Happy new year!
So, 2010 is just around the corner.
It seems like just yesterday we were all waiting for Y2K to set in and send us all back to the dark ages.....
Oh, who am I kidding.
It's been a really LONG 10 years.
And I'm ready to start the new decade.
[And here's a kicker - I am ending the decade the same way I started it -- unemployed! Don't you just love it?]
Everyone has been doing these big retrospectives, looking back at the good and the bad from the last 10 years, so I figured I'd join in the fun.
And so, in no particular order (and leaving out many things, I'm sure):
In the last 10 years I have .... met and married the love of my life, given birth to two beautiful daughters, worked at three different jobs (being fired from two due to the fact that I was pregnant, and losing one to the economy), taken and failed the Ohio bar exam seven times, been rejected for the Disney Mom's Panel three times, visited Los Angeles once and New York City three times, driven to Florida once, flown to Florida four times, visited Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel on my honeymoon, converted to Catholicism, started three blogs, created a Facebook page, deleted a MySpace page, started a Twitter account, become addicted to both Facebook and Twitter, bought my first Blackberry, read the Twilight series nearly 10 times [in just one year!], had zero car accidents, gone on more job interviews than I care to recall, made some incredible friends, been a bridesmaid in two weddings, moved four times (out of an apartment, into and out of a duplex, into Kevin's house, and then into our current house), gone to my first NFL game (Sept. 2001) my first MLB game (July 2001) and my first OSU game (Sept. 2008), adopted two cats and two dogs, watched the unthinkable happen on 9/11, not taken nearly enough vacations, had three foot surgeries, broken my foot once, voted Democrat in every election, gained some weight and stretch marks - but all for a good reason, owned three different cars, plucked more gray hairs than my stylist knows about, been a brunette, blonde, and redhead, laughed more than I've cried, watched my oldest daughter start kindergarten, and marveled at how quickly times goes by when you aren't looking....
I started the decade as an almost-27-year-old (practically) single woman living alone in a small apartment, looking for a job.
I am ending the decade as a nearly 37-year-old married mother of two, living in her dream house with her husband, daughters, two dogs and one cat, and I am once again looking for a job.
Time flies when you're having fun.
[Oh and for those of you wondering what my resolutions are, I need to disclose that I am not making resolutions this year. Instead I am setting goals.
And so, my goals for 2010 are: losing weight (I am not putting an exact number here, because I don't want to fail...I just want to lose weight), exercising more, finding a great job (career) that makes me happy, blogging more, and becoming a member of the 2011 Disney Mom's Panel.]
Wishing you all a very Happy 2010!
May all your dreams come true.
12.30.2009
12.26.2009
Oh Christmas tree....
Here's an informal, day-after-Christmas poll for you:
Do you take your tree down before New Year's Day or do you wait until sometime in January to undecorate?
Here at the TLC household, the tree and all Christmas decorations will be taken down and packed away by next Tuesday.
Yes, that's right -- I undecorate before New Year's Day.
Oh the humanity!
Growing up, my family normally left the tree up until after January 1, and it was always a bummer to see it all come down.
Fast forward to now and I cannot wait to get my house back to "normal" (or as normal as it can be with two kids who own more Barbie dolls and mini princess things than should be allowed).
It's not that I dislike Christmas or the decorations - it's just that after all the craziness of the holidays, I just want things back in their place. And that means the tree needs to be boxed up and stored in the basement for another year.
Kevin and I started our 'tradition' of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving morning when I was pregnant with Olivia (7 years ago). See, my due date was January 3rd and we had already planned that all decorations would be down before January 1st ("just in case"), so why figured "why not decorate on Thanksgiving morning?"
And now, that's our tradition - we decorate our house on Thanksgiving morning while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So, by the time Christmas rolls around, the halls have been decked for a month.
And that's long enough for me.
As soon as Christmas is over (which in our family usually means about December 27th or 28th after all the other family "parties"), I start thinking about Olivia's birthday (January 9th) and then Emma's birthday (January 24th) -- I don't want to think about undecking the halls. I want to think about birthday cakes.
Taking the tree down before New Year's Day is what we've always done -- and I don't see that "tradition" ending any time soon.
Do you take your tree down before New Year's Day or do you wait until sometime in January to undecorate?
Here at the TLC household, the tree and all Christmas decorations will be taken down and packed away by next Tuesday.
Yes, that's right -- I undecorate before New Year's Day.
Oh the humanity!
Growing up, my family normally left the tree up until after January 1, and it was always a bummer to see it all come down.
Fast forward to now and I cannot wait to get my house back to "normal" (or as normal as it can be with two kids who own more Barbie dolls and mini princess things than should be allowed).
It's not that I dislike Christmas or the decorations - it's just that after all the craziness of the holidays, I just want things back in their place. And that means the tree needs to be boxed up and stored in the basement for another year.
Kevin and I started our 'tradition' of decorating for Christmas on Thanksgiving morning when I was pregnant with Olivia (7 years ago). See, my due date was January 3rd and we had already planned that all decorations would be down before January 1st ("just in case"), so why figured "why not decorate on Thanksgiving morning?"
And now, that's our tradition - we decorate our house on Thanksgiving morning while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. So, by the time Christmas rolls around, the halls have been decked for a month.
And that's long enough for me.
As soon as Christmas is over (which in our family usually means about December 27th or 28th after all the other family "parties"), I start thinking about Olivia's birthday (January 9th) and then Emma's birthday (January 24th) -- I don't want to think about undecking the halls. I want to think about birthday cakes.
Taking the tree down before New Year's Day is what we've always done -- and I don't see that "tradition" ending any time soon.
12.24.2009
12.22.2009
In search of more holiday cheer
So, last month the prez signed legislation that extended unemployment benefits "up to 14 additional weeks...for claimants in all states, and another 6 weeks of extended benefits for claimants in states such as Ohio with high unemployment rates." (From the ODJFS Web site).
And silly me, I thought this was a good thing.
What I failed to realize was that in order to benefit from this 'extension' you had to exhaust your current unemployment benefits before the end of this year.
Guess when mine run out?
January 3, 2010.
Yeah.
So, right now I will run out of unemployment benefits in two weeks and well, let's just say that is going to SCREW with the family budget.
I really feel like crying right now.
Now it's not as if I actually ENJOY collecting unemployment. I don't enjoy it. I'd rather be working and earning a paycheck. But this is the lot I was dealt and I'm trying to make lemonade from these lemons, blah blah blah. I am managing to budget things just so and we haven't really had to dip into our savings. Unemployment has been a good thing to have these last few months. Every little bit helps, you know.
But now, I wonder what we're going to do without that extra "little bit".
I was not stressing out (more than normal) a few hours ago.
And then I read all the details about the federal extension and well...now I have a huge knot in the pit of my stomach.
Just what I needed three days before Christmas.
According to the ODJFS, on Dec. 16th the House of Representatives approved a two-month extension for the federal benefits - however (and there's always a "however") they are now waiting to see IF the legislation passes the Senate. [My dad says it's on a 'fast track' to be passed and I should be OK -- but he's the optimist in the family. I see the glass as half-empty. Always.]
I swear, it's always something.
Humbug.
And silly me, I thought this was a good thing.
What I failed to realize was that in order to benefit from this 'extension' you had to exhaust your current unemployment benefits before the end of this year.
Guess when mine run out?
January 3, 2010.
Yeah.
So, right now I will run out of unemployment benefits in two weeks and well, let's just say that is going to SCREW with the family budget.
I really feel like crying right now.
Now it's not as if I actually ENJOY collecting unemployment. I don't enjoy it. I'd rather be working and earning a paycheck. But this is the lot I was dealt and I'm trying to make lemonade from these lemons, blah blah blah. I am managing to budget things just so and we haven't really had to dip into our savings. Unemployment has been a good thing to have these last few months. Every little bit helps, you know.
But now, I wonder what we're going to do without that extra "little bit".
I was not stressing out (more than normal) a few hours ago.
And then I read all the details about the federal extension and well...now I have a huge knot in the pit of my stomach.
Just what I needed three days before Christmas.
According to the ODJFS, on Dec. 16th the House of Representatives approved a two-month extension for the federal benefits - however (and there's always a "however") they are now waiting to see IF the legislation passes the Senate. [My dad says it's on a 'fast track' to be passed and I should be OK -- but he's the optimist in the family. I see the glass as half-empty. Always.]
I swear, it's always something.
Humbug.
12.19.2009
12.17.2009
A follow up to a previous post
The other day I wrote about a woman named Shellie Ross whose 2-year-old son had drowned in their swimming pool.
On Monday evening Ms. Ross had sent out a tweet asking for prayers because her son had fallen in the pool. At the time of that tweet, no one knew if he was dead or alive.
Later that evening her online and real world friends began sending out tweets asking for prayers for Ms. Ross and her family because the little boy had died. At no time did Ms. Ross actually tweet the words "my son is dead".
But in a sick case of Monday morning quarterbacking, many judgmental, cruel and self-righteous people (who are also apparently perfect parents who never let their children out of their sight for one second) came out of the woodwork and started attacking Ms. Ross via Twitter and their own personal blogs.
At first they accused her of lying about her son because these people (monsters) couldn't find a police report detailing the accident or they couldn't get local hospitals to confirm the death (um, hello? Every heard of HIPPA?). Then, after there was a very brief article about the drowning posted online these same people began attacking Ms. Ross for tweeting before and after the accident.
One woman in particular - who I refuse to name here or anywhere else because she does not deserve ANY more publicity after what she's said and done - has been blogging and tweeting about how it's Ms. Ross's fault that her son is dead because of her addiction to Twitter. This woman who shall remain nameless even went so far as to read through all of Ms. Ross's tweets and post links to cached pages of deleted tweets - to prove what I'm not sure. I guess maybe it was to prove that she has a lot of free time to ignore her own kids and spend hours reading thousands of tweets.
This online sideshow to this unimaginable tragedy is beyond comprehension to me.
According to reports, Ms. Ross was outside in her yard with her children, cleaning out their chicken coop and she asked her 11-year-old to turn off a hose in their screened in pool - and the door didn't lock and the 2-year-old was able to get inside the screened in pool area without anyone seeing him.
This is from a story posted by FloridaToday.com:
...At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 9-1-1 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
---------------------
Now, as a parent, I know how quickly kids can get away.
Bad things can happen in an instant.
Bad things can happen when you're standing with your child.
To accuse this mother of neglecting her child in this instance is unthinkable. And yet, that is what so many people are doing right now. Complete strangers are posting horrible, hateful things online - in blogs, on Twitter and even on ABC.com after ABC posted an online story about the drowning and what followed online.
[A note: Dan Harris with ABC News just announced via Twitter (of course) that he was assigned the story about Shellie Ross for tonight's World News broadcast].
I cannot imagine the pain, horror, guilt and grief this mother is going through right now.
And, I cannot imagine wanting to inflict more pain on someone through social media and blogging. Is that what this world has come to? Accusing grieving mothers of horrible things because she asked her online community to pray for her critically injured son? Is it suddenly acceptable to accuse someone of neglect because a few minutes before the unthinkable happened this person sent out a tweet about some random thing they were doing outside?
All I can feel for this mother is sadness - she has lost her little boy to a tragic accident.
She reached out to her friends, her source of support in a time of need - her ONLINE community - and is now being attacked for that.
I don't understand how this is OK.
What happened was an accident. It's tragic. And sad. And horrible. And it was an accident.
Shellie Ross is going to spend the rest of her life wondering "why" and "what if?" and grieving for her son. It is not our place to judge her or her family. Right now, whether she is a stranger to you or a friend, she needs positive thoughts, prayers and condolences.
--------------------------
For another view of this story, check out this New York Time's article.
On Monday evening Ms. Ross had sent out a tweet asking for prayers because her son had fallen in the pool. At the time of that tweet, no one knew if he was dead or alive.
Later that evening her online and real world friends began sending out tweets asking for prayers for Ms. Ross and her family because the little boy had died. At no time did Ms. Ross actually tweet the words "my son is dead".
But in a sick case of Monday morning quarterbacking, many judgmental, cruel and self-righteous people (who are also apparently perfect parents who never let their children out of their sight for one second) came out of the woodwork and started attacking Ms. Ross via Twitter and their own personal blogs.
At first they accused her of lying about her son because these people (monsters) couldn't find a police report detailing the accident or they couldn't get local hospitals to confirm the death (um, hello? Every heard of HIPPA?). Then, after there was a very brief article about the drowning posted online these same people began attacking Ms. Ross for tweeting before and after the accident.
One woman in particular - who I refuse to name here or anywhere else because she does not deserve ANY more publicity after what she's said and done - has been blogging and tweeting about how it's Ms. Ross's fault that her son is dead because of her addiction to Twitter. This woman who shall remain nameless even went so far as to read through all of Ms. Ross's tweets and post links to cached pages of deleted tweets - to prove what I'm not sure. I guess maybe it was to prove that she has a lot of free time to ignore her own kids and spend hours reading thousands of tweets.
This online sideshow to this unimaginable tragedy is beyond comprehension to me.
According to reports, Ms. Ross was outside in her yard with her children, cleaning out their chicken coop and she asked her 11-year-old to turn off a hose in their screened in pool - and the door didn't lock and the 2-year-old was able to get inside the screened in pool area without anyone seeing him.
This is from a story posted by FloridaToday.com:
...At 5:22 p.m. Monday, she tweeted about the rare fog that rolled over Brevard County as she worked in her chicken coop.
According to 9-1-1 records, a phone call from Ross came in at 5:38 p.m. that she had found her son at the bottom of their screened-in swimming pool.
She posted a tweet at 6:12 p.m.: “Please pray like never before, my 2 yr old fell in the pool.”
That was followed five hours later with “remembering my million dollar baby” and photos of a smiling Bryson. Those posts and pictures have since been removed from her Twitter account. There is nothing in Ross’ posts that indicate she was on the computer or cell phone at the time of the tragedy.
It is unclear what Ross was doing between 5:22 p.m., when she tweeted, and 5:38 p.m., when she called for help.
In a tweet posted Tuesday morning, Ross wrote, “I was outside with him and it took two seconds for him to slip away.”
---------------------
Now, as a parent, I know how quickly kids can get away.
Bad things can happen in an instant.
Bad things can happen when you're standing with your child.
To accuse this mother of neglecting her child in this instance is unthinkable. And yet, that is what so many people are doing right now. Complete strangers are posting horrible, hateful things online - in blogs, on Twitter and even on ABC.com after ABC posted an online story about the drowning and what followed online.
[A note: Dan Harris with ABC News just announced via Twitter (of course) that he was assigned the story about Shellie Ross for tonight's World News broadcast].
I cannot imagine the pain, horror, guilt and grief this mother is going through right now.
And, I cannot imagine wanting to inflict more pain on someone through social media and blogging. Is that what this world has come to? Accusing grieving mothers of horrible things because she asked her online community to pray for her critically injured son? Is it suddenly acceptable to accuse someone of neglect because a few minutes before the unthinkable happened this person sent out a tweet about some random thing they were doing outside?
All I can feel for this mother is sadness - she has lost her little boy to a tragic accident.
She reached out to her friends, her source of support in a time of need - her ONLINE community - and is now being attacked for that.
I don't understand how this is OK.
What happened was an accident. It's tragic. And sad. And horrible. And it was an accident.
Shellie Ross is going to spend the rest of her life wondering "why" and "what if?" and grieving for her son. It is not our place to judge her or her family. Right now, whether she is a stranger to you or a friend, she needs positive thoughts, prayers and condolences.
--------------------------
For another view of this story, check out this New York Time's article.
12.15.2009
Things that make me happy!
Well, color me happy! My friend over at Quiet Oasis nominated me for the happy award...and now I must list 10 things that make me happy!
So, here goes:
(1) My family - I am blessed to have a wonderful, loving husband and two beautiful and healthy little girls -- and I do not take that blessing for granted. We might not always get along perfectly, but they are my source of joy and happiness on a daily basis.
(2) Starbucks - No really, Starbucks coffee makes me happy. Very, very happy. Whether it's a Pumpkin Spice Latte or my old regular (venti skinny caramel macchiato), once I have a Starbucks in hand, all is right with the world again.
(3) Writing - I am passionate about writing. Whether it's my blog or a press release or something as simple as a tweet, I love writing. It is my outlet, my release, my passion.
(4) Target - This might sound stupid and shallow to some (but it's my list and I don't care), but if I'm having one of 'those' days, I can head to Target, grab a cart and just wander and it's like retail therapy. I think they pump 'happy air' through the stores or something. It's relaxing and refreshing and if my local Target had a Starbucks it would be a win-win for everyone!
(5) Pedicures - 'Tis true. Pedicures make me happy. Normally I hate it when anyone touches my feet - I've had enough foot issues (3 foot surgeries and 1 broken foot) to last a lifetime and therefore my feet are off-limits to most. Except the person giving me a pedicure. I could sit in that chair for HOURS -- so relaxing. I wish I could get a pedicure more often --- once or twice a year is not enough!
(6) Twitter - Yes, social media makes me happy. I have this wonderful group of friends online (my Disney peeps, I've blogged about them before) and they are an amazing, funny, supportive group of people and they make me happy. I know a lot of people don't "get" Twitter and that's fine and dandy...but I get it and it makes me happy.
(7) Friends - Whether I've known you for 30 years (Cindy and Allie) or just a few months, if I call you friend I mean it. Life is too short and there are so many ways to connect these days -- and I think friends are the glue that holds it all together. So to my friends near and far - you make me happy!
(8) Road trips - Sure, it's easier to fly but then you miss all the fun stuff! I love taking road trips - packing the car with pillows, blankets, books, food and of course the kids and heading out on an adventure. We used to drive to Florida a lot when I was a kid and I think maybe that's where this comes from....or maybe I'm just a bit crazy.
(9) "Good" mail days - You know those days when you get your InStyle and three or four good catalogs (like Lillian Vernon, The Lakeside Collection and Williams Sonoma) and then you can just cuddle up on the couch with your venti Starbucks and have a good night? Yeah, that's a good mail day.
(10) Disney - You didn't really think I'd leave this off the list, did you? If it's Disney, it makes me happy. We all know this. My family says I'm obsessed and to that I say "yes, and what's your point?" I love Disney World, the Disney store, Disney-related blogs, my Disney friends...if it's Disney, I'm loving it! [And I could go on and on about it here, but I won't....for now]
...and there you have it...10 things that make me happy (in no particular order)
And now, I'd like to pass this award on to a few people (hey, it's my blog, I can give it to more than 1 person!):
I nominate:
Zannaland, Slice of Heaven, and the Disney Driven Life for the award!
The cruelty of some people is astounding
Last night, as I was catching up on Twitter, I noticed a few tweets asking for prayers for a mom whose son had just died.
Her Twitter name is @Military_Mom and her son drowned in their pool at home.
He was only two years old.
Almost immediately there was an outpouring of prayers and positive thoughts being tweeted to this mom -- from friends and complete strangers.
I don't know her - and I don't follow her on Twitter - but I sent a tweet to her with my condolences.
Why?
Because it seemed like the right thing to do and I cannot imagine her grief.
And then, this morning the unthinkable happened.
The monsters came out of the woodwork on Twitter. Stupid, ignorant, cruel monsters who are tweeting this woman directly and questioning the validity of her story. They are accusing her of lying, of creating an online hoax. These monsters are saying things like their husband is a cop and he's been searching for the accident report and there isn't one. They are calling hospitals asking if anyone with her son's name died last night. They are blogging horrible, horrible things about this grieving mother.
This is something I cannot understand.
Why would anyone want to attack a complete stranger via Twitter and accuse them of lying about something as tragic as losing a child? Who does that? Who has the free time to sit and home and think 'gee, how can I project as much hate as possible via my blog today?'
How can people be so heartless, so cruel and so unkind?
Who in their right mind would post a hate filled tweet or a blog about a grieving mother?
I cannot understand what it would possibly prove?
I think these monsters (they are NOT human) are just attention whores and thrive on being evil, hostile and hateful.
I can't think of any other explanation.
Hold your children close today. Love them a little bit more. Hug them a little longer.
And, if you are on Twitter and are so inclined, take a moment to send @Military_Mom your prayers and condolences.
You may not know her, but everyone deserves the kindness of strangers at a time like this.
-----------
Many, many people had many things to say about this today. This post says it all. And it says it beautifully.
Her Twitter name is @Military_Mom and her son drowned in their pool at home.
He was only two years old.
Almost immediately there was an outpouring of prayers and positive thoughts being tweeted to this mom -- from friends and complete strangers.
I don't know her - and I don't follow her on Twitter - but I sent a tweet to her with my condolences.
Why?
Because it seemed like the right thing to do and I cannot imagine her grief.
And then, this morning the unthinkable happened.
The monsters came out of the woodwork on Twitter. Stupid, ignorant, cruel monsters who are tweeting this woman directly and questioning the validity of her story. They are accusing her of lying, of creating an online hoax. These monsters are saying things like their husband is a cop and he's been searching for the accident report and there isn't one. They are calling hospitals asking if anyone with her son's name died last night. They are blogging horrible, horrible things about this grieving mother.
This is something I cannot understand.
Why would anyone want to attack a complete stranger via Twitter and accuse them of lying about something as tragic as losing a child? Who does that? Who has the free time to sit and home and think 'gee, how can I project as much hate as possible via my blog today?'
How can people be so heartless, so cruel and so unkind?
Who in their right mind would post a hate filled tweet or a blog about a grieving mother?
I cannot understand what it would possibly prove?
I think these monsters (they are NOT human) are just attention whores and thrive on being evil, hostile and hateful.
I can't think of any other explanation.
Hold your children close today. Love them a little bit more. Hug them a little longer.
And, if you are on Twitter and are so inclined, take a moment to send @Military_Mom your prayers and condolences.
You may not know her, but everyone deserves the kindness of strangers at a time like this.
-----------
Many, many people had many things to say about this today. This post says it all. And it says it beautifully.
12.10.2009
A wonderful milestone
A little more than three years ago - when Olivia was 2 1/2 years old - we took a trip to the pediatrician's office in an attempt to figure out why Olivia wasn't talking.
She had a few words in her vocabulary - mama, daddy, hi - but other than that she was non-verbal. Looking back now at our home movies from a trip we took to Florida in March 2006, it's amazing to see just how non-verbal she really was. Most of her communication was through her own version of 'signing' and yet we still knew what she needed.
By August 2006, we knew something was wrong. What few words she did have beyond 'mama', 'daddy' and 'hi' were very difficult to understand. I feared that something was terribly wrong with her - something had to be causing her speech issues (things that crossed my mind including hearing loss or Autism).
At the pediatrician's office, one look into Olivia's ears solved part of the issue - severe wax build-up. I'm not talking just a minor amount of wax that you might find in any child's ears. Oh no. I'm talking wax that had been building up INSIDE her ear canal and was as hard as plastic. This had been an ongoing issue with Olivia since birth - her ear canals are too small to flush the wax normally, according to our pediatrician - but now it was causing serious problems.
On that day, the doctor flushed her ears with a warm water/hydrogen peroxide solution and let's just say "ICK" would be the best way to describe what came out of her ears. I felt horrible -- my poor baby must have been in pain - but we didn't know.
And then, after her ears were clear, Olivia's voice suddenly got much louder! It was like she was hearing clearly for the first time in two and a half years. (I should note, this was the FIRST time our doctor had suggested flushing the ears -- at all prior visits she had just scraped the visible wax out. I had NO idea that the wax issue was so bad. Still, I felt like a horrible mom).
We talked about Olivia's speech issue and our doctor suggested going to see a specialist for an evaluation. After a few minor insurance bumps in the road, we found a speech pathologist and she evaluated Olivia. Her diagnosis: speech delay. It wasn't severe, but it was serious enough that she recommended speech therapy.
[A note here about insurance and speech therapy: we discovered that most insurance will not cover speech therapy for kids unless (1) the kids have had a stroke or (2) they were in a serious accident. A speech delay caused by any other reason wasn't covered. And, so we were faced with the possibility of paying out of pocket $85 per 1/2 hour session with a therapist. However, she suggested we check out the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the University of Toledo - we could received therapy twice a week for 16 weeks for only $256 per semester!].
So, in January 2007 (a day before Emma was scheduled to arrive!), Olivia started speech therapy at UT. Her baseline readings at the initial testing were terrible.
These are the words Olivia used during play observation: mama, me, down, duck, no, two, eat, yeah, night-night, up, oven, three. It should be noted that she only used primary vowel sounds and left the endings off most words -- words like 'down' were pronounced 'dow'. She substituted 'd' for 'p' and 't' for 'k', among other things.
The initial evaluation was that her 'expressive communication skills are limited and her speech is frequently unintelligible.'
That was heartbreaking.
Over the course of the next three years, Olivia spent every Tuesday and Thursday evening in speech therapy. We only took the summers off - to give her (and us) a break and to see how she would progress on her own.
We could hear the progress she was making as the therapy sessions continued. The joy you feel when you see your child reach certain speech milestones -- well, it's an amazing feeling. We celebrated each sound she mastered - we were thrilled at each /th/, /r/, /p/, /k/, and /g/ that was successful - and by this summer we had realized that maybe, just maybe, we were reaching the end of therapy.
A few weeks ago, we were told the good news - Olivia was exactly where she should be for her age, as far as sound production and articulation!
On Tuesday, her final evaluation read: "It is recommended that Olivia be discharged from therapy due to her success at age appropriate intelligibility."
And so, tonight - three years after the initial diagnosis of serious speech delay - Olivia will be 'graduating' from speech therapy!
The little girl who we feared might never speak is now a little chatterbox who talks from dawn to dusk.
My sweet Olivia, mommy and daddy are so very proud of you!
She had a few words in her vocabulary - mama, daddy, hi - but other than that she was non-verbal. Looking back now at our home movies from a trip we took to Florida in March 2006, it's amazing to see just how non-verbal she really was. Most of her communication was through her own version of 'signing' and yet we still knew what she needed.
By August 2006, we knew something was wrong. What few words she did have beyond 'mama', 'daddy' and 'hi' were very difficult to understand. I feared that something was terribly wrong with her - something had to be causing her speech issues (things that crossed my mind including hearing loss or Autism).
At the pediatrician's office, one look into Olivia's ears solved part of the issue - severe wax build-up. I'm not talking just a minor amount of wax that you might find in any child's ears. Oh no. I'm talking wax that had been building up INSIDE her ear canal and was as hard as plastic. This had been an ongoing issue with Olivia since birth - her ear canals are too small to flush the wax normally, according to our pediatrician - but now it was causing serious problems.
On that day, the doctor flushed her ears with a warm water/hydrogen peroxide solution and let's just say "ICK" would be the best way to describe what came out of her ears. I felt horrible -- my poor baby must have been in pain - but we didn't know.
And then, after her ears were clear, Olivia's voice suddenly got much louder! It was like she was hearing clearly for the first time in two and a half years. (I should note, this was the FIRST time our doctor had suggested flushing the ears -- at all prior visits she had just scraped the visible wax out. I had NO idea that the wax issue was so bad. Still, I felt like a horrible mom).
We talked about Olivia's speech issue and our doctor suggested going to see a specialist for an evaluation. After a few minor insurance bumps in the road, we found a speech pathologist and she evaluated Olivia. Her diagnosis: speech delay. It wasn't severe, but it was serious enough that she recommended speech therapy.
[A note here about insurance and speech therapy: we discovered that most insurance will not cover speech therapy for kids unless (1) the kids have had a stroke or (2) they were in a serious accident. A speech delay caused by any other reason wasn't covered. And, so we were faced with the possibility of paying out of pocket $85 per 1/2 hour session with a therapist. However, she suggested we check out the Speech and Hearing Clinic at the University of Toledo - we could received therapy twice a week for 16 weeks for only $256 per semester!].
So, in January 2007 (a day before Emma was scheduled to arrive!), Olivia started speech therapy at UT. Her baseline readings at the initial testing were terrible.
These are the words Olivia used during play observation: mama, me, down, duck, no, two, eat, yeah, night-night, up, oven, three. It should be noted that she only used primary vowel sounds and left the endings off most words -- words like 'down' were pronounced 'dow'. She substituted 'd' for 'p' and 't' for 'k', among other things.
The initial evaluation was that her 'expressive communication skills are limited and her speech is frequently unintelligible.'
That was heartbreaking.
Over the course of the next three years, Olivia spent every Tuesday and Thursday evening in speech therapy. We only took the summers off - to give her (and us) a break and to see how she would progress on her own.
We could hear the progress she was making as the therapy sessions continued. The joy you feel when you see your child reach certain speech milestones -- well, it's an amazing feeling. We celebrated each sound she mastered - we were thrilled at each /th/, /r/, /p/, /k/, and /g/ that was successful - and by this summer we had realized that maybe, just maybe, we were reaching the end of therapy.
A few weeks ago, we were told the good news - Olivia was exactly where she should be for her age, as far as sound production and articulation!
On Tuesday, her final evaluation read: "It is recommended that Olivia be discharged from therapy due to her success at age appropriate intelligibility."
And so, tonight - three years after the initial diagnosis of serious speech delay - Olivia will be 'graduating' from speech therapy!
The little girl who we feared might never speak is now a little chatterbox who talks from dawn to dusk.
My sweet Olivia, mommy and daddy are so very proud of you!
12.08.2009
12.03.2009
Overload?
I was thinking about my online presence yesterday.
I remember way back when (in 1995 actually, right after I graduated from college), I had just ONE e-mail address. And that's it. No Facebook, no Twitter, no blogs.
The internet was just a wee little thing....no one really knew what to do with it.
Fast forward to 2009....
I currently have FOUR e-mail addresses. Yes, four. And one more that is only for a 'job' I'll mention later.
I write three blogs: this one, that one, and that one.
I was recently asked to be the blog manager for a friend's blog (this is where the 5th e-mail comes into play).
I am on Facebook.
More often than I should be probably.
I live on Twitter. (Well actually on Tweetdeck...)
I have 226 followers and follow 405 people.
Not high numbers by any stretch of the imagination...but it keeps me busy.
(And yes, at least 200 of the people I follow are Disney-related....go figure).
I have about 600 bookmarks - (more than 100 of those bookmarks are Disney-related - blogs, web sites, travel planning, etc).
I read news online.
I bank online.
I chat online.
Oh yes, I'm on Google chat and I have a Google wave (and I'm not sure what to do with that!).
And to add to this madness, I also am a proud (and addicted) Blackberry owner -- and I'm always checking e-mail, tweets and Facebook.
My mom said to me yesterday, "Does your phone beep like that all the time?"
Um, yes it does Mom, yes it does.
I remember way back when (in 1995 actually, right after I graduated from college), I had just ONE e-mail address. And that's it. No Facebook, no Twitter, no blogs.
The internet was just a wee little thing....no one really knew what to do with it.
Fast forward to 2009....
I currently have FOUR e-mail addresses. Yes, four. And one more that is only for a 'job' I'll mention later.
I write three blogs: this one, that one, and that one.
I was recently asked to be the blog manager for a friend's blog (this is where the 5th e-mail comes into play).
I am on Facebook.
More often than I should be probably.
I live on Twitter. (Well actually on Tweetdeck...)
I have 226 followers and follow 405 people.
Not high numbers by any stretch of the imagination...but it keeps me busy.
(And yes, at least 200 of the people I follow are Disney-related....go figure).
I have about 600 bookmarks - (more than 100 of those bookmarks are Disney-related - blogs, web sites, travel planning, etc).
I read news online.
I bank online.
I chat online.
Oh yes, I'm on Google chat and I have a Google wave (and I'm not sure what to do with that!).
And to add to this madness, I also am a proud (and addicted) Blackberry owner -- and I'm always checking e-mail, tweets and Facebook.
My mom said to me yesterday, "Does your phone beep like that all the time?"
Um, yes it does Mom, yes it does.
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