Catching Up..........

OK...so I have been really bad about getting back into blogging and I can't use "my computer is broke" anymore! We have had a busy couple of months! The biggest news is that Emma just had her 7th birthday. I can hardly believe that it has been seven years since we had the excitement of bringing Emma into our family. She continues to do exciting things everyday!! I feel pretty confident that she truly understood her birthday this year!! Emma was so excited to have her friends from school come over for the afternoon, but was so sad to see them go home. Another recent big event was out first Buddy Walk in Mason City. It was a huge success and so much fun for our family and friends. Words can't express how supportive our small community and school were of TEAM EMMA!! I look forward to a even bigger TEAM EMMA next year! Now we are in Christmas mode. There are so many things to finish up and get ready and it is coming so fast! Emma helped me wrap some presents the other night. It was a good time and she got to practice using her scissors. Cutting continues to be a very hard skill for Emma to master, but she will!!

School Has Started...

It has been a while since I have posted...our computer is broken...so no pictures :( Emma had a wonderful start to first grade. She was up early and spent most of the morning walking around with her new backpack on just waiting to go!! She was so excited to see her friends again and had many hugs to give. She had a wonderful first day and used her dynavox really well. I am so proud!! She has such a wonderful group of kids in her class, a great teacher, and her new aid seems to be an awesome match with her. I have a feeling we are going to see some very good things from Miss Emma this year!!!

Daisy Scout Day Camp

Emma and I spent the day at Camp Tanlgefoot for Daisy Scout Day Camp yesterday. It was a great day. All of the girls there were kindergarten or first graders. We broke into groups and spent an hour at each station before coming back together as a group to cook our supper over an open fire. We started our day in the craft house. Emma had a rough time getting going, but once she did...she did a good job. She made a picture frame, door hanger, sun picture, and bracelet. Next we were off to the the meadow for games. Emma enjoyed playing with the huge ball the best. While in the meadow we played a go fish matching game in the grass, bean bag toss, and learned to use the hula hoops like jump ropes. After a tour of Camp Tanglefoot we crossed the road and headed to the lake. The lake was Emma's favorite station. She absolutely loved being out on the pontoon boat. She especially liked it going fast! When we would go slow she was saying "go, go" because she wanted to go faster. After an hour on the lake we went back to the campsite to make an edible snack. We make a camp fire that we could eat. After our snack we all learned how to tie a knot in a rope. The girls in our group also got to help build the real fire so that we could cook our hot dogs and marshmallows. It was such a fun day - Emma enjoyed it so much. I was very pleased with how helpful, courteous, and nice Emma was to all of her new friends. She shared and took turns very well. She did get distracted by other groups that were close by and felt the need to go join in their fun. Definitely something she needs to learn is to stay where she needs to be and not to run off when she sees other stuff going on around her. Girl Scouts is going to be a great extra-curricular activity for Emma to be able to participate in. Emma will definitely be doing more events with the Girl Scouts in the future!!!

Computer Time

We have been so busy...not a very good excuse I know...we haven't gotten Emma much time on the computer lately. When she does we will usually set her up with the Starfall.com website. She has done it enough that she is able to click around herself. She remembers the letters to pick on that will get her to the activities she likes the most ~ like the baseball song! She was playing the other night and I wasn't really paying much attention to what she was doing, but when I did stop to see what she was up to I was really pleased with what I saw. She had found a page that you had to drag and drop the correct shape/letter in the correct spot. She had it figured out and was doing it really well. She is doing so great...can't wait for her to get back to school so that she can continue to practice the skills that she knows and also to learn all the new things waiting for in first grade!!

Occupational Therapy

We had a referral appointment to talk to an occupational therapist this past week. Emma is going to start going to therapy every week. She has some sensory issues with touch and sounds that they will try to help us with as well as work with her on developing the skills she needs. Some of the skills she will be working on will be buttons, writing, cutting with scissors, and sitting to work for longer periods of time. She can continue to have the therapy as long as she shows progress towards her goals every 12 weeks. To start helping her with the sensory issues we are going start "brushing" with her. To start we are going to do it when she show signs of wanting it and as part of our bedtime routine. It is just a soft bristle brush that we use on her arms, hands, legs, and feet. She does seem to really like it. She gets such a calm look on her face when we use the brush on her. We are also going to get a CD with special music to play in her room at night to try to help her get a good nights sleep. Going to sleep isn't hard for Emma, but she never sleeps and entire night. At this point...I will try about anything to help her sleep!!!

More Practice...

I have been working more with Emma so that she is getting used to choosing the right answer for what we are asking her since she is not consistently giving verbal answers. Here she chose her name right away and then did choose the right word for dad one her second attempt. We just did a quick run through this morning after she used her device to tell me what she wanted to put on when we were getting dressed. We were in the living room with Nolan near by and cartoons on t.v. ~ so she didn't do so bad with all of the outside distractions we had going on. The words I have programed so far are mom, dad, Emma, Nolan, Kelsey, Gizmo, red, blue, green, purple, black, and yellow. I am going to be programming these words next to start working on...cat, dog, bird, fish, ball, and car. I am choosing words that we can match to a picture as well as trying to choose words that she shows interest in hoping that this will help her want to continue to do them.

Great Eye Exam...

Emma had a great eye exam today ~ no problems. She is growing up so much!! She sat so nice and did everything that they wanted her to do...other than the drops!! Of course she had to spread the love...and gave lots and lots of hugs ~ even to the old guy in line behind us when we were checking out. Wouldn't the world be a great place if everybody could be as thoughtful and caring to each other as Emma is to everybody she meets!!