A lot has happened since my last post.
The boys and myself has moved back up to Washington to live with my parents, as my husband James stayed back in Las Vegas to focus on selling insurance. He was not able to do his job very well with having to watch the boys, and needing to be home to see them on and off the bus while they were at school for the 3 hours in the morning. It was not enough time for my husband to get anything done!
I will be returning back to Las Vegas in a couple months. In the meantime, I am taking insurance classes to get my licenses so I can help my husband and work from home. My husband is getting our home situated in the meantime.
The school district here in Washington is MUCH better than down in Las Vegas.
Based on Jonathan's IEP, they placed him in an all-day school program that is much different than his last classroom in Las Vegas. This class is not as much education focused, but living skills focused, which I am happy for. It is absolutely ridiculous in Las Vegas to have homework packets having Jonathan trying to match the capitol letters to the lower case letters, and to color in the objects that started with a particular letter. That kind of homework seems several years premature for where Jonathan is. You give him a crayon, he may stick it in him mouth OR he may feel it but look up and around- not at the paper OR he may scribble on the paper for a moment, then want to grab the paper to flip it in his hand. He doesn't know numbers or letters and he still can't talk. I hear him say daddy a lot, but never in context, since daddy is not here.
Jonathan's class is AWESOME! You walk in and the walls are a neutral color! The stations are carefully arranged so if Jonathan went to the the pretend play corner, there are visual barriers so he is not distracted by the children across the room. I've done research on best practices for teacher children with ADD or FAS, and visual barriers are so important. Neutral walls are important, so the children can focus on the teacher when they are teaching, and won't be distracted by the artwork on the walls. I can't believe Jonathan is actually in an all-day program that caters to his needs. We are re-doing his IEP this Thursday. The teacher was absolutely shocked that his IEP had no mention of needing OT. They have an OT on staff at the school, and she will make sure his IEP is updated, so when we return to Las Vegas, they have to go off his IEP and give him the OT he deserves. In Las Vegas, they were saying that he has the fine motor strength, just not the cognitive ability to do things, therefore he doesn't qualify- they are only working with children without the fine motor strength. Looking back, that is crazy! Jon deserves help too! He can't put on his own sock or shoes or clothes for that matter... and he's 5 1/2 years old.
The other thing I love about Jonathan's new school is all of the adaptive bikes and tricycles they have. There is a plethera, so I know they are working with him on riding skills. At home, I've bought tricycles, and even a little tykes cozy coupe for Jon to try, but he'll just sit there and not move, or he's too big. Especially for the little car, his legs are too long to actually use. (He fits in the older, original car design, but the newer design's wheels pivot too much and leaves no room for his feet or legs.) It's too hard to know what will work for him, I don't have much extra money, so I can't waste it on a product that doesn't work.
Let's talk about little David. He is soooo busy. He loves to lock and unlock doors. He loves to open the refrigerator and unscrew tops to salad dressings, milk, sauces. He loves finding a bag of chips and going to town on it. If it's quiet, then you know David is getting into trouble.
I have to constantly monitor what David eats. He is a head shorter than Jonathan, but weighs 3 pounds more than him! I don't let him have any sweets, but fruit, and maybe a splash of 100% juice in his water and I try to limit his carb intake. But it's hard... We make a lot of soups, which David loves. His favorite is still borscht! David needs more physical activity- we are working on this. We have to make a drive somewhere to make this happen, whether it be to the mall or park. It's too hard on me to do this alone with 2 boys, so it doesn't happen enough.
David is really starting to talk now. It's so precious! He can say so many words, I couldn't list them all. He still prefers to use his jargon- especially when I give him the phone to talk to daddy. He will just start talking, and he will crack himself up. So cute indeed! Today, David showed me he can count to 10, which is awesome! wa, tu, thhee, fuh, fi, si, sefee, ah, ii, ehh! But he raises and lowers his voice to make the syllable sounds that he can't enunciate yet- so you know exactly what he is saying. I'm very proud of him! :-)
David knows routine, and when Jonathan isn't doing the routine, David loves to help him. He he will help him eat, or take off his bib. Today he helped him put his socks on. They will hold hands when we go to the street corner to wait for their school bus. They both love the song "ring around a rosie"- they will hold hands and do it over and over again. David tries to sing it- I can't really make out any of the words except "ashes", but he does sing that in tune to the song. Jonathan doesn't sing it, but he will get very giggly instead. Jonathan loves to follow, and David loves to lead. Jon chases David around the house a lot, and will follow what David does.
But most of the time David isn't doing anything too interesting, so Jon will wander off with a toy in hand and not really do too much with it. Jonathan isn't ready for puzzles yet. You give him a piece, he will set it down, but not to the correct location. Then Jon is done. No more puzzle. He doesn't want to touch the puzzle pieces anymore. When he first came home from Ukraine, he would throw the pieces instantly. So he is doing better compared to that! Jonathan does understand and will follow directions. If I ask him to come here or go upstairs, or go potty, his will go where I tell him to go. But he will not tell me or sign to me or cue me in on anything- not potty needs, not that he's hungry or thirsty or anything. He just hangs out until he is told what to do, or will follow David on what he is doing. I can ask Jon using sign if he "wants" to "eat". Then Jon will sign "eat". But Jon will never indicate anything first.
So that is a run-down of my life with the boys right now! We are hanging in there! I just can't wait to finally get situated a little bit more with life in general, so we can really focus in with the boys, and getting back in with the Southern Nevada Down Syndrome Organization and have play dates, and learn, and do more family things together! This will be very soon, so I am excited!
Blessings to you all!
The Brown family blog- about life, faith, and the blessing of children with Down syndrome!
Monday, April 14, 2014
Friday, December 13, 2013
David and Jonathan Update- Post Surgeries
This is a draft post, that I forgot to publish. So I am posting it, even though it is unfinished and back dating it... Better late than never! :-)
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These little guys have gone through multiple surgeries... David with his ear tubes and tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgery. Jonathan with his umbilical hernia repair and cataract surgeries. The boys are doing great now!
Ever since David's surgery, he has been chatting up a storm. Give him a picture book, and he starts coming up with babblings for each picture as he points and looks at me. As if he were telling a story about it. He tries so hard to repeat sounds and words, but it's super hard for him to get the sounds right. He can say all sorts of words, they are just his versions of the word. Like he can say "more", "cracker", "please", "cookie", "milk". the daycare told me he said "na ice" for "not nice" when he saw another child hit someone.
David is super smart and he is just moving right along with his development and learning. He is so loving and is always giving me kisses. He has a strong will, and that overpowers being obedient at times. He makes everything out to being a game, so if I tell him not to go there or touch that, he will do it, smiling and giggling looking at me for my reaction.
Jonathan just had his second cataract surgery 2 weeks ago. He still needs a fidget toy. I thought maybe he would let that go if he could see clearer, but he is always holding a toy and touching it, twirling it, etc. He still has issues eating. He will feed himself fine with certain foods, like waffles- no problems there. But give him something new- he will take forever to eat, and I will have to step in a help him in some way for each bite. Whether I am repositioning his hands for holding his bowl or utensils, or whether I am reminding him to eat more, or I'm helping him put food on his utensil... I don't want to feed him, but sometimes so much effort is taken verbally or to set Jonathan up to eat, then it will be wasted on him getting a spoonful of "nothing", or just 1 tiny noodle, again and again.... so I end up having to help him. If Jon is left alone, his brother will finish first and then go and hover over Jon's food and he'll eat it all up. Both boys are doing good putting their plates and utensils in the sink when they are finished. They both will clap for themselves after doing so- very cute!
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These little guys have gone through multiple surgeries... David with his ear tubes and tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy surgery. Jonathan with his umbilical hernia repair and cataract surgeries. The boys are doing great now!
Ever since David's surgery, he has been chatting up a storm. Give him a picture book, and he starts coming up with babblings for each picture as he points and looks at me. As if he were telling a story about it. He tries so hard to repeat sounds and words, but it's super hard for him to get the sounds right. He can say all sorts of words, they are just his versions of the word. Like he can say "more", "cracker", "please", "cookie", "milk". the daycare told me he said "na ice" for "not nice" when he saw another child hit someone.
David is super smart and he is just moving right along with his development and learning. He is so loving and is always giving me kisses. He has a strong will, and that overpowers being obedient at times. He makes everything out to being a game, so if I tell him not to go there or touch that, he will do it, smiling and giggling looking at me for my reaction.
Jonathan just had his second cataract surgery 2 weeks ago. He still needs a fidget toy. I thought maybe he would let that go if he could see clearer, but he is always holding a toy and touching it, twirling it, etc. He still has issues eating. He will feed himself fine with certain foods, like waffles- no problems there. But give him something new- he will take forever to eat, and I will have to step in a help him in some way for each bite. Whether I am repositioning his hands for holding his bowl or utensils, or whether I am reminding him to eat more, or I'm helping him put food on his utensil... I don't want to feed him, but sometimes so much effort is taken verbally or to set Jonathan up to eat, then it will be wasted on him getting a spoonful of "nothing", or just 1 tiny noodle, again and again.... so I end up having to help him. If Jon is left alone, his brother will finish first and then go and hover over Jon's food and he'll eat it all up. Both boys are doing good putting their plates and utensils in the sink when they are finished. They both will clap for themselves after doing so- very cute!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
1 Year Post Adoption Update!
It has been a long time since I've blogged. I've recently took a full time job, which has kept me very busy. I haven't worked a full time job since 2007... so my days are very long. I barely have time to get to the grocery store let alone try to blog!
So I've started work about 2 months ago, and both David and Jonathan are now in full time day care at a learning center. There has been a lot of sickness the past 2 months for our whole family, and it's from all of the new germs! :-( But the boys are thriving in a day care setting opposed to being at home all day. They are in different classrooms- David is in the2 year old classroom, and Jonathan is with the 4 year olds. Jon was with the 3 years old, but that was was over-crowded leaving Jon to get overwhelmed. When he gets overwhelmed he resorts to post-orphange behavior like isolating himself in a corner, stemming, flipping toys in front of his face, and humming. He has really outgrown some of these bahaviors and has his personality has really started to shine- but I'm glad the learning center took notice and brought him to a small classroom where he can now flourish.
The other children have really taken to both boys, and are excited to see them. One boy helps Jonathan eat, and another little girl takes his hand and brings him around the room to play. Jon's face lights up and he gets so excited to play with the other children. It's so great to see the boys do well with other typical developed children. They just are placed with younger children that are at their play level. It's interesting to see how 1 year ago Jonathan was so behind David's level, and now he's far exceeded David's level of development. But there are some things that David still does better than Jonathan:
-David can feed himself better than Jonathan- when he's not being a texture freak. Jonathan will eat anything though, unlike David, but I think it takes him longer to process everything.
-David can work and manipulate toys significantly better than Jonathan. Also, David appreciate books, and truns pages and looks at the pictures. He will point and sing the things he sees. Instead, Jon will take the book from David to bend the binding in the opposite direction to flip pages- but not to look at them. He makes it more of a fine motor/texture/repitition activity, rather than a visual one.
There are things that Jon does better than David:
-If I start singing, Jon will start to join in with "bum bum bums" or "la la las" in a similar tempo and tone to what I'm singing. David will just sit and listen.
-Jon loves "Signing Time" and is always signing different signs. He is able to use his fingers and sign very clear certain, particular signs. David's signs are more approximate, but his fine motor muscle strength seems less and his fingers are more short and stubby compared to Jon's so I know it's harder for David.
-Jon is also doing pretty good with potty training. He can pull down his pants and pullups on his own and use the potty. I just have to tell him what to do- 1 step at a time. Jon is not good yet with 2 step directions. And even though using the potty should be routine by now, he still will just stand there with his pants down if I'm not there to tell him to sit down on the potty. He doesn't have all the steps memorized yet.
Both Jon and David are not talking yet. They know plenty of signs, but having them use there signs to communicate on there own is a whole different story. David needs ear tube surgery, which we are in the process of trying to take the steps needed for scheduling right now. So David has about a 30% hearing loss, and I hope after the surgery, he will hear more clearly and be able to talk shortly there after! We have a cardiac consult in 2 weeks and we just got the insurance to approve a sleep study.... so we have a couple things to do first before the surgery can be scheduled. Plus I need to build up my PTO!
Jon is finally confirmed for having Down syndrome. We just got the blood test results in yesterday. Jon's pediatrian thinks that he also should be tested for autism, which isn't fair because Jon was nervous on the doctor's examination table after waiting an hour to be seen. So he was rocking and humming and not making good eye contact. If only the doctor could see him at home! We will see if I want to persue a second diagnosis or not. As far as Jon having Down syndrome, honesty, I wasn't expecting that diagnosis as Jon doesn't have the classic Down syndrome physical characteristics that David has.
And now for some pictures:
So I've started work about 2 months ago, and both David and Jonathan are now in full time day care at a learning center. There has been a lot of sickness the past 2 months for our whole family, and it's from all of the new germs! :-( But the boys are thriving in a day care setting opposed to being at home all day. They are in different classrooms- David is in the2 year old classroom, and Jonathan is with the 4 year olds. Jon was with the 3 years old, but that was was over-crowded leaving Jon to get overwhelmed. When he gets overwhelmed he resorts to post-orphange behavior like isolating himself in a corner, stemming, flipping toys in front of his face, and humming. He has really outgrown some of these bahaviors and has his personality has really started to shine- but I'm glad the learning center took notice and brought him to a small classroom where he can now flourish.
The other children have really taken to both boys, and are excited to see them. One boy helps Jonathan eat, and another little girl takes his hand and brings him around the room to play. Jon's face lights up and he gets so excited to play with the other children. It's so great to see the boys do well with other typical developed children. They just are placed with younger children that are at their play level. It's interesting to see how 1 year ago Jonathan was so behind David's level, and now he's far exceeded David's level of development. But there are some things that David still does better than Jonathan:
-David can feed himself better than Jonathan- when he's not being a texture freak. Jonathan will eat anything though, unlike David, but I think it takes him longer to process everything.
-David can work and manipulate toys significantly better than Jonathan. Also, David appreciate books, and truns pages and looks at the pictures. He will point and sing the things he sees. Instead, Jon will take the book from David to bend the binding in the opposite direction to flip pages- but not to look at them. He makes it more of a fine motor/texture/repitition activity, rather than a visual one.
There are things that Jon does better than David:
-If I start singing, Jon will start to join in with "bum bum bums" or "la la las" in a similar tempo and tone to what I'm singing. David will just sit and listen.
-Jon loves "Signing Time" and is always signing different signs. He is able to use his fingers and sign very clear certain, particular signs. David's signs are more approximate, but his fine motor muscle strength seems less and his fingers are more short and stubby compared to Jon's so I know it's harder for David.
-Jon is also doing pretty good with potty training. He can pull down his pants and pullups on his own and use the potty. I just have to tell him what to do- 1 step at a time. Jon is not good yet with 2 step directions. And even though using the potty should be routine by now, he still will just stand there with his pants down if I'm not there to tell him to sit down on the potty. He doesn't have all the steps memorized yet.
Both Jon and David are not talking yet. They know plenty of signs, but having them use there signs to communicate on there own is a whole different story. David needs ear tube surgery, which we are in the process of trying to take the steps needed for scheduling right now. So David has about a 30% hearing loss, and I hope after the surgery, he will hear more clearly and be able to talk shortly there after! We have a cardiac consult in 2 weeks and we just got the insurance to approve a sleep study.... so we have a couple things to do first before the surgery can be scheduled. Plus I need to build up my PTO!
Jon is finally confirmed for having Down syndrome. We just got the blood test results in yesterday. Jon's pediatrian thinks that he also should be tested for autism, which isn't fair because Jon was nervous on the doctor's examination table after waiting an hour to be seen. So he was rocking and humming and not making good eye contact. If only the doctor could see him at home! We will see if I want to persue a second diagnosis or not. As far as Jon having Down syndrome, honesty, I wasn't expecting that diagnosis as Jon doesn't have the classic Down syndrome physical characteristics that David has.
And now for some pictures:
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Jon's Progress: Post-Orphanage vs. Now, 5 months later
FYI: I deleted my last post, because I don't believe my adopted son has Williams syndrome or Down Syndrome. I won't know "what" Jonathan has until we have a vacation in Washington state (to visit family), since there is no genecist here in Nevada. I don't know when we will be visiting Washington next.... We believe Jonathan has FAS/FASD, which is a completely different parenting ballgame than parenting a child with Down syndrome- at least that's what I've come to conclusion to based on what I've read from other mother's blogs and groups. I'm thankful that the Ukraine misdiagnosed Jonathan, because FAS is not on their approved list of health problems which would make a child available for inter country adoption before their 5th birthday.
I almost don't want to do testing until Jonathan can understand more English. I feel bad how low he tested into the the school district for special ed preschool. He has 3 things against him: Having some sort of "syndrome", not knowing the language, and living in an orphanage his entire life. Comparing Jonathan now, about 3 months after all of his testings, I would say he is understanding me more and more!
Jonathan knows lots of different signs, and is starting to use them to communicate. He use to just repeat whatever sign I would show him, but have temper tantrums not realizing I am teaching a communication tool to help him "talk" to me. But I am seeing him just begin to "talk" now (with his hands). Verbally, he will repeat sounds like, "Da Da Da" or "Ma Ma Ma" "Bub Bub Bub" and "Up Up Up". But he can sign "Mommy" "Daddy" "More" "Please" "Eat" "All Done" "Yummy" "Happy", he will clap his hands when I say "yay!", he will give high-5's when I say "Good job!", he's signing "boy" and knows when I call him a "Good Boy"... and there's more, but he's giving me excellent eye contact now and is really engaging in the "conversation" when before he would just look around and get distracted by the slightest noise or light- or anything!
When Jonathan first came home he did a lot of finger sucking, and rocking- making crazy angry noises. We knew this was common post-orphanage behavior, as he is trying to cope with the change. The first thing I worked on was the finger sucking (it was the two middle fingers on his left hand), he was always sucking it! So I would take his hand out of his mouth and say "No fingers". I was very good about being diligent about reminding him. At night, he would wear one of daddy's long sock underneath his PJ's so he couldn't suck his fingers. Less and less he would do this. I would even see him bring his hand up to his mouth and then shake his head and put his hand down to stop himself.
Jonathan then mouthed everything. Toys, as if he were a baby! He would even kiss the walls, lick the glass door. I would remove the toy out of his mouth and say "No mouth", and if he did it again, I would take the toy away for a little while. Now, I've read about replacing the toys with a specific oral/motor chewing toy, but I don't have extra money at moment for things like that. But so far saying "No mouth" does make him stop and take the toy out of his mouth on his own. The finger and mouth occurrences happen less and less frequently.
I am now working on his fussiness. He can get very agitated at a toy and start making fussy whiny noises. Now if he starts crying, I always remove him and give him a time out to his room. He is obviously over-stimulated if he is overly whiny or is crying or starts throwing toys. When he starts getting whiny I bring my finger up to my mouth and say "SHHH" (He knows this from the wheels on the bus song) and I say "No fussy". If he still is fussy I say "be happy" and I sign happy- he knows this from the "if you're happy and you know it" song. I am still working on his fussiness. But I am keeping things simple, and communicating what he can understand. I will try to remove the toy or whatever is stimulating him, and distract him or whatnot. But so far this is helping him. He knows my expectations, and it keeps me from getting mad at him- since I have a system in place.
Instead on rocking on the floor and making angry noises, Jonathan has stopped this and now just does weird "pelvic thrustings" on the ground. It looks bizarre and I just tell him to "Get up" and he usually stops what he's doing and sits up. I sign the word "Weird"- because it's all I know sign-wise, but he knows that is something he can not do. So I guess I'll just start signing "Weird" for other socially unacceptable things to help him learn!
We are having issues with him feeding himself. I have stopped focusing on this and making it a session of me feeding him, but he has to communicate by signing to get food. We also work on vocalizations of different words this way. I do this with David sitting right next to him. They both are on the exact same page with signing and vocalizations so it is excellent speech therapy this way, and it becomes a happy, non-crying outburst event when I try to help him feed himself. He can feed himself finger foods, but holding the spoon/sassy spoon- forget it! I personally think it's too many steps for him to figure out... but then again the first 2 weeks home he spoon fed himself just fine, then one day stopped and started crying and throwing his hands in the air in refusal to touch the spoon. Interesting... I am much happier working on speech therapy at the moment, and so is he. We will address this again in the near future.
So Jonathan has made excellent progress as a whole! I just read about a week or so ago that some moms use the Google translate app to help communicate to their child. I haven't done this! I'm sure that is super helpful as well! Before the adoption, I took a speech therapy class called the Hanen Workshop, which really equipped me for handling a non-verbal kid- I now have 2 of them! But I keep things short, simple, I use signs with the words, I'm consistent.... oh, And he loves the Signing Time DVD's. So all of the above has really helped him! I also recommend eliminating a good amount of toys from the play room. Put them away. Bring one out for fun that you will play with to teach how to properly play with certain particular toys, but put it away afterwards. My son does a lot better with fewer toys scattered about- especially anything with small pieces. Besides, he usually just finds a sock somewhere and starts twirling it in the air, and that ends up being is his favorite toy!
I hope this post is helpful to someone out there. It's really hard learning how to parent an adopted special needs child. My adopted son is a 4 year old, but was evaluated by the school district at a 19-month old level. I know if he were evaluated now, it would be at a somewhat higher level, but that is probably a common evaluation for a child such as Jonathan! Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts. No trolls please, I will delete your comments for sure!
Jonathan pictures:
I almost don't want to do testing until Jonathan can understand more English. I feel bad how low he tested into the the school district for special ed preschool. He has 3 things against him: Having some sort of "syndrome", not knowing the language, and living in an orphanage his entire life. Comparing Jonathan now, about 3 months after all of his testings, I would say he is understanding me more and more!
Jonathan knows lots of different signs, and is starting to use them to communicate. He use to just repeat whatever sign I would show him, but have temper tantrums not realizing I am teaching a communication tool to help him "talk" to me. But I am seeing him just begin to "talk" now (with his hands). Verbally, he will repeat sounds like, "Da Da Da" or "Ma Ma Ma" "Bub Bub Bub" and "Up Up Up". But he can sign "Mommy" "Daddy" "More" "Please" "Eat" "All Done" "Yummy" "Happy", he will clap his hands when I say "yay!", he will give high-5's when I say "Good job!", he's signing "boy" and knows when I call him a "Good Boy"... and there's more, but he's giving me excellent eye contact now and is really engaging in the "conversation" when before he would just look around and get distracted by the slightest noise or light- or anything!
When Jonathan first came home he did a lot of finger sucking, and rocking- making crazy angry noises. We knew this was common post-orphanage behavior, as he is trying to cope with the change. The first thing I worked on was the finger sucking (it was the two middle fingers on his left hand), he was always sucking it! So I would take his hand out of his mouth and say "No fingers". I was very good about being diligent about reminding him. At night, he would wear one of daddy's long sock underneath his PJ's so he couldn't suck his fingers. Less and less he would do this. I would even see him bring his hand up to his mouth and then shake his head and put his hand down to stop himself.
Jonathan then mouthed everything. Toys, as if he were a baby! He would even kiss the walls, lick the glass door. I would remove the toy out of his mouth and say "No mouth", and if he did it again, I would take the toy away for a little while. Now, I've read about replacing the toys with a specific oral/motor chewing toy, but I don't have extra money at moment for things like that. But so far saying "No mouth" does make him stop and take the toy out of his mouth on his own. The finger and mouth occurrences happen less and less frequently.
I am now working on his fussiness. He can get very agitated at a toy and start making fussy whiny noises. Now if he starts crying, I always remove him and give him a time out to his room. He is obviously over-stimulated if he is overly whiny or is crying or starts throwing toys. When he starts getting whiny I bring my finger up to my mouth and say "SHHH" (He knows this from the wheels on the bus song) and I say "No fussy". If he still is fussy I say "be happy" and I sign happy- he knows this from the "if you're happy and you know it" song. I am still working on his fussiness. But I am keeping things simple, and communicating what he can understand. I will try to remove the toy or whatever is stimulating him, and distract him or whatnot. But so far this is helping him. He knows my expectations, and it keeps me from getting mad at him- since I have a system in place.
Instead on rocking on the floor and making angry noises, Jonathan has stopped this and now just does weird "pelvic thrustings" on the ground. It looks bizarre and I just tell him to "Get up" and he usually stops what he's doing and sits up. I sign the word "Weird"- because it's all I know sign-wise, but he knows that is something he can not do. So I guess I'll just start signing "Weird" for other socially unacceptable things to help him learn!
We are having issues with him feeding himself. I have stopped focusing on this and making it a session of me feeding him, but he has to communicate by signing to get food. We also work on vocalizations of different words this way. I do this with David sitting right next to him. They both are on the exact same page with signing and vocalizations so it is excellent speech therapy this way, and it becomes a happy, non-crying outburst event when I try to help him feed himself. He can feed himself finger foods, but holding the spoon/sassy spoon- forget it! I personally think it's too many steps for him to figure out... but then again the first 2 weeks home he spoon fed himself just fine, then one day stopped and started crying and throwing his hands in the air in refusal to touch the spoon. Interesting... I am much happier working on speech therapy at the moment, and so is he. We will address this again in the near future.
So Jonathan has made excellent progress as a whole! I just read about a week or so ago that some moms use the Google translate app to help communicate to their child. I haven't done this! I'm sure that is super helpful as well! Before the adoption, I took a speech therapy class called the Hanen Workshop, which really equipped me for handling a non-verbal kid- I now have 2 of them! But I keep things short, simple, I use signs with the words, I'm consistent.... oh, And he loves the Signing Time DVD's. So all of the above has really helped him! I also recommend eliminating a good amount of toys from the play room. Put them away. Bring one out for fun that you will play with to teach how to properly play with certain particular toys, but put it away afterwards. My son does a lot better with fewer toys scattered about- especially anything with small pieces. Besides, he usually just finds a sock somewhere and starts twirling it in the air, and that ends up being is his favorite toy!
I hope this post is helpful to someone out there. It's really hard learning how to parent an adopted special needs child. My adopted son is a 4 year old, but was evaluated by the school district at a 19-month old level. I know if he were evaluated now, it would be at a somewhat higher level, but that is probably a common evaluation for a child such as Jonathan! Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts. No trolls please, I will delete your comments for sure!
Jonathan pictures:
Monday, July 9, 2012
Back here in Kiev with Jonathan
Yesterday was such a busy day for us! We woke up early at 4:45, to finish packing and getting ready for the day. We checked out of our hotel (hotel Ludmila, which we hope if you are traveling to Sevastopol you get the pleasure to stay there as well!) Afterwards we drove to the orphanage and the caregivers woke up Jonathan so we could take him for our Gotcha Day! Of course the outfit I brought was too big and was falling off of him, I wasn't given any size information and though he's 4 years old I believe he probably is the same size as my son, with 24 months fitting for the moment, and a 3T being a little roomier and being a better size overall. For the pants I better stay small because he is very thin (hopefully not for long!) and I don't want anything falling off! Thankfully the shoes we brought are PERFECT. We brought them earlier during one of the visits for a trial run. So we get to take some clothes with us and off to the airport we go.
The 4-point harness I bought for Jonathan was a life-saver at the airport because our hands were all full, and I couldn't hold him! So he was at least close by me at all times. I brought a full water bottle for him through security with no problem. It was handy having a baggie of skinned and cut up apples for him to snack on. I also fed him cheese and turkey from the meal given at the flight.
When we landed I met our ride and the person hosting us for the last week of our trip to bless us financially, Sveno. I am appreciative that Karen helped set us up with him. We have enjoyed his home and his company termendously! Him and his fiancee and her beautiful daughter also blessed us with a delicious meal at a restaurant, then later with a big spaghetti dinner!
While Jonathan took his nap Sveno also took James shopping, I instructed them to pick up sesamae oil- which they did! So now tonight I will make a big pot of fried rice for everyone, which reminds me that I should start the rice now being 4:30pm over here.
Jonathan didn't do too well with spaghetti. He was fussy and started stemming and making angry noises. However he did stay at the table for the entire duration of dinner just fine. After dinner we drove to this huge park area and let him play on the swing and run around. It broke my heart that he couldn't play with the other kids. They were older than him to begin with. But I'm excited to get home because Jonathan will ALWAYS have his brother David for a friend, and he will never need to be the lonely one at the playground again.
We came back and let Jonathan play in the house, and we got to talk with Sveno and see his Kermit photos. You can check out his website here: http://kermitaroundtheworld.com
We also got to hear Sveno's testamony and look at other pictures he has taken! One of my favorite websites ever is http://www.improveverywhere.com which is based in New York City. Sveno is doing some of the exact same improv missions here in the Ukraine. The photos and stories are incredible! Think subways system plus mousetraps loaded in a car. Think finger rockets in the airport for a 5-hour war! Think formalwear photo session in the water at the beach! It is amazing to hear about these stories of spreading some good ol' American fun over here to the Ukraine!
Before I sign off I want to say how proud I am of my son Jonathan for doing as well as he did for his first day with us. He can already sign more, mommy, and all done!!! Though he has repeated what I have shown him for a request, he has shown me that he can do these signs out of memory! So cool and this is only just the beginning of our learning escapades! Thank you everyone for your prayers- I literally FEEL the blessing of God over us. I just am experiencing His grace in so many situations over here I am just overwhelmed on what God has done to get us here to this point, it is simply amazing!
Also note: The photos are from our airplane ride, which Jonathan was an ANGEL on!
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Friday, July 6, 2012
Last day in Sevastopol tomorrow...
Hello! Today we got Jonathan's passport! It only took 3 days from when the application was submitted, which is actually quick! We have one last full day in Sevastopol tomorrow then early morning on Sunday - 5am - we will pick up Jonathan from the orphanage for our Gotcha Day! We will drive to Simferopol and board for our 08:45 flight out to Kiev. We will be done with all paperwork by Tuesday... I was given time estimates once we got our court date and I already booked our plane tickets using the worst case senarios, and now we will have 4 extra days in Kiev. So we will consider this 4 extra days of 2-on-1 mommy/daddy/jonathan special time.
So tomorrow is our last day in Sevastopol. We are considering going to Balaklava where there is a naval meuseum, or take the bus again to Chersonese so we can get video footage there. We need to get some Jonathan traveling snacks too, AND make a log for the hotel owners and taxi driver to sign off on so we have some sort of a receipt for our major expenses here.
Please pray for Jonathan to transition well! I am praying for extra measures of God's grace as a new mommy to Jonathan. Thank you everyone! I have included a picture of daddy and Jonathan waiting to get the passport photo taken. This was done last Tuesday. :-)
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Friday, June 29, 2012
our timeline
I wanted to share our timeline so you can be aware and to know what to be praying for while we are still here in the Ukraine.
-Today is Friday, June 29, and we are on day 7 of our 10 day appeal (waiting) period.
-On July 3rd our court decree will be issued, we will pick this up then go to the registry office for notarizing a new birth certificate for Jonathan.
On this day we will fill out the passport application, prepare paperwork for the social security office for the name change for his SS#
-On Wednesday, July 4th, we will submit the passport application, this takes 3-4 business days to process which brings us to July 10th. (On the 4th, our facilatator will purchase our airfare so we can fly to Kiev with Jonathan.)
-On Tuesday, July 10th, we will get our new passport for Jonathan, then we can officially take Jonathan out of the orphanage, and we will fly to Kiev hopefully later this day.
-On the 11th we will have Jonathan's medical examination.
-On the 12th we will submit for his visa
-On the 13th we will receive his visa
-We need to be at the airport around 4am on the 14th. We will land in Seattle 6:30pm, that is a nice long day for us!
Please pray there isn't any unforseen delays to avoid fees for changing our flight arrangments. Please pray that there will not be any misspellings or other issueson with the final paperwork. Pray that Jonathan will learn and understand us and to learn to follow our directions and cues. I know that the last prayer point will come with time and with God's grace.
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