Just a little of this and that...

Just dropping by with an update. I have nothing big to share. This is just a little post full of this and that. You may wonder why I share posts like this. I do it because I like to look back at my update posts and see what we were doing through out the year.

It's been an active summer for us!
We have taken several fun little day trips with the kiddos. (Including the zoo, water park, pool trips, jumpits, catch air, and Jellystone). It has been a much better summer for us as the last few have been nothing but therapies and appointments every day. This year I freed up 2 days each week to do kid things and we have had a blast!
We do have a family vacation planned this month! We will be beach bound, to visit our friends in SC.
If all goes well, we will also be taking a trip to Florida next month! I really need a vacation!
Then if we can, we will be heading back to SC to meet Blaze's Irun4 runner in October! She will be in SC doing a race. I'm really hoping we can make it.
Ashley moved her wedding from Nov to Sept...yikes!!! It is almost here! She also has a bridal shower coming up! It's so exciting!!!!!!
Court was rescheduled on Z for the TPR of his dad. I still don't have the date but the CW seems to think it will be in October..grrr That is the last thing we have to do and after that we will start the adoption process.
We are getting ready for back to school. I can't believe that school starts back on Aug 1st this year. It gets earlier and earlier ever year. Our Z will be heading to 1st grade. He is excited! I am excited for him, but I dread it starting. It's hard to plan my days around the public school system calendar.
You may wonder why I just don't homeschool him and Blaze since we are a homeschooling family, but at this time I just don't think that is the best choice for them. Blaze is going to need a lot of extra help and I honestly don't think I will be able to teach him well. It is very complicated when you have so many different things going against you, so I'm going to leave it up to people who know more than I do about kids like Blaze. Homeschooling will always be an option but right now it's not my 1st choice.
If all goes as planned Blaze will be headed to Prek-4. We still have a lot of work and planning before he can start, so he will most likely start in late August or September. We have another IEP coming up, so his special needs advocate came out today to discuss it. We are still not even for sure where he is going to go. It is a lot different when you have a special needs child. We have to consider so many different things with him, even which school will be best for his needs. He is such a unique little boy. However It will NOT be the deaf school.
Blaze went in to Marcus last week for a VB map assessment and we are waiting on the results of that. It is the main thing we have to have before we go into the next IEP. It will tell them exactly where he is in all areas.  I think he did really well but they didn't give me any feedback the day that he was tested. She just said the results would be in, in a couple of weeks. So hopefully next week.
Blaze had genetic testing 2 weeks ago, but we haven't heard anything back yet from that. Hopefully they won't find anything more, but if they do then that might explain some of Blaze's issues.
Blaze has been referred by our ENT to see a new doctor. He will be going in August to see a neurotologist to discuss the constant ear issues/pain/infections, the balance problems, as well as be considered once again for CIs. I'm nervous what she is going to say.
We have been referred to Vanderbilt too, but I haven't brought myself to schedule the apt. Honestly, I'm scared. I just can't decide if it is worth it. I'm going to have to keep praying about it.
Blaze has an apt at Children's to be evaluated for vestibular therapy. His OT seems to think this will benefit Blaze.The appointments never end.
Blaze's ped wants me to start taking Blaze to a CP clinic at Children's. We were referred to one by the Dev doc that saw him at Emory but I never went because honestly I figured it was just a waste of my time and just another apt for us, but his primary ped asked me to reconsider and take him, so I guess I will.
We are still in the feeding program at marcus and honestly I don't think we will be done with it any time soon. I am so over it! I really am. I really like his doctors there, they are great, but his progress has been so much slower than I ever imagined. It was suppose to be 3 months and we are almost a year and a half in and have appointments already set for every other week until the end of the year. I just hope we don't go that long.
Blaze is also going to start seeing a dietician once a month at marcus to monitor his health and growth. I don't know what the purpose of it is because we are already doing feeding there, but they called today to schedule appointments for the next 3 months...grrr They said they received a referral from some doctor, so I guess we will go.
Blaze keeps me busy. It's a lot of work making all of these appointments and it is even going to be harder once he starts school, but Blaze is worth it! He has already blew us all away with how good he is doing! He really is doing very well.
You wonder why I share so much about Blaze? Because I like to go back and see how far we have come.
Tiny had allergy testing done. She had the blood testing, not the skin testing like Blaze, so we haven't heard back from it yet. Not sure which is better or why they choose one over the other but maybe we will hear soon.
Tiny has learned so much ASL. She actually knows and uses more signs than anybody in our home, other than me. Blaze has also learned many new signs! He is just not a talker. He understands way more than he signs back. At last count I think we are well over 60 signs that he knows/uses and that's double where we were just a year ago.
Thanks to Blaze's deaf mentor I have learned a lot too! I'm well over 600 signs now but I have a lot more to learn. I just add new ones as we go and as they are needed. It's hard to remember them if you don't use them every day. I forget and have to go back and relearn a sign from time to time.
Well, I've got to run. My Brookelyn Shae is here for the weekend and I told her that we will rent a movie and camp out in the den tonight. I love my Brookelyn Shae!
Have a great weekend!