Palate Study

Emmi's palate study was today. I was really worried that she would not participate at all. She has had so many experiences lately where she has refused to even participate in the tests. Not today. Oh no. Today they had a microphone. And Emmi? She was "Hannah Mon-a-Montana." (As Emmi calls her.) She grabbed that microphone, jumped right up, and said everything she was supposed to. They were able to clearly see exactly what they needed to.

What did they see? Well, just what we already knew. Emmi needs surgery to repair her VPI. The good part is they were able to see her throat muscles, and can see that she will be a good candidate for the pharyngeal flap surgery. She will first need her tonsils out. Then, three months later, they can do the other surgery. She still needs to gain a few pounds. She needs to be 35 pounds for the surgery. I am going to be feeding her butter and cream for the next few weeks. We are supposed to see the doctor after the holidays. I need her to weigh 35 pounds by then!

So not one, but two more surgeries. Grrr.

Holiday Party

Emmi's class holiday party was on Friday. We didn't get too many pictures, because Emmi had been sick and was not very smiley. She really enjoyed the party, though. Actually all of the kids did. It was so much fun to see them this year, and remember back to last year. They have all made so much progress. Last year, it was mostly the parents talking to each other. This year, the kids were all excited and chattering away! I can't believe how great they all speak now.

Emmi and a classmate decorating the gingerbread house.

Finished gingerbread house.

Making antlers.

Messy hands!

Helping her teacher open her present.

Updates

I have been a big slacker. Okay, that is far from the truth. I have completed my Christmas shopping, made seven aprons for the girls' teachers, put together projects for the girls' holiday parties, attending appointments and meetings, and somehow managed to get some work done. I just haven't posted here in awhile, and a lot has happened.

First, Emmi's ARD was two weeks ago. I was very pleased with the outcome, although I am a little worried at the same time. I wonder how Emmi will handle it all, but I am confident that the school is prepared to work with her should any problems arise. We discussed our current goals and her placement for next. I'll hit the basics.

• Emmi made a huge leap from Sept of last year to Sept of this year. She was evaluated at 12-18 months last year. This year she was at 40 months! That puts her only a year behind for receptive and expressive language, and still making quick progress. At this rate, she should be caught up by next year!
• Emmi has already met and surpassed all of the goals that were supposed to take her through the end of this year. Some of them were identify half of the alphabet (she knows all, both upper and lower case), count to ten, string together three word sentences (currently she uses five +), use he/she correctly, etc.
• Articulation continues to be her weakest point. I mean, she speaks in five word sentences, you just can't understand them all! The palate study next week will give us more insight as to how to proceed with that.
• Emmi will be placed in a mainstream Kindergarten. The other students from her deaf ed class will be in her class, and there will be an interpreter/aid in class with them.
• To help Emmi transition to Kinder, Emmi will begin attending large group (PE, Art, Music) and Centers with the current Kindergartners beginning this January. She will be with her future teacher, who currently has two boys (one of whom I am convinced Emmi is going to marry. She talks about him daily.) from Emmi's class last year.
• Emmi will receive private therapy nearly five days a week every week from 30 minutes a day! This is amazing after hearing what other people get. Emmi sees two different therapist. One will pull her one to two times per week, the other will get her three times a week. This is what she currently gets, but I didn't expect them to maintain that. It will come out of her PE time, which was recommended since PE is a problem for Emmi.
• Oh, and PE is a problem for Emmi. The PE teacher was concerned with how often she falls. I laughed. Probably not the response she expected. Actually, everyone laughed, except her. That is just Emmi. Poor thing can't walk in a straight line to save her life, and she falls every three steps.

I think pretty much sums that up.

Now for the meeting with Med-El. I am not even sure I am ready to post about, because I am so mad. Basically, nothing is resolved. More problems have been created. I have no answers, and I can't seem to get any. I am beyond frustrated. They want us to continue to try to solve the problem through programming. What? The problem is that the stupid thing has migrated out of the cochlea! How is mapping going to solve that? Yes, we can placate her and make her more comfortable, but that isn't going to fix the problem. I guess we will continue to do our hoop-jumping circus act for awhile.

At the request of my mom....

Angry Mouse

It is all Kenny's fault. We don't know why. We just know that Kenny made the mouse angry.