Hey everyone! I finally got some time to write up a blog.
Joe has been working a lot, so my days have been filled parenting the kids mostly on my own – i.e. no time to sit down and write without a little human getting into some sort of trouble.
I lost track of what week I stopped doing stay at home updates but y’all know what it is; staying home since nothing was/is open and not going anywhere when the order was lifted because AJ can’t safely wear a mask.
He did surprise me and tolerate it for our practice sessions though! The problem is he is a big mouth breather and was basically sucking the mask into his mouth and nostrils. Thankfully, we have a great respite provider so I can run errands solo. I would be lost without her!
Back to Therapy
Tomorrow (Friday) will complete our second week of going back to in office therapy for both kids. During the stay at home order, Lucina and AJ were getting speech in the house and AJ was doing telehealth for his occupational therapy.
He blew me out the water with how good he was at virtual therapy! He always reminds me to never underestimate his abilities!
Now both kids have speech in office once a week, AJ is back to physical therapy (his favorite therapy) and of course, in office occupational therapy sessions. Whenever the kids have in office therapy, their therapist walks to the car, picks them up, takes them inside, checks temperatures, wash their hands and then off to work. They wash their hands again before coming back to the car.
AJ’s physical and occupational therapists wear masks and the lobbies are closed. His speech therapist does not wear a mask and their front lobby is open for parents to sit. I saw a few families walk in and wait yesterday and I was surprised because I didn’t expect the “back to normal” shift to happen so fast. I still wait in the car. It’s a peaceful thirty minutes I don’t have to worry about anything or anyone.
I’m sure there are lobby protocols in place that I just don’t know about because I have awful vision and cannot read any sign posted unless I am standing in front of it lol.
So why back to in office therapy? It was needed for the kid’s sanity.
All offices stayed open, but I made the call to put them on hold. Our town does not have a lot of cases and the clinics are small and have good protocols. No one shares a space, not even the gym at physical therapy.
The first week back, Lucina practically jumped out the window to her therapist and was yelling “BYE!” while walking away. The girl LOVES being out the house.
AJ was/is full of wiggles and stir crazy, so the change of scenery and time away from his sister is his favorite part.
The second reason is germs.
I am the mom who lets her kids play in the dirt and eat something that fell on the floor for a second or two (obviously nothing like a department store floor – yuck). We believe in the five second rule here lol.
I always tell the kids “No … oh never mind, build your immune system kid.” The never mind part is largely due to the kids already putting a fallen gummy in their mouth before I could stop them.
Anyway, back to the point. I rather have the kids be around people now than be slapped with tons of people and germs when they go back to school.
Safe exposure to keep their immune systems building up those antibodies to daily living/interaction germs is important. At least that’s how I see it. I also give the kids their vitamins. I am not throwing them out to the world without some health measures done on my end.
Lucina Update
Big news! Lucina is no longer considered speech delayed!!!!! For my new fam, welcome and here is a little back story.
AJ is nonverbal, so Lucina doesn’t have that older sibling to learn from linguistically speaking. It is not the same learning from mom and dad; apparently, we aren’t cool enough for her.
Lucina was a little over one when she was evaluated for speech and about one and a half when she started early intervention for her speech delay.
Our therapist expressed some hesitation on evaluating so early on. However, due to AJ being nonverbal and on the spectrum, she screened Lucina to see if the concerns were valid and to get a more conclusive picture on how delayed she was.
Around this time, I was trying to catch any “red flags” as Lucina was creeping up to the age AJ was when he was diagnosed.
Her initial diagnosis was a mix of moderate expressive and receptive speech delay/disorder.
As Lucina made progress and went to morning school to be around peers, she reached age level for receptive communication and only had a mild expressive speech delay/disorder.
Now she is forming sentences and has an age appropriate vocabulary count to pull from. Granted, her sentences still have a lot of gibberish in them, but the important thing is you can understand what she is saying.
Next week she is getting an articulation evaluation. I think that’s the name of it, I’m not really sure.
I already know Lucina is going to still need speech because she substitutes sounds. Her articulation is a little fuzzy with some letters. It’s actually normal for toddlers to not be able to pronounce some letter sounds (can’t think of the proper word for it) until they hit a certain age in their development.
What Lucina struggles with is taking the last sound of the word and then moving it to the front. Then when she tries to say it, it comes out an entire new word.
For example: she takes the “k” sound from “pink” and then says “cook” when she labels anything pink. I know what she means but others would not.
She also has her own substitutes for pizza and juice/drink. She calls pizza “TaPooh” and she calls her drink cup “get.” It doesn’t matter how hard she tries to say it right, it comes out like that.
If I have her break down the words, she can say it. Once I have her say the word put together, it comes out as the substitute she created. What is weird about these substitutions is they don’t necessarily follow the pattern I talked about above.
Who knows her method; Lucina is such a free spirit lol.
I am not worried about it. Honestly, I don’t care if she only says butt, I am beyond happy to hear any words. I would give anything to hear AJ speak. He is getting there and working hard at approximations, so I am just as proud of him.
Speaking of AJ, I have to go fix him now that he fell asleep.
Future Blogs
I am going to try and blog more, but I am an in the moment “writer.” I put quotations because I am in no way a proper writer lol, I am years behind on grammar and etiquette. Younger Suhay was a beast at composing papers though haha.
Anyway, writing blogs on planned topics is not easy for me. I don’t get that drive and emotion to write true from the heart when they are planned.
Right now, the only planned blog I need to work on is the second part of AJ’s diagnosis journey. That one is going to come but I need to be in the right space when I start it. I want it to be real and from the heart. I can’t open that can of worms only to stop and work on it over a few days.
It may be the next blog or maybe the next blog will be something that pops up in my head that I must put down in words. I will know when you know lol.
Since the blogs are so spaced out right now, be sure to follow my social media pages. I’ll drop the links below.
I may not have the time to write as much as I would like, but I try to post daily on those platforms and share in the moment updates :).
I have to go take care of AJ now.
❤ Until next blog ❤
RAISING OPPOSITES 