UPDATE TIME

How is it possible the last time I blogged was in OCTOBER???????? Holy Slacker!! So where to begin!?! Soooooo much has happened since October! Brielle is still in school and LOVES it. She has made some pretty special friends, Kenzie and Tadan are amongst her "Best friends." She loves riding the bus like a big girl. And she loves doing big girl things in the classroom. She especially likes gym class and music/dance on the smart board. Her teacher, Mrs. Chrissy is AMAZING. I seriously can not say enough about her! We have decided to keep Brielle back in 3K one more year. The reasoning is because of her June birthday, so she will be a very new 4 year old when she would start school again. She also just isn't comprehending what is expected of her quite yet. She is very very nosey and watches what everyone else is doing, even if its not interesting like cutting paper. When they start 4K a lot is expected of them to be independent. And she just is not there yet. She is smart as a whip, but its just taking her a bit longer. Id rather hold her back and have to exceed vs pushing her and having her fail. All of Brielles teachers and therapist have been helping me get her to cooperate more for clinical therapy. She has been quite the pistol in clinical and it is beyond frustrating to try and get her to do ANY therapy for the first 15-20 min of a 45 session because she is screaming, hitting, kicking, arching away from us etc. We fight extremely hard for clinical therapy to be covered and to waste half of the session in fighting has been exhausting to say the least. I spoke with 4 of her teacher/aids and they have been doing great things in the classroom, as simple as a learning lesson about listening to your teachers, taking her aside to tell her she needs to cooperate and it is sure showing!!! The first 2 sessions after our meeting have been GREAT! It is sooo nice to go to clinical therapy and actually see her work and get some learning in! Have I mentioned how much I love her school?? ;) Brielle has been riding her horses yet. She is in love with them and riding. She truly looks forward to riding each and every week. Brielles PT has left her position so we have not had a Physical therapist since April 1st. Our old therapist from Birth to 3 has come back thru the clinic that we use!!!!!! I absolutely adore Lisa L and I have been having some ill feelings of Brielle falling backwards since she turned 3 vs excelling. It has been heavy on my mind and I have expressed those concerns with Lisa. Lisa will now be Brielles therapist until about June, until Country Kids gets their therapist going. Lisa brought up serial casting. We had botox Tuesday and I brought it up to her botox Dr who quickly agreed. She said she is very tight and it is time. May 1st Brielle will be getting casts on both of her legs. They will be the whole foot up to the middle of her calf. She can not take the casts off at all. No bathing. No swimming. :/ I am so very torn on how to feel. I feel awful that my little girl has to go thru this. She never asked for this. It isn't fair that she cant even swim in the summer or enjoy her baths that she loves so very much. But I feel hopeful we are doing the right thing and making her life better in the long run. Afterall, this is so so so temporary so we just have to keep muddling thru! There will be lots of tears I am sure. Lisa reassured me today once she got her hands on her that she is super super tight and she needs to be casted. She said casting will do wonders for her and her balance!! Her balance has been out of control. She falls all the time. She has come home from school and when asked how her day is, she says "Awful." I said how come "Because I fell down." She is almost 4 and I think she is starting to get embarrassed. If anyone asks her if shes okay after a fall she will hang her head and run off or sit there. I have been ignoring it and turning away if I see her do it, unless I see she is hurt obviously. The casts will be taken off on Wednesday and recasted every Thursday until they feel she is stretched enough. The casts will be placed to provide a constant stretch to her tight muscles. So for the next 4-8 weeks this will be our hurdle. But we overcame a huge 4 months hurdle in the hospital. We got this!