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Archives [2006] [2006 Maya]

Maya
6/1/08 Wow! Maya had a GREAT year in school this year. At the end of the year report gave her all 3's. A 1 means not progressing to that school year's level. 2 means progressing towards the end of the school year level but not there yet. 3 means the student has met the end of the school year levels. Last year she still had some 2's on her report. This year ALL 3'S!!!! She is still working on her fluency but has made HUGE leaps forward this year. She loves math and has decided that she wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up. Maya loves to make herself paper costumes. Right now she's a bat. (I will post pictures soon). She has a very creative mind.

9/25/07 What a difference time has made. Maya is reading MUCH faster than last year. I was wondering how she would do. Coming into this school year she seemed to be at the same spot that she was at the end of last year. Struggling for each word. Last night she read me a 28 page story that she was up to "regular kid" speed. I was blown away! Maya's handwriting is amazingly good. This year Maya and Talon are in the same class (thank goodness). It is MUCH easier on me for parent teacher conferences. Maya has her brother to fall back on if she needs help remembering something. We have had NO problems this year. I just love the kid's teacher. The twins are now in the 2nd grade. My "big" 7 year olds. They are in an after school program every day for almost 2 hours. They love it. They are studying rocks, mountains and the world around them - including outer space.

4/14/07 Maya has been getting some extra help with fluency in reading. Her IQ is quite high (110) but she just can't keep up. I was told that it's her motor processing part of her brain that is having the problem. It was explained to me like this: The intelligence part is a 4 lane highway at 75 MPH and the motor processing part is a single lane country dirt road. The information is all in there but it has a very hard time getting out. Maya does enjoy school. She has made several friends this year. I (mom) am personally having some issues with Maya's teacher (Henderson). Several times this year she has brought up the topic of putting Maya on some sort of medication to help her pay attention. In the beginning of the year I was looking into it (asking questions with the pediatrition). After Darin and I decided not to put her on any meds I told Mrs. Henderson. For some reason Maya's teacher just can't let go of the idea and keeps bringing it up. I hope that she doesn't hold her back just because she's not fluent (fast enough). She can read all of Talon's take home books (on grade level) but they keep her at Kindergarden level books just so she has the opportunity to get faster. Thank goodness Darin and I help her at home with more challenging reading. She may be slow but she can read it.

Talon
6/1/08 This year's school report gave Talon a lot of 3's but a few 2's crept in. Mainly with his writing. He has a hard time formulating a story and he has really bad handwriting. Most boys his age have these same issues so I'm not worried. We will be working on these issues over the summer. Talon loves being on the computer playing games (Lego Star Wars, Jimmy Neutron, etc.) The kid's computer is down at the moment so he is having to use his imagination to keep himself entertained. Thankfully Talon has Cub Scouts now. He will be going to a day camp with his troop in a few days. What fun.

9/25/07 Talon is going a mile a minute in life. He wants to know everything all the time. If you spend any time around Talon you can expect to be asked "why" several times. He is enjoying 2nd grade and his teacher a lot. He also really enjoys having his sister in class with him. They don't sit near each other but do get a lot of time to hang out with each other if they want. I keep asking Talon to please stop growing so I don't have to buy him clothes so often.... Needless to say he won't listen to me. It seems that I barely buy him a new pair of pants and they turn into "high waters". I wonder how tall this boy will be when he's done. Talon is VERY helpful with his baby sister. He does a good job helping to keep an eye on her when mom is busy.

4/14/07 Talon just got his tonsils out and had another round of tubes put in his ears last week. His voice sounds like he's talking with a little bit of helium all the time. They said it's because of everything being swollen. We opted for this surgery because Talon continues to have LOTS of painful ear infections. He very rarely gets throat infections but his tonsils were so big (classified as 4+) that we believe they were causing the estation (sp?) tubes to be pinched off so they couldn't drain properly. The tonsils had some infection in them constantly it seems. Talon is so strong. He wants to be up and goofing around all the time. We have to try hard to keep him down. My mom came out to help with everything. What a HUGE blessing she has been during this time. I didn't know how much I needed her help until it was all over. Talon is doing great in school. He needs help with math and writing. We've started to help him out at home so he doesn't fall behind too much.

Gage
6/1/08 I cried when I got the paper from school stating that Gage has completed the requirements for Kindergarden and is moving up to First Grade! I know he's still in the special needs program but I don't care. My son is moving up!!!! I've always known he would progress... I guess I just always think of him as my little one. He is trying to write his name. It comes out as a bunch of little c shaped circles. He can read "cat" "dog" "cow" and his own name. I'm thrilled. His teacher agrees with me that Gage has made HUGE progress this year. She said that next year he will do MUCH better since 1st grade is a full day. This past year has been all 1/2 days - what a joke. They just barely get started then it's time to go home. On his standarized testing (for kids with special needs) he lands anywhere from slightly advanced (yes, I said advanced) to severely delayed. His testing took place when he was 5 years 8 months old. Some areas he tested at a little over 6 years while other areas he tested around 3 years 9 months. His gross motor skills are right on par. It's his fine motor, speech, cognitive that are delayed. Next year his 1st grade class will be held at a regular elementary school about 2 miles west of us. I have transferred the twins to the same school so all 3 kids will be attending the same school. Same start time, same end time etc... What FUN!!!

9/25/07 Gage is now in Special-K or kindergarden for kids with special needs. I have noticed a few new intelligent words have been added to his vocabulary already. He LOVES school. He bounds into his classroom full of energy and a huge smile. He does have days where he gets frustrated and likes to hit a classmate or two. I'm glad it's only that and not more. He does a LOT of hitting at home compared to what happens at school. Gage gets frustrated easily and doesn't know how else to get what he wants. We're all working on it though. --- When I took Gage in to the doc's for his regular check up he was in the 50th % for height and in something like the 3rd or 5th for his weight. Doc was not worried about it at all. --- We recently went to a health and safety fair at the local hospital. They were handing out new bicycle helmets to all the kids. Gage's microcephaly is so severe that Kiera's head is larger than his. He has an baby size helmet that we have to add a lot of peel and stick padding.

4/14/07 Gage is so full of life! He loves going to preschool. I have noticed a marked improvement in his abilities this school year. I have also determined that he has a certain amount of screaming he has to get out of his system every day. He is just a very loud kid. We love him a lot. Next year he will be going to what has been titled "Special-K". It's kindergarden for those who need an extra year of school before being mainstreamed in regular school. After a year of Special-K he will (hopefully) start regular kindergarden at school where Maya and Talon go. We shall see when the time gets here. I am in the process of getting him SSI. Once he is declaired "disabled" by the government we can get a lot of help for him. Not only will they help financially but we can get him medical insurance easier. His preschool testing determined that he couldn't see past 5 feet. I need to get him into his opthamologist to see if his eye condition has worsened or if this is just a natural part of his condition. Genetics knows so little about this disorder they can't be of any help. We are on our own as far as what the future holds.

Kiera
6/1/08 This little girl BLOWS ME AWAY!!! Her speech is crazy amazing. She easily pulls off 5 and 6 word sentences. All the words used correctly and pronounced correctly. She will be 2 YEARS OLD on the 21st of this month. My little girl is not so little any more. Kiera loves to take care of her baby (a toy baby doll we've had since the twins were her age). She loves to play with her siblings. She does a pretty good job keeping up. Recently she has become very interested in the potty. Once she actually used it correctly. I have yet to have any of my kids be potty trained much before turning 5 (yes, I said 5). I would be thrilled beyond belief if I get one who learns to use the potty this early. I have been changing diapers every day of my life since 3/20/2000 without a break. Most of that time I've been changing at least 2 bums too.

9/25/07 Kiera is growing and changing sooo quickly. She has about 35 words in her collection that she likes to use. She's somewhere between 25 and 26 pounds. Kiera is VERY active. She loves to climb. She scares me but most of the time she's fine. Kiera has the most awesome personality. She's friendly and loves saying "hi" and "bye" any chance she gets. She is such a gift to this family. Kiera has entered that phase where she wants to feed herself all the time. She gets mad if we try to feed her ourselves.

4/14/07 Yesterday we all took a trip up to Salt Lake to drop off some labs for testing (house funk) and get Kiera a new car seat. What a big girl she is quickly becoming. She's now a little over 23 pounds (10.43 kg) and out grew her infant car seat when she turned 20 pounds (before Christmas). She also spoke her first real word yesterday as we were all gathering for dinner. I posted the video we took within 2 minutes of her starting to say it. Click on "video" at the top to go to that page to see the link. Everyone has been so excited to watch her development. She started crawling and furniture cruising within days of each other last month. She is into everything!!! We also have LOTS of pictures of her and our new kitten (Appa) sleeping together. He seems to really like curling up with her when she takes her naps. He just jumped into her bed as I'm typing this. She has 8 teeth and is getting better at using them when she eats. She has been such a blessing to this family (especially mom). It's nice to have one baby that I don't have to stress over more than one would a "typical" baby. She is growing and developing at a perfect rate. She is quite healthy and snaps back rather quickly from any infections she gets.