Thursday, February 26, 2009

Alexis' 1st Day of School

Alexis had a great time on the bus and her first day of school.
She played really hard all day, she even rode on the rocking horse (pulling his mane as well). She was a riot when she got to pick Nemo stickers to decorate her cubicle! She did really well with my "changed" plans to get her fed all day (they eat a later lunch 12-1:30). Today will be the first day for swimming, so we'll have to see how she does. She was really tired last night after school but too excited to go to bed. Needlesstosay, she woke up pleasantly this morning but wasn't really ready to go to school (she gave some feedback on why she needed to get out of her pajamas and get into her school clothes). Other than that, it's a very early morning for the whole family (especially MOM). She is already on the bus and I will be driving down to school shortly.
Will post more and pictures later.
Catherine

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Guest Request.... School Schedule

Someone asked my mom to ask me to post something about Alexis' schedule for school.
I will post what we know.
Alexis will start school next week at Perkins, probably Wednesday. The bus will arrive out our house at 7:15am, hoping to load her in (take some pictures) and make sure that they are ready for the journey.... It's 30.2miles but it takes 45 mins (without traffic). We will all hope that they can arrive for 8:30am arrival. At 8:30, Alexis will start her day.
I don't know what typical will be because she will have a lot of therapy appointments and a lot of child-time. From what I've seen of the classroom, it's BUSY. Basically they run the ship in a very organized fashion but it's an interesting dance to see. Basically there are 7-8 kids and about 7-8 adults with them at all times, then there is an army of therapists that come and go throughout the day for different needs. Every 30mins the children rotate to the "next" activity. Alexis will not get bored. Here's a copy of a "Monday" schedule, not Alexis' but one that represents the craziness of the day
Monday
8:30-9 Arrival
9-9:30 Eat
9:30-10 Prep for Swim
10-10:30 Swim
10:30-11 Change from Swim
11-11:30 O&M (Orientation and Mobility, the process of unifying your visual inputs with the physical therapy of walking / being mobile)
11:30-12 Computer (working on technology / aids in the classroom)
12-1:30 Lunch (everyone eats together, very very busy...)
1:30-2 Books (reading time)
2-2:30 Homebook (working on documenting what she did for the day... note: Alexis would probably take a nap if they went swimming in the morning)
2:30-3 PT (Physical Therapy)
BUSY BUSY BUSY DAY.
Perkins is still working on getting Alexis' specific schedule written down. What I have seen though is they are working very hard and one of the teachers said "everyone is trying to clear their calendars to find time for Alexis". :-) Makes us so happy.
At 3pm, the bus will pick her up again and bring her home (30.2miles... probably 1 hr). We'll probably see her at home between 4-4:15.
No matter what, it'll be an ADJUSTMENT for Alexis to be regularly up and out of the house by 7:15. Hopefully after 2 weeks, Alexis will be in the "swing" of things and all will be very easy for her to manage.
We're getting excited, nervous and thrilled for her new adventure!!
Love to everyone,
Catherine, Jessica, Alexis & Matt

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

First Time for Everything... Posting Montage...

Hopefully this will work out...
Alexis and Jessica were photogrpahed at Perkins in December. Here are the pictures. We hope you will enjoy them.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Night of Music and Community



Friday Jan 30th was the Band Jam fundraiser for the Lydon Family. Paul Lydon is a co-worker of Matt's who was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Geherig's Disease). Eisai Research Institute put on a fundraiser for the Lydon Family and many groups from ERI came together to make it happen. Matt's guitar class was one of 5 of the performing groups. Here are some action photos of Pine Island Soul on stage. One of Matt's co-workers also took video of the evening, so when video becomes available, we'll post it so you can hear Matt rock-out!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Alexis accepted to Perkins

Some news to update everyone on Alexis' status with Perkins. On Friday we got the phone call that said, YES SHE'S BEEN ACCEPTED TO PERKINS. :-) Unfortunately though, we think Alexis suspended frequently for disrupting the teachers and administrators from their other jobs. She had 12 people watching her and she was a MAJOR HAM! HA HA!
We will determine on Monday when we officially start, probably some half days and then hopefully full time. We'll see how well Matt, Jessica and I adjust. It'll be great fun for Alexis, the teachers and the classroom are a lot of fun.
We start this week the horribly sad process of saying goodbye to our Early Intervention Therapists. It'll be quite sad sad sad. When we "graduated" from the NICU / Special Care Nursery, we could always go back to the hospital to visit with them. For the Early Intervention therapists, there are few rare times that we can visit when they are all together (& when Alexis is awake & not at school).
Thanks for staying tuned to us.....Catherine

<www.perkins.org .... Go to LEARN, On Campus Programs, Deafblind (here's the website for that directly http://www.perkins.org/oncampus/deafblind/)

ENJOY!!!!