21 Months

Julianna has had a big last couple of months! This month she turned 21 months old and is finally starting to talk! We have figured out why she is now a much happier child, it's because she can communicate! Now, she can still give some looks that say it all, but for the most part, she is smiling and giggling and happy! Lots of people who know her have commented on happy she is lately. I just hate that she's been so frustrated and mad at the world it seemed, for this long!

She's had a teacher coming out to our house for a hr, one day week, to give her special instruction (she's a Special Ed teacher), in addition to her going for individual speech therapy 2 times a week. We got a call 2 weeks ago saying that she's been accepted into a special needs preschool, called Special Kids, 3 days a week. So with that, comes an end to her weekly teacher appointments. These pictures are from her last day of instruction at home.

They worked on all kinds developmental things, like stringing beads, stacking blocks, working puzzles, sorting shapes, pretend play, etc. while incorporating language into each task.

Here Julianna blew bubbles for the first time! She loved the bubbles!!

Chase woke up from his nap in time to join in on the fun. When he came downstairs, her teacher said, "Who's that?" to Julianna and Julianna responded back, "Bubba." That's the first time she's ever responded to a question with someone's name before.

This past Monday was her first day of preschool and she loved it! She just walked right in and started playing. She didn't even cry when I left her. She's definitely my independent child! Picture here is of her before leaving for school. Of course, Chase wanted to be in the picture too.

Big girl, reading her book before school.

At school, she's in a classroom with up to 12 other children her age. Right now there are only 11. There are 4 teachers in the classroom. Either they all are Special Ed teachers, or just the lead teacher, I'm not sure. The classroom consists of children with all kinds of special needs, from Cerebral Palsy, to just a language delay like Julianna, to typically developing children who can provide a good model for the others. These children receive therapies such as Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy and Physical Therapy while they are there. There is even a feeding class for those with feeding issues, such as taste and tactile aversions, to chewing and swallowing difficulty. Julianna isn't receiving any therapy at the school at this time. She still attends individual speech therapy through another program on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are on the waiting list for individual therapy at her preschool though, for nothing else- to cut down on my driving. Right now, her preschool is a 80 mi trek each day, times 3 days a week. Then probably another 80 mi each week for her individual therapy. I just know that when the baby comes, things are gonna get a little crazy with that kind of a schedule.

Anyway, she will go to this preschool 3 days a week, year round, until she turns 3 (Feb. 2011), unless at her yearly review (Sept. 2010) she tests at age appropriate. Hopefully she'll be caught up by then. This preschool is free and is a program of the Tennessee Early Intervention System. If she still needs therapy once she's 3, she will transition into the public school system for therapy.

Her vocabulary has increased so much in the 2 months of her starting speech therapy that it is amazing! Here are the words that I know she uses- Momma (ALL the time,lol), Dadda, Bubba, JuJu, arf arf (for Sadler), bye-bye (only once at this point), all done, hot, uh-oh, off, yeah, thank you, choo-choo and boo-boo. I know that there are many others, many of which I probably just can't understand. She also has about 10 signs that she uses all the time. My mom is always glad to have Chase around when we're not there to interpret for her. :)

I had an appointment for her for last Monday for a 21 mo old check-up, which doesn't really exist, but her Dr. wanted to do that so that he could re-check her language (b/c at her 18 mo check-up she was mute) and she needs to catch up on some vaccines since he had delayed some due to her being non-verbal, but I totally forgot to take her! I'm blaming that one on pregnancy brain!

She's going through an eating phase right now, so I know there will be a sleeping phase to follow and then she'll probably out grow all the clothes that I just bought her! Isn't that how it goes? :) We're always glad to see her grow though. We never thought anything about Chase growing, but we really are so thankful for each of her growth spurts! She weighs about 23 lbs right now and is wearing size 18-24 month clothes comfortably. She's still in a size 5 shoe.

She's still napping twice a day for about 2-3 hrs each time, but with preschool 3 days a week now, she's gonna start missing that morning nap. I was really trying to hang on to that for when the baby comes, but having her in school might get rid of that morning nap for us.

We love our new bright, smiley little girl and I can't wait to see how much she loves the holidays and the new baby!!