We are building a new house

We are taking a huge leap of faith, and we are building a new colonial-style home. We are currently in a ranch, but have decided to build a home with four bedrooms on the second upstairs level. However, there is a room on the main level, which could be transformed into Andy's bedroom if we need to do this. Meaning, if he should never walk, or if he is too heavy to carry upstairs. There is also a space that could be turned into a bathroom with a roll-in shower on the main level. We've thought that all out.
I have also looked into stairlifts for curved, 180 degree staircases, and have talked to a friend about platform lifts.

We wanted to build another ranch style home, but they are much more expensive to build than building a colonial or cape cod. We were quoted $150 a square foot, as opposed to $90-$100 a square foot to build a colonial. We also looked at a foreclosed ranch, but it needed way too much work. We then looked at a really nice, but way too expensive ranch.  The dirt road it was on wasn't too appealing either, I might add. Not to mention the fact that the school said the buses could have trouble going down private dirt roads, especially in winter.  So, we picked a paved road neighborhood, very close to his school. I could walk him there in nice weather.

I really like the look and feel of the colonial house, however, I have never lived in one. I am hoping that I will like it. We are having the laundry room put in on the second floor next to our bedrooms. We are hoping this will alleviate a negative point of the colonial home. We also will have a walkout basement, which we love the idea of, and have never had.

There will be many children the same ages of our kids, which I also like. Our current neighborhood, is full of empty nesters whose children moved out 20 years ago. So, we are excited and nervous, that we made the right decision. We have made our choices in the best interest of our kids.

You can see further progress in my later post here : Building progress

What to do if you drop your iphone in water

Long story short: my iPhone 4 came back to life (twice now) after letting it dry out for five full days in a ziploc bag filled with uncooked white rice. My phone was fully submerged in water for a few seconds after being dropped in the toilet. Yes, my iPhone fell into the toilet. Here are the details of what happened:

You have to fully submerge the phone in dry uncooked rice in a plastic baggie to suck out the moisture from the phone.  We let the phone sit for 24 hours. But later found this wasn't enough time, so the phone went back into the bag to sit at room temperature for a few more days.

**After the phone has dried out for several days (4-5 days), you must plug it into your charger and let it charge for several hours** You might think it isn't coming back to life, but might just actually need to be charged.

When the iPhone 4 initially turned on the next day (24 hours later),  it was acting funny, so it needed several more days in the bag of rice to fully dry out. Calls weren't working and the screen was looking yellow. We put the phone back into the same bag of rice. This time we let the phone sit for three more days. We then had my daughter test out the phone for two days by having her watch Netflix and play games. She reported back no problems with the phone. So, we got another new sim card once again for the now dry iPhone 4, and it was activated over the phone.

Before placing the phone in the bag of rice, I did not take the phone apart. I took my outside protective case off but that was it. I didn't remove the screen or battery or anything. I did take the sim card out, because I thought it would help dry it out more. I was successful at getting my sim card out after pushing the tiny pinhole on the side of my phone with a straightened paperclip. I had to push it really hard to get the door to spring outward. I later found out the sim card just had to be thrown out, because once the sim card gets wet, you will need a new one. It will no longer work.  The cell phone store gave us a 3GS sim card to use in an old phone with my current phone number until my phone came back from the dead.

I have been using the phone now for over a year, and it has been great. I do have a slight "yellowing" of my screen in one tiny spot, and can only see it when there is a white background. Other than that, I am SO happy my iPhone came back to life!

Honestly, I didn't panic too much when it first happened, I was mostly upset that my husband might be mad about it. I've gotten electronics wet before, and usually after they dry, they come back to life. So, I was hopeful the same would be true with my iPhone. If your phone goes out of commission, your cell phone carrier should give you a new sim card free of charge, and switch your account over to an alternative phone.

Good luck reviving your phone, I never attempted to open the phone at all. I left it as is, and let the rice suck all the moisture out of it.

P.S. I dropped my phone in water once again on accident, and it is up and running again after five days in a bag of rice. Hurray!

Scooting for toys

Andy is scooting around with a little enticing. I have gotten him to scoot as far as 25 feet, coaxing him with a toy. He will do about 5 little scoots at a time, on his belly, pulling himself with his arms. He will scoot with his own interest and motivation sometimes, just a foot or two to get to a toy. When I try to motivate him, I try to bring him down a long hallway into a new room, so he can see he can get somewhere on his own. I might have to put a long sleeve shirt on him next time, because the berber carpet seems to be irritating to his elbows after a while.

We hadn't seem him scoot around much since St. Patricks Day, back in March of this year. I was wondering when it was going to emerge again, he just didn't want to scoot for so long. He's been in PT all this time too! We are taking a break from physical therapy now, and he's scooting like crazy. Can't figure it out.

Abuse at my son's future school

We have been contemplating moving out of our current school district for a while now. I was skeptical of my son's future school not being keen on having parents in the classroom with the kids. It felt like they were hiding something as well. It turns out everything has come to light about an abusive teacher and parapro in my son's future preschool classroom! Needless to say, this has put the final nail in the coffin for us to move to a new school district. I had already spent the last couple of months researching a new district, and met with the principal about their SXI program. They are fine with my desires to be present with Andy, just kind of checking in, and my daughter will attend school there as well. In our current district, they would both be attending different schools.

Here is the news story from our local news, and a link to a message board talking about it as well.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/news/Livonia-teacher-fired-amid-allegations-of-mistreating-special-education-students/-/4714498/15179796/-/9j1kol/-/index.html

http://s6.zetaboards.com/Livonianeighbors/topic/8822988/3/

Take care of your kids, and don't be afraid to question anyone in regards to their care!

Scheduling time for fun

Being that summer just started, I am trying to make sure the kids have a spot each day to have fun with me. I've been trying to do more laundry at night, and the dishes at night, so I don't feel overwhelmed with housework during the day. I am very tired when it is time to go to bed, but it helps me to sleep soundly through the night.

The last few days, after Andy's nap, I stop what I'm doing and we get in the pool or play on the floor. I feel that I need to show Andy some fun each day, he is so easily frustrated. It seems to be helping him maintain a good mood. It is hard to set aside the time that is needed for everything to get done, meanwhile, keeping the kids happy too.

I feel happy when I honestly feel that we had a really good day, and both kids know how much I love them. Then add in the husband too, and that's a lot of moving and shaking. I have to be very thoughtful and mindful of everyone and their feelings. It's a lot to take on!

Risperdal update

The Risperdal (Risperdone) seems to be working pretty well for Andy now. He seems to need to stay around .25ml in the morning to not be too drowsy during the day. If I give it to him at night, he seems to have difficulty sleeping through the night. I tried weaning him down to half his usual dose, down to .125ml, but after a week of this the crankiness and inconsolable crying was back in full swing. He would get worse and worse each day that I continued the .125ml, so I went right back up to .25ml. His nurse said I could try giving him .125ml in the morning and .125ml before bed, but I am worried the bedtime dose will affect his sleep. So, I'm sticking with just the morning dose for now.

Now, I am confident that he won't be crying all day at school, and inconsolable to the staff. I still need to purchase him a soft helmet though. I am worried that if he gets mad if he's on the floor at school, that he will bang his head backwards onto the floor. I place pillows behind him at home, but can't expect that there. They should have him in a chair, but if he starts being able to do other things on his own, I'm not so sure.

Need to get VEP done ASAP

My head is spinning, there is so much to do all of a sudden. Andrew has had exoptropia in both eyes since 9 months old or so. This means his eyes drift to the outside (lazy eye). It is a type of strabismus. When the eyes drift inwards, towards the nose, it is called esotropia. Exotropia, is when the eye drifts outwardly, away from his nose. Andy's right eye mainly, drifts way out, but he can pull it back in when I ask for his attention.

In a nutshell, an optometrist told us that our son is very near being legally blind. However, three different opthalmologists have told us our son can see pretty well. He doesn't require near or far correction, but the astygmatism in each eye is probably keeping him from seeing clearly. He believes his vision might have him seeing just out of focus. The latest opinion doctor also suggested that children with neurological abnormalities often have trouble focusing. A pair of glasses has been suggested to see if Andy will "appreciate" the better vision, but I don't need to fight him on wearing the glasses. Okay...

So, then I took Andy to see a second opinion Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation doctor (PMR). He was great. He is also a top vision person, and says that vision, neurology and physical medicine all overlap. He asks me, "Can he see? Do we know if he can see?" I tell him about all the eye doctors and the varying opinions. He tells me to end this once and for all and get a visual evoke potential (VEP) done on Andy right away. I agree. I tell him, "no one has ever said this to me, ever".  I am so happy I went through with an umpteenth opinion.

Now I'm scared of what a VEP can find, one of the majors being cancer that causes a lazy eye. But I am ready to get this scheduled right away, and fear of the unknown won't stop me. The PMR also suggested going ahead and getting the custom made shoes for his afos, and also getting new spinal and hip xrays. I agree with everything.

It is nice to finally be talking to a doctor that seems to be on the same page as me. He is also very available for me to reach him. I am very thankful his school PT told me about him, and that I decided to listen.

Stay strong-

 Amy

Excited words

I was feeding Andy today, and he got really excited and tried so hard and said "mama, ungee". I took it as  "mama hungry", so I said "yes, mama hungie! Very good Andy!" I feel that saying words the way Andy can say them is okay. Him being able to pronounce the "r" sound right now is crazy, and who cares anyway? My little one is finally trying to verbally communicate with me! It's so awesome, and Gabby is so excited too. 

My husband also noted that it seems he is moving his tongue around in his mouth more. I looked and noticed it too. He's really lifting it up and shifting it around. Probably good exercises to help allow him to talk. I tried to encourage him to stick out his tongue, which he found to be funny, but wouldn't imitate. 

I also heard him on the monitor after his nap, babbling in the tune of the alphabet song. So, I ran into his room and sang the ABC song to him. He had a huge smile on his face. 

I think Andy is excited as well, to see us get so excited about his speaking. He also seems to be happy to see that we can understand him. I'm hoping that this keeps building his motivation to speak, or attempt to make sounds.

Andy attempting to communicate verbally

Andy gave me so much eye contact today. It's been getting better and better each day. He seems to really be letting me in, or wanting to connect with me more. I am just so ready to hear him, and I accept him whole-heartedly for who he is right now. I am being extremely patient, and I feel very open right now. Open and at peace with whatever is going to happen next with Andy's development.

Today, I told Andy while feeding him, "say ahhh", and he opened his mouth and in a cute baby voice said "ahhh". I loved it! It was so awesome,  just so great to hear him respond to me verbally. It had me so happy all day long. He also tried to say "ready", he made the "eee" sound for eat several times, he's saying "up" today, "mmm" sound for more, and sounded like he sang "up above world" for Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

Over the last few days, I've been making some changes with myself, spiritually and mentally. I'm trying to find out more about energy and healing. I've been praying so much, and reading up on spiritual intuition, and intuitive parenting with Dr. Deb Snyder. She has some very helpful information, which I've already been putting into use to open up my heart and mind to Andy. I just really feel at peace, and feel a more open connection with Andy, by doing small things.

I hope that Andy is able to sense my full acceptance of him, and my deep love for him. I'm trying to show him love, more than anything, and not demonstrate any disappointment to him. Because I honestly feel that things are what they are, and I can't spend my days longing for more. And I can't let him feel that he isn't good enough for us. I just want him to feel so much love and acceptance, and I think he does. I really think he does.

New Expectations

I've been working more on Andy standing and playing lately. Just so he can experience the feeling of being upright. I have to be careful though, because he doesn't have protective measures for falling. He tends to fall backwards or forwards lately, the side falling seems to have vanished. He's not as floppy as he used to be with just falling any which way like a rag doll. He stands in a stronger stance.

I think he really enjoys being upright though. He stood for 20 minutes today, playing at a sand table with his cousins. It really felt like he was a part of the group, instead of off on his own. He tired, then continued to play in the sand while sitting in a chair. It was very therapeutic play.

Lately, I've been trying to work on Andy's hand-releasing skills. He doesn't easily release food into his mouth, nor does he easily release toys into containers. Realistically, there's no way he can stack blocks, or self-feed finger foods, when his releasing skills are so poor. I try to encourage him by saying "let go", and then "good job letting go of the toy", or "wow you put the toy down".

Andy just turned three, and right now, I do not expect him to be walking in a year from now. I only hope that he will be able to stand independently. I don't know if he will get crawling. It seems way to complicated for him. Walking seems like a much easier task. He stands stronger each day we practice.

Seeing him gain strength really motivates me. It also feels so much better to see him standing upright. It helps to feel that he is really three. At the same time, I feel that I have really let go of wanting Andy to hit milestones. He just isn't going to be a kid that marches to the beat of that drum.