Where has April gone?

Niklas is still loving school. He is getting good reports and potty training is getting a bit better too. His developmental ped. gave us some answers for his delays. He has Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder. He language skills are between a year and two years behind for his age. We will continue the speech therapy, the music class, and reading to him. We are going to try a new therapy, Myofunctional Therapy, that will really focus on oral motor actions. She also did some lab work and all the tests came back positive or normal so that is good news.
Ellie Grace is registered for kindergarten!! I can't believe that she will be five years old in a few weeks. She is loving soccer, reading simple books, and still full of personality.
We have a busy month as school winds down and we prepare for a trip to the beach. I will be glad for summer but know that we will still be on the go!

As many of you know, Niklas came home from China with other needs besides his CL/CP. We knew as parents to expect some developmental delays but I have thought from the beginning that his delays were different. It has been a stressful ten months because I have had a conflict with myself over my feelings. Mothers are only supposed to think the best about their children and I have felt quite the opposite due to my experience teaching preschool and watching Ellie Grace grow.
We found a developmental pediatrician and we have seen her once a week for the past three weeks. She talked with us, observed Niklas interact with us and Ellie Grace, spent one visit testing Niklas, and then went over the results with us this week. His strength is fine motor and his adaptive skills have improved. However, his language skills are very weak. He is very delayed in expressive speech and somewhat delayed in receptive language so she said he has Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder. He also still has issues with his gross motor skills and hypotonia. We don't really know the reason for these but she is having us do some bloodwork that may or may not give us more answers. She did stress that he is learning and that is a good thing. So we will keep moving forward and providing the best we can for him.

Preschool Easter Party

A Family is Forever

We saw our daughter's picture for the first time on February 2, 2004. I was teaching PreK and knew that the there was a good chance we would be getting a call that day. I left soon after the children went home and was driving when my cell phone started ringing. I answered and pulled over so I could talk and try to write down the details before calling Erik. He was in his office so got to see her picture as we were talking on the phone. We were both so happy to know that Gou Ke Di was waiting in Guangxi, China for us!
We met her on April 4, 2005 in the Lottery Hotel in Nanning. This weekend marked our fourth anniversary of that special day, known as "Gotcha Day" or "Family Day". We celebrated by going out to dinner at the Empress of China II.