Time for an Update, Perhaps?

Egads, life gets crazy and the blog gets super dusty. But, I figure I can update at least every six months or so, I hope!

Anyways.....Darsie started kindergarten and has been doing fairly well. She does great with math and patterns but reading has been more of a problem than I anticipated. The school finally started an extended kindergarten program which gives her an extra hour with a different teacher and only nine other students (the extra hour means that she has 4 hours instead of 3). They use a zoo phonics program and since Darsie LOVES animals, it has really clicked with her. She has made tons of progress.

In July, she had a round of Botox which has been hugely successful. We're in the process of getting another round scheduled for her though as her foot is starting to turn in and under again. It is such a bummer that it doesn't last longer but I am SO THRILLED with the six plus months that we got from the last round.

The other kids are doing great as well. Elise is in preschool and thriving. She loves lady bugs and princesses. Bert is now 15 months old and walking up a storm. He loves destroying things and terrorizing his sisters and ME! We are a traveling circus.

Serial Casting - Cast One

Monday found us at the PT to get Darsie serial casted (third time, round one). In bad news, there was still some tightness in her foot, but in good news, her PT felt that it was mainly soft tissue and not muscular. He said we would be able to tell if the Botox had done its thing better once this cast comes off.

She has experienced some uncomfortableness this go around, mainly in the form of itchiness, that she hasn't in the past, but she is trooping through.

This time she picked a pretty pale pink cast. I think this and the red have been my favorites so far. Last night we also decided to "applique" it. Cute, huh?

Ortho, Botox - An Update

Oh my goodness, how has a month flown by? I'm just not getting into a rhythm this summer and time is seriously slipping by like crazy. Seriously, how are we in JULY. MID-July at that???

Anyways, we went and saw an Orthopedist at MaryBridge Hospital a couple of weeks ago about D's foot. He said that he could fix her with surgery but really would prefer to wait since she is only five. He said that since she was so young, if he did the surgery now, it would almost definitely need to be repeated. So, he really encouraged us to try another round of Botox. It took us a bit to come to terms with that since the last round of Botox was so ineffective for Darsie and the procedure was traumatizing and painful (they just used a small dose of Versed).

Anyways, yesterday found us back at MaryBridge for Botox. This time she was given a larger dose of Versed and they were finally able to find a vein for a light sedative. The last thing she remembers is playing on the iPod and waking up. Yay!

Now we just wait to see the effects. If you could keep your fingers crossed over the next couple of days, we would appreciate it SO much!

Serial casting to begin on Monday.

Back to School....

Well, it is true. Darsie really IS going to kindergarten next year (not that I had any doubts, but you know). We went to her IEP meeting yesterday and she has made soooo much progress this past year and her teacher said that Darsie is DEFINITELY ready for kindergarten. Yay, yay, yay!

She will continue to receive OT and PT at school but has officially been released from Speech now. I can't even believe it as at three years old, she barely talked!

The only "accommodation" that she will be receiving outside of the therapies above is that she will continue to ride the little bus to school. I'm over the moon happy about this as the bus drop off is on a very busy street with lots of kids. The worry of her team was that the steps up and off of the bus are very tall and this area has no curbs and a steep drop off. And also that because of the throng of kids getting on and off, that she would get hurried and off balance and fall. And besides, who can resist door to door pickup and drop off?

That being said, watch, she will want to ride the big bus come the school year.

Happy Five Years

Another year, another anniversary. Five years of wedded (mostly) bliss. It's been a crazy five years of marriage and I'm hoping for many, many more. Less crazy, more bliss, though, please.

Moving on Up!

There is an official kindergartner in the house. Holy Moly. I have the official meeting next week but developmental preschool ended yesterday.Per Darsie's request, we celebrated at McDonald's.