Faith's Mom's Blog

There's a blog I read called Caleigh's Corner about a little girl with CP. Her symptoms are similar to Faith's except that Caleigh is nonverbal. One of the posts discussed Caleigh having her own iPAD along with a special language app to enable her to "talk." I saw the photos of Caleigh with her iPAD and thought how awesome that would be for Faith to have her own. Then, a couple of months ago, during a visit with friends, Faith discovered the Apple iPAD for herself. I saw her with an app called Pocket Pond and how she could press the screen to make a splashing noise and the water ripple. She loved it! She also checked out a piano app where there are the actual keys of the piano. After she was done looking at it, she looked at me and said in the sweetest voice, "mommy can we please take that little screen home with us?" I discussed the prospect of Faith having her own iPAD with her speech and physical therapists and they both agreed it would a great

Okay, so I've officially given up on trying to get some sleep. Actually, I did manage to get about 20 minutes of shut-eye while Faith was being mesmerized by Caillou. Faith and I have been up since 5:00 this morning. To make matters worse she didn't fall asleep until 11:00 last night. She has a cold and when she has a cold she just doesn't get much sleep. Unless, I found out today, she is at school. I took her to school this morning because she was laughing her head off at Bert and Ernie on one of her DVDs and she seemed pretty chipper, despite her plugged up nose. So then about an hour after bringing her to school, I get a phone call from her aide saying her teacher suggested that Faith come home because she was dozing off in her chair. Faith? Falling asleep in her chair? What? It was hard to believe. When I got her home, I tried twice to get her to take a nap but to no avail and now, at 3:00 p.m. she is still wide awake, just as happy as can be. Sometimes my daughter

Today I find myself struggling. I have been on the verge of tears all day. No, it's nothing to do with Faith. I'm going through a little 'blip' with my own health. Strange, even though I know I have a heart condition, I don't really think about it much. I take my daily meds and that's about the extent of it. I'm more concerned about Faith and how she's doing in school, at therapy, with her digestion, with her stretches, with her learning, the list goes on and on. There is little room to think about me. As is the norm, I think, not just for moms of special needs children but all moms. It all started last week when I went in for a routine pacemaker check to see how much life was left on my battery. It was good news - still about 16 months left to go, which means no trip to Rochester anytime soon for a battery replacement. Then early this week, my cardiologist from Mayo calls and asks how I've been feeling lately. Apparently there was an arrhythmia ca

It was a little cool this morning, with the temp barely above the 50 degree mark and the sky was threatening rain, but that did not deter these Centennial first-graders from having fun at the Pumpkin Patch! Mrs. Reim's first grade class  Sittin' on some big square bales  The horses were so beautiful and gentle  Who is that peekin' through the window? Going on a bear hunt... Hay Girls!

Faith loves chocolate cake! What a crazy week this has been. We have had many appointments and meetings this week but I'm only going to mention a few of the more important ones. We had Faith's IEP Meeting (Individual Education Plan) which is a huge meeting involving all who work with Faith at school to ensure we are setting up proper goals for her and working with her to attain those goals. If I count correctly, there were a dozen people seated around the conference table - all who thankfully have Faith's best interests in mind. Rob could only be there on his lunch break so I was a little nervous at first when he wasn't there because I was worried I was going to say the wrong thing or answer a question wrong or something. But thankfully when Rob showed up, my nerves settled. They all talked about standardized testing and how that really wouldn't be fair to Faith considering her physical limitations. In the end we as a team decided to for-go any type of testi

Move over Denise Austin! About three years ago, on New Year's Day I decided 2007 was the year I was going to start exercising on a regular basis. So, like many others who had made the same resolution, I ran to Wal-Mart and bought the latest exercise DVD. It was a dance/exercise video with Denise Austin. I later purchased her Boot Camp one as well. I had no idea at the time I began the exercises that Faith would want to watch the DVDs for entertainment. And really, if you think about, it makes sense. Lot of repetition with lots of counting - just right for kids! Because Faith has watched them so many times, she pretty much has them memorized. This can be sort of comical like the time she went to preschool and told her speech therapist to squeeze her buttocks. Or like when I took Faith to physical therapy and she told Jackie she was ready to do her active isolated stretches. Jackie was pretty impressed! When Faith isn't in the mood to do her stretches at home, she gets mot

Soon Faith will be going along with her first-grade class on a field trip to Papa's Pumpkin Patch. I'm sure there will be a few more trips to the Patch as a family. Isn't Fall a great time of the year?