2010 a year in review

The beginning of the year began in Jersey and it will be ending in Jersey.

I’ve read through some of the past few post to get myself in the mindset of what went on this past year and it has definitely been eventful. Ups, downs, good, bad, blessings and curses. In the beginning of the year, I recall how much Lucas bursted out with his little personality with the rest of the kids in Jersey. It just made our considerations to moving back to Jersey so much more realistic. I wish we can gather all the kids so he has the abundance of playmates but Cali is where we have to be at this moment in time.

We also started potty training in January of this year and we are STILL ending the year potty training. I won’t completely blame him. It was a mixture of inconsistency, his behavior and stubbornness, his father NOT working with me in being consistent. One of our resolutions is to be more consistent LOL. Mama wants to wean him!!

Valentine’s Day is always extra special when you have the 2 of the most important men in your life to spend it with. Our trip to Bay Area Discovery Museum also let us know as parents that we have to take him out more often to cultivate his already curious and silly mind and to just experience life.

I also forgot to mention is that I FINALLY continued back on my academic career and I’m actually ending it in a shaky note. TBC with that story..if only I knew what is going on….financial aid issues sucks major donkey butt…enough said. With the schedule for my own classes, Lucas’ schedule, and everything in between, this year just blinked to the end of December REAL FAST. Most days, I don’t even know how I got through it. Some days, I sit back and soak in my blessings, other days, are really, really bad. All in all, I am human and have my moments, I never claimed to be perfect but I do know that I try my best.

Lucas has made some great strides (IMO) although his teachers at school believe that he should be way ahead of what they evaluated him to be in May of this year. 3/410 I will never forget when he signed to me for the first time I LOVE YOU. Melts my heart

Our 2 year old annual IFSP meeting was held 2 days before Lucas turned the BIG 2. It was quite a meeting. For one they pointed out that I missed a lot of days and actually noted it in his IFSP report. Sorry for wanting to spend time with my family in Jersey…sorry for getting sick…sorry for wanting to take some personal days…Then the BIG A word was discussed…autism…that made me ball my eyes out. Low and behold at the end of the year, we’re finally making some leaps to getting therapy by January. Thank you God!

And one of the highlights of 2010 was our AMAZING, life changing trip to the John Tracy Clinic. One of the best life experiences for any deaf or hard of hearing parent SHOULD experience. We all go through a roller coaster of emotions and events and especially one with other diagnosis and ailments in addition to their deafness, we all should experience happy events in our lives and turning to the John Tracy Clinic and participating in their distance learning classes was the best decision as a parent. If someone out there is wondering if there is such a godsend of a place to help not just your child but your family….do not walk, do not think, JUST DO IT. GO to the John Tracy Clinic!!

AGBell is another nice resource to have. I subscribed to their free 6 month free membership. [here’s to hoping that i get a paid annual membership?!?! positive thinking!!] After that life changing experience, I was stressed out about what I had to face when we went back to reality. I had and still do, have major withdrawals of JTC and the rest of the families that we’ve grown to become extended family and whom are located ALL over the world, and we still maintain contact as much as possible, thanks to ME and the invention of FB and it’s shnazzy invention of allowing its members to create groups….it makes our world that much smaller and easier to get in touch with our distance families.

I had a laundry list of things to get done….advocate for Lucas. Educate myself in what is to come, schedule a plethora of specialist appointments, assessments and setting his schedule for the remainder of the year. With me going back to school, and back to the busy schedule, it was a bit of a difficulty getting Lucas and myself back in that grove. Oh and in between that, we had tubes put in Lucas in September from the excessive fluid stuck in his ears. It was definitely NOT as traumatizing as the cochlear implant surgery…THANK YOU GOD!

The rest of the year was just a summary of me talking to various advocates and those of general concern, and doing some hard core advocating on behalf of Lucas. I believe that the person I am today, good or bad, aggressive and often [although Noah will tell you MORE THAN OFTEN] times bitchy has paid off. If I had been the mom to accept things as they are, believe what she’s told, and take whatever it is for what it is, we would have NEVER gotten to where we are. THAT alone makes me so glad that I made the decision to BE home and BE with my child through his very important years – despite our hardships.

In terms of speech for Lucas, we continue to work hard every day on his speech. He’s saying “bubbles” clearly, the alphabet, counts from 1-10, and is slowly continuing to speak spontaneously with sign. [I was attempting to upload the video footage on youtube but that was a major FAIL. I’ll try again later on.] Other words such as milk, hot dog, cookie, cracker [pronounced more like oo-EE, and ahh-ERrrr], toy, meme [mirror], and has begun [in the past month] to repeat almost everything and ask what everything is… and I, answer enthusiastically in hopes that it will retain and he will repeat – CLEARLY.

Another year is quickly approaching and I wanted to be able to summarize our crazy and busy year to start another crazy and busy year ahead. I wish all the readers and those that happen to stumble on my site a happy and healthy holiday. May you have been as blessed as we were, despite the crazy moments without God by our side, nothing would be possible. I’m also wishing all you parents to special needs children another year of blessings, daily miracles of sound, speech and that your child goes through their tests, assessments, and what have you without putting you through the ringer. You all know what I’m talking about [the pulling of the implants and aids off…the noncompliance of hearing tests…you get the point..] Here’s to keeping our cool, keeping our focus and continuing to give our kiddos the best life has to offer – and the best sounds!! Know that we will continue to go through our ups and downs, good days and bad but always remember God is with us, as is our families and loved ones who are willing and able to support us and keep them close. I look forward to hearing from you all more often than this year. I know that I haven’t been the best person for others because of our busy schedule but I vow to be a better friend to you all. We love you and we support you like you support us!!!