Exciting News

Yesterday, I FINALLY decided what to do with Jaime when he turns 3. See, Jaime is part of the county's "Help Me Grow" program. When the kids turn 3, they become the responsibility of the school district. Most of the school districts have their own preschools to handle kiddos with special needs, they also have a lot of mainstreamed kids in the class, too. Wickliffe is no different. Jaime could go to Wickliffe Elementary School when he's 3, but....today, I signed him up for Broadmore School in Mentor. For those of you that don't know, Broadmore is a school designed to meet the needs of children with all sorts of disabilities. Their preschool has "typical" children in it, as well, but Jaime will be deemed a "special" child because of his medical and therapeutic needs. Our goal is to have him enrolled only during "healthy" months, so he won't be there during flu season, but will return after.
Some things he's working on is walking/running. He walks on his toes and still has a "wide base" like a new walker. When he runs, he "march runs" rather than a "normal" run in which he should be doing by now. There are a few other gross motor skills, like kicking a ball, standing on one foot and posture-he's very tight in his shoulders and neck. He's also working on fine motor skills. He's testing at about a 16 month old when it comes to fine motor skills. (For the record he's 32 months old.) He can not self feed with a utensil and can not "color." He can't mimic drawing a line or circle and certainly has no clue what to do with scissors. I've been told these are all things he should be doing by his age. As for eating, well, we're getting closer to a 12 month old eater. He's just now starting to chew. It all started one day with pretzels. He still forgets "how" to chew, but we're getting there. Jaime is also still very picky about when and what to eat. I've started offering everything that we eat in tiny portions, he eats what he wants (or can) and then is done. Thank God for Pediasure, it's certainly keeping him alive. Other stuff we're working on is endurance. Jaime's still struggling in this area. He can be active for only so long before petering out (mostly due to his lungs).
In other news, I accepted a full time position at UH today. It's in Euclid, so it's only 7 minutes from home, rather than the 45 minutes (on a good day). I'll be starting mid-January. I'm just hoping that I can work everything out with my nurses to have someone here every day so that I can fulfill this position's requirements. We'll see how it goes! It will be the very first time I'll have a full time job since having JARED! It's going to be weird to work Mon-Fri. I hope I like it! ;)

That's about all for the exciting news....in not so exciting news...I had a root canal retreat today...YUCK, or should I say, "OUCH?" Also, I know that many of you knew that I was in the hospital last month, I'm still having issues with my potassium and there's still no good reason for it. We're kind of in a holding pattern on tests for now. I'm just taking potassium supplements and hoping for the best! :)

Finally, today marks Tom and Jared's last day of school for 2011. So, 2+ weeks of all of the boys home; this should be interesting! HA!
That's all to report for now.

Happy Holidays....T-9 days until Christmas!!!!! (are you ready, I think I am!)