Here we go with attempt number 3 for a new update---I have just gotten ready to upload the past 3 when the website shut down and I lost everything!!!
Things here are good and very, very busy! Kaylyn LOVES school! Her first two days were a little tough. I dropped her off at her new adopted grandma, Betty's house (she is our neighbor and is HUGELY helping us out by taking kaylyn for about half an hour in the morning before Kaylyn gets on the bus.) She gave we a pouty lip and a few tears but was so, so BRAVE! Daddy met her at preschool the first day and Betty rode the bus with her. As I said above we are so proud of her and how brave she has been with all of the changes we have made over the past month. Lana, her preschool teacher reported taht Kaylyn was a little teary eyed and sad when Daddy left that first day but slowly became part of the group and enjoyed the day. The following day was much better!!
Grandma and Grandpa Mac came to visit that weekend for Daddy's football game. Kaylyn was so excited to see them and was proudly telling them about her snack Friday evening. She had an apple and kept pointing, telling them, Ap///ple. Enunciating each syllable. I think she practices that at school! On Saturday morning we all went out for breakfast and met most of the Johnson clan as well. Kaylyn could not get over having 2 grandmas and 2 grandpas together in the same place at the same time!! She was in Heaven and was back and forth between everyone there!
Kaylyn has been working on circles and the color red at school. Her vision specialist, Shannon, visits with me at school usually once a week to update me on Kaylyn's progress. She sent home some different paper for use to experiment with while working with Kaylyn. We have four types: paper that has textured lines, paper with large green lines, paper with larger black lines, and special paper that puffs up when you write with it using a special marker. It is absolutely amazing!! She LOVES to draw on the paper and is making circles all the time! She also has been pointing out colors all the time. She signs and says red and yellow and is trying to get the other colors down. I am lucky enough to be in the Minot Public School System so am able to communicate through our in-house message system with Kaylyn's teachers and specialists. They keep me up to date on what happens daily. Kaylyn sees her hearing specialist on Mondays and Thursdays and her vision specialist on Wednesdays and Fridays. The school speech pathologist also visits the classroom daily to work with the kids as a group. There are 6 students total in kaylyn's room. Kaylyn also has a weekly job at school. She was the plant waterer the first week and LOVED it!! She may have a future as a gardener! Last week she helped hand out napkins at snack time! She has been wiped out by Friday afternoon but is ready to go back to school on Sundays. She puts on her backpack and goes to the door, waving, "Bye-bye Kaylyn!!!!" It's hard to explain to her that it isn't a school day!
Kaylyn has been enjoying her daycare as well! She loves Ronda's big yard.and wants to play outside all day long! She also enjoys our weekly visit from her cousins. We try to do something special with them once a week. They get along so well and LOVE to go across the alley to play in the park.
Friday at school was Red Day! Kaylyn was asked to bring something red to school. I don't know if I have posted this or not but I'll state it again----Kaylyn LOVES red barns!! When we make our trips to Walmart she goes crazy when she sees "The Pour Farm" which is a red barn---it is also a bar. We thought she'd enjoy bringing a picture of "the Pour Farm" for Red Day but thought it may be a little inappropriate for school--so she took the next best thing-----ELMO!!! She was pretty excited that her toy Elmo got to go to school with her.
We have also had a couple visits to the school audiologist to set up Kaylyn's FM system for use at school. She had her first experience being tested in the sound booth and did very well. The good news from that was that her hearing test results looked almost exactly the same as the test that was done when she was still in the NICU--which means her hearing is not getting worse. We will try to go once every couple weeks to get her used to the testing they need to do to find out more and more about her hearing!
Thanks for checking in on Kaylyn!!! We are so proud of her! She has school pictures coming up this week and will be learning about Apples. Her speech and communication are improving every day--it is amazing how she talks about school. Her teacher has been sending home pictures with her hoping that will help her talk about her friends at school and what they do. We are also getting a tape of the songs they are learning at school so we can work on them at home! We are sooooo happy with her school experience thus far. We will have our first PTA meeting as parents September 24th!!