Decisions, Decisions

So, we've been processing through Mia's school options for next year. We are in a slightly unique situation because California law is changing the date that kids will enter kindergarten by slowly pushing the age cut off of 5 to September 1st. This year, kids have to be 5 by November 1st to qualify for Kindergarten, although many parents recognize that their kids aren't ready and make the decision on their own to keep them back another year. Mia's birthday is in October, so she is a candidate for Kindergarten. When talking with her teacher and the special education administrators, their recommendation was to put her in a mild to moderate delayed Kindergarten class for several good reasons. Mia is definitely smart enough to handle general ed Kindergarten academically, but physically she is definitely not ready. So being in the mild to moderate class, the teacher would be able to work on some of her limitations with her in a smaller class size setting. So, last Friday I had the opportunity to visit the class that they thought was best suited for Mia. The teacher is wonderful, the class size is around 14, but after visiting and talking with the teacher, I had a few concerns. First, our district is going to full day Kindergarten this fall, so Mia would be in class from 8-2, approximately. That is a huge chunk of time when we are trying to also work into our day quite a few therapy visits. And after talking with the teacher, she told me the class goals for the year, which Mia has already mastered almost all of them. She is a smart cookie, Praise God! (Let me remind you that she was supposed to have no higher cognitive function. Thank you Lord for your amazing healing power.) As we are processing through all of this information and what is best for Mia, it made a lot of sense for us to keep her home next year and to look into a private preschool for at most 2 mornings a week. This would give us more time for therapy and more time for me to work with Mia in the areas that she is coming up short. And of course, I love the idea of spending more time with my babies, they grow up way too fast and it goes by way too quickly. So, now we are looking at some preschool options and trying to figure out what would work for Mia. :)

LA

I took Mia to LA yesterday for an appointment with her opthomologist. He's happy with how her eyes look and her vision has slightly improved since last time, which is great news. His only concern is that she tilts her head up a little bit to focus her eyes and he thought he could address and correct that with a very minimal surgery. It wouldn't completely correct her eye turn, but it would help her to be inline when looking straight out. He said it isn't something we need to do immediately, but it is available if we decide to do that. One more thing to think about and pray about regarding her vision. Our thought is to give her a good 6 months to a year in vision therapy and see if that makes any difference in her eye turn. Since Grandma stayed home with Calvin, Mia and I got to enjoy lunch and some girl time on our trip. That was nice and fun. And of course Calvin got lots of Grandma time and she took him "outside"...his favorite place in the world, so he was a very happy camper.

Pictures

So, I've been attempting to take pictures in a setting other than automatic on my camera. I feel like it's time to learn. MARE is the perfect opportunity because there is so much great light outside, so here are a few pictures from this week and last. Fun times.

Doing Great!

Mia is doing so well since her surgery last week. We had a quick check up with our pediatrician today. Her ears are healing nicely and she's doing great. Yesterday, when I picked her up from school her speech therapist told me that she doesn't sound as nasally anymore and that her speech was so much better. What a huge praise!

Calvin's speech has been changing so dramatically in the past few weeks. He now will say two to three word sentences and clearly understands the concept of "two". This morning he told me that I had two legs. And he is always asking to go to a grandparent's house. They sure do love their grandparents. :)

Easter Photos

The kids had a blast this Easter. Between both grandparent's homes, they were super busy with fun activities and cousins. Here are a few pictures from our weekend.

San Francisco Pictures

Here are a couple photos from our trip. Calvin was upset because he couldn't be down running around. Mia and Cubby waiting for the cable car.

Surgery

Mia did really well with surgery on her nose today. Just as a recap, Mia was born with a blocked nostril, we had surgery to fix it when she was 4 months old. Since then scar tissue built up and blocked the nostril again, so this is the second time we've done surgery to correct it. We are praying it's the last time also!

Last time her nose was smaller so they made a 5mm opening (diameter). This time they were able to make it about 8mm, hoping that it doesn't scar down, but if it does that there would still be a large enough opening to breathe through. Since the doctor made the opening larger, she did have to remove the soft scar tissue plus some new boney matter. As far as recovery goes, we will put saline drops in her nose (pray that she cooperates) and give her Tylenol for pain. It's kind of crazy how kids tolerate pain so differently than adults, but she's doing really well with it.

During surgery the doctor also looked at her ears because fluid can build up with a blocked nostril. She had enough junk on both sides that she put a tiny perforation in her ear drum and drained the fluid on both sides. Not tubes. It should heal in a week and we have some drops for her ears to prevent infection.

She got the "baby cocktail" before surgery which made her super tired and woozy. I was able to carry her back and hold her hand and stroke her head while they put her to sleep with gas. It worked really well and there was no trauma or crying at all, except for Calvin. He was slightly frustrated that sissy was getting all the attention from mama.

While we were waiting for Mia there was a gal playing a beautiful harp in a waiting area, she took to Calvin immediately and played all the kid songs she could think of. He thought it was great.

Immediately after surgery Mia was rather uncomfortable, but they gave her some pain meds through her IV and she quickly felt better. She was doing so great that we are all now back at the hotel and we will relax the rest of the day before we go home tomorrow.

Praise God for a successful surgery. Praying for a quick recovery. Thank you for praying!

Out of surgery

We just heard from the doctor, everything went well and Mia is on to the recovery room. We should get to see her in a little bit.

Surgery Started

We just left Mia, she went under anesthesia really easily. Pray for everyone involved, we will update when we know more.

Dr Visit

We met Mia's doctor today. We like her and are happy with her thoughts on the procedure. She said a CT scan isn't really necessary for this because you get a better picture of whether or not it is soft or boney tissue once you are actually in the nose. She said a possibility is that her nose might just need a tiny bit of tissue removed while dilating it to reopen the nostril, which would be great because it is less intrusive than removing more tissue. She will know tomorrow. Please pray for the doctors and all those involved in her surgery tomorrow. Please also pray for a quick an easy recovery and that we would not need to do this again. Praise God for how far He has taken Mia already.

San Francisco

We made it to San Francisco yesterday evening. We got settled in our hotel and walked around fisherman's wharf a bit. We also found a grocery store close by and picked up a few things for the kids. Our appointment is at 11:15 today, so we will post an update on how that goes. The kids are doing great, Mia would like to ride on a bus...we might have to try the trolley.