School and Sleep

FYI - I wrote this last week but was unable to post until now. I'll update soon with more on Josie's first days of school:)

I'm so sorry it's been so long since the last post. Life seems to get busier and busier with these kiddos. Plus Henry's climbing capabilities and a full glass of water put an end to my laptop several weeks ago, so this post has had to wait until a new computer arrived. The kids have really been doing great. Henry is talking a little more and is running everywhere he goes. He is becoming a little show off. This afternoon we were playing outside when a little three year old from next door came over. Henry marched in circles around her and then proceed to do pushups that Chad taught him. Then he jumped to his feet and looked at her for approval:) Josie spent a few days at preschool over the last two weeks and Henry has really missed her. He is always excited when I tell him it's time to go get sis. I have enjoyed spending a little more one on one time with him, though.



Josie looooved preschool!! She went to our local school district's preschool for 5 days while they evaluated her and determined if it would be appropriate to send her to the school for the deaf. Her testing really went well and she is still asking me if she is going to go to school in the mornings. Cognitively, Josie really performed like a typical toddler ready for preschool. This was fantastic news and a big relief to Chad and I. Her use of ASL has really ramped up her ability to learn and show us what she knows. It is hard to believe that a year ago we had very real fears that Josie would face significant struggles to learn. The testing did show that Josie was delayed in gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and language. These are all areas that the preschool will work on a lot with her. At the conclusion of the testing we all decided that the Kansas School for the Deaf would be the best placement for Josie. She had a sign language interpreter with her during all the testing and she used her very well, but it still was a barrier for her to communicate with her peers or other adults who didn't know sign. We are really excited for her to be in a classroom that is immersed in sign language. She is going to learn a lot of sign at a quick rate so Chad and I are both going to be taking classes in an attempt to keep up.


During the testing weeks we also had an appointment to meet Josie's new geneticist at Children's Mercy. We were really impressed and she suggested some further testing to see if we can learn more about Josie and what her future may hold medically. During the appointment the geneticist was reading Josie's latest MRI and said, " so I notice she has been diagnosed with Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct Syndrome". Chad and I both looked at each other in surprise since we've never heard of this. During the MRI they also took a look at the structure of Josie's ears, since she was having some balance issues. They discovered that her right inner ear was four times the size of a typical ear. This most likely caused the profound hearing loss in that ear but also can significantly impact balance. This was important for us to find because it allows Josie's physical therapist to develop a program that will help Josie cope with this and improve her balance.



This weekend we took the kids to T Rex Cafe to celebrate Josie's test results. Josie has recently developed an interest in dinosaurs and we thought she would love it. She did, but Henry was scared to death. Poor guy couldn't get over the huge T Rex that greeted us at the door and roared:) We ended up at a different restaurant and the kids still had a good time. Guess we are going to have to wait a while before we try that again. We made it home just in time for the end of the KU/MU basketball game. As you can see from the picture above I'm not quite sure the kids grasped the significance of the big win:)

The kids have had a rough week with stomach flu, colds, and now they both have ear infections. We are hoping for a healthy weekend and some fun watching PSU basketball play in the MIAA tournament.

By the way, I hated to make a big deal out of this because I didn't want to jinx us but Josie is sleeping through the night on her own about 80 percent of the time. It is amazing!! We think it is a combination of removing all the allergy foods from her diet and anti-inflammatory medicine. We have literally been sleep deprived for almost three years so Chad and I don't know what to do with ourselves. Josie is much happier during the day and seems so much better rested. Anyway, now that I've posted this we will go a week without a good night but at least we know she can do it!:)