IEP

Josiah had his first IEP meeting today! It has taken us about 9 mouths to get to this point and it has finally happened! Yeah! Seeing that I was not blogging much during this time I will give you a run down.

December 2009- Josiah was 16 months old, and not talking. After talking with some wonderful ladies at church, we decided to call Early On.

January-March 2010- Testing, testing, and more testing. We had early on came out to evaluate him and they did find a large language delay. Then we had many a doctors visits to make sure his hearing was okay, and his lead levels were also okay. All the tests came back fine. His ears work great, and he did not have too much lead in him. :-)

April-July 2010- Speech Therapy at Henry Ford Hospital. Because he qualified for early on, they provided 10 free speech therapy sessions at the hospital. I loved speech therapy, because they really taught me how to get Josiah talking more. I was SO sad when we used up our 10 sessions!

August 2010- Detroit Public School came out to evaluate him to see if he qualified for special education services. They found a large enough delay with his speech that he did qualify.

Today! - We have a plan! He is going to get a teacher that comes to our house once a week to work with him, and then he goes downtown once a week for a preschool type program. I'm happy we have a plan for our little peanut!

Fit Throwing

Josiah knows how to throw a good fit, and he knows how to throw GREAT fits in public. I have heard it said a countless number of times that when this happens the parent should just walk away. The thinking is that the child will see the parent walking away, stop crying and then follow the parent.

I don't think this works. I would go so far as to say I don't think this ever works. To prove my point Donnie and I did a very scientific study with Josiah. We were in the fount yard and I told Josiah that it was time to go for a walk. He did not want to go, so I told him I was going to leave without him. To make this safe, and very scientific, Donnie hid behind a tree to see what Josiah would do. When I got to the end of our block, I turned around and there was no kid in sight. Josiah was still at the house, all alone, and IMHO petty happy about being all alone.

I think I know why this does not work. Kids know from a very early age that you would never leave them alone in public for very long. I'm not sure how they know this, but they do.

Also, I think Josiah would be a okay if I left him forever in the yard only to be taken in by a dog pack to be raised as a dog boy.

Clothes

I'm not a fan of clothes shopping. I hate to admit this, but most all of my current clothes have been gifts from my mother. Before writing this post, I tried to think of the last time I bought myself new clothes, and this was the only thing I could come up with. This is also true with Josiah. 99.9% of his clothes have been given to us. (God is so good!)

Now, I have bought "new to me" clothes much more recently. Donnie and I are big fans of both Salvation Amy Thrift Stores, and Value World.

This is all background information to this story. Today Josiah and I were at the mall so Donnie could get some homework done. I have been told H & M has super cute Cars movie t-shirts for toddlers. So while we were at the mall, I wanted to check it out. However, I could not bring myself to go inside.

My thought was....what if a child not much older than Jo made the shirt that Jo will wear. I also thought about the working conditions that whoever made Jo's shirt would have to endure.

When I got home I did some looking online to check things out. Not only did I look at the H & M site, but also Gap, Old Navy, Children s Place, and even Wal-Mart. Every site said that they never use child labor, and they treat their employees very well all around the world.

I'm not sure I buy it....What about you?

Whats Your Price?

When I went back to work as a nanny, even though it was the same family, the job was different. I'm now a nanny/household manager. (please note: I do not make nearly as much as this article states I should...I think I will bring this up to the family I work for! :-) ....also please note that this article is not exactly what I do now, but its close.)

Now when I went back to work I was given the option of just being a nanny for them, like I was before, with the same pay as before. Or I could be a nanny/household manager and make quite a bit more. The part that concerned me about the household manger job was cooking meat. As most of you know I do not eat meat, and I never cooked it. It was a matter of ethics to me. However, when they told me how much they would pay me I suddenly changed my tune. My ethics went right out the window. Sad but true.

On Friday I made a super easy pot roast that the family really liked, so I decided to make tonight for Donnie. I'm now cooking meat for everyone! How sad. :-)

Nuts of Death

Its that time of year again! Chestnuts are starting to fall. I swear, one could get killed by one falling on your head! Next time any one you come over, remember your umbrella to protect your head!

I have been worried about Josiah and the chestnuts. He likes to play on the sidewalk where they all land. However, we have made it into a game! I taught him to kick them! Now anytime he sees a chestnut he kicks it into the grass! So far so good.

So, if you need any chestnuts kicked, Josiah's your man!

As most of you know, Josiah has a speech delay. So when he started saying "no" a few weeks ago I thought it was great that he had a new word! I do have to say, he says a really cute no. Its not sassy or mean, just a very matter of fact no. I think its really cute.

However, he says it a lot.... like any time you ask him a question. And this has become humorous. A couple of Sundays ago, Josiah was at Sunday school and the teacher asked him if he wanted to read a story about Jesus and color a picture. He looked her right in the eye and very matter of factly said "no". It was really funny. Both the teacher and I were laughing really hard.

I have a feeling his no's will get less cute in the future.

Swim Lesson

Josiah had his first ever swim lesson Wednesday night! I have been wanting to try swim lessons with him for awhile now but never got around. I even tried having him take lessons at the Livonia Rec Center, but the class was filled.

Then I remember Goldfish Swim School. I knew about them through City Mission, and I have always remembered the name, because I thought it was so cute! They have two locations, so we went to the one in Farmington Hills, and the first class is free!

When the class started I was a little nervous. This was some serious stuff! The other toddlers in the class were like fish! One girl could even swim underwater! However, he did great in the lesson. He even went down a little slide into the pool!

I'm SUPER impressed with the school and the class. But here's the bad part. The classes are expensive, really expensive. Now that I'm working we could change our budget around a bit and we could do it, but I'm not sure I'm willing to do that.

So I think I will be checking out other places. Anyone know a good place for swim lessons?