Evaluations: done but not finished

It's Nicky's spring break and he's off to Nana's house for fun in the sun! Tom drove him there today, and he'll pick him up next weekend. At least that's the plan. Last time he tried staying over at Nana's he made it about two days or so and then Tom went to get him in the middle of the night. But he's five now, so hopefully this will work out to be a fun week for them both.

The girls had their evaluation Friday. They performed for the four ladies who came over. And by the end I think everyone was in love with them. They did think that they need a physical therapy evaluation due to low tone in their torsos, and asymmetry in their fine motor and gross motor. Basically they both have better pincer grasps on their left hands and Gabi really uses her right foot and leg much more when moving around. Gabi was more in need of the PT evaluation, but since she's going, we'll have Lily evaluated too since she's also showing low tone and asymmetry.

Of course they continue to make huge strides every day, so who knows what they might be able to do by the time they're evaluated! Gabi is now pulling up reliably on the sofa, toy box, shelves, etc. And she can sit very well too. Lily can finally sit, but not quite as well as Gabi. Lily can cruise a little bit, but Gabi can't yet. Really they're both doing great, and always progressing, so we're not really concerned exactly. But they were behind enough in gross and fine motor to qualify for services.

Nicky had his 5 year checkup Friday afternoon. He had three shots and it took two nurses and myself to hold him down for them. He's a lot stronger than he used to be! I think if Tom had been there he would have been braver, but since it was Mommy he really let loose. Of course he was fine immediately after. They also did a finger stick for hemoglobin testing. He's all vaccinated and his iron is fabulous! We did get the pleasure of collecting urine for the first time too. That was fun. I had to ply him with about 3-4 glasses of water to get him to go. But we finally finished up. Oh, and a hearing test too that came out fine. We'd been concerned since his eval Monday showed there might be an issue. But he checked out ok on Friday.

But there are two referrals we're getting for him. One for a psychologist to discuss his attention and focus issues, and one to a surgeon.

Scary huh. Well don't give me ANY crap about this, but it appears he has phimosis and is going to probably require surgery (circumcision). I'm having plenty of mommy-guilt all on my own here. So saying 'I told you so' is NOT going to help anybody. We knew this was a small risk of not circumcising him at birth, but actually I think we did make the best decision we could at the time. It sucks to have to do it now, but he's five and it really doesn't seem to be loosening up at all. For anyone trying to make the circumcision decision for their baby, know this is NOT common. We might have suspected since theoretically Tom had it as an infant, but really, we weren't convinced he'd had it either since it was noted on the hospital papers from when he was born. Really, that's a bit early to make that kind of diagnosis.

So anyway, yeah probably looking at surgery this summer. He doesn't know yet, and we haven't exactly figured out how to have that conversation. The last thing I want to do is give him a complex about something being wrong with that body part.

As for the psychologist, well we suspect ADD. Not really ADHD, but just ADD. I don't anticipate medicating him at this age, but if we can get the diagnosis(if that is what we're facing) then we can get a 504 plan for him at school which will make sure he has accommodations for things like testing. Going into school I think that is important. So we'll see what the school system evaluation says on Monday, and then what the psychologist says. The initial feel from the assessment Monday was that his learning isn't really being affected by his focus/attention issues, but his expression or relating what he HAS learned really is. A section 504 plan would help him to have accommodations to mitigate that.

So that's the past week in a nutshell. Tom will have it relatively easy this week if Nicky makes it through the week at Nana's. Just two to watch! To most that would still be overwhelming, but really it'll probably feel like quite a break for Tom. I swear, I don't know how he does it! He's really the most amazing dad ever.

Nicky's current photo

I finally chose Nicky's current photo for his Pre-K graduation.

From Tom's phone:


That's my boy! Champion of "callapitters", ladybugs and all things small. Including sisters.

Evaluations: update

Nicky's evaluation went well Monday. Luckily Nana was able to stay and watch the girls, so it was just Tom and I with Nicky. Nicky would have had a much harder time focusing if we'd had to take the girls.

It took quite a while for the testing. They were testing him in several areas, and the lady we were working with said it was taking so long because he was doing so well. They had to keep increasing the level of difficulty until he bottomed out.

We'll get the results at the end of April and discuss whether he would qualify for services then. As it is now, we all agree he would likely get bored if we held him back from kindergarten next year, so we'll go ahead and send him on. I just hope we can get some accommodations in place or something before the year starts (or right at the beginning).

Next comes the girls' evaluation Friday morning. We'll get the results right then and there which will be great. The girls must have heard about the evaluation, because of course they can sit now. Gabi figured it out on the 13th, and Lily just figured it out on the 22nd. Gabi is still not quite pulling up yet, but she can get to a sitting position easier. Lily can pull up and stand like a champ, but to sit she has to pull up to her knees first, and then kind of twist herself down.

Lily demonstrates here:


Oh, and just because I think it's funny...
One of our favorite games to play around here:


I go for my eye exam tomorrow morning. I don't expect I'll need glasses, but I'm way overdue for a visit. I think I last went when I was about 15 or so. So it's been a few years.

Evaluation time

I finally had time to clear the last 2 months of pics and videos off my camera today. Now I just need to process and upload them to photobucket!

Right now we're getting ready for Nicky's evaluation Monday afternoon. I'm really suspecting ADD with possible ADHD. I'm not sure about the hyperactivity component, but he has the attention span of a cricket and it's driving everyone, including him, nuts. I really hope we find out what we can do to help him focus.

We'll also be asking about academic redshirting. He just turned five and holding him out a year might really make a big difference in his academic success. But we're also worried he might get bored. His teachers all say he's very smart, just can't focus and pay attention.

Then Friday morning the girls are getting their evaluation. They check five development areas: gross motor, fine motor, social, language and cognitive. The only one I've been concerned about has been their gross motor. Of course right after we had the initial visit to fill in the paperwork, Gabi decided to sit up occasionally (ok, twice) and Lily can pull up to stand. But they still aren't very good at sitting, which Lily proved this week by falling backwards and wacking her head twice. And Lily still can't get into a sitting positon, except for that one time we came in her room and she was sitting. Gah, they're most likely totally fine, but we're going to do the evaluation anyway, because the appointment is set and they are hard to get. And what better thing than to have someone tell you, officially, they're totally fine?

Anyway, pictures soon I hope. Nicky's getting so big! He's already FIVE and had a great birthday that I'll have to write about soon. He's adorable in his glasses, and he's set to "graduate" from preschool on May 2nd. (I know we're thinking of redshirting him, but he'll graduate anyway...even though Tom is adamant about "graduating" preschool being silly.) I had to pick out 6 photos of him growing up for the ceremony, so I've just been going thru his old photos. So cute! I went with photos from his birthdays. Or close enough. I'll have to share...

2 months old:


1 year old:


2 years old:


3 years old:


4 years old (with Lily):


5 years old... well I'm planning to try to use one from his birthday, or at least one with his new glasses. It'll come.

Girls 9 month checkup

That's Lily on the left there.

Girls had their 9 month checkup on Feb 22nd and they both weighed exactly 18 lbs. Gabi was about an inch taller (or stretchier). They are right on track for most everything, but for whatever reason they still can't sit up on their own. Just to be on the safe side we're having them evaluated on March 25th. They'll probably choose that day to show off and sit perfectly of course. But better to go ahead with the evaluation and be told they're fine than the other way round.

On that note, Lily is pulling up, and just tonight pulled all the way up to standing on sofa. Yeah, not too worried about her. Gabi can pull up according to Tom, but she isn't doing it as much so I haven't really seen her do it yet. They can both sit if you put them that way, but Gabi starts to lean forward and seems uncomfortable sometimes. And they can't get themselves in a sitting position.

Nicky is having his 5th birthday party this Saturday. Tom and I are both sick (me working on my second full week of sick now) and apparently Gatornationals are also this weekend, so we might have no one come other than family. Super. Luckily Liz and Grammie were able to book the last hotel room in town. The other folks will all be staying at our house. With one bathroom. Should be an interesting weekend!

Nicky's having a Hello Kitty/Transformer party, although he's more in the Hello Kitty part it seems. Aunt Jessie is coming and supplying the HK stuff which is going to be awesome. I'm baking a HK cake (somehow). And not sure how we'll incorporate the Transformers. Maybe a pinata? Who knows. If no kids are coming anyway maybe we'll just skip the Transformer part all together.

You know, it would be nice if I could be healthy for one of Nicky's birthdays for a change. It's pretty overwhelming to try to plan all this when we're so sick.

Anyway, that's my attempt at a post. I've got to get back into the habit!

Oh, one more thing! We've picked Nicky's glasses. I can't even remember if I posted about that yet. He went for his first eye doctor visit and turns out he needs glasses! I'm so glad we took him! He's going to be adorable in them. They should come in next week.