OT Graduation and Coming (Short) Trip

Life has been so hectic since school finished up in June. Why does it seem like life gets MORE hectic when school lets out? Anyways, Noah has been keeping busy with the usual things. Yesterday, Noah attended his regular OT and PT sessions. He did really well. During his OT session, his therapist, Noelle, asked me how I would feel about her graduating Noah out of OT. I wasn't quite ready for that, but I was okay with it. I'm really proud of how far Noah has come. He he has worked really hard and made so many gains. He began OT back in June 2008, so I guess that it is pretty fitting that he finish 2 years later. Of course, he still has sensory issues and he is still delayed in self-help and adaptive skill areas, but not to the degree that would require weekly OT sessions. He may need to attend "tune-up" sessions every once in awhile, but we don't expect him to require anymore extensive OT. We'll really miss the sessions with Noelle, but since his PT is in the same building we will still see her on a pretty regular basis.

We also found out this week that his SLP will be taking maternity leave sometime in the next few weeks and will not be back until the fall sometime. Because she has no one to take over for her, we made the collective decision to take a break from speech while she is on leave and return in the fall. A year ago, this would have freaked me out! Now, I realize that Noah is doing really well and taking a short break isn't that big of a deal. Miss Emily, his SLP, is making a packet of thing or us to work on at home with him. We'll see how things go. If he seems to struggle, we can always take him to another SLP (pretty easy considering our neighbor is one!).

This Friday we will be making the 60 mile trip to the closest Children's hopital to see a neurologist. Some of you may remember that back in October Noah had an EEG because of some staring spells that he was having. That EEG came back normal and we figured it was just some weird thing that he did. Well, after he had his surger in April and returned to school, his teacher and aide mentioned that they had noticed the same staring spells that we had noticed back in October. Noah's SLP also mentioned that she had noticed the same thing, so we decided to have a second EEG done in May. This EEG came back abnormal, so we have now have an appointment with a neurologist to see what it means exactly.

Since Friday is gonna be a somewhat stressful day, we decided that it would be nice to take a little trip to the Columbus Zoo on Saturday to relax. It's Military Family Free Day, so we won't have to pay to get in! That means we can spend more on souvenirs and food! Yay! Noah hasn't been to the zoo, so this should be fun. So it looks like the next few days will be crazy, again! Hope everyone enjoys there weekend ahead.

So Proud and Noah Funny

Noah had his preschool program and stepping up ceremony last week. Everyone involved with Noah was concerned that he would not do well during the program because he has been very unpredictable in situations that involve lots of kids and music. One day he will sing along and have a good old time, but the next day he may cover his ears, scream like a banshee and/or lash out at himself or others. I am proud to say that on this day he did amazing! He sat in his seat (with his aide holding his vibrating mouse standing behind him), sang, did all the cute little hand motions and even went up to the front of the stage to get his certificate. I was one proud mama with tears rolling down my cheeks as he ran to me after receiving his certificate.

Now on to the funny part. One of Noah's favorite songs from the program is "My Mother is a Baker". He has been singing it quite a bit lately, only his version is a little bit different from the original. Here is the original first three verses (in case you are not familiar with the song):

The original version:

"My mother is a baker, a baker, a baker.
My mother is a baker. She always goes like this. Yum. Yum.

My father is a trash man, a trash man, a trash man.
My father is a trash man. He always goes like this. Pee Yew.

My sister is a singer, a singer, a singer.
My sister is a singer. She always goes like this. La ta de da, and a toodley doo."

Noah's version:

"My mother is a maker, a maker, a maker.
My mother is a maker. She always goes like this. Yum Yum.

My father is a trash can, a trash can, a trash can.
My father is a trash can. He always goes like this. Pee Yew.

My sister is a stinker, a stinker, a stinker.
My sister is a stinker. She always goes like this. La ta de da, and a toodley doo."

Let me just say that I am REALLY glad that Noah doesn't have a sister and I should probably quit calling him a stinker so much! Did I mention that he sings this song at the top of his lungs for the whole world to hear? Yeah. That's my boy!

As you can see, they sat Noah in the back row just in case he had to be hustled away. The wonderful lady in the purple shirt is Noah's aide, Miss A. She was awesome with him this year. As far as I know she will be back with him again next year.