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SSD evaluation

Last Monday morning, Dominick had his evaluation for the Special School District program. There were about four different evaluators present, including one who had observed Dominick at Stay & Play the previous week. I was worried Dom would refuse to cooperate and answer their questions, but after warming up, he was great. After the evaluation was over, each evaluator discussed his or her findings with me. A full report will be coming later.

The news was good: Dominick has progressed so well he does not meet the criteria for the SSD program. We didn't think he'd be found eligible. That just shows how much has changed since August when we requested the evaluation. In speech, Dominick is right at his age range and even a bit higher in certain areas. The occupational therapist found only a few minor concerns with fine-motor skills and low muscle tone, but nothing that put Dominick below average.

We have decided to discontinue speech therapy, effective this week. Erin had contacted First Steps about two weeks ago to report that Dominick has met his goals as stated in his IFSP. We had a meeting with Erin, Carol from First Steps and Angela, the SSD representative, during Dom's regular speech session on November 16 and said that unless the evaluation turned up additional concerns, we were going to drop speech. It didn't, so we did. Speech therapy has been very beneficial, but it's nice not to need it anymore. We may consider cutting back on OT, too, but I want to see what Jacqui recommends.

Big brother

On Monday, November 6 at 8:18 am, Dominick became a big brother with the arrival of Noel Thomas. The baby weighed eight pounds, two ounces, and measured 21 1/2 inches long, making him the same length as Dominick at birth but nearly a full pound lighter. Also like his older brother, Noel came out with a full head of dark hair. Noel bears a striking resemblance to baby Dominick, so it will be really interesting to see how he grows up. Maybe he'll get Mike's dark hair and my brown eyes.

It's hard to believe how quickly my pregnancy went and that the baby is already two weeks old. So far, Dominick has adjusted surprisingly well. Jealousy has not been a problem. In fact, Dominick is affectionate toward the baby, showering him with kisses and asking to hold his hand. Sometimes he can be too rough, but it's only because he doesn't know any better, not because he's trying to be mean. Noel eats constantly, yet Dominick isn't upset by the amount of time I'm spending on feedings. He'll just observe that "baby Noel is eating" and go about his business, which usually involves wasting battery power in as many ways as possible. I actually asked Santa for rechargeable batteries for Christmas this year.

Overall, things are going smoothly since Noel was born. This may change when I'm on my own with the two boys for the first time. My recovery has been easier this time, though there's still some residual pain. Dom knows that my belly hurts, so he'll say "kiss it...all better." What a sweet boy. He'd be sweeter if he'd remember how to sleep past 5:30 am. Just in case he doesn't, I think I'd better sign off now and get myself to bed. Good night.

Trick or treat

Dominick was a railroad engineer for Halloween. He looked very cute in his overalls, red bandana, and striped hat. For the second year, our playgroup had a party, so all the kids were dressed up. It was fun, and Dominick did great, as is usual these days.

When Mike came home from work, we all went down to the produce market to buy a pumpkin. The pumpkins were pretty picked over by that point, but we managed to find a decent one. We also got one of the miniature pumpkins for Dom.

After a quick dinner, we took Dom out for his first trick-or-treating experience. We taught him to knock and say "trick or treat," though most of the time he said it long before we even got to a door. Once he realized how the whole thing worked, he really got into it. He loved reaching into the big bowls of candy and picking out a couple of pieces. As soon as he'd finish at one house, he'd say "do it again." I have to say he was quite adorable walking around with his little handled bag.

After trick-or-treating, we came home and carved the pumpkin. Mike did the design, and Dominick helped scoop out the gunk. He was really excited to see our jack-o-lantern all lit up. My intention is to cook it tonight, so he won't get to enjoy it much longer unless I get lazy and let the thing rot.

Today, he's been saying "trick or treat...do it again" several times. It's probably a good thing that he doesn't understand it will be a full year before he can do it again!

No longer the wallflower

We had playgroup at our house today, and it was pretty chaotic for two to three hours. This may have been the biggest group of kids we've had here. And the great thing was that Dominick loved it! He was playing and smiling and laughing and didn't have too much trouble sharing his toys, at least that I could tell. He considered getting upset when he saw me holding a friend's newborn, but all he did was say something about me putting him down. After everyone left, he kept saying "again--people again." It's so much less stressful than a few months ago, when every playgroup meant lots of inconsolable crying and clinging on his part. Now we can enjoy ourselves, and I don't have to psyche myself up for the distress to come. Between this playgroup and three different opportunities over the weekend, Dom's had quite the little social life, and he's been fabulous each time. I think he likes having friends! Imagine that.

Dominick has also recently achieved one of the minor goals we set for him through First Steps: he has started telling us when something hurts. I think it just goes along with his increased speech, but it's still very nice that, instead of just crying or fussing, he can tell us exactly what is wrong. He will also say "tired too" or "hungry too," but because he's repeating something we say, it's hard to know if he really means it. And, of course, he'll say "change the diaper" or "trim nails." We're not hearing a lot of full sentences yet, but he did say "I don't see him" the other day when looking for a toy truck.

Tomorrow morning is Stay & Play again, and I know Dominick will go straight to the play food. He talks about it all the time. He has his own play food, but apparently it's not as exciting.

Expressive catches up with receptive

I know, I know, it's been over a week again since my last post. Dom's been having sleep issues lately--it's always something--which have made me even more tired, so I haven't had the energy to keep up with his blog.

This morning, we had speech, which was our last scheduled activity for the week. During last week's session, Erin did a Rosetti evaluation, which involved asking me lots of questions about things Dominick is and isn't doing or saying. Today she told me that, after looking over the results, she found that his expressive language is in the 33-36 month range. Yay! When we started a few months ago, back when Dom's only word was "uh-oh," his expressive language was in the seventh percentile. Different evaluation, different scoring system, but no matter--the improvement is striking. Now he's at his age level. Erin said that really the only area we need to work on is in getting Dominick to use full sentences. Everything else he's doing quite well. So, for example, when he says "help, help," I ask him to say "I need help, please." Usually he does.

One of the questions on the evaluation had to do with gender. I wasn't sure if Dom knew the difference between boys and girls, and he wouldn't answer when we asked him. (He was too distracted by a toy.) Later, I asked him if he was a boy or a girl, and he said "Mommy's a girl." Then I repeated the question, and he said "a boy." I figured he had to know, but it was nice to hear him say it. He's gotten really good with names, too. He can say Mike, Michael and Kelly when asked about our names, and he'll repeat the names of his playgroup buddies. The proper use of pronouns will come later, since now he refers to himself as Dominick and me (sometimes) as it. How sweet.

Here's something else sweet: I have a bruise on my forehead from two or three days ago, when Dom threw a wooden block from his stacking train at me from about a foot away. It came with absolutely no warning and really hurt, as one might imagine. He did feel bad about it and said "kiss it...all better." So it's good that he showed some empathy, but what did he think he was doing by throwing the block at me in the first place? I really hope he cuts down on the violent acts in, oh, about three weeks.

Much better

We went to Stay & Play this morning. Everything went very well, even song time. I had been preparing Dom for it, and that seemed to help. When the first song started, he said "Stop! Stop!" but then didn't cry or cling to me. In fact, he kept saying "Wheels on the Bus" after every song. Of course, today they didn't do that particular song, but there's always next week. Yesterday, when we were driving to and from playgroup, Dominick sang all the verses of "Wheels" by himself. Usually he just repeats the first verse, but now he's doing them all (horn, wipers, babies, people, doors, etc.) I turned down the radio so I could hear him better. Dom is much more entertaining than anything on the radio.

It's funny that, while his enunciation has improved so much lately, Dom's still saying "muck" for milk and "pee-oh pee-oh" for computer. He doesn't say "beeps" for grapes anymore; it sounds more like "dapes." Some words have to evolve a little more than others, I guess.

As promised, here is an image of Dominick's masterpiece from last week's Stay & Play. Isn't it beautiful? Now that he's created something using paint, maybe I should get rid of his pudding art. I'm afraid it'll go really rancid before too much longer.