Sunday, January 29, 2012

Silent Sunday

Here is a mishmash of pictures from the previous week......


Taylor at swim class





Miss Madi standing up from her new chair!



Madi received this chair as a present for her birthday.....it is awesome!  You can find it HERE ......it's called a Sweet-Seat!

Happy girl!





Sisterly Love!

Friday, January 27, 2012

Annual IFSP time!

This week we had Madison's annual IFSP.  For those of you that don't know what that is......it stands for Individualized Family Service Plan.  Madi receives early intervention therapy until the age of 3 and they do an annual review to decide where she is at developmentally and what our goals are for the next 6 months.  At this time, they also determine what type of services she is eligible to receive.

Riding in her new car that she got for her birthday!



During the review, they had to assign a percentage to the amount of delay that she is in comparision to other typical kids her age.  She is delayed 30% for Fine and Gross Motor skills, delayed 40% for Adaptive, Cognitive and Communication skills, and delayed 0% for Social/Emotional.

I have to be honest with you.......the 40% number kind of bummed me out.  I wasn't expecting it to be that high.  I mentioned this to her SLP (speech therapist) in private but she reassured me to not get all wrapped up in the numbers.  When they were evaluating her, they take a list of skills and they have to categorize where she is at.  The categories are:  has Mastered the Skill, the Skill is Emerging or Skill Never Seen.  When they determine the score, they stop once they get to their first Skill is Emerging.  So, even though, she is starting to do LOTS of new things, they can't take them into consideration until she has Mastered them.

Playing around with big sis' in mom and dad's bed!





This makes sense.  And she said, you want to see a delay, otherwise, they can revoke the services that are being provided, since she would technically be "no longer delayed and not needing the services".

One thing I WAS happy about.....the 0% delay for Social/Emotional.  I guess Madi fits the stereotype of people with Ds.......they thrive socially!

So, the goals for Madi for the next 6 months......

     Gross and Fine Motor
-  Start to take a few independent steps.
-  Pull herself to stand consistently
-  Side step along the furniture.
-  Crawling on all fours.  (Quadreped Crawling)
-  Individuating her fingers to point.
-  Come off of bottle.

     Language
-  Vocalize open and closed vowel cooing (aah, eee, ooo)
-  Vocalize new consonant chains to include m & p sounds.
-  Purposeful and specific when vocalizing "dada"
-  Increase purposeful use of signs: eat, mile, more, mom, dad, play, cat


I have to share about these stairs.....they are for one of our cats that is old.  He is unable to jump up on the bed so we have these for him to help him up.  Well, Madi thinks it is fun to climb up them.....even though she gets a mouthful of cat hair every time she does it!





The great outcome of the IFSP is she gets to have more therapy!!!  Yeah!!!!  We officially will be starting OT (occupational therapy) every week!  She will now be doing PT, OT and ST each and every week!  And we are going to have a nutritionalist come in the next month just to help us along in determining how much food and formula we should give her until she is off the bottle.  We are working on the straw cup still but until she can drink out of it consistently and actually swallow the liquid, we have to give her a bottle to make sure she is getting enough nutrition.

We have some great goals to be working on for the next 6 months!!!!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

A Girl and her Cat!

Taylor is officiallly obsessed with Kosmo, one of our three cats!  The obsession started a few weeks ago and has catapulted into an obsession that we need to get control over.

The first thing she does at 6:01am is go looking for Kosmo.  The poor cat must then sit in her lap until she deems it time for him to go on his own.





Just so you know, Kosmo is a Maine Coon cat who weighs 18 pounds.  So, you can imagine what it is like when she carries him around.  She wraps her arms around him underneath his front legs and he proceeds to hang there with the rest of him dangling around as she swings him around.

The poor boy has resorted to hiding behind the washer and dryer to get some peace and quiet.  We try to explain to her that he needs to be left alone to rest and do his own thing......but she just doesn't care.

Mom.......where's Kosmo?!?!

There he is!!!!

I will go get him!!!!

Yep......underneath the bed.

I got him!!!

Oohhhh......he's heavy!!!

All I can say is Poor Kosmo!

I got my cat......I'm happy!

Look Madi......look at my cat!

Look at Charlie in the background.....running for his life!

Watch this video of her carrying him around......it's hilarious!!!!
          (Pause the music at the bottom to hear the sound)

Friday, January 20, 2012

Our Ladybug turns One!!!

I finally got around to downloading the pictures off of the camera from Madison's 1st birthday party!!!  I know, I know.....I am a little behind!

I also received some AMAZING photos from a friend of mine, Jen, who was so gracious enough to take photos for me at the party since I was a little preoccupied!

Here goes........ as you can see, there was a little bit of a Ladybug theme going on here!!




The cake turned out to be absolutely AMAZING!!!  I couldn't have asked for more!  For you Denver folks, CakeHeads Bakery is the only way to go!!!!






Party favors for the kiddos included goodies in the ladybug bags with a little ladybug filled with red and black M&M's.  For the adults, chocolate turtles!!









Unfortunatley, because the birthday girl was starting to get sick and not feeling 100%......she wouldn't wear the insanely cute tutu and bloomers that I had bought for her special day.    But, I did manage to get it on her a little bit today.......let me just stress the words, "little bit".  She just does. not. like. the tutu!!!

Here's the photos from today with the birthday outfit on....






Seriously, mom.......get this thing off of me!!!

Even though Madi wasn't feeling well at the party........she knows how to Rock the Cake!!!!


The funny thing about this gigantic hat......it had started to fall off while she was munching on the cake and she got upset that it was falling off!  She wanted it on!!!  Any other time, she rips any kind of hat you put on her head!





Look at the cake in her hair!!








A good time was had by all!!!

I want to give a huge shout out to my mom.......Thank you for making all the pendants for the party!  It wouldn't have been the same without them!!