1st day of preschool

I've been quite neglectful of the blog this summer. I'm actually a little sad about it, but I can say with certainty that we had an AMAZING summer with our little man, and blogging just didn't fit into the picture very often.

Being pregnant this summer and chasing after an energetic 3 year old with a busy schedule kept me very tired. Most nights I would put him to bed and go straight to bed myself. I don't like to give "no time" as an excuse, because I believe you make time for what you want to make time for, so instead I will chalk it up to "no energy."

We spent lots of time in the pool. This kid is a fish. Seriously. We often dressed him like this, although he lost the tube pretty quickly because he's so great in the water! The one-piece outfit is SPF 50, so that we wouldn't have to put suntan lotion on every inch of his body.

Check out this daredevil:

Lucas spent time at camp, we went on many day trips, spent some time at the beach, and just enjoyed having mommy around full time. We didn't get through the whole alphabet, but did quite a few letters.

Lucas had his first day of preschool today. He attends a mainstream preschool, at the same location as last year. He will attend 3 days a week for 2.5 hours this year with nine other typical hearing peers. Much to my dismay, I was unable to go with him to his first day, but Oma took him and reported that he enjoyed himself and was happy to see friends from last year. One of the mothers inquired about his ears, and wondered how well he could speak. Apparently she was pretty impressed when she heard him. (*insert proud mommy grin here*)

Lucas continues to receive services at Schreiber Pediatric Rehab Center, one of my favorite places. He gets speech therapy once weekly and physical therapy biweekly. He still struggles a bit with his gross motor skills, although he's progressing well. He also gets weekly services from a great Teacher of the Deaf at home. I believe he is thriving with his current services. He had some formal testing done at CHOP this summer when he was 3 years 6 months, and he was testing in the 4 year 2 month to 4 year 8 month range in a variety of receptive/expressive/skill categories normed against typical hearing peers. GO Lucas!

I'm on the final countdown... 7 weeks or fewer to go in this pregnancy! It has not been a particularly easy pregnancy, and I've been watched closely because of Lucas's premature birth and myriad of health issues. I've had 16 (weekly) shots of 17P (progesterone) so far to prevent pre-term labor, and I only have 4 to go! This week I start weekly non-stress tests. I will be glad when she's here. She has a name, but it is a secret. Not even Oma knows. Of course, I have my worries, but I can tell you that hearing loss is at the bottom of that list. We know that it's certainly not out of the realm of possibilities. But, that's another post altogether... hopefully soon. 

and preschool begins...

Lucas started preschool today. I'm so very sad that I couldn't be there, but we're thankful Oma can take him instead. I started to prep him on Saturday for going to school. If I had started too much earlier he would have been disappointed each and every day he didn't go. I had hoped to make an experience book ahead of time, but I settled for several books about school. It certainly prepped him for today. Oma took some great pictures today, and I will now make an experience book with pictures of him in it.

Reportedly there were few tears, and Lucas enjoyed playing in the play kitchen and with the train table. It was an abbreviated day, but I would call it a success.

This morning when I asked him who he was going to play with, he answered Nolan, and two of his teachers from John Tracy. Although it still breaks my heart, I'm excited that he still has strong, positive memories from our 3 week adventure in Los Angeles.

Lucas won't be back to school until Friday, because we have an appointment at CHOP on Wednesday. I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings for our little Lucas!

an exciting day for Lucas

Lucas went to his first day of "school" today! What a fun day for him! I took the day off to experience this fun milestone.

We have been VERY fortunate to be working with Clarke PA (auditory/oral school for the deaf) since early September. I haven't posted much about it, but it's been a phenomenal experience. By some luck of the draw, Early Intervention in our county decided to start contracting with them, and they now provide Lucas's weekly hearing therapy session. Over the summer, we visited the school to learn about their early childhood programs, and shortly thereafter, Lucas started benefiting from their services AT OUR HOME. Um yeah, we're very fortunate.

When I first searched for auditory/oral programs in the vicinity over a year ago, I concluded that the commute would not be worth it. I thought we would make do with what is available to us locally. Things have changed, and here we are.

The drive is 80 miles each way. We're talking 3 hours in the car round-trip, without traffic. It's a good thing that Lucas likes to go "bye-bye" a lot! Lucas is also very lucky that his Oma is as committed to his educational success as his mommy and daddy are, or else he would have no way of getting there.

Right now, the "early toddler" program meets just once a week. That's one of the reasons we feel that the commute is doable. The next age group goes twice a week, and the preschool-aged kids attend up to 5 days a week. Our goal is to mainstream him locally at 3, and we hope that this program will give him the language boost he needs to make that possible. Who knows where we'll be in a year though!

There were 7 toddlers in the group today. It was really a introductory day, but Lucas enjoyed free play, circle time, a gross motor activity, a snack and then more free play. He interacted well with the other kids, and even sat well for circle time. I can't wait to see how he grows through the spring. I just wish I could be there to see it each week. It breaks my heart just thinking about missing it.

It's a state of the art facility, keeping in mind every detail for creating an ideal listening and learning environment for hearing impaired children. It's seriously impressive! The staff is just amazingly friendly too. I already feel very welcome there.

Here are a few pictures from today (Oma came in extra handy):

coloring fun

engaged during circle time

up, up, up goes the balloon

snack time

free play fun on the trampoline

Another big plus to the day was that Lucas got to visit his cousin Ryan, who lives pretty close to Clarke! These boys are going to be trouble together someday soon. Just wait...


I never imagined sending my 2-year-old to "school" already. But, I'm so excited for the experiences this program will provide for him and I think it's going to be well worth it!

night and day

Wednesday at toddler group, it was like I had an entirely different child with me. He played with toys for more than 30 seconds each, he sat for circle time, and he even participated in the craft pretty well. Some of the mommies talked to me, and i even ran into a classmate from high school, who was there with her daughter. It was really fun, and I'm glad we went. We will definitely continue to go.

I think there were a couple of factors that affected his behavior. First, he took a much longer nap this week, so he wasn't running on empty. I also think the room wasn't quite as brand new and exciting, so he just played with what he wanted to, as opposed to every.single.toy.

Next week's task: teaching him not to let the older girls push him around and take toys out of his hands. If he keeps that up, he's in a lot of trouble. :)

Little Inquisitors

Lucas loves to play with the kitchen!

I found Lucas a young toddler group "preschool" program! It's called Little Inquisitors, and is held Wednesday EVENINGS from 6:30-7:30. That's right, that means that I can take Lucas! It's so perfect. The kids get 1/2 an hour of free play time followed by a circle time and a craft. There's a certified teacher, and best of all, it's free. I'm so excited. I've been looking for some kind of a program to help prepare Lucas for preschool and maybe the toddler group at Clarke this winter. It's always a plus to have hearing peers around too.

This week was the second time Lucas attended. Last week was really great. This week was just okay. That won't discourage us from going back next week though. Last week, one of the mothers asked about Lucas's CI, so I talked about it and everyone listened for a few minutes. It was great to have the opportunity to educate. This week though, there were some different mothers there, who just smiled and looked away. I could have spoken up, but I wasn't in the mood. I don't want his CI to be the center of attention or to detract from other conversations (that I wasn't in on anyway). Maybe next week I'll speak up.

Lucas is definitely the youngest and smallest in the group, so his delays are more apparent. He is approaching 2 and many of these kids are approaching 3. That's doesn't help any. Even with his recent language gains, he still kind of babbles like a baby, which invites a lot of interesting looks. He wouldn't sit for circle time tonight either, so we went and played with the younger kids in another room, which was just fine. I just kind of left feeling a little down.

I'm really not trying to complain. I'm so proud of how far he has come, and I'm so very pleased with all of his recent gains. But I'm also very aware of how far he has to go to catch up with his hearing peers. I know he is on his own path, and that he will do just fine. But I think it's good to keep perspective too. I am generally very positive about everything going on with Lucas, but I do have my moments. Don't we all? Tonight just kind of reminded me of landing in Holland, and wishing I could go to Italy for the day. Tomorrow's another day.