Transition to IEP, or what on earth will I do?

We have officially started the process of moving from county services to school district services. The process starts at a child's age of about 2.5years, and is complete by age 3. I have had a pretty clear mental map of the last two years. I had my binge of research when Peter was first identified as profoundly deaf, and plotted our path through hearing aids, CI surgery, and the first year of hearing. I had decided that the best option was to send Peter to a specialized school two days a week for at least two years. I never planned beyond that because I didn't know where Peter would be with his language.

Now I have to figure out what happens next. All this talk of IEP teams, and decisions, and what qualifies and what doesn't qualify for services. What do I want? What will the district offer? Will I even want what they offer?

My home school district is small. They have managed their budgets as well as could be expected with the state funding cuts over the last few years, but when they don't have the money to pay for classrooms to be cleaned every night I don't think they have oodles of money to spare. So how will money affect decision-making? Their SLP is very nice, but has only worked with one CI kid, and that was more than eight years ago. How will that play into things? I want to visit the public options for deaf preschools, and they would be less of a commute, but what if they are filled with kids with limited language, and are places where Peter would not be taught to think and speak his thoughts. What if the "least restrictive" environment is determined to be the one that we have to keep paying for?

So I am feeling a bit apprehensive. And while Peter is doing really well. I don't think I could JUST do  regular preschool. I think we need some kind of continuing support. Maybe that means the school or us paying for AVT once a week, and a regular preschool, and Music Together. Then there is all the drama about finding the right regular preschool!

Here is the latest video!

Not a cow!

I haven't been writing as much lately as I have been busy enjoying summer! I am loving the lack of driving, being able to do some gardening, and going on a family trip!

But there have been a couple things that I wanted to note as milestones. First, Peter can now put his headpieces back on himself! This is huge, as it gives him more control over his technology and how he uses it.  He sometimes wears his Naidas (behind the ear processors), but usually my feisty, active, rough housing guy is sporting his Neptunes in pockets on his shirt. The cables are threaded through a buttonhole I made in each side of the collar, so if he knocks the headpiece off, it just dangles. Now he can get it and stick it back on, though usually with the cable pointed up, and his hair extra crazy ;)

Also, Peter has been asking for his ears (or the shirt with the CI's in it) in the morning and after nap!  Now, it isn't 100%, and there are still plenty of times during tantrums when he takes his ears off, but in general he is great about wearing them, and I am so happy he is asking for them!

Finally, a glimpse of how much CI kids really can overhear and learn naturally: yesterday we walked to the dog park with my mom, and Peter was walking with me, at least 10 feet back (outside, with freeway and other car noise nearby). My mom told her dog to stop eating grass, that he wasn't a cow. Today, on a hike, Peter looked down at Guiness (my mom's dog), who was eating grass and blocking the trail, and yelled "Not a cow!"  At first I was confused, then I realized why he was saying it, and I just laughed! So much speech therapy is focused on auditory memory, so it makes me worried I don't work on that enough, but when he overhears an expression one day and uses it correctly the next it makes me feel like he is on the right track, and will do just fine.

I will leave you with a short clip I filmed before the end of of school. We obviously watched Frozen a few times!

One Year of Hearing!

Today is the first anniversary of Peter's first activation. I am hoping to film him and add that, but unfortunately he seems to have come down with a cold and is not feeling great, so we will see.

This last year has been intense, to say the least. Peter is doing so well, even better then predicted, so I can't complain. As much as I hate being so busy and driving so much each week, I am overjoyed about the results. Right now we have 2 mornings of Oral school (class is 9:00-11:30, with 30 minutes of that time with a speech therapist), one morning with a 45 minute Music Together class followed a 60 minutes AVT session, and occasional play dates at the School for the Deaf to see ASL in action. I had given up on the county services because they were so depressing, but they are revamping the program starting with summer session, so I might see if it's any better.  I don't think you have to do as much as we do to be as successful, but I don't want to cut back on what seems to be working for us.

Peter's vocabulary continues to grow weekly, if not daily, so it's impossible to keep an accurate list! I will add a document showing signed and spoken vocab growth over the last six months, but since I did it for his birthday it is already out of date ;)

Two-word combos are frequent, three words are coming along nicely ("Where mama car?" Or "Where red vacuum?" for example). Peter has some great listening skills- last night from across the room and up half a flight of stairs he heard the door open and shouted "Hello, Daddy!" As my husband came home. He said it so clearly my husband thought it was our 5-year-old daughter!

Current obsessions: the Music Together song "Hop Ol' Squirrel", watering things with the spray nozzle of the hose (sisters included), opening doors, or just shouting "open!" when he sees doors, clocks ("Tick-tick, tick-tick!!!) and identifying people who are crying (and if it is his sisters, making fun of them for it !)

Below: one poorly filmed, hastily edited video snapshot of where we are.

Right now I feel like we are in the middle of scaling Half-Dome. The climb is not over. We are securely tied in, and I don't think we are going to fall at all, but there is still a lot of hard work to do. We will pay for one more year of school, and we have one more year of coverage for the AVT therapy, then we are in the hands of our school district (which is tiny, and I don't think they have ever had a CI kid, and maybe not even any deaf or hard-of-hearing kids). I feel like that set of transitions will be like stepping off of Half Dome, so I had better get to the top before they happen ;).

Lab Rat

Today we took part in a science experiment! I am not sure exactly what kind of results they are looking for, but it was run by a neurolinguistic lab out of one of our state universities. They did three separate experiments, all designed for CIkids who sign, too. The first one was auditory- Peter had CI's on, and watched a silent video, and they played some (loud) random noises. Peter had a little cap on with electrodes touching his scalp, and they recorded brain response to the noises. Peter just sat in my lap, and was completely unfazed, though I could tell the first loud noises were a bit startling. The second experiment he still had the cap on, but no CI's, and he watched a video (of a funny claymation penguin) with some random peripheral vision things once in a while. The last  exercise was just a language (sign) survey- so no cap, and CI's were back on. One of the researchers would show a page with two pictures, sign one and ask which picture it was (in sign). Peter did so well! He didn't know the signs we don't use (like CANDY) and there were a couple where he liked one picture and was excited to touch it regardless of the question, but he got a huge majority right- and I have never done that kind of game/test with him at home in sign.

The whole thing, including picking a prize (toy tractor for Peter, $20 Target card for me) took less than an hour, and afterward we went to the playground for a little bit. It was beautiful and sunny, and a fun start to Peter's birthday weekend!

100th Post! And it is a special one!

Yesterday I thought I was going to have a really rough afternoon, as Peter had only napped for a few minutes. But he was Ok. And while we were chatting, he suddenly said:

I was pretty excited! I got both a sign and spoken word, when I wasn't even sure he had signed mom before!! So happy!

Music?

Great talk. Makes me think about how Peter perceives music. I know he likes music class, and I really hope we are helping train his brain to hear the beauty.

TED talk on Building the Musical Muscle (about music and CIs)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTE0MRRXNzs&sns=em 
(If there is no video above here is the link)


So much is being said right now about music and how CI recipients hear it. Just remember that brains are amazing, and they can learn more than we think;)

 ;)More hope for music! New Sound processing strategy being studied :)

Video Check-in

Thank goodness I don't get fined for late check-ins on the blog! I am trying to keep up recording progress and what is happening, but it's hard! The last two weeks we were hit with kidney stones (my hubby) and the flu (everyone else) , busy work, late meetings and oral surgery (hubby), keys locked in the car after speech therapy (Peter and I were outside the car), and then the fun stuff, too- making Halloween costumes for the girls, and me teaching French again. But it has added up to me being busy, and wondering how badly I'm failing something or someone at any moment.

But we are now all healthy, and Peter seems to be doing great!

Note that this video was made using a treat- I do not force him to talk for food! I want to make communicating fun, and what is more fun than chocolate ;)
And puppets...

Animal fun

A couple videos to show what we have been working on. We are giving everything a sound, and labeling sounds. One example is saying "walk, walk, walk" when moving a toy. We have used the phrase at home with animals, and in speech therapy with Mr. Potato Head. And here is what happened:

And farm animals are always fun, and we have so many versions of them-Little People, vintage Fisher Price, puzzles, books, puppets, etc. so it is easy to expose Peter to lots of repetition of the same sounds in different ways. The following video has times where Peter isn't saying anything, but I kept the wait time to show a little about how much I have to model and how long I have to wait. Any signs in the video are spontaneous.

Ahhh for Airplane

Just a quick video check-in!

Have a great week!

School Days

We have enrolled Peter in a non-public school that specializes in aural rehabilitation for deaf children. Most kids there have Cochlear Implants, but some have hearing aids, and there are also quite a few "hearing peers" (mostly teachers' or therapists' kids) mixed in. This school has students from all over the SF Bay Area- I have heard from parents who commuted from Monterey and Berkeley. The school said there had even been some from Marin, which seems really far away, but I don't know if its a worse drive than Monterey. Right now I know of families coming from Santa Cruz, Fremont, and me from my mountains.  So this school has got a good reputation, and draws from a pretty big area.

 A lot of people get their Early intervention programs to pay for it, since their EI departments don't have the training to help CI kids.  Santa Clara County has a program.  I can't speak to the quality of the program until I have seen more, but they have one, so they won't pay for anything else. So we are footing the bill. Is it worth it? We will see. There are some things about the school that have nothing to do with classes that I wanted for Peter- things like seeing loads of other kids with CI's, and having friends who also have CI's. I was hoping to meet other parents, and expand my support network.  I was willing to spend the money to make sure Peter had experienced teachers and therapists. So what does a day look like at this school?

Today we arrived about 10 minutes late- thanks to crazy traffic, a three car pile up (off on the left, but still slowing everything down) and a motorcycle-car incident (motorcyclist hit the car, I think- he was standing there looking embarrassed).  I bring up the commute because that is the one thing I really really really don't like.  But we get there and go to Morning Music first thing. There is a half hour of music for everyone- lots of classic kid songs, mixed with some just for the school, and some dance music once in a while. Last Thursday the woman who leads had a fake chicken and did the chicken dance- Peter was shouting "la la la" right along with her! After music each class is sent off to their room.

9:00 Circle time - I guess some classes start with free play, supervised and narrated by the teacher and an aide, but Peter's class all just head to the chairs first thing. There is another boy with hearing aids, a little girl with normal hearing, and Peter. The little girl has only spoken Spanish up to now, but she is learning English quickly. During circle the teacher does things like blowing bubbles, but it isn't just bubbles. First she gets two bottles out, and asks them which one has bubbles in it, based on weight (if they hold it) or looking in it. Or she has ice cream cone shaped bubble bottles and has them pretend to lick to increase awareness of their tongues. Then she tries to get them to ask for the bubbles to be opened with "O!" Or "open" or "open bubbles please" - depending on where they are in their speech development. Peter is slowly warming up, but until today he was just very observant, and didn't participate as much. Then they try to blow the bubbles, ask for more (mmm, or more, or bubbles!) and eventually say bye-bye to the bubbles. Then we do songs, and the kids then use a pointer to see if they can match up a picture to a song.  We also talk about who is there, and today we also talked about the mommy and daddy of each child in class. The teacher and aide do most of the real talking, but they are really good about waiting to see what the kids will say, and praising them for talking.

9:30 Peter and I head to another room with our Speech Therapist for our 1/2 session. The class does snack while we are gone, talking about colors, textures, crunchy, flavors, more, etc.

10:15-10:45 After our therapy time the class has about 1/2 hour outside. The adults narrate some of the play, but also give the kids a chance to just run around or dig in the sandbox (Peter's favorite thing outside).

Back inside there is some guided activity- today it was stories, then a monkey tree toy, then using cut up maradi gras necklaces like noodles.  Lots of auditory input, sensory stuff, and so much individual attention. But most important to me- Peter is having fun while learning.

11:15 we do a quick cleanup and a goodbye circle with more songs and pictures. We head out at 11:30.

I like that Peter is getting so much attention, and there is a lot to be said about "monkey see, monkey do". Peter will mimic other kids much faster than he will mimic me;)

An idea of our busy schedule

Monday:
8:15 - leave home to drive to local elementary school to pick up my preschool carpool kids
9:00 - drop off preschoolers and drive to Early Start school
9:30-10:30 Speech Therapy provided by Early Start
Free time (park? Story time at a library? Coffee with a friend? Errands?)
12:30 - pick up preschool carpoolers and deliver them back home.

home in the afternoon (refrain)
1:00 - 3:00 Peter naps
3:15 -Sydney gets home (except Wednesdays, it is between 1:45-2:00)
Homework, bath, dinner, cleanup, choosing clothes, storytime and lights out :)
And every night I have to pack lunches and snacks for the next day, as well as making sure the batteries for Peter's CI's are charged.

Tuesday:
7:00 - leave home to drop girls off at carpool mom's house
7:15 - start drive to Peter's school
8:15 - Peter is tired of the carseat and starts to scream
8:30 - arrive at school (I will detail a typical day there in a separate post)
11:30 - school ends, get snack/lunch for Peter and start driving back south
12:30 - pick up Samantha and maybe one carpool buddy to take home
Refrain

Wednesday:
9:00 - leave home for music class
9:30-10:15 Music Together (so fun!)
Snack, drive 20 min.
11:00-12:00 Speech Therapy paid for by our health insurance
Drive home 30 min.
Refrain

Thursday:
See Tuesday

Friday:
8:00 - leave to go to School for the Deaf if there is a play date
8:30 - leave to go to Early Start Playgroup if no CSD play date.
9:00-11:00 Playgroup
Maybe time for an errand, otherwise just head home
Refrain
4:30-5:30 Teletherapy through BabyTalk program

And then I am a tired little heap on the floor, and my car needs another full tank of gas...

I will evaluate everything in December to see if we keep going like this, or drop anything that isn't worth the time/effort to do it.

The boy who signed wolf

Lately our life is all about speech therapy....but it isn't just about speech. The goals of the sessions encompass listening, thinking, and social aspects in addition to speech. Cognition demonstrated by Peter on Tuesday for his therapist at the school when he saw a Little People pay house. He rang the pink doorbell, and there was a noise. She opened the house, and Peter immediately found all the pink objects and pushed them to make noises.

Cognition and audition were demonstrated tonight.....Tonight I was in Peter's room getting Peter clothes for tomorrow and he looked around, saw a picture we hadn't really talked much about, and signed WOLF. Yes! It was a picture of a wolf, five of them! Cool, but that just shows he is observant, and know what a wolf looks like (the app called SoundTouch has several wolf pictures we look at). But the cool thing? I was in our bedroom with my husband and Peter, telling Chris about Peter signing WOLF downstairs. Peter looked up, signed WOLF, and then bent his head around to point out the picture of a wolf in our bedroom! He understood at least some of what we said, and made the connection between all the different wolves! I am very proud of my little guy :)

2 Ears On!

We had a busy couple of weeks! Peter started school on Tuesday 9/27 AND we got his right CI activated. I have video, but I haven't edited it yet. It was not as dramatic as the first activation. Mostly he looked like it was really no big deal. No shock, no fear, just picked up that drumstick and started banging away!
So far Peter has seemed to be doing well with the second CI, though it seems to pop off easier, and I can't tell if he is knocking it off on purpose, or if it is just coming off.
We also went to our new early start playgroup on that Friday. Peter loved the ball pit!

This last week we still had bad traffic for the commute to school. We are slowly adjusting to getting up extra early. My girls decided they would sleep in the next day's outfit to save time in the mornings we commute. I have two wonderful friends with kids the same age who are taking the girls on Tuesday and Thursday, then dropping the older kids off at elementary school, and the younger ones at preschool.  I am so thankful for this crazy arrangement! I just have to figure out what I can do to give back.

Just a little bit awesome

Something just happened that made me so happy I had to make note!  I was drying my hair, and my deaf son came to tell me he heard the phone ringing! I couldn't hear anything over the hair dryer, and I look up to see Peter coming over with that "I need to tell you something look" and he was signing PHONE.  Sure enough, I turned off the hair dryer, and a neighbor was starting to leave a message on our answering machine.
I am so happy that
 a) he heard it
b) he knew what the sound was
c) he knew the sign
d) he knew I usually respond to the phone and he needed to tell me

Thanks to that, the girls get to go on a play date instead of to the grocery store. They owe their brother ;)

Happy Friday :)

Recovery well under way!

Here we are, six days post-op, and Peter is 90% back to himself. He still has steri-strips over the incision, and he is a little more cranky than usual, but not much. He also has a new molar poking out, and two more close behind, which may be more the cause of the crankiness than the surgery. For the most part he is just doing his job (his title around here is Rascal). Two weeks to activation!

More videos, showing progress in speech AND signing :)
First, bunny fun (I apologize in advance for the singing)

Next, the Stair Climber as speech therapy ;)

And finally, a little safari vacation ;)

Thanks for watching!

Second Surgery done!

Phew. We are home from our overnight at the hospital. Peter is doing well now, and napping comfortably after some baby Tylenol.

This surgery took longer than the first. The surgeon had mentioned that it might be a bit slower because they can't use the electric cauterizing device because of the existing implant. I was prepared for a little slower, but when it stretched to a couple hours I was starting to get worried. Finally the Dr. came out to explain that they had to use a different shaped electrode in this ear, because after two (gentle) attempts with the same shape that is in his left ear she decided there was too much resistance and went with the "J" shaped one instead of the helix electrode. Then they had to re-do the X-ray 3 times to verify position, because the picture wasn't clear enough the first times.  But it was finally done, and I could go to Peter, who was feisty and cranky like last time.

 This go round it seemed like he had more pain overnight, and I was pretty willing to ask for the morphine every two hours. The nurses seemed like they were trying to stretch it out a bit, so even if I asked at the 2-hr mark, it was usually a little longer than that. Peter seemed content as long as I was there, but WAS NOT happy if I needed to get up for any reason. When it came time for discharge we couldn't do any more intravenous pain meds, and Peter did not like the LorTab (baby Vicodin) and tried to spit it out. Blood came out of his mouth when he spit, and I realized there was some blood on his nose, too. That didn't happen last time, though I knew it could happen. I managed to stay calm.

The Dr. was very insistent we keep the pressure bandage on at least 48 hours this time, since Peter yanked it off after less than 24 last time, and he had swelling still at the 1-week post-op as a result. I will do my best!  They did the pressure bandage in a way that I only had to fold down one little part, and I can put Peter's left CI on, so he can still hear when he's awake (which might be less than normal for the next couple days).

I am so thankful to my friends who took such good care of my girls Wednesday and Thursday. Knowing that they were in good hands and having fun removed a lot of stress!  I am grateful to my husband, who stayed with stressball me until Peter was in his hospital room after surgery. I am glad my husband's work is flexible enough that he's been able to be there for both surgeries, and any meetings we had to attend as part of the CI process. And most of all, I am so happy both ears are DONE!!

Here is my project that I worked on in the waiting room, since I don't know how to knit or crochet, and I was too nervous to read for long:

Video check-in

I just wanted to post a couple videos that I think show how much Peter is gaining in terms of sound, and language. I am so proud of my little guy! Not even 3 months post-activation, and he has so many new sounds!


Also, he is signing up a storm!

For myself I need to post a list of signs he knows, but not tonight! Maybe something to do in the hospital during CI Surgery #2, in two days! (Aaack)

Fun "Speech Therapy"

Friday we went to a local park for a picnic with friends. It was a regular fun outing, but then we went on the little train they had there....and Peter LOVED it! We had watched them hitch up the engine, and listened for the whistle while we were in line, but it was once we were seated, and we started to move that Peter's eyes got huge with excitement :). I pointed to the engine and signed TRAIN, and said "whoo, whoo". Peter was laughing with the wind in his hair, and by the middle of the ride he was signing train (with just his pointer, but he was moving it in the right way) and saying "ooo, ooo". So fantastic, especially since I couldn't get him o say "ooo" at home ;).

I am working on a couple videos to post showing speech so far, and to document progress with one CI. After surgery this Wednesday and activation in three weeks we will get to work with two ears!  I am excited to see what Peter will do with two CIs, though I am not excited to go through surgery again. At least we know better what to expect.

MOMMY, finally!

   

Last night Peter finally signed MOMMY!  It was a hand wiggle with his thumb on the side of his chin, but he was looking at a picture of me :D. He has sort of made signs for Sydney and Samantha, and DADDY and GRANDMA, and BABY, so we are slowly getting all the family members. I still rated after DOG, CAT, and FISH, though! He even signed GRASS  last Friday before he signed MOMMY. I hope he says "mama" before those other words to make up for it!

DADDY

Peter's sign for his Daddy is also the sign for DONKEY

Coincidence?

I heard from another mom who went to a CI conference that the professionals were recommending not introducing any new signs after a child gets an implant, at least until spoken language is established. IF I wanted to stick hard and fast to those guidelines I could still talk to Peter when his CIs are off, BUT only because I exposed Peter to so many signs that even if I don't teach him any new ones, he has hundreds that we could still use!. One small study touting benefits of early signing showed CI kids with deaf parents did better learning spoken language than CI kids with hearing parents- the assumption being that the signing from birth gave them early access to language, which ported over to spoken language. This study is pretty old, before the FDA lowered the implant age guidelines, and it doesn't have any hearing parents who signed. Another old (1996) study showed that continued development in sign did not have a negative effect on spoken language, and possibly had a positive effect. The authors of the study also point out that people who posit that signing is detrimental tend to be monolingual, where most of the world is bi-, or multi-lingual, and that they develop just fine!  I keep this information in the back of mind when I feel pressure to drop signing.  I also know that signing is not for every family- we had a head start because I had used it with my girls. People who have late diagnosed kids, or whose children lose their hearing suddenly may not even have time to think about learning sign before their child has CI's and they are focusing on talking talking talking! And if the FDA lowers the age guidelines to 9 months for CI surgery then there will be even less time to focus on sign- but that doesn't mean it wouldn't help....

But what is the magic formula?  Several studies seem to show that CI Children in Oral programs speak and understand spoken language better than CI Children in Total Communication programs.  Is it that TC is not the best of both worlds, and immersion in each separately would be more beneficial? Where are those studies? What would I even look for?  I suppose it doesn't really matter right now, as I already knew I wanted to do an oral school at this point, but still use sign. We have times like bedtime, where we read some stories aloud, with some signs on the book, then take off the CI and have a 100% signed story or two. Peter seems pretty happy with that arrangement :)

Some traction and new SHOES

After my entry about trying to get the ball rolling I got lots of things almost checked off the list :)

1) I went to a play date at the new Early Start group. I was part of a dedicated hearing loss group, so having several other parents (all hearing) with children with hearing aids or cochlear implants was a different experience (as compared to Santa Cruz County, where no other kids with hearing loss were at the play dates).  Everyone was nice, and the woman I met with said she thought from here on out Peter should get two weekly home visits starting that last week in August. I forgot to give her the massive packet of paperwork, but at least all the forms are filled out ;). The one bummer: the play groups are on Fridays, so I will have to choose between CSD (the School for the Deaf) and the Early Start get together. It is unfortunate the two big programs don't have different days, and at least some days where they welcome each others families. Sharing information, and having access to both environments woud be so beneficial to kids with hearing loss (in my mind). Also, building a bridge between the ASL and spoken English programs would help families see that there are lots of options out there, and find what combination works best for their child. Something else to work on in my spare time ;)

2) my meeting with the Oral School was pushed out until next Tuesday. I can't say it was a total surprise, more like par for the course. If this wasn't the only program of its kind for the youngest kids I think they would have to run a much tighter ship. Bleah!

3) I signed Samantha up for a preschool that meets Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays!  I visited and LOVED the environment, and the teacher was so open and friendly and happy! Such a change from the last preschool teacher I worked with! And the way the schedule works means that no matter what days JWPOSD (the Oral School) recommends, I will have at least one day a week when I can drive the carpool (there are at least two other mountain families there) or maybe even work if I get baby care for Peter. My mom offered to do most of the work shifts, though, so I will just be doing the monthly meetings and committee work as my part of the cooperative preschool.  I got most of that paperwork done, and just need to send in the check.

4) got the re-enrollment packet for Sydney filled out. There was a ton of paperwork! And I can't turn it back in until she gets a TB test.  Since we officially "left" the county to go to school last year (even though we were at home, or in Los Gatos for classes) they require the TB teats to come back. Luckily I need a TB test, as does Samantha for the preschool, and Peter still hadn't done his 12-month well-baby visit, so all of that is Wednesday. So #4 is almost done, too.

5) The second surgery is scheduled! August 7th. So Peter will have two ears starting August 27th, which is also the day JWPOSD starts. So happy!! I still need to arrange kid care and all that for surgery day, since my mother-in-law isn't around, but several people have offered help. I am soooo thankful for all my awesome friends that have helped me out by watching my girls when I have appointments for Peter.

6) Vacation. I am not saying no with a capital N, but I don't think it's gonna happen. Looking at the calendar, with Pre-Op and Dr. Visits, the surgery, post-op, and THREE different start dates for schools I don't see a good time.

So we have traction. We are moving forward! And on Friday, at the Early Start parking lot I said to Peter, "let's get your shoes". I reached for them, and he signed SHOES for the first time!  My boy is so smart!