Lucia’s imagination

Our brilliant little girl in her little world

waiting at “the bus stop”

Her miniature house complete with little couches, a phone, white carpet and little friends.

a top a box about to be turned into something else.

Marco and Sylvie at school

The past couple of weeks, I’ve been able to help out in Marco’s kindergarten class. His class has 31 kids and 20 of them are boys. That teacher sure has her hands full! I wasn’t able to go in until recently when Sylvia started preschool. (I will write about that in a minute). The work they have kindergartners doing nowadays is pretty advanced. I was helping them correct their math packets the other day. They turn them in when they are done and then get a new packet. Some kids are careful about doing their work completely and neatly. Others do it as fast as they can just to finish and get a lot of problems wrong. Marco still hasn’t turned in his packet because he’s a perfectionist! Who’d have though my kid would be a perfectionist? I’m definitely not one! His teacher held up a page he colored so intricately and elaborately to show the class how great it was and to praise him. He beamed from ear to ear.  Then they do writing. They have to draw a picture to go with their sentence I like _______ because _________.   Marco did his so neatly and spelled every word correctly, that he didn’t finish. But, I knew which paper was his-the neatest and prettiest of them all. That’s my boy!

Sylvia is doing well in school. Julio takes her in the morning when he drops off the other kids. He reads her a story and then he leaves for work. She cried the first two weeks when he left, but this week-no tears! She has a visual schedule she checks so she knows what to expect each day. She has her own teacher’s aide that helps her out.  She eats breakfast, brushes her teeth, does circle time, plays outside, does crafts and letters/numbers, eats lunch and then rides the school bus home. She always has a huge smile on her face when the bus pulls up in front of our house and the first thing she says when she gets off the bus is, “Mommy, I’m home!” and gives me a big hug.  As soon as she walks in the door, she wants to turn on the tv, but I make her use the potty and then tell me about school before she can watch it. I really have to pry any information out of her, but she gives me little snippets of her day. She’s making friends and following the schedule. She also attends speech once a week.  She’s eating much better at home now and she’s able to deal with her anxiety better too. I’m so glad she’s liking school.

Tessa 11 months

with Grandpa and cousin Riley

Hoppy Easter!

I stand in the middle of the room all by myself!

I’m getting ready to take off!

I’m walking here!

I can’t believe she’s almost a year old!  The time has gone by way too quickly. She’s had another month of illness-cough, cold, fever along with the rest of the family. She’s growing a little-maybe 16 lbs. and wears 6 month clothes still. She has been sleeping a little bit better at night. She’s trying new food-doesn’t want baby food anymore! Her favorite seems to be meat-meatballs, lunch meat-which she’ll eat with her two little teeth. She’ll eat oranges, bananas, bread, yogurt. She doesn’t like blueberries or eggs. If she doesn’t want to eat something, she’ll shake her head NO!  So we’ll keep trying to find things she’ll eat. She’s been making more sounds-like sticking her tongue out and saying NAH!  The big accomplishment this month is that she’s walking! She’ll take 4-5 steps at a time, but she still prefers to crawl because she’s so wobbly and falls so much. So this is the last month of her being a baby and then she’ll be a toddler. So sad for this momma!

Spring Break and Easter

It was a busy week-fending off illness and trying to get ready for a trip that almost didn’t happen at all. Monday I took Marco to the doctor to get allergy meds. The girls played at grandma’s house with Eden and Riley. Just taking Marco to the doctor almost did me in. Tuesday, we went to the Jelly Belly factory with friends. We got there at about 11 and found that most of Northern California had the same idea we did. We waited an hour and a half for the tour. What people will do for free jelly bellys. After we got our treats, we were starving, so we stopped for lunch on the way home. That day, DID do me in!

Wednesday, I decided to take Tessa to get her picture taken at the mall. It was our 3rd attempt and I was determined to get a picture of her no matter what. Well, again, she refused to cooperate, but I got a non-smiling picture of her anyway. The kids also visited the Easter Bunny.

Thursday, I tried to pack and clean to get ready for our trip to LA, but finally gave up and decided it wasn’t going to happen that day. I felt cruddy. That night, I came down with a fever, so Friday, Julio decided to leave without me and Tessa.

Here are some pictures from their trip:

cousin Haleawith cousin Masonkin folkwith abueladecorating easter eggs

Easter morning

at Grandma and Grandpa Cole’s grave in Santa Monica

Easter dinnerMarco got sick, again.with Yesenia, Elliott and Halea-their hosts.

I got to enjoy some quality time with Tessa while they were gone-resting. We did go over to Grandpa’s where Uncle B made a delicious Easter dinner for us. It was nice and relaxing, but hopefully next year, we’ll be together.

it’s 5 am and I can’t sleep

So, Julio and the kids left for LA yesterday. I stayed home with Tessa because I got the flu. I felt so bad because we’d been looking forward to this trip for months. Lucia got the flu over a week ago and it’s been slowly infecting each of us. Julio didn’t feel so great either, but he was determined to go. It’s funny how the kids only missed one school day this whole year until last week, right before vacation. Anyway, I don’t know why I can’t sleep-Tessa is sleeping peacefully and I should be too. insomnia I guess. But, I will miss spending Easter with my family. It’s the first time ever spending a holiday without them. I’m so sad.

Tessa 10 months

I took at least 10 shots of her and this is the face she made in every shot. You can see her top 2 teeth are about to come in.

We’ve discovered those pouches of baby food that they can suck the food out of-no mess and she loves them!

I found her in Marco’s room looking  at books. She’s a smart one!

She likes helping with the dishes.

She loves to fall asleep on Daddy.

She isn’t walking yet. She seems to be getting really comfortable with the crawling, and not too motivated to walk. She’s been sick a lot this past month-first bronchitis and then roseola. Plus she’s still so tiny-only 15 1/2 lbs. Hopefully, she’ll be better for a long time and will gain some weight.  She still gets comments from so many people about how beautiful and perfect she is. She’s not only beautiful, she’s sweet and although she doesn’t smile at too many people, her face lights up whenever one of her family sees her.

Our special girl is….special

Trying to get her to look at the camera is difficultFinally got one of her looking!

When Sylvie was a baby, she had her blessing (or some other churches call it a christening) and Julio said his impression of her was that she was special. We didn’t quite know what that meant, of course all children are special, but Sylvie would be in a different way.  As a baby, she developed normally and met all of her milestones.  Even as a toddler, she seemed to be meeting all of her milestones besides being very small and an extremely picky eater. But, after Tessa was born, we and especially others, started to notice changes or differences. Sylvie is overactive and climbs on everything-chosing to get things and do things herself instead of ever asking for help. She doesn’t make eye contact much when she talks to you, it’s hard to have a two-sided conversation with her. She also started doing things like jumping a lot, waving her arms, clenching her fists when she’s excited, nervous, upset. tShe gets upset easily and has a very hard time following directions. So we decided to have her tested for any autism disorders. The pediatrician was no help at all and told us to contact the school district. We also contacted a state agency that diagnoses and funds therapy for autistic kids. They did an intake with me over the phone and said, “She doesn’t sound autistic to me. Go to the school district and then let us know what they find.”   You see, Sylvie doesn’t exactly have all the traits of an autistic child. she does have language skills, she does socialize and interact with other children, she is very affectionate and shows emotion. The first person to screen her was a speech therapist and she scored in the average range for language and pronunciation. But, the speech therapist did think it necessary to refer her to a psychologist for further evaluation. The first psychologist was puzzled after observing her and said, “I’m not sold on the autism thing.”  But, we wanted a second opinion.  So, an autism team was set up to do further testing.  That was over a month ago. In the meantime, Sylvie has been attending speech therapy to practice her pragmatic skills-conversation, asking for help, staying on task. She likes it and has been doing well. This week, I got a call from the Special Ed office suggesting I take Sylvie to a Head Start class that does inclusion. That means that most of the students are normal, but there are 5 special needs kids in the class and there is extra support staff. We went and Sylvie freaked out at first, but then she warmed up and seemed to like what she saw.  We had our meeting with the special ed teachers and psychologist yesterday to find out their official findings and make an action plan. The psychologist said she does exhibit autistic behaviors, but doesn’t meet all the markers to be diagnosed with autism. So, the official (for school purposes) diagnosis is Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not otherwise Specified.  She will also be tested by an Occupational Therapist for Sensory Integration Disorder. She will be attending the inclusion class and continue speech therapy through them and probably occupational therapy. We’re hoping this will help Sylvie cope with her anxiety, hyperactivity, attention span, social skills, etc. The psychologist said that in order to get an official medical diagnosis, we should still consult a pediatric neurologist, but for now, she is getting the services she needs. 

It’s been so hard to come to grips with having a child that isn’t “normal” or “perfect”.  Sylvie is a special little spirit that has come into our family to teach us patience, love and understanding. I just fear that the world world won’t understand her and will reject her. It’s hard as a mother to think of these things when you only want the best for your child. All I want for her is to be happy and be able to function in the world. Her family loves her so much.