I find it’s always hard to come back to the blog after taking a bit of a break: where do I pick up? Do I skip everything we’ve done since our last post or do I go back and cover every single little thing?
I’ve decided this time around to do a quick recap of the end of the year as we did some noteworthy things that I want to mention.
Enjoying Nashville in the late Fall
In short, the last six weeks were a blur. Here’s what we did: Continue reading
Now that Solly is settled in at school, we’ve been working on moving his therapy appointments to during school hours so his therapists can work with him in his classroom. This helps his teachers learn about some of the things he’s working on, but also teaches his peers more about Solly, like how to best communicate with him. While parents have the option to come back to the school to sit in on therapy appointments, we recently discovered that Solly can focus better during therapy if we aren’t present, so we’re starting to limit the appointments that we attend.
Today was the first day where his speech and feeding appointments fell during the school hours and where I chose not to attend. This afternoon, I got this email from Solly’s speech therapist: Continue reading
When your first child has special needs, you question having a second child.
You worry if they too will have a medical diagnosis.
If typical, you worry about their relationship with your first child. Will they be resentful? Will they know how to play together? What kind of relationship will they have? Will they bond?
You worry about your own relationship with them – will I have enough time to devote to them, considering my child with special needs requires so much of my time?
We had ALL of these worries when we were planning for Solly’s little sister, Bea. Once she arrived, though, those worries started to dissipate. Bea is 100% typical. She’s a chunky, milk lovin’, Sesame Street obsessed 21 month old. And she loves her brother to pieces.
Sweet Bea
Well, this happened last week.
Solly’s First Day of School
After a sleepless night and crazed morning on my part, I woke up Solly, dressed him in an outfit that he’d picked out the previous week, and packed up his brand new school bag, then Mike and I took him to High Hopes in Franklin, TN. I wheeled him into his new preschool room, chatted with his teacher for a few seconds, and then tried to give him a kiss goodbye – at which point he quickly pushed me away because, you know, preschool boys are too big for kisses from their Moms.
And then it became official. Solly is a preschooler.
Y’all, it has been a week of crazy busy-ness. We have 11 Solly-related appointments this week alone and there’s really no slowing down until we go to Virginia Tech next month for intensive therapy. To say I’m exhausted is an understatement. Maybe the word “overwhelmed” more appropriately captures my state of mind right now.
But, enough about me. Here’s a quick update on Solly:
Last week, our beloved Nanny Jen captured some great photos of Solly at his hippotherapy appointment at Full Circle Therapy:
Have I mentioned how much Solly loves hippotherapy? This therapy has been amazing, not only because it works so many muscle groups at once and has made Solly incredibly strong, helping him to move forward in independent sitting and taking steps in his gait trainer, but also because it is a fun therapy for him. He acts like it’s play time and not therapy. Every time we hit the driveway for his hippotherapy appointment, he starts shaking and laughing with pure excitement. He cannot wait to sit up on his horse. I have loved horses for as long as I can remember, but having a child with special needs has introduced me to a whole new level of love for these animals. Continue reading
Sol the Man 