Cast #6!!

Goodbye Blue!!

Waiting to be called

How funny is this?!?!??! They were backed up and we had to wait quite a while

Finally time to take 'em off!

Mama- look at my feet!!!

The Dr worked quite a bit on he left foot (the lagger) to get as much as possible out of it

The back of her knees are really tender and have sores, so the Dr had her bend her knee while she did the plaster on her feet and then once it dried she had her straighten her knees out a bit before the fiberglass cast went on

We always like to see HOW many we can fit in our room :)

Everyone likes to see her :)

Lots of progress on her left foot this week!!!! And WOW!! look at her right one!

She is walking all over the place today :) She keeps saying look at how tall I am!!

Quick request for prayers for hubby :( He has to see the skin Dr every 6 months and is paying for his MANY years of tanning and boating! Last week we found out that one of his moles they removed was actually Melanoma :( So he had to go back in yesterday to have more taken out! The kids are totally grossed out!! But love to help poor daddy. Please pray that it is all out and they have clean margins!!

I told him he is just in time for Halloween :)

Follow Up!!

We call this getting the "stink eye"!!

We DID get a phone call Friday afternoon from the asst principal to say they had their meeting today adn Danny is most definately going to Tier 2. They will have his RTI meeting next week and establish his goals and how they are going to get him there. He should start getting extra help by end of next week or the beginning of the following week.

We have had SO many great comments and offers of help, can not thank you all enough!!!!

Molly even volunteered to do some testing on him, so we hooked up on Skype and Danny had SO much fun!! He told her really liked her :) :)

Gerri has been acting out a bit lately. She has been making some bad choices :(

We tell her we love her, but that we don't like her bad choice. She goes to time out to think about it and then I sit with her to make sure she understands what the good choice was. She has been doing it more and more, but we are being consistent. The good part of this is that it shows she is comfortable with us all and is willing to test!!  Funny thing is that Danny has been GREAT lately!

We also tell her that each day is a fresh day and it all starts over again :)

New Shoes!!

Is there anything more exciting then a pair of new shoes?!?!?!?

And of course, it is SO much better when they light up!!!!!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie!!

How can it possibly be 21 years!!!!!

I love you more today than the day we got married!!

You are my best friend forever!

(yes, I was VERY VERY young when I got married :) :) )

Cast #5 and Meeting update

As usual she is laughing hysterically!!

I let her use the spreaders!! She loved doing it herself :)

Her legs are SO stiff!!!

I spend the time between the cast coming off and the Dr coming in to clean her off and stretch her legs and feet as much as possible!!

The Dr spent quite a bit of time stretching her feet before the plaster was added

The finished product!!

I can not believe this is only her 5th cast!

What an amazing process! Who da thunk it!?

Today was the first time she asked how much longer till she is done with casts and walking :(

I think she is getting tired of it. We keep telling her how great she is doing.

I also told her today that once her feet are done she will have a little surgery and then have to wear her final casts for 3 weeks. I keep telling her there s a pair of pink sparkly shoes at the end of this process!!!

This part is long, but it helps me sort through things in my mind :) :)

We had our meeting this am with the school for Danny. Dan was there to make sure we got the answers we were looking for. Turns out that there is a new state wide process for handling kids with any kind of delay. Since we signed off on Danny's ESE last year he falls into the new process. (We had to explain why we signed off - um, cause we were told to!)

The way it was explained is that the State of FL now has a Tiered program in place. All kids automatically fall into Tier 1. During the first couple of weeks of school ALL kids are given various tests to see if any qualify to move to a Tier 2. During Tie 2 the child is tutored by their teacher in the areas that they tested low in. 6-8 weeks later more tests are done to see if the child is moveing up adequately on the learning curve to catch up with the "norm". If the chid does not show adequate progress they move to Tier 3. Tier 3 is when ESE services are brought in to supplement the teacher.

As this is a new process it is a bit confusing for everyone. The assistant principal (AP) said it take a couple of weeks or all the kids to be tested state wide. They have to spread it out cause they kept crashing the computer. Danny's teacher is supposed to be done this week. The AP, guidance couselor and others meet every Friday to go over any kids that have issues. I guess Danny was brought before the group last week cause of my email :) :)

They promised that they will discuss Danny again this Friday and will make sure they have the test results from his teacher. I asked if it was a conflict of interest for a teacher to be doing the testing and then be responsible for having to put in the extra time for anyone that moves Tiers. He said that may be, but the teachers have to do the testing on everyone on certain days so they can't NOT do it.

We talked about moving Danny into 1st grade, which of course is the easy way out.

We told them in our opinion that would not be best for him. Academically he would find it more appropriate and easier. And he would require less services from the school system. (ding ding ding)

BUT, he has already had some comments made about him being 8 and in the 2nd grade! And how do you explain to him and the other kids that he has been in 2nd grade for a month now, but is being moved down!? Not even thinking about the fact he is in Cub Scouts with 2nd graders!

He has been working SO hard!! I explained how much he has improved in just a month of school .

I explained that he suddenly has to worry about the direction of his letters and numbers, he has to suddenly keep his letters and numbers between the lines and worry about the dotted line in the middle. Now they are working on sentences and punctuation!!! Not even talking about how he is getting tests every week and he had NONE before.  It is very telling to me that he is not having behavioral problems at school.

Because he is not reading yet it affects everything else they do. But he is SO close.

I told the AP that it is not fair that he tries this hard and then we take the easy way out. Besides what do we do next year?? It is time he gets the help he needs now! He needs to be compared to the 2nd graders. He deserves it!

So hopefully we hear from the AP or guidance counselor next week with his test results and that he has been officially moved to Tier 2. His teacher will then start tutoring him weekly and start the clock ticking on his 6-8 weeks before being tested again.

I don't know if I explained it right, but we felt much better when we left the meeting. We actually met for almost an hour!

Cub Scout Campout!!

This past weekend was the first cub scout camp trip of the season.

We went Friday night to help set up

The girls helped by collecting nuts :)

We brought the wagon for Gerri to get around

The girls and I headed on home for girl time!!

Asleep in 10 minutes!

Saturday we arrived just before lunch to see our boys :)

They were very busy all morning playing games and doing full pack activities.

Dan said they were up late last night and up early :)

The girls enjoying lunch

The den activity, making posters

The den then went for a hike!

They sat around the fire ring and whittled

The girls played and played in the dirt and sand :)

Riley was kind enough to bring trowels and bucket.

A little bit dirty :)

making pies for mommy

Riley sifted dirt for hours!!

Gerri had so much fun!

The girls checking out a really big grasshopper, they tried to feed it grass

I asked Gerri to show me how dirty she was :)

Here is how they played for hours!!

Time for the girls to head home!!

We had McD's for dinner and then very long tubbies!!!

It felt SO good to be clean.

The girls were sound asleep by  8:00.

Dan and Danny got home around 9:00. Danny was SO tired he could hardly stand up.

They stayed through the fire ring activity and s'mores!!

They had quick showers and went right to bed!

Everyone slept Sunday till 8:00!!!

Decision Time!

Wednesday was Ms V's first real Cubbies class - a bit happy :)

 

No bye, no see ya later! :)

At pick up she was on the playground and as she said - "with boys"

Showing off a bit

Thursday night was open house at school

We went to Gerri's class first, here she is showing us her desk

She was very proud of her first book report!!

The kids all learn EEKK - elbow elbow knee knee, for sitting nicely

Here is her teacher in the middle explaining some things

The discipline board

Everyone has a clip with their name on it. They all start the day clipped to the blue bubble.

If they misbehave theri clip moves up the bubbles till they get to red and a phone call home!!

Hee hee, Gerri is the caboose (good thing she has no idea what that is :))

Her home made book box :)

Learning the colors of the rainbow and how to read them

Her teacher said she just LOVES to learn!! She is a bit of a talker, but she said all the kids are!

Then we headed on to Danny's class!!

Here is his self portrait!!

Sitting in his chair and listening to his teacher talk

Danny is a table washer :)

His colored pencils still on the board :) :)

Now he has a buddies pencils there too!!

The teacher showed us this really cool system she uses. Each kid has a clicky and picks the answers. She can then see who is picking what. She had the parents play and it was fun!

Danny showing us his whisper phone :) :)

The kids use it when they read to themselves!! how cool!!

We had a great talk with his teacher. She is still doing testing on him and hopes to be done next week.

His biggest problem is his not reading, so much of what they do involves reading.

We talked about how far he has already come. Luckily his behavior is not a problem :)

His teacher mentioned that once she finished the testing we would have a meeting to started an IEP. She then said since we signed off on his old one we would need to start a new one and the office is saying it will take till at least December to get it done!!

Right about now I was seeing RED! That is not what we were told when I met with the asst principal before moving Danny over. I was told that he would be redflagged right away, and services would start to see if they could get him on level with the class. That he would be retested every month to see if his learning curve would allow him to catch up.

I told her that December was unacceptable, that by then he would be SO far behind he would never be able to catch up. I told her that we were going to put him in 1st grade but the asst principal said to just put him where he should be and they would take care of him.

By the time we left Dan & I were so not happy!!

I calmed down enough to send an email to the new asst principal, the school guidance counselor and his teacher. I pretty much told them what we were promised and that taking till December to get him services was completely unacceptable. I also told them that we signed off on his previous IEP cause we were told he no longer qualified. I gave them our home and cell numbers and told them I expected a phone call back asap.

This morning I left a voice message for the guidance counselor asking for a phone call back today.

I did receive a call just before lunch from the asst principal and the guidance counselor asking us to come in next Tuesday am. I told them I would be there, but htat I wanted everyone involved to be there, including ESE. This is not our first time dealing with stuff!!

We will get what we were promised!!!

Danny does NOT deserve this!

I will walk into this meeting with the name and phone number of the head of the ESE program for the county!

Please pray that they do what is RIGHT!