Busy here.  Today we had parent teacher conferences and two doctor’s appointments.    Zach also had to call and get new pain meds because the Ibuprophen isn’t enough, but the percocet is too much.  He was feeling pretty miserable waiting for the new meds.  He is pretty bruised looking, but still healing well.  He is past being sick of this whole thing and ready to feel better already.  I don’t blame him.  It is hard to see him feeling so icky.

With everything going on, my mind keeps drifting to the victims of the F5 tornado in western Kansas and the flooding in other parts of the state.  (local news ABC, NBC, CBS)  The devastation is just awesome and total.  I feel so helpless.  I want to load the car up with supplies, throw on a tool belt and go help with the clean up.  It is hard, nasty work but it is so very, very needed.  I am not sure if I have the physical stamina to really help like I want to, and I can’t take the kids with me because it is not safe for kids on a tornado site.  It is too far away to just go there for a day and come back for the night, so here I sit, just thinking about it and praying.  I wish there was more I could do.  I know when the kids are older, we will be able to help again, but it just isn’t reasonable right now.

It also feels sort of weird that while their lives lay in devastation, our life just trods on as usual.  It isn’t fair. 

But, back to our little world…

The parent-teacher conference went well.  It is pretty cool to see the progression he has made this year.  He hit his goals pretty well and actually is doing better than they were expecting him to. His last individual ST there is tomorrow, and his last class is on Thursday.  I talked to the teacher about whether or not to start him at the preschool again next fall or move on to Kindergarten.  (other students have done that).  She really felt like he was ready for a Kindy classroom as long as he had good visual supports.  It is good to hear, but now I have to make a serious pest of myself to light a fire under the public school system’s butts.  I will begin the obnoxiousness tomorrow.  He has two more weeks of his literacy playgroup, then we wait for the social skills group to start up in June.  She is trying to start a pilot program and it is still isn’t totally nailed down yet, so I although we are planning on it, it isn’t a ‘done deal’ yet. 

In other summer plans, there is a group forming for a game called “Blastball Baseball” for autism spectrum kids preschool-grade school age.  It meets twice a week and starts in the middle of May.  It is a highly modified version of baseball.  We really aren’t a sports family, and probably wouldn’t have him in any league sports if he was NT because it just seems so BORING and IMO, pointless, at this age, but options are limited and it will be good for him, so I will suck it up and be a sports mom.  Ugh.  Now if it were dance or gymnastics or music (or anything taking place on a stage-like setting), I would not have to fake enthusiasm.  lol.  I do not make a good redneck Kansan I guess.

Unlike last summer, he does not have the option of the Autism Day Camp that he went to last year that had such a huge impact on our lives.  The person who ran the daycamp went to another state.  I really wish that was still available because it was so good for him.  It was also the turning point for me to begin moving from ‘denial’ to ‘acceptance’ in this whole journey. 

On the job front, Zach called the headhunter service that he worked through previously.  He saw some direct hire jobs that he was interested in, but they said he didn’t fit exactly what that job wanted.  Disappointing, but it is only the first try at a job.  As he continues to heal, he will also continue to apply at more places.  He wants to feel less sluggish and not be in pain when he is on the phone, so we are having to have patience.  It is really hard on him to not be able to just aggressively go after what he wants right now, but in as short as a few days, he should be in a much better place. 

The doctor appointments went well.  We are going to start Zane on some allergy meds for his hayfever.  We have suspected hayfever since his first spring, but this year it is pretty undeniable.  He has been sniffling, sneezing and rubbing his nose and eyes ever since Zach and I started having allergy symptoms.  We will see how this goes.  He also got his MMR today.  Yuck.  He handled it really well.  He declared “Owie” after the shot, but didn’t cry.  He seems ok right now too.  I will probably not be able to stop worrying about it until a week or two has passed and he seems to be doing fine, but that is the nature of it all. 

My doctor appointment also went smoothly.  I’ll get the pap results in a few weeks, but everything else seems ok.  I did learn something today though…he wouldn’t order a cholesterol test for me today because I am nursing.  Apparently, when you are nursing, your cholesterol numbers are naturally higher, but it is perfectly healthy under those circumstances.  You NEED higher cholesterol to make milk.  However, since the numbers go in your medical records and insurance companies don’t take into consideration you are nursing at the time, he doesn’t want that as a part of my record.  I am still a few years away from mammograms and colonoscopies, barring any symptoms that warrant them.  My blood pressure is good.  (yeah…I was a bit worried about that since it was a major complication in my pregnancy).  It was sort of odd to go and see him with no actual ‘concerns’.  No endo, no pregnancy, no infertility, just a normal check-up.  Yeah me.

I’ll end on a cute note:  This afternoon as Zach strapped Zane into his carseat after school, he asked him what he did today in preschool.  Zane quickly replied “Paint flower pot for Mama!”  Woah…no prompts and a novel sentence.  Very cool!  (and sweet..I guess I am getting a flower pot for Mother’s Day..makes my heart smile) 

Where’s Zora?

There she is!

Why do we bother spending money on beds?  lol

Milestone today

First Day of classes when he started back to school

Last day of classes today.  (Zane wanted to go back to playing. lol)

…so Zora filled in. 

End of an era for us.  I can’t believe it.

We seem to have survived the day.  The valium kicked in, helping relieve his anxiety,  the appointment went faster than we thought, Zach had 22 shots in his mouth (ouch!!!!) and is still oozing some blood this evening.  He made it through his presentation tonight.  It helped that it was in a room he has taught in a lot and was very well prepared so that he could almost go on auto pilot.  He felt like it went well.  It was the last class he will ever attend as a student, unless he pursues a PhD and they require classes.  He still has to teach one more class before the final and then the semester is over except for the grading. 

We are a tired family tonight.  Glad the day is over and all went as smoothly as possible.  It was a bit hairy when we first came home because the bleeding was freaking him out a bit (blood mixed with saliva makes it look really horrible).  He couldn’t feel his mouth and couldn’t control his swallow so taking pain meds turned into a big ordeal.  I finally pulled out the children’s motrin and he, essentially, slammed down a swallow’s worth at a time until we had it up to the dosage.  It took a while.  Then I ground up his percocet and mixed it into a protein drink he likes and he did the same thing.  It probalby took over half an hour to get the medicine in him.  He was hurting so bad.  He has seen me hurt after surgeries many times, but this is the first time I have seen him in so much pain.  It was a really helpless feeling to be on the other side of that.  By the time he was ready for the second round of meds he had enough feeling to take it normally.  Under meds, he still has some pain, but it is more of a dull ache and he said it was very tolerable.  He has chipmunk cheeks, and probably will for a while, but he is doing a lot better now than he was earlier.

I can’t believe he actually made it through the presentation.  He said he had to mic himself to be heard because he was having a hard time talking, but somehow he managed.  Pure determination and force of will.  I am amazed and impressed. 

Zach has oral surgery in the morning.  He had the option of doing it in an operating room because of the nature of the problem (impacted wisdom teeth besides the broken off teeth), but opted to have it all done in office.  (I, on the other hand, would have chosen to go to sleep and have them wake me up when it was over. lol).  So, he will be hopped up on many good drugs tomorrow, but he is really anxious about it now.  Pray for an easy recovery too. 

He has to try and give a major presentation tomorrow afternoon too…that will be interesting.  His friend is driving him there and back so I don’t have to haul two kids on to campus and try and entertain them for a few hours.  (thank you Robert!)  It sucks that the presentation couldn’t be moved.  The surgery was supposed to be last week, but the person doing the scheduling screwed up and didn’t allow for enough time.  So, it was this week.  Hopefully he will recover pretty quick so he is able to start putting out applications.  He didn’t want to take the chance of getting an interview before his teeth got fixed, so it will be a real push to try and line up a job when this contract runs out in a few weeks.

At WSU, preschool meets playgroup

BY SUZANNE PEREZ TOBIAS

The Wichita Eagle

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Kelly Glasscock/Correspondent

Lidia DiLollo, center, uses a stamp to spell out words as Kaden Kisner, right, uses a pencil during the Reading Explorers playgroup at the Wichita State University’s Speech Language-Hearing Clinic. Jennifer Kordonowy leads the group.

At WSU, preschool meets playgroup

They’re not old enough to know about “phonemic awareness,” “literary acquisition” or “multi-sensory writing experiences.”

But the 4- to 6-year-olds in Wichita State University’s Reading Explorers playgroup can tell you all about Sadie the seal, who slides and swims off Seal Island.

They can hold out their arms and rock side-to-side, whispering “ssssssss” as they pretend to surf. They can use their fingers to carve S’s in salt, watching the letter appear and then saying, once again, the sound it inspires: “ssssssss.”

They’re learning to read, says Jennifer Kordonowy, a speech pathologist at WSU’s Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic. But more important, they’re having fun.

It is part of a new trend in playgroups and other traditionally informal parent-child get-togethers, in which brain research drives the curriculum, and activities are focused more on learning than free play. Think of it as “preschool meets playgroup.”

“We wanted to give parents a fun way — and a developmentally appropriate way — to get their kiddos started reading and writing,” said Kordonowy, who leads the playgroup. “This is much more than simple story time.”

She and Janette Warne, another speech pathologist, developed the program, which features stories, music, games and other activities aimed at teaching young children to recognize letters and blend sounds into words. The weekly playgroup also serves as a learning lab for WSU students studying early childhood.

Reading Explorers meets for an hour and a half each Thursday. The first course began in January and will end this month, but the university hopes to offer it again during the summer and fall. It is supported in part by the Wichita Scottish Rite Foundation.

During a recent session, Kordonowy gathered the children for a story about Max, an ox, and Felix, a fox, who live in a boxcar that was once filled with wax. (They used an ax to chop out the wax.) And it just so happens, Max and Felix like to relax by boxing socks.

That’s a lot of X’s. And that, said Warne, is the point.

“They hear that letter sound again and again, and the repetition makes it click in the brain,” she said.

But it goes beyond sounds and pictures. During the story, which Kordonowy told rather than read, children glued pictures to a sheet of poster paper. They sang songs. They also made lists.

“Max needed a place to live,” Kordonowy said. “Can anyone tell me a place where an animal might live?”

The kids threw out options — jungle, forest, ocean, birdhouse, beehive, cave, tree, hole — and Kordonowy wrote them down. They counted the list aloud and wrote the total number: 13.

The practice, known as cataloging, helps children build vocabulary, Kordonowy said. Someday, perhaps while reading a book about bears, they’ll call upon that cache of knowledge and remember in an instant that bears live in caves.

“Literacy is not just picking up a book and reading,” she said. “It’s the culmination of a whole set of skills that builds from very early childhood.”

Each story, adapted from Jim Stone’s popular Animated Literacy curriculum, ends with a “gross-motor sign” that ties the letter sound to movement. For “x,” the children crossed their arms in front, then “relaxed,” bringing their arms down and saying the “x” sound: “Ecksss.”

Then they boxed some socks, throwing and punching balled-up socks around the room and giggling uproariously.

Heather Hodson-Kisner, mother of 6-year-old Kaden Kisner, said she signed up for the group because it lets Kaden have fun, socialize and get a little messy while he learns.

“Like the day we painted with mud — that’s something I probably wouldn’t have done with him at home,” she said.

Playgroup participants range from children like Kaden, who reads well, to those with hearing or learning difficulties and children with autism.

“Not only does this program work, but it works for kids at all different levels,” Kordonowy said. “Reading opens up this whole new world for them.”

Reach Suzanne Perez Tobias at 316-268-6567 or stobias@wichitaeagle.com.

I think Zora is getting ready for that big language explosion that is supposed to happen about now.  She spent the day today on a fact gathering mission, pointing to everything and asking “uts at?”  (what’s that?).  It is so weird and cute.  She is also eating constantly.  She never eats terribly much at once, but every 20-30 minutes she wants something new to eat. She won’t eat much of any one thing either.  If she had cheese 15 minutes ago, she looks like you like you are a lunatic if you offer her more cheese.  She wants fruit (or pretzels, or cereal, or yogurt) but not if she has been offered that thing within the last few hours.  Variety is the name of the game with her right now.  lol.

One thing that was particularly funny was when I gave her a pickle.  She asked “uts at?” and when I told her “pickle”, she giggled and giggled and giggled.  She kept asking me what it was like she couldn’t believe something could be named “pickle”.  She looked over my shoulder to daddy to see if I was kidding her.  I don’t think she believed me.  lol

The thing that is really weird is that as incredibly demanding and tiring and high needs Zora is at times, it is so easy.  I understand now why people can have these huge families if none of them have some of the challenges Zane has.  Zora just picks stuff up by watching and listening, even the subtle things.  I can tell her to put something down from across the room and she knows I am talking to her and what I expect.  (whether she puts it down or not is a matter of behavior choices, not because she doesn’t understand)  Zane has to be shown every single thing very explicitly and hand over hand, over and over.  He has to be taught the same concept in multiple ways to make sure he is getting it the way others will assume he is getting it, to make sure he is generalizing concepts appropriately and not attributing things incorrectly.  (like kids that only speak when sitting because all their ST was done sitting down…they learned an unintended rule that wasn’t supposed to be that way)

This next little bit is going to sound weird, but here it is:  Zane is starting to have actual, honest-to-goodness temper tantrums.  Not meltdowns, but temper tantrums.  We are having to totally shift gears with him and move from comforters to disciplinarians.  I mean we have always been disciplinarians, and he has had tantrums before, but nothing compared to the frequency and intensity he is having now.  He is also doing ’sneaky’ things like holding things behind his back so ‘we don’t see it;  (it is cute because he doesn’t quite get the idea of how to really hide things yet…if he can’t see it, it can’t be seen as far as he is concerned.).  He is wanting something that he knows we will say no to, he holds it behind his back…and he even did a point and ‘look over there’ type thing the other day to distract our attention so he could put something sugary in the cart.  When we say no to something, he will run to the spot where he picked it up and physically block us from returning it to the spot.  He sat on a spot on the grocery store shelf trying to get us to buy him a blow up pool a few days ago.  (I wish we could have, but we didn’t really have the money to right now with the oral surgery coming up,)  Any inkling of possibly getting it went away because we had to shift gears to make sure he understands ‘no’ means ‘no’.  It is really a different experience to just be dealing mostly with discipline issues instead of first dealing with communication issues, then discipline issues.  There are still a lot of communication difficulties, but it is shifting.  It is a good shift and I am happy to see it, but a kid his size going through ‘terrible two’ type tantrums is difficult at best. 

The other thing that is really good, but taking some getting used to is his level of eye contact.  He has the most penetrating eyes, and we didn’t realize how fleeting eye contact during regular daily activity actually was until recently.  (we had that kind of eye contact at bedtime, or when there was something specific going on, but not for things like “I want chocolate milk please”.) It is a little startling to have him come up to us and look us straight in the eyes to ask for something, and then keep looking waiting for us to answer.  I love it, but I am not used to it yet. 

Both of them are just growing and changing so fast it is dizzying.  I just want time to stand still for a minute so I can get a breath in here and there.  lol.