Some good and some bad

Of course we should start with the good!!!!!! I can't believe I never posted this...Caitlyn's school progress report came out in early March...Now, she has been on an IEP for nearly 3 years now and has NEVER met a goal. We have seen a lot of "making progress but goal not yet met," or "expected to meet by end of period" and then never meeting it...Well, I am soooo pleased to tell everyone that Caitlyn met her first two goals!!! They are both simple self help goals. One is eating from a loaded fork, which she is doing wonderfully well with! Now, if only we can get her to not throw the fork across the room after taking the bite...Do they sell weighted forks anywhere? The other goal is putting her tray away after lunch. It think this goals is significantly adapted to look something like Caitlyn walking a couple of steps to a bin at the end of her table, and it being done with a considerable amount of support to direct the tray where it needs to go, but she gets it! And they are accepting the process as meeting the goal, because it is obvious by her eye gaze that she gets the instruction, just needs help with the motor planning to complete the process.

I don't know if I posted on this yet...I was kind of waiting until we received it so I could post pictures...The school district is getting us a child specific weighted blanket to help facilitate with communication! It is amazing have fast that pressure pulls Caitlyn out of a melt down, and allows her to communicate what she needs!!

Now a little bit of not so good news...We seem to be dealing with an increase in seizures. It is so frustrating to see, when we just added a new med! I know that it is most likely because she is not to a therapeutic level on the Depakote yet. I really hope it isn't in fact the addition of the Depakote! She was reported to have a few yesterday, and she had one today. They do continue to be short, but scary when she is standing. I am afraid she is going to fall one of these days...

Ok...Caitlyn's kindergarten class is going on a field trip soon. We are hoping to find a way for Caitlyn to be included for this field trip, but it is a lot of walking on uneven ground at a nature place...I wonder how the Maclaren would do off roading...Or maybe the school district would have a chair she could use...I just don't want her to miss out on all the fresh air! She'd love it!

Caitlyn's first Easter Egg hunt

We had such an amazing afternoon! We took Caitlyn to her first Easter egg hunt. It was held at a storage unit complex! The gal that is manager at the building has a grandson with special needs, and she remembers there never being a place for him to go for egg hunts. So she decided to change that this year! Caitlyn got her picture taken with the Easter bunny, then they give you a list of about 15 units. They took us upstairs and we went to all the units on the list. The kids got to open the storage unit door, and in the back of each unit was an Easter basket with eggs. She got to go in all the units and pick an egg out of the basket! It was so much fun!! So, I took some pictures to share!

Caitlyn and the bunny. That is Eric's arm holding her in the picture.

These next two kinda show how Eric would hold up the basket for Caitlyn to take an egg out. She would pick an egg, hold it for a second or two then drop it. She had fun! Next to her in the first picture is Alex (aka Bear) and his mom Serena. Alex liked to find an egg that shook, take out the candy, and politely put the egg back...So it appears we ended up with a couple empty eggs! He has Autism, and did an AWESOME job following the group and picking out his eggs! Way to go Alex!!

These next two, it was Caitlyn's turn to open the storage unit door! This is my friend Dora helping Caitlyn open the door. (that is her son Jackson next to Caitlyn)

And here we have Caitlyn leading the group in to the unit! I think Jackson is to the side of her. Behind her are (from left to right): Crystal's girls Alana and Kaila, and Dora's youngest Timmy.

Dora, Crystal, Serena and I all got to know each other because of something that none of us asked for. We all have a child with special needs. None of us asked to be part of this club, but through the Arc of Snohomish County's Mother's Network we have gotten to know each other, along with several other women, and become great friends! The ladies of the Arc of SnoCo's MN Rock!!!!!