Evie the Extraordinary and Her Mommy: The Journey As We Go

Today was the big day--the IEP meeting.  I've been primed to dread this day for years--pretty much once my baby was born and I started joining special needs' forums online and heard about this mysterious IEP when your child turns 3.  I hope that I can share our experience to help someone, knowing that every child's experience is different, and every town is different.  I will say that we have had a wonderfully smooth and informative experience! Here is a timeline of how things went down for Evie's entrance to preschool. 1.  6 months before she turned 2, we started hearing scary phrases like "when she turns 3" and "IEP" and "transition planning meeting." 2. Transition planning meeting : Evie's entire EI team congregated in our living room and talked about her skills and goals.  In my mind, this is probably when I made the transition from "coddle-the-NICU-baby" to "treat-my-daughter-like-a-big-girl." 3.  In the l...

When you are someone just starting on the Down Syndrome journey as a parent, you learn to dread the IEP (Individualized Education Plan).  What comes before this is the dreaded evaluation, where your child's under-developed skills are put into words all at once. Today was Evie's evaluation day.  I want to say right now that we had a great experience.  It wasn't horrible at all.  But our experience may be completely different, depending on the town, the staff involved, and the child's needs.  I thought I would jot down my thoughts here, in hopes of helping the parents who come after us. 1. You go through a ton of paperwork. Not only do you have the school district paperwork that everyone else has, but you have a packet of forms to fill out about your child's needs for each category.  This is the first achievement. 2. You hear from the schools about the date of the evaluation.  Having an actual date makes you hyper aware that something is coming, an...

Tomorrow is a big day. It's Evie's evaluation for preschool!  Our town has a great integrated preschool program, and once she has her evaluation, we will have an IEP meeting to decide what resources she needs to help her to succeed in school, and then off she goes!  *sniff* my baby *sniff* Evie has had a great 3 months in her new house!  She learned to climb stairs in the first couple of weeks.  We definitely have enough of them (3 flights!)!  Our new physical therapist had a pediatric walker to lend to us, and Evie took to it quite quickly. I couldn't believe my eyes when I took this video!  I didn't want to cheer too loudly, because cheering makes Evie cry.  But I was jumping up and down inside! Evie's eating has slightly increased in texture, and also we are trying the straw juice box again.  She is taking small sips of applesauces-water, but still not sucking on the straw.  She is also scooping up food herself from the bow...