Speech therapy

Every week I look at my calendar and think "If I can just make it until next week, then things will slow down", but they never do. I don't know why I keep thinking that!

Part of why life is really busy right now is Bill is away for a few weeks. He will be taking a new job in this same area in early July, so the Army is beginning to train him to take that new position. I shouldn't complain - I know there are thousands of families who miss their loved one every day while they are deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. But I still miss him!

Michelle misses him too! He was home for a short visit over the weekend, and she gave him his first kiss. She is also trying to say his name when she sees pictures. The "d" sound is really hard for her, but she is trying.

We had a sad weekend. Bill's stepmom passed away last week. Bill arrived home late Thursday, we left Friday to make the 3 hour drive to Bill's Dad, and then returned home late Sunday to have him fly out at 4:30 a.m. on Monday. It was a whirlwind weekend, but we were so glad to be able to go and support Bill's Dad. His stepmom was sick for a long time, but it was still sad to know she had passed away. The one good thing that came out of the weekend was Michelle's grandfather, called Bumpa, finally got a chance to meet her. Bill's cousin took some sweet pictures of them together, so I hope to post those at a later date.

Yesterday we met with the early infant and toddler connection to "interview" Michelle and see exactly what services were recommended. First we went by the health department to have them recheck her hearing. (too far to drive up to Walter Reed!) She seems to have full hearing now with the tubes in place. We already suspected this - it's obvious she can hear much more, but it was nice to see it on paper.

The interview was with 3 therapist, and they spent over an hour playing with Michelle and asking me lots of questions. They concluded that she doesn't need occupational therapy. She seems to be very close to her age in most of the developmental areas. As expected, she does need speech therapy and should begin receiving that once a week starting hopefully by early April. It was exciting to hear the speech therapist write her goals. I believe by the end of the summer she will be chatting away. She is already trying so hard to learn new words and imitate things we say. Even at lunch after the evaluation, she kept signing she wanted a drink. We went by McDonalds and she was drinking from an apple juice box. She can't use a straw (partly from the surgery, partly because she has never been able to use that much force to suck due to the cleft, so she never learned.) I have to squeeze the box a little to make the juice go up to the top. She has to ask each time she wants a drink, so I was trying to get her to use the word drink instead of just signing. She was trying so hard. She has a hard time with d's, p's, b's - anything that requires lips or upper palate. But she is getting there. I'm excited to see how she progresses once she begins therapy.

The therapy team was impressed with how cute she is, and how well adapted she seems with her new family and being in a new environment. We think she is very charming!