Somehow I had the mistaken impression that when summer came things would slow down a bit and we'd have a nice break. Alas, summer is almost over and things are busier than ever. I find myself wondering how exactly we will fit 4 days of school into our already packed schedule.
Well as I posted in my last post we ended May with Noah's awesome birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. He had a blast and it was the first time that I really saw him interacting with other kids without prompting. Most parents tell me that Chuck E. Cheese brings out the worst in their kids, but Noah's always been a little different.
June brought the end of the school year and an awesome vacation in Williamsburg. Noah absolutely loved the living history aspects of Historic Jamestowne, although he also enjoyed going to the pool each morning before breakfast, swinging at the playground with his cousin, and just generally hanging out with extended family.
July was busy with therapy. We had our drives to DC for AV therapy, drives to Richmond for feeding therapy, and ESY services on the other side of the county (OT, PT, Speech).
In August I actually got away for a bit, to the Low Incidence Disabilities conference at Penn State as well as a day workshop in Richmond dealing with kids & deafness. Grandma was happy to fly down for a few weeks with Noah, which made it much easier for me to get away. ESY was done, so we were down to just the AV therapy and feeding therapy, along with normal doctors appointments, mappings, etc.
For those of you who are thinking, "that's not so busy", don't forget that we have to spend 45 minutes 5 times a day working on feeding skills, one hour a day of "new ear" time plus additional set aside time working on localization and listening in noise, 30 minutes a day for handwriting/fine motor work, 20 minutes a day for Braille, 30 minutes a day for math skills, 30 minutes a day practicing balance skills/stair walking/etc., and now recently, sit with Noah at the potty for 10 minutes out of every hour. It reminds me of when Noah first came home from the NICU - after all of the required tasks are done, when are we supposed to sleep? In reality I don't spend all of that time on all of those things - who could? I just try to fit in some of each of those things into our daily routines (except for the potty, because not prioritizing that leads to puddles). Most of the therapists seem to understand, and the one that doesn't doesnt like me anyway so I tend to just tune out the lectures.
So, what have you been doing this summer?
