Good Bye Early Intervention, Hello IEP

Tomorrow is the "IEP day." We will sit down with the Intermediate Unit and plan out the services the girls will be receiving. They have exited the Early Intervention program and with that comes all new therapists.

Adeline has been recommended for a developmental classroom which is made up of kids with delays and disabilities. After observing this classroom, I found it pretty difficult to picture the Belle there four days a week. Receiving therapy in our home is one thing, joining a group of delayed and disabled kids in a classroom is another. It is hard to see her in this environment when she is doing so well. That is not to say that I don't appreciated her needs and all this classroom will offer her. I just plan to offset the peer group by enrolling her in a mainstream classroom as well. The downside is that Adeline will potentially spend five mornings a week at school with additional speech therapy and special instruction on the side. I guess time will tell how all of this works out.

Lila is only receiving speech therapy and special instruction. She will attend a mainstream classroom and meet with a speech therapist once or twice a week. A special instructor will follow her in order to track her overall progress in the attempt to catch that other shoe if it decides to drop.

With this transition comes very sad and tearful goodbyes. We will miss all of our EI therapists. The week before we left on vacation the girls had their last therapy sessions with these wonderful women. Miss Ruby, Miss Adrienne and Miss Cynthia gave the girls an early birthday party as a going away gift. The girls were all smiles.

Miss Ruby

Miss Adrienne

The cupcakes and candles



The very hard and tearful goodbye with Miss Cynthia. She has been with us from almost the beginning. We love her dearly and attribute much of Adeline's motor success to her endless work with the Belle. Adeline adores her and melted right into her for one last, long hug.

Home Again, Home Again

We are settling back into our Pennsylvania way of life. We left for the Seattle airport at 12:00 p.m. (PST) and arrived home at 2:00 a.m. (EST). It was a long day as this trip was our first cross country adventure that included layovers. We managed just fine and had the car seats strapped to strollers etc. like pros. We did get a many looks but after scanning the airport and planes for traveling families, we seemed to have it pretty easy. Our girls were superstars yet again and even had the routine down of letting daddy board first with car seats and carry-ons while we waited at the gate.

It felt like we were walking down the red carpet when boarding. I followed my three girls. Savannah was all smiles, Lila would stop at every third person and give them an unintelligible earful all while Adeline brought up the rear with her waves (two inches from people's faces - each aisle person that is). The passengers thought they were something else and one was even nice enough to seek us out after the flight and tell us how good our girls were for the long flight. Luckily, Lila and Savannah slept a good portion of the first flight while Adeline was asleep before the second flight ever made it off the ground.

I remember flying with baby Savannah and know how much more difficult flying could be. Thank goodness these girls are good travelers!!