Life is looking up. How about another list?  A less doom-and-gloom list?

1. New Therapist

We went to Bellevue Monday night and saw the new therapist again.  This time she praised how well AG was accepting the PROMPT therapy and we discussed the documentation that had been sent to me.  It was apparent that Ms. Therapist was becoming aware that AG had skills that she didn’t notice and that she hadn’t given AG enough credit. 

I also talked today with our regular therapist who stated that while Anna Grace has some problems with her receptive language she is progressing at warp speed.  She also confirmed that I am not only doing "enough" I am doing more than most.  To take even more time out of our day to do more therapy activities (above what we already do) may have a negative impact because it allows no opportunity for AG to just be a kid, live her life and learn language while observing its use in a natural environment.

One more positive…. new therapist gave me an estimation of AG’s intelligibility.  I’ve been wanting to know this for a long time.  Intelligibility is given in a percentage.  Is the amount of her language that an unfamiliar listener (a non-family member, someone who doesn’t see her often, someone she just met, etc) could understand without having to search for the context of what she was saying.  Many kids with apraxia gain all sorts of language (word approximations) but intelligibility remains quite low.  When intelligibility gets to be about 90% is when kids are often discharged from therapy.

Not too many months ago AG’s intelligibility was maybe 20%.  Even in the family we had great difficulty understanding her.  What about today?  The new therapist listed her intelligibility at 75%.

Happy Dance.

2.  Stepfather

Stepfather was moved back down to the regular floor from Telemetry but he hasn’t been behaving very well.   He’s hungry, thirsty, angry and disoriented, etc.  Today all the tests were passed and orders written for him to start to be able to have some liquids, get a meal tray, etc.  This made SF a wee bit happier.

My mother went up to see him again today.  She said SF is doing much better, still confused but happier.

So, stepfather is calm .  Mother is calm.   

3. Knitting

I’m still working on my red scarf and I’m bored.  I’m hoping to finish soon.

I am going to knitting tonight.  So is Anna Grace.  Dana is working late but I am letting nothing, AND I MEAN NOTHING, get in the way of me going to knitting.  Dana is going to come to Starbucks to pick up Anna Grace.  I’ve been giving her a pep talk all day about not having a hissy fit when it comes time to leave, etc.  We’ll see if this works or not.

My appearances at knitting will be more frequent in upcoming weeks.  I just got my schedule for church services and I’m only scheduled on one Wednesday in February.  That Wednesday happens to be Valentines Day but oh well.  We don’t have a babysitter so it’s not like we were goin’ on a hot date!

4.  Schools

I am considering contacting the resource coordinator for Anna Grace and seeing if there would be any harm in just not going through with the school evaluation.  I know it is our right to decline but I just want to know if there would be any harm in not going any further. 

I just don’t know if it is worth the trouble.  The school psychologist makes me crazy, we’re not planning on putting her in their classroom no matter what they say, we already see that we’ll have to fight greatly for any services and we’ll still be paying for lots of services out of pocket.  So… what’s the point?  It may just be a lot of aggravation to get a small amount of very bad services. 

I’d rather spend my time doing something else.

5.  Happy, Happy, Sun, Sun

We have had beautiful, glorious sunshine for two days.  It has been so wonderful that yesterday I let AG go outside and play instead of going down for a nap.  It seemed a shame to waste such great weather.  So I let her stay up a bit later and we played on the swings, we went for a walk (I walked, she pedalled her trike while I pushed) around the neighborhood etc.  And, even better, we didn’t even have coats on.  It was almost 60 degrees… that’s just fan-freakin’-tastic.

Today we had more beautiful sunshine.  Not quite as warm (I can’t believe that I am calling 58 degrees "warm".  I’m going to lose my Floridian status for this) but just as beautiful.

Mr. Mountain came out to sunbathe.

Beautiful blue sky and swirly clouds.

Blue skies over cool tree in our backyard.  See the bird’s nest up at the tippy top?

6.  State of the Union Address

We skipped it.  (Happy Dance).