Adi's Big Day- the First of Many

So today my little girl had her evaluation for therapy. She was seen by an occupational therapist, physical therapist, speech therapist and special education teacher. She qualified for everything. I don't know whether to say Baruch Hashem for that or not... It's unfortunate that she needs it, but B"H it's available and she qualified! Within five minutes of each evaluation it was clear that she would qualify, although they did finish the session to see what else they can observe.

With every next question they asked, I became more and more aware of how much behind Adel really is. Questions about what she does when she wakes up (she stays in the crib happily for too long), questions about how she reacts to tone of voice (she almost doesn't), questions about how she reacts to a dropped toy (she almost doesn't.)

The occupational therapist gave Adi a peg and board with holes. She put in a peg herself and tried to get Adi to do it, too. Adi ignored her and played with the peg. The therapist put a red button inside a hole in the board and tried to see what Adel would do with it. She ignored it.
The therapist tried to get Adel to shake a rattle by demonstrating on another rattle. Adel just stared. Once I took Adel's hand and shook it, she understood.

Then the therapist took a little wind-up monkey with cymbals and let it walk in front of Adi. Adi just stared with mild interest.

Physical therapy went something like this: Adel did nothing. LOL.
They determined that her muscle tone is very weak (upper body) specifically and that she uses her left side quite dominantly and tries to avoid her right. Right leg looks shorter because she doesn't extend it. When on belly, she pushes her left side up higher. When held upright, she puts more weight on her left leg and stands on tiptoe with her right.
I never noticed any of this!

I did notice, though, that she doesn't make a fuss when I dress her until it comes to the sleeves. And the therapist noticed that as well. Adel doesn't lift her arms high up. They are usually close to her body, or extended partially forward. She winces and whimpers when someone tries to lift her arms high. Also, when she shakes a rattle, she kinda flips her wrists and doesn't shake it from the elbow or shoulder.
The therapist undressed her and checked out her shoulder blades, but couldn't find anything wrong. She said that I should address it with the pediatrician. *sigh*

The special education teacher didn't do anything- she just observed and took notes.

The speech therapist gave me problems, though. She went on and on about starting solids and how I should have started at four months and that babies in their fourth month are more advanced than her. *eye roll* She said that she has to practice with foods and all in order to progress with speech. She kept asking me if I'd give Adel a bottle, would she know what to do with it? I said no, because she never had one. Why not? I am putting her at a developmental disadvantage by not giving bottles. Nice. The fact that nursing develops the mouth much better than any bottle or food can went ignored.
Then she tried another tactic. She said that once Adel is crawling or walking or whatever, she won't have the time to slow down to nurse. *?!?!?* Oookay... so why would she slow down to eat puree, then?
I told her that I know plenty of people who exclusively nurse their crawling babies and that crawling isn't incompatible with exclusive nursing.

I wasn't too annoyed, though, because my service coordinator warned me that the speech therapist is very opinionated on solids. Whatever. I will just have to request another speech therapist.

So our next step is to go for a hearing test. I don't think Adel had one at birth. That will be within the next week. And some time around Rosh Hashana there will be a meeting between all kinds of government people (I didn't care to remember their titles) to decide how often she gets each therapy, what time of day and all that.

A Round Cucumber?

See? Even I make mistakes!
This plant isn't a cucumber plant, although it really looks like one. Unless it's growing round cucumbers.


It looked to me like a cantaloupe, and a Google search confirmed this!

Google image of baby cantaloupe leaves:


Our cantaloupe plant's leaves:


Google image of cantaloupe on the vine:


Our cantaloupe on the vine:


Now it has even more brown lines and thick bark on it. Soon it will be ready to pick!
Just one little nugget of amazing in the city.
{Edited... the family in front of whose house the cantaloupe grew came home from the country and they picked it. I wonder if it was ripe yet! They missed all the drama of the plant growing and developing, but imagine what it's like to come home after a couple of months and find a huge fruit growing out of your front steps!}

A Story Without Words

Adventure This Morning

This morning Hillel was getting ready for work, the kids were running around the house and I was nursing Adel and trying to hold on to the last bit of sleep.
Then Hillel came over and announced that he saw Moorkitz (one of our hamsters) run into a hole under the kitchen cabinets! :O

WHAT?? I flew out of bed and into the kitchen. I heard him behind the counters and cabinets. Sent the kids to their room and tried to listen... calling him softly. Pulled out everything from all the cabinets because they have holes in the back wall for pipes. I thought that if he wanders far, he should have several exit options. I put banana pieces near the holes next to which I heard him scratching.

I sat on the kitchen floor for about a half hour. Zusha was crying, "I want my hamster. I want him! Is he sad? Is he scared?" I went and got a flashlight so I can see into the hole and so that Moorkitz can see the exit by the light. I actually saw him pass by twice. I felt so helpless because I could not reach him. There was a hole leading down into the floorboards, and he passed over it. I was sure he'd fall or crawl in and that would be the end. But B"H he didn't.

By then I was guarding the hole for an hour. I needed to take a break so I went online and googled tips for finding lost hamsters. I found many suggestions on how to figure out what room he can be in, but B"H I knew where he was.
I read that they can come back up to several days later, so I gained some hope.

Off to the kitchen once more. I took a bucket, put some food inside and attached a ladder from the hamsters' cage. I shone the flashlight into the hole, and believe it or not, there was a nose with whiskers! I tried not to breathe. I willed the kids not to choose this moment to come barraging into the kitchen. Moorkitz was coming so tentatively- two steps forward, one step back. When he was out far enough, I grabbed him up! He was scared and tried to wriggle away, but I got him!

I covered him in cuddles and kisses and gave him the banana I used as bait. Now he's safely back in the cage. I hope he didn't hurt himself on his fall out of the cage- it's pretty high up!

{In retrospect, things worked out so well. When I called Step by Step last week, they had three days available for an appointment: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. At first I chose Tuesday because it was the soonest, but then the lady told me that on Thursday they have a very good therapist doing evaluations, so we settled on Thursday. Well, Tuesday Adel had a fever and was in no position to go. Wednesday (today) I would have had to go without finding Moorkitz and would have been worried sick all day. We might have never found him at all. Let's just hope there are no adventures in store for us tomorrow and we get a good evaluation and get approved for therapy!}

So, What Have We Been Up To?

It seems to be getting pretty quiet on my blog... where is all the usual adventure? The chaos? I'll tell you where. In my camera!
At long last, the photos have been freed from their microchip prison, and will soon make their appearance at a blog near you! (That would be this blog... I don't think any other blog posts pictures of my kids and the accompanying stories. )

So, to keep you all in suspense, I will tease you with a preview.

Over the last two weeks...

...we went swimming...

...we went to a fun, new indoor park...

...took a trip to the bay...

...did many, many crafts...

And took a fun and exhausting trip to the ocean!

And we went... somewhere else!
Can you guess where we went before I put up the full post about it?
Here are the hints.
It involved this:

Some of this:

And this as well, although I don't have pictures:

And the last hint- this was our secondary destination that day:

So give it a go. I mentioned it on my blog before. We went there almost two weeks ago. The winner may or may not receive a prize this time. The deadline is when the full post comes out.

New Kids on the Block

We have new neighbors. They live next door to us. In a tree. Yes, that's right!


Do you see that humongous creature? I feel like we won the lottery. Parrots moved in here!


Amazing, isn't it?

_______

Zusha and Gedalya couldn't be any more thrilled with some other new kids in the neighborhood.


Sesame Street characters in life size on a bus stop!


...and right around the corner from us, too!

Plus and Minus

We were planning to take a trip to Crown Heights today to visit my friend Hila and her girls. (+2)

Adel woke up with a raging fever (-2) and we had to cancel the trip (-2)

Step by Step (early intervention center) was supposed to fax us some forms to Hillel's work, but they did it a week late. (-1)

Even so, it didn't put us behind in time. (+2)

One of the faxed papers was a medical form for the pediatrician to fill out. It was unclear to begin with, and faxing it to the doctor would render it unreadable. (-2)

I called Step by Step and asked to fax another medical form straight to the doctor. They said they already did. (+2)

The receptionist said they didn't receive it. (-2)

Called back Step by Step- said they'll fax it again. (+1)

Called back pediatrician, said they found it, filled it out, and faxed it back. (+3)

Adel's pediatrician told us they can get her newborn screening results using my Social Security number. (+1)

But I had to call them four times over the last week because they kept forgetting. (-1)

I lost the pediatrician's business card. (-1)

While going to retrieve a new one from my papers, I found Adel's pink newborn screening slip! (+3)

I brought it to my desk put it down, and couldn't find it again. (-2)

Adel was screaming from pain. (-3)

Boys were attention deprived and ran around the house shrieking (-1)

I got a noise induced headache. (-2)

I called all the places I needed to to make sure everything was faxed where it was supposed to be. It was. (+3)

Boys are quietly eating, Adel is quietly sleeping, I get a quiet moment to eat something and blog. (+3)
________________________________________

I am having emotional whiplash, getting everything in order for Adel's evaluation after tomorrow. It's hard to make phone calls with kids running all around as it is, not to mention a sick, screaming baby. But all in all, so far the total score for today is +1. And as long as we stay positive, things will turn out positive.

And the best news so far... Adel tested negative for all the diseases tested for in the newborn screening! That's +1,000!