31 for 21, Year 2

Yep. Already behind the posting schedule for this year's 31 for 21. I really enjoyed doing it last year and will give it my best again this year.

Some update about Miss E:

• We're working through her transition stuff for preschool beginning in January. I have to say, it's been a bit of a pain. The Education Services Center social worker that is arranging all the meetings and evaluation only works part time. So I received a call from our EI specialist who said, oh the at-home is XXX day/time and the multifactor eval is XX day/time. Without even consulting whether it was actually convenient. I questioned having an eval, which forms the basis for E's IEP meeting, on the 2nd of December with the IEP meeting to be a couple weeks later (you know during the last week before the holidays or over the holidays) because I don't think it's going to be enough time, nor am I going to give up our break time to schedule meetings that they could adjust. It's not the school district, so I'm not concerned if I'm 'THAT' parent. And even if I become THAT parent, so be it.
  
• E had all her testing from her therapists. For OT, she even moved from the 2nd percentile up to the 5th in skills! Her OT said that it was unusual for kids to move up, but we'll take it. OT is E's strongest skill and even though she's delayed, she's always had good fine motor skills. In PT, we're working on jumping, kicking, stepping over stuff (E doesn't always navigate over obstacles) and riding a bike! In speech, she still has no words, but 50+ signs (Thanks to Signing Time). I swear she adds 2 - 3 signs a week. It's hard to keep up.
• E has become a real stink bug. To my recollection, she's a total 2 year old, defiant, stubborn, selective hearing, etc. She won't eat certain foods she loved, signs for ice cream all the time, will turn into a noodle if you pick her up to remove her from a situation. Some days it's funny, but others it's incredibly exasperating. She's also vocalizing her demands (no words, just grunts and squawks) so that's fun (**rolls eyes**)
  
• She's eating with a spoon and doing a pretty good job most of the time. Yesterday, though, she did spill yogurt all down her, but I think it was her way of not having to eat it because her throat is still a little sore.
• She has a sore throat because she had her adenoids out, turbinates shrunk, and a tube put in her right ear (because the weenie who did them in December didn't get it seated and, needless to say, we no longer see him for that and other issues). Hopefully, this will help her with the constant fluid in her hear which causes mild hearing loss. While she was under, they also did a BAER test, which came back perfect (e.g., no neurological hearing loss).

More about Down Syndrome (October is DS awareness month and the motivator behind 31 for 21), E, M, Big Daddy and life as we go along.