Graduations!

What a summer we've had! We have been gone almost the entire month of July, but some of our fun started earlier! We've had a few graduations in the past few months.

Our first was Mitch's graduation from Speech Therapy. Kind of a forced graduation at the time. He has been in speech therapy for almost a year and has made incredible progress. His speech abilities compared to last summer are night and day. We knew he was getting close to being done with therapy, but still needed a few more months possibly. But in April I found out that our insurance benefit that covered his speech therapy was reaching its max and would end in May, and then we would no longer be covered for him to receive speech through insurance. His therapist and I did not think he was quite ready to be done, so we tried appealing the insurance to extend the benefit, or get it covered under another benefit. Our appeals were denied. Our only option left after that was to pay for him to continue therapy. I added up how much it would be a month and it would be just under $600 a month for him to continue with his current therapist. This left us in a pickle- there was no way we could pay that much for therapy a month (maybe for a Hummer, though...) and especially with his speech abilities being where they were. We were at the point where he was just getting everything fine-tuned, but it was not critical anymore that he be getting help. We made the choice to stop therapy and look into other clinics that offered government funding.

Mitch with this amazing therapist Sheryl on his last day of Speech therapy- May 12, 2010.

What a sad day it was for all of us. We hated parting ways on these terms- it would have been much easier to be done on terms other than insurance reasons.

And I cannot say enough good about Sheryl. She was an amazing person and therapist. Mitch absolutely adored her and she did such amazing work. I still can't believe how quickly he went from being pretty much mute and wordless to signing and using words he'd never uttered before. She was fantastic with Mitch, both in therapy and otherwise. We could tell she cared about him as a person, not just a client. Mitchell looked forward to Sheryl's visits every week.

But Mitchell was still able, and is currently attending, a Therapy Play Group twice a week with qualified therapists and education teachers.

He goes with his good buddy Jason and they have such a great time together. Here they are on Bus Day.

Mitch loved getting on the bus and buckling his seatbelt.

This play group is so fun- constant activities for the kids that are centered around helping to expand their speech and other motor skills.

They always play outside (if it's not raining or freezing), snack time, then play time with a craft!

His buddy Jason just graduated from this play group, which ends when you turn 3. We went to our first play group without him on Monday and Mitch was very sad.

We also met with a speech therapist from this clinic on Monday after play group to get started on speech therapy for him here. This clinic is government funded, which allows for families who's insurance does not pay or for those who can't afford it to get therapy for no cost. After just a few minutes with Mitchell, the therapist turned to me and expressed her amazement at his speech abilities. We had gotten on the waiting list here as soon as Mitchell's other speech therapy ended, but his progress in the 2 1/2 months since then has been fantastic. I was kind of embarrassed to be meeting with her today anyway, knowing Mitch's capabilities. I know that if I had pushed or even demanded that we could have gotten services for him from now until his birthday in October, but the therapist and I decided Monday that Mitchell no longer needs speech therapy and that we will not go ahead with it. His speech is age appropriate and the things he still struggles with is age appropriate, and he is even advanced in some of his abilities in a few areas. I felt really good about that decision, especially knowing that we would not be taking funds away from families that need therapy much more desperately than we do.

So now we really are graduated from Speech Therapy! I am so proud of Mitch and all his hard work! We will continue to attend play group for the time being, or until he turns 3 to gradually ween him off professional help and continue to get tips on how to help him at home, but he is doing fantastic and we couldn't be happier.

Mitchell aslo graduated from diapers to underwear at the end of May. It has been a long 2 months of potty training with set backs every now and then. He isn't perfect yet, but he has worked very hard at this as well and we are very proud of him. What a stud in his little Spiderman Undies! Go Mitch!

in June Chloe graduated from Preschool. I cannot tell you how proud I am of this little girl. She has always loved school and we are so glad for that.

She has been at the same preschool with the same teacher for 2 years. Chloe loves Miss Cindy and I am so glad she got to enjoy her for 2 years. She is definitely ready for kindergarten and asks when she gets to go at least once a day, but she did have one emotional day near the end of preschool where she didn't want to leave preschool and wanted to stay with Miss Cindy forever. But she is over that now and we are very anxiously counting down the days until school starts.

Her teacher gave each of the kids a graduation certificate and a little note. Chloe's note said:

"It has been great having Chloe in preschool for two years, which means I will really, really miss her next year! She is very ready for Kindergarten! Chloe is capable of doing anything! She's smart and learns quickly, works hard and fast, and loves to help me when I need an extra hand. A wonderful leader and an awesome girl!"

Her teacher has told me a number of stories this year when Chloe was extra helpful without being asked. One example was when one of Miss Cindy's helper teachers couldn't make it and the class was left short-handed on teachers. Miss Cindy said that Chloe immediately jumped up and helped her throughout class doing things that the other teacher normally did. She said Chloe was a tremendous help that day, and she did it all willingly and cheerfully. She is such a big helper at our house that while I couldn't say I was very surprised that she is a big helper elsewhere, I was still very proud of this grown up little girl. She is just 5, but does so much beyond her years.

On the last day of preschool they had a party at Super Jump (bouncy house place) and enjoyed pizza and cake in between playing on the toys.

Here Chloe is with her her class, the afternoon class, and the morning class. Both combined for this fun day.

It was an extra special day for Chloe- I was sick, so Ben got to take the day off and go with her to her party, along with Mitchell. Ben doesn't get to participate in much of her schooling activities, so I was so glad he got to be here for this.

Chloe was glad to be combined with the morning class this day- she has a few good friends in that class as well. Here she is with her friend Natalie from the morning class. They will be in the same kindergarten class next year.

Hurry up September 9th- we have one anxious and ready Kindergartner!