Assessment

Jay and I were talking the other night...about the only thing we really know how to converse about and that is Molly of course. We were talking about her developmental delays. She has made great progress over the last year and we are happy with where she is and as much as we hate to compare her to other kids I think it's only human that we do from time to time. I'm not saying that we compare her to another heart healthy 2 year old because we are smarter than that but we follow the progress of a lot of cardiac kids and while we only know of a few that have spent the amount of time in the hospital that Molly has and are home doing well, we can't help but feel that we don't know any that are as far behind as she is. We are not concerned that she's far behind because she is making forward progress...she eats everything..fish, chicken, yogurt, ice cream, pancakes, etc. She drinks, not a ton and definitely not as much as we need her to before that g tube can come out but just 5 months ago she wasn't drinking at all so we are happy with that. She crawls, pretty fast now. She will take steps while holding on to my fingers. She can go from sit to stand and pull herself to her knees. She has pulled herself to standing twice and hasn't done it again since. She says "mama, dada, ga (for go)". I believe she is the furthest behind in communication. I'm not talking about saying words, I mean about communicating what she wants and doesn't want, what she needs, etc. According to early intervention that is usually the last piece to fall into place.

She had her 6 month evaluation yesterday, well, part of it. We should be finishing up one part today and one part on Monday. I don't even want to hear the results of the communication. I think she's make great progress with fine motor and gross motor. Yesterday she was asked to put a puzzle together and she did it. I was shocked and proud of course. It was only 3 pieces but she did it. They also asked her to a few other things. Some she did and others she wasn't interested in. They wanted her to take a crayon and mark a piece of paper. She took the crayon, flung it across the room and started laughing. I'm not sure if that counts for anything :) They asked how she gets my attention if she wants me and I said she fusses. That isn't good enough for them. What the heck does a kid do that doesn't talk or walk? I have so much frustration for Early Intervention. I feel like it has been a big waste of the last year and a half. I wish I knew about outpatient rehab long ago because I would've pursued that before now. Early Intervention only goes up to 3 and every time we have a session I think to myself that I can't wait until she's 3. I know it doesn't matter where she is as far as age goes developmentally but it's still makes me a little sad that she has to work so much harder than a heart healthy kid to reach her milestones.

Early intervention will be here in a minute. Wish me luck!