Officially Out of Early Intervention

Yesterday afternoon, I had the meeting with the evaluators from TUSD (our school district). Henry's skills in five areas (gross motor, fine motor, cognition, speech, and social) are in the "normal" range. So he is officially out of early intervention and will not be continuing in the school system for special education. His developmental coordinator from the early intervention program, Elsa, was surprised that they went off of her test from December, given that the person in their main office (Lisa) said it was an unreliable test. She was also surprised that they thoroughly tested him in the area that we had no concerns whatsoever (speech) and told them as much in December. His receptive speech was high-normal comparing him against 3 year olds (he was 2 yrs 6.5 months adjusted when tested). That's government bureaucracies for you.

In any event, if we have any concerns in 6 months, we can have him tested again. At this point, we think that he is doing very well. If toe walking continues in the next year, we'll figure out what to do then. Hopefully, he will outgrow it. In the meantime, we'll continue to nag him about using his whole foot when walking.

Elsa said that this appointment would be her last on Henry's case. She also said it is probably going to be her last with the early intervention-school district transition process. She praised me and Jeff for being proactive parents and said that Henry's progress couldn't have happened without us. She said that with the state's budget cuts, early intervention is going to be dismantled. The state will throw back 40 years of progress to the winds. Ultimately, I know that the decision to cut early intervention will end up costing the state MORE money because problems that could have been headed off when kids are 0-3 years old will not be addressed, meaning that the problems will get bigger and more severe...creating a generation of people with special needs that won't go away and will be costly to the individuals and the state. Thank goodness early intervention was there for Henry and us. I look back on the past three years and vividly remember specific moments when we were at the crossroads and ended up taking much smoother trails with the assistance of Henry's physical and occupational therapists.

While I was at the meeting for Henry, Jeff took Baby A for a weigh check. She weighed 7 lbs. 1 oz. That is a 13 oz gain since birth!

I picked up Henry on my way home. Apparently, both he and Miss R were on the playground together when CPS arrived to take Miss R to her sibling visit. The teachers reported that Henry was very upset that someone took his sister. Henry sobbed for her.

Our family specialist Alison arrived around 4:30PM. Baby A's lawyer arrived shortly after. He couldn't tell us much about the case. In fact, he said that he didn't have much information as CPS doesn't release the briefs until 5PM the day before a case is being heard. But even if he did, he recommended that we attend the various meetings and hearings to find out information as he represents the baby, not us. He wants us involved but he also can't reveal too much about the bio parents for privacy reasons. We have to find out that information from the case workers. He appeared incredibly knowledgeable about the system. Alison asked him a lot of questions, and when he left, she said that he was the most knowledgeable family lawyer she had yet to encounter. I think that he will work hard to make the best decisions possible for Baby A. If the plan is a "reunification" plan, he said that he will be requesting two visits per week...if CPS can work that out. He thinks that it is best for parents and babies.

I set up my laptop for Henry so that he wouldn't get into too much trouble with company around. When the FBI warning came on, Henry exclaimed, "It's the FBI!" The lawyer was amused by Henry.

We had a long dinner last night. The big hit as far as Miss R was concerned was the cole slaw. I put some cole slaw on the kids' plates for kicks, but I didn't think that they'd eat it. Henry spit his out. Miss R wasn't interested in her cole slaw, but she wanted mine. She ate about a half-cup of it.

This morning, Miss R got up at 5AM to use the potty and then went back to bed. I'm loving that she is potty trained.

We have yet another nanny today. This one has four grandsons and was very excited to be taking care of a baby girl. So far, so good.

I have to get ready for court now. Unfortunately, due to what we do know about the case, I'm going to go to school and take a taxi to court and then get a taxi back to school. We don't want any of the bio family to see our license plate and be able to track us down for security reasons.