Things have been going fairly well lately. Saturday abuela arrived in the afternoon. The kids, including Elise, were happy to see her. On Sunday, we took the kids to an indoor playground. You know, it's too "cold" here to play outside at the park - it was only in the fifties in the morning :o) Anyway, Elise took a long time to warm up and play non-obsessively with the toys there. There was only my family and another mother with her 2 kids there. Her daughter was 23 months. Watching Elise take so long to warm and seeing this sweet, outgoing almost two year old just really hit me hard for some reason. I felt very depressed. Sometimes things like that just make me realize how different Elise is. That said, Elise ended up having a great time and playing well.
On Monday, it was back to school for her. Oh, before I forget to mention it, Thursday was another insomnia night for Elise. She was up from 1 am -4 am. Poor girl was so tired at school on Friday that she fell asleep in the ball pit during recreational therapy in the afternoon. Elise supposedly had a really good day at school Monday. Hubby picked her up and observed her during circle time. They sang "The Wheels on the Bus". At the end of the song, they waited for her to fill in the word town. She said nothing. The other girl in her class responded Town. They made a big fuss over her talking. This apparently inspired Elise who then said "Town". I thought that was cute and so like Elise.
Today I attended the parent meeting for the program. It was nice to hear from other parents going through things the way we are right now. I also discovered that Elise will get screwed over because of her birthday. In our state, the cutoff date for students entering kindergarten is 5 by December 1. Since Elise is a November birthday, she fits the criteria. However, given that she is so delayed and would be so young for her grade (particularly if we move to another state where the cutoff is earlier), we planned to wait a year before putting her and her twin in kindergarten. This would also leave them 2 grades behind older brother instead of only 1 grade. We're hoping being farther apart in school would ease some the extreme competitiveness between the boys. Well, if we don't send her to kindergarten just before she turns 5, then we're essentially "opting out" of services through the school district that year. We'd go for one year without public school options for her. I understand the rule, but it's just so annoying. I know starting her and her brother in kindergarten at 4 would be wrong for them. I just didn't realize there would be such a penalty for having to make that choice. Oh well, something to worry about for the future.
On to the great news! Elise seemed off to me this evening. However, just before bed, I found her standing in her room and softly singing. She was so quiet, that at first I only noticed that she was making some different hand gestures. When I got closer, I clearly heard her singing round and round and making the motion that goes with the "Wheels on the Bus" song. Then, she moved on to making the Shhh! sound with her finger to her lips and said "Mama, shhh!" meaning the mommies on the bus go "shhh,shhh,shhh". How awesome is that? I can't believe she's learning how to sing songs on her own now. Hurray for Elise! I made a big fuss over her - I think she felt proud of herself, as she should.
We scheduled an appointment with genetics today. We'll have that appointment in mid-January. The neurologist appointment is early to mid December and her IEP is mid to late January. The parent training course for ABA therapy starts in early December and Elise's ABA assessment should begin around the same time. Things are finally moving...
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