited until today to start.

We had not talked to Jack about starting speech again until yesterday. Jack, in true form, took it all in stride and had no problem going to speech. He even told Brooke, as he was walking out the door, that he was going to speech, that he'd miss her and that he'd be back in half an hour!

He'll be going twice a week for 30 minutes each session. And he has already won over the teachers, who said what a sweetheart he is. He has some homework that we'll work on, which he is excited to do, to "help me talk" as he says.

I feel that his speech has improved over the past several months - not just in pronouncating but also in use. Here are a couple dialogs that we've had recently with Jack:

Mommy: Jack, are you suppose to be touching my (work) computer?
Jack: Nope.
Mommy: Then why are your cars on the computer?
Jack (in an exasperated, well "of course" tone): Because they had to park somewhere!

Daddy: Sorry Jack (for bumping into him while walking in Target)
Jack: No prob.

Mommy: Good night Jack.
Jack: Good night Mommy.
Mommy: I love you Jack.
Jack: I love you too -- sweet dreams!

Mommy (in the car, playing I Spy): I spy a red truck.
Jack: I spy a crying baby (a.k.a. his sister Brooke)!

Jack: I need a plate.
Daddy: What for?
Jack: For my cookie!

Mommy: Jack, stop jumping on the couch.
Jack: I'm not jumping, I'm bouncing.

Mommy (as I'm putting him back into his bed at 5:40am): Try to go back to sleep Jack.
Jack: I like you Mommy.
Mommy: I like you too Jack.
Jack: I love you too Mommy.

Jack (after telling Daddy what he did at preschool): You got me?

Daddy: Please stop picking your nose. If I wasn't here with a tissue what would you do with that?
Jack: I'd wipe it on myself.

Jack: Do you know that dude at preschool?

Murphy (our cat who meows all the time): Meow.
Jack: Get real Murphy.

Jack: Yo-ho-yo-ho, it's a pirate's life for me.