Goodbye Hearing and Vision Therapists :(

This was the week we said goodbye to our therapists Chris and Lesley. 

Monday morning Miss Chris was here for her last session with Lindy.  Chris has been the therapist we have seen the most.  She has worked with Lindy every week since she came home from the NICU.  She works with the North Carolina Early Intervention Program for Children Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing.  This is a free program.  Yes, I’m sure we pay for it through our taxes, but it feels free.  It’s doesn’t charge our insurance and we pay nothing out of pocket.  And it’s awesome.  Or Miss Chris is awesome!  Lindy has come so far with her hearing, listening, and audition skills after working with Chris.  Lindy officially aged out of the program the day she turned three, but because it’s a cool program, they allowed Chris to come a couple more times in August so she wouldn’t go a full month without services.  (She’ll now get services through the school system – when she finally starts preschool.)  We can never thank Chris enough for all the hard work she has put in with Lindy.  She was so nice to include Will in almost all of Lindy’s sessions.  We will miss our Miss Chris!

Wednesday afternoon we said goodbye to Miss Lesley.  Lesley works for the Governor Morehead School for the Blind.  Another free state program that has cost us nothing.  Amazing!  Lesley was our second vision teacher, but the one we have had for about two years now.  She has come out twice a month for the last two years.  Lesley is one of the sweetest people I have ever met.  Lindy has always done well with all the fun games and art projects that Lesley has brought out.  Lesley was also so kind in involving Will in every session.  She always brought two of everything she had so that Will had something to do while Lindy was working.  It means more to me than they’ll ever know that they included him instead of making me try to get him to be quiet in another room by himself.  Governor Morehead services actually go through age 5, but because we moved to a new county, we are losing Lesley as our teacher.  Because she is a 12 month employee she continued to see Lindy through the summer.  We will miss Lesley and her visits!

We did meet Lindy’s new vision therapist on Wed. afternoon though.  We now have Miss Pam as our vision therapist.  Once Lindy starts school, Pam will see her at school.  The most interesting thing about Miss Pam is that she is visually impaired herself.  She has an assistant, Miss Sue, who drives her around and helps her see.  I find it all very interesting!  I can’t wait to see how her sessions go!  They seemed very nice and I hope Lindy can finish out the program with Pam as her teacher.

Other events of the week:  I went to my first ever mothers of multiples meeting on Monday night.  I joined the group last month and this was my first meeting.  I joined because I wanted to sell clothes in their consignment sale because you get 90% of the profit, but I had a good time and plan on attending the monthly meetings!  Thursday morning we went back to one of the schools Lindy might attend and we observed the actual classroom she would be in.  We came away with a good feeling and we are so glad we went back to see the school with kids. 

Friday was Willy Will’s big day.  We went to his preschool and met his teachers, Miss Bobbye and Miss Brandi.  He was a little apprehensive at  first and wanted to sit with me but was down off my lap in a minute or two.  The kids played around the room while we were told all the pertinent information from his teacher.  Will seems so excited about preschool.  He talks about wanting to go.  We talk about all the fun things they’ll do there.  I’m sure it’s all talk and he’ll scream as we leave him (like he still does at the church nursery).  I’m getting more and more nervous about sending my babies off, the closer it comes.  I’m going to be a wreck this week!

Friday was our fun day.  We went to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC.  It’s a drive-through animal park.  It was really cool!  We decided to ride a horse-pulled wagon instead of drive ourselves through.  On the wagon you get buckets of food to feed the animals.  It was pretty amazing that you were up close and personal with llamas, ostriches, emus, giraffes, bison, and lots of other animals I don’t remember the names of.  I get so excited by these type of places because Lindy isn’t left behind.  Lindy was up close with these animals too.  She got to see these animals.  Some places, like some zoos, the animals are just too far away for her to ever see.  Not at the Lazy 5 Ranch though!   The kids were both feeding animals out of the palm of their hands.  So cool!  After our hour long wagon ride, we played on a cool playground and saw a ton more cool animals in the petting zoo.  There was a macaw in the petting zoo yelling “Hello” and “Goodbye” at everyone.  Will had fun talking with it! 

Our other fun event was having a little get together with Drew’s old roommates and a couple other friends.  We had 10 adults and 7 kids over Saturday for a Mexican fiesta.  Fun was had by all!  We had way too much food but it was fun to see everyone  and let the kids play and get to know each other.  Todd and Amy have a set of identical twin girls.  I totally go by the clothes they are wearing, I can’t tell them apart.  Baby Zeke was the newest addition to our group.  He is around 9 months old and such a cutie.  Some of us live here in town and some live in Raleigh so we don’t all get together as much as we’d like.  We did get our new dining room furniture on Thursday afternoon so we had our inaugural dinner Saturday night with our friends.  It was great to have a place for everyone to eat!

And now for the pictures.

My sweeties before church last week. Funny outtake! This would have been a nice accessory to wear to church, don’t you think? Miss Chris!! Miss Lesley!! The kids had to check out the new dining room table. Wearing new shirts they got from the NC Aquarium last month. The pretend camera I got Lindy because she has recently been after my camera.  Will loves taking pictures as well.  They walk around saying, “Say cheeseburger!”  Will will eventually say, “Lindy wanna take my picture?” Waiting for the wagon at the Lazy 5 Ranch. 2 legged you feed out of the bucket, 4 legged you feed out of your hand. Lindy was hugging Will’s neck and pulling him to her. The bison had the grossest tongues!  You dropped the food on the tongue.  Will enjoyed feeding these guys! The giraffes were probably the coolest animals to feed.  They are big animals!   Feeding the llamas.  No they weren’t wearing red pajamas and they weren’t mad at mama!  Up close and personal!   Playing on the playground. More animals in the petting zoo. Cool gourd alley.  Lindy has spent a good bit of time this week in this position.  Sitting on the back of the car, playing with the little people bus.  With her water.  I tried to take her water yesterday and she asked for it back and positioned it just where she wanted it.  Funny girl. Baby Zekers! Heading to church this morning.