We got our letter. Not the best news...

We got in to Ecole Kenwood (French Immersion).
We are 22 for Clinton.
We are 114 for Indianola.

They also gave a "Lottery Number." Is this how many slots the school had? (21 for Clinton, 31 for Kenwood, 189 for Indianola)

I know Indianola is a lost cause

Now we have to decide whether to take the Kenwood slot or roll the dice for Clinton. If 21 is how many lottery kids they are taking, there would have to be a 100% turnover for her to get in. Our other option is to pay (money we don't really have) to sent Q to Columbus Montessori. We reserved her a spot there just in case. We have to let them know by May or we will owe them the whole amount, so it isn't like we can just watch the Columbus lists all summer and make a last minute decision.

Pros of Kenwood: We're in and it's free.  Quinn can be bused.  It is K-8, we wouldn't have to choose a junior high.  We can spend our saved-up tuition money to buy a car, 'cause we need a new one.  Learning 2 languages from a young age is supposed to do really good brain-wiring things.  

Cons of Kenwood: It's a commitment.  I mean, they ONLY speak to your kid in French for the first couple of years.  Quinn has serious concentration issues in general.  I'm concerned that this may be more than she can do.  We liked it just fine, but we didn't have mad passion for it.

We do know someone who had a comparable lottery number who DID  get into Clinton, but they didn't find out until right before the school year started.  I think Clinton must hold a chunk for late-enrolled neighborhood kids.  We can't wait this long, though, because of the May $$$ deadline at Columbus Montessori.

This is waaaay too stressful.

Any advice???
 

 I looked in Jude's mouth today and he has 2 teeth poking through that he didn't have yesterday.  He has 2 more in the back that recently came through.  He has one molar that is mostly in.  I felt along his gums and there are 2 more that are so close to coming through that they are almost sharp.  Adding that all up, Jude has SEVEN teeth coming in at the same time.  

He's, um, a tad crabby, but pretty soon he'll actually be able to chew his food!

Ok, so the five that I would LIKE to see stay are Casey, James, Paul, Scotty and Brett.   I didn't necessarily think they did well last night, but I liked listening to them and would like to hear more.

The five that I think will actually stay are: Casey, James, Scotty, Brett (the vote for the worst pick), Jacob

Going Home: Jordan, Jovany, Stefano, Paul, Clint

I think that Stefano is a wild card.  He could bump any of the other guys out of my picks list.

Seriously edited because I thought there were 10 and there were 12!  I totally forgot Tim and Robbie.  I guess that puts them in the "going home" category!  Wikipedia says that voters pick the top 10 and the judges pick 3 wildcards, so I guess that means 5 boys, 5 girls and 3 whatevers.

I was just eating a couple of Oreos for breakfast (don't judge me).  Literally just 2 of them.

I started eating one and thought it tasted like there was a hair in it.  Hairs aren't HUGE things in our house because there are 3 people with long hair + too many cats.  I took the bite out of my mouth and there was a long white/gray hair that obviously was IN the cookie.  It didn't come from one of us.  I threw it all away.

Now I was a little icked out, but decided to eat the other one to make the bad memory go away.  

THAT ONE HAD A HAIR IN IT TOO

*shudder*

I had a handful of cheerios instead.

Just finished copying a series of posts over to here from the IVP about Jude's speech (or lack of it).  I thought that I should kinda keep track of the process (and hopefully his progress).

There is a chance that Jude will be able to start regular services at Columbus Speech and Hearing.  Our case manager mentioned talking to the woman who would be Jude's teacher if he gets in there this fall.  Word on the street is that they have openings right now.  

The thing is, they talked last week and we haven't heard anything back again.  I wonder how long to wait before calling to check in.  I want to be pro-active, but not annoying. 

 Met with our case worker this morning. Here is the plan, as I understand it...

A speech therapist will come to our house once a month. S/he will give us techniques to use with Jude.

There are "Center Based Services" which are the good ones, he can go three times a month, or more if they have cancellations. There is a wait list for this. I think we can expect to get in by summer.

There are "bridge" services to tide kids over until the center based services open up. These are in the evenings, but I'm not sure how often. Maybe 2 times a month? There is possibly a wait list for this, too, but not as long.

There may be some small group sessions starting up to tide kids over until bridge opens up, until center services open up.

We had been researching the Toddler Language Class (TLC) program at Columbus Speech and Hearing Center and Megan actually had a message in with them to find out how much it costs. The program is September through May, three days a week for 2 ½ hours. It is taught by a Speech Language Pathologist and a Child Development Specialist. An OT comes in for 2 hours a week to work with the kids and do fun OT-related play like swinging from ropes and such. There are only 8 kids in the room.

Our case worker brought TLC up today and said that he is "just what they are looking for" because they want to focus on speech only. It turns out that her office is who can recommend kids for the waiting list (yes, another). She said that she would fax in our information today. She was hopeful because she submitted 3 in March of last year who all got in, so this being a month earlier...

Oh, and did I mention through Early Intervention, IT'S FREE!!! Yes, FREE childcare with a 1:4 ratio provided by highly educated people. Holy shite!

I know nothing has started (or will for at least a month, it seems), but I feel like we've got Jude positioned to receive services. Not that we are guaranteed a spot at the TLC, but if we had waited a couple of months before contacting Early Intervention, there would have been NO chance that he would have made it in. The same goes for the other stuff. He's closing in on 18 months and still not saying much of anything. If we had waited until he was officially 18 months, we would have been that much further down the list.

strawberry - I'm looking at you. Get on the lists. You can always cancel later...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So Jude, has a new word, "No!" He says this with enthusiasm and completely without regard to whether he is agreeing or not. If he bounces when he says No! then it usually means yes. As you may recall, Ba is Jude's catch-all word to mean everything else.

Conversation with the TV the other day:

Leo from Little Einsteins: I like animals, do you like animals?
Jude: No! (bounce, bounce)
Leo: Me, too. What's your favorite animal?
Jude: Ba!

 We got Jude's assessment in the mail over the weekend. For you child development gurus, the test they did was the "Battelle Developmental Inventory 2nd Edition." According to the report, a child must score more than 1.5 standard deviations below the norm in a category to be eligible for services in that area. Jude scored -1.67 in expressive communication and thus did qualify for "early intervention services and consultative support from a speech pathologist." I have all of the numbers if they mean something to anyone.

The case worker is coming out tomorrow to go over it with us. I wanted to tell her that we know how to read and really don't need her to come out again, but that seemed rude or against protocol or something.

I had been telling myself that I was just being proactive about Jude's speech and that I wasn't worried about it or anything. I shot that to hell today. Today at work a woman brought her son, Gage, in for a visit. He is almost exactly a month younger than Jude, so we are often chatting about what the kids are doing. I had never met him before, though. His Mom was doing some things at work and was out of sight a couple of times. Whenever she did this, he would calmly say "Mama?" and she would pop back in sight. It sounds ridiculous, but it really cut through me. Jude has never called me anything. If he was looking for me, he would have to cry or yell or grunt to get my attention. Gage had all sorts of words, but the Mama thing really got to me.

I think they will only cover one speech therapy session a month. I'm hoping my insurance covers some, but I think probably not. This is what my coverage book says:

Speech Therapy - In order to be considered a Covered Service, this therapy must be performed by a certified, licensed
therapist and be Medically Necessary due to a medical Condition such as:
• a congenital abnormality;
• a stroke;
• aphasia;
• dysphasia; or
• post-laryngectomy

I don't know *exactly* what aphasia or dysphasia are. Would one of these be Jude?

This is in the "not covered" area:

54. Services provided in connection with autism, pervasive developmental disorders or learning disabilities except for
the purpose of diagnosis of the condition

I'm guessing they would throw speech therapy for a toddler into this area.

My work is switching insurance in July...

 Two speech therapy people came out to the house this morning to evaluate Jude (they did an overall assessment, not just speech). Of COURSE our power was out and it was crazy chilly in our house.

It went pretty much the way I expected. He was a rockstar with his block stacking and his crayon scribbling. He said "ba" a few times. He *loved* the lady's plastic case full of toys.

We told them that we were doing some signs with him. She said something along the lines of, "that's really good because when he gets a little bit older and doesn't have words to express himself, it will become very frustrating to him."

What I heard is that she was thinking of him as not having words now and maybe not having them for a while. I guess this probably means that it was good that we contacted them when we did.

They wouldn't tell us anything today. They will write up a report which will be faxed to our case worker and mailed to us.

After that, the case worker will come back out again and services can be set up. If nothing else, this process is causing our house to be cleaned more regularly.

 Got a call yesterday from Help Me Grow. They said that they received our ASQ and have concerns about Jude's communication. (as though I wouldn't be sure which area they would be concerned with). They are passing our info along to the county. The county should contact me in the next couple of days to "set up services." I'm sure she means an evaluation, but those are the words she said.