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

Ok, IFSP does not stand for "I Find Some Problems." It stands for Individual Family Service Plan.  An IFSP is a summary of services for a child who has developmental delays before the age of 3. This is to assess her eligibility for services, but she is automatically eligible because she has Down Syndrome. Once she turns 3, she will get an Individual Education Plan (IEP), which is geared towards preparing Evie for school. There are an awful lot of acronyms in the world of special ed,  and I am still learning. Basically a team from the Early Intervention program comes to our house, and they have a checklist of developmental skills to assess. She gets a score in each category at the end, and then they tell us how Evie is doing compared to her peers.   Last time we did this, she was 3 months old, the questions cracked me up, because she was only 3 months old and couldn't do most of the things listed (but who can?). 3-month old Evie (and Violet) 14 month old Evie!...

After five days in the hospital for RSV, we are home!   I never knew what RSV was until we were in the NICU.  RSV stands for respiratory syncytial virus. Most kids get it by age 2 and get better in 1-2 weeks. But kids who are preemies or have respiratory issues are at higher risk of getting bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Evie got bronchiolitis. Hence the fast breathing that alarmed me and brought me to the ER.  Our other little friends with Down Syndrome had RSV, and I guess we joined the club.  I'm pretty skittish about being around people with colds now. I used to not care, but now if I get sick, there's a high chance Evie will get it, and it is so sad when she is sick. I also do NOT want to spend more nights sleeping in the hospital, as fun as it is to see our friends there!  So please don't be offended, friends, if you lean towards Evie and then I ask you if you'd like to use my handy Purell hanging from my purse. I'm protecting my young. :) He...