Ahhhhhhhhhh........it's the weekend!

Today Daniel went to Early Intervention (from now on known as EI).

As I have stated before in previous posts, I am very excited for this year. I think with the group involved and the plans we (Daniel's family) have for him this year, it should be an event filled year.

The consultant from Oakland Schools came to "watch" Daniel and see how he was doing speech wise compared to last year. She said she was impressed that we were right on target and Daniel (for those of you who are new, he is non-verbal) is doing wonderfully with his eye gazing to let us know what he wants. He is making choices, he is using his arms to touch the objects/pictures/buttons & switches. He knows the steps for eye gazing, and he is beginning to really make a lot of decisions in what he wants. Its not me just giving him a toy anymore, its him TELLING me with his eyes which toy he wants. What color marker he wants to use, or what book he wants to read.

His speech therapist (Mrs. A), came to Daniel's hospital based speech/augmentative therapy this past week. Which by the way I think is WAY COOL. She actually took time off her normal schedule and drove 45 minutes to Daniel's therapy session to sit in on it and see how Ms. Pat worked with Daniel and the things they were doing. She saw Daniel in his element. He just absolutely excels when he is with Ms. Pat. She gets him doing things that I never thought we'd be able to do. Or as a matter of fact, she does things with him that I would have never thought to do. I always leave there with so many ideas and different ways to work with Daniel. I think I love Ms. Pat more that Daniel! :)

Anyways back on subject (I tend to ramble!) at EI, the consultant from Oakland Schools said that Daniel was doing really well and she'd be back in a couple of weeks with some voice boxes, to get Daniel use to when he pushes a button it will speak what he wants. (ex: I want to play with the bubbles, or I want to eat.) She is also going to bring out a DynaVox for me to see. Now mind you Daniel is not ready for a DynoVox YET.......notice that I said YET!!! Because I have faith that he will be some day in the very near future.

It was exciting today because Drew (Daniel's friend from EI) was back in school today. Drew has been sick and in and out of the hospital for the past month or so, so it was very nice to see him there. We also found out today that another little girl with CP will be starting to attend EI, that is about the same age as Daniel and Drew. From my understand this little girl has more mobility than Daniel, so I am hoping that Daniel will see that she can either roll and/or crawl to something she wants. I believe that Daniel, once he sees this on a regular basis and because his truck is getting stronger he should hopefully be able to do it in the next year. maybe it will be sooner........he continually amazes me, so who knows.

This weekend we are going to go treat or treating in downtown. All the stores set up and have little toys or treats for the kids in costume. We did it last year but Daniel wasn't really old enough to understand it. I think this year he'll have a blast. I will upload some pictures of our "treat or treating" this weekend!

Thanks for coming to visit, and remember, if you can........say a little prayer for Grandma T.
She is very sick and needs all the prayers she can get. Take care and I hope everyone has a wonderfully exciting weekend!