Hunting for eggs
Cool dude with big brother
Wild wild west
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Snow Day
The kids are having a great time - they brought up a new toy for Kieran from the basement as well as a few toys they haven't played with for a while. Easy entertainment!
Belated Hearing and Speech Update
I prepared this post a few weeks ago but never got around to typing a final sentence and posting it. I'm posting it now for those interested. The postscript is that Malcolm is now seeing the SLP who hosted the session I went to in January. He has had an assessment by her and will start receiving therapy sessions from her sometime in April.
...and for those of you who are wondering, we survived the storm with no problems - we did not lose power though it must've flickered in the night as the clocks needed to be reset this morning. There's a lot of snow but I don't think it's more than a few other storms we've had since we've lived here so for us, the storm did not live up to all the hype. All of us were home yesterday and the kids are still home today but Jan is back to work...beautiful sunny day out now!
Mary Ellen
We had some viruses plague us last month but we all seem to be well now. Unusually, Daddy was the most ill but seems to be doing better now. Grama and Grampa Rainey are back in Halifax and they boys are enjoying visits to their apartment and fun sledding outside. School is going well and we are in a good groove with all our scheduled activities.
The speech session I went to a few weeks ago was great. It is a system of hand cues that is intended to facilitate speech and later, reading and spelling. The basic premise is that individuals with Ds have difficulty forming and speaking words but can learn to do so if explicitly taught the individual sounds in each word, and how to blend those sounds. I think it will be great for Malcolm. I am hoping to get some private lessons with the SLP who has developed this system.
Malcolm had a hearing test last week. It was suggested to me by this SLP because I had mentioned to her that I have been frustrated that Malcolm seemed to be saying some words and sounds really well but then over the past several months has been substituting similar sounds. For example, he says "nore" instead of "more"and "boap" instead of "boat" where he used to be able to consistently say these words clearly.
The results of the hearing test didn't really get to the root of the problem. Because he is older and more able to follow directions, the audiologist was able to get a much more precise reading of his hearing than ever before. He has mild hearing loss in one ear that has "negative pressure". Basically this ear feels as if it needs to pop all the time so sound is mildly distorted. In the other ear, he has more moderate hearing loss. They believe it is due to a hole in his ear that has resulted from where an ear tube used to be. It can happen sometimes that the tubes to not fall out as they are supposed to and then the tissue around it becomes inflamed. Malcolm had an old tube removed in July when he had his tonsils taken out. The hope is that the hole will heal on its own. If not - more surgery to repair the hole.
The ENT doctor feels that Malcolm's recent hearing/speech issues may be caused by this hole - he thinks it is slightly bigger than in early October when he last looked at it. He believes Malcolm may have had an infection in the hole this fall that inflamed it further. There was no sign of infection last week so the doctor believes that the hole will start to get smaller. He will check it again in six months. He does not feel that the hole is so much bigger that there should be a significant change in Malcolm's hearing relative to the fall, so he's not sure that a hearing issue is at the root of Malcolm's recent speech struggles.
So at least we know Malcolm does not have any really significant hearing issues. Still not sure why the recent speech struggles but hopefully we can get back on track by following this speech program I just learned about. His learning centre teacher and EPAs are going to try to use it at school - all three were at the same session I attended, which is fantastic. Maybe it is just a matter of getting Malcolm to focus more on what he is saying.
...and for those of you who are wondering, we survived the storm with no problems - we did not lose power though it must've flickered in the night as the clocks needed to be reset this morning. There's a lot of snow but I don't think it's more than a few other storms we've had since we've lived here so for us, the storm did not live up to all the hype. All of us were home yesterday and the kids are still home today but Jan is back to work...beautiful sunny day out now!
Mary Ellen
We had some viruses plague us last month but we all seem to be well now. Unusually, Daddy was the most ill but seems to be doing better now. Grama and Grampa Rainey are back in Halifax and they boys are enjoying visits to their apartment and fun sledding outside. School is going well and we are in a good groove with all our scheduled activities.
The speech session I went to a few weeks ago was great. It is a system of hand cues that is intended to facilitate speech and later, reading and spelling. The basic premise is that individuals with Ds have difficulty forming and speaking words but can learn to do so if explicitly taught the individual sounds in each word, and how to blend those sounds. I think it will be great for Malcolm. I am hoping to get some private lessons with the SLP who has developed this system.
Malcolm had a hearing test last week. It was suggested to me by this SLP because I had mentioned to her that I have been frustrated that Malcolm seemed to be saying some words and sounds really well but then over the past several months has been substituting similar sounds. For example, he says "nore" instead of "more"and "boap" instead of "boat" where he used to be able to consistently say these words clearly.
The results of the hearing test didn't really get to the root of the problem. Because he is older and more able to follow directions, the audiologist was able to get a much more precise reading of his hearing than ever before. He has mild hearing loss in one ear that has "negative pressure". Basically this ear feels as if it needs to pop all the time so sound is mildly distorted. In the other ear, he has more moderate hearing loss. They believe it is due to a hole in his ear that has resulted from where an ear tube used to be. It can happen sometimes that the tubes to not fall out as they are supposed to and then the tissue around it becomes inflamed. Malcolm had an old tube removed in July when he had his tonsils taken out. The hope is that the hole will heal on its own. If not - more surgery to repair the hole.
The ENT doctor feels that Malcolm's recent hearing/speech issues may be caused by this hole - he thinks it is slightly bigger than in early October when he last looked at it. He believes Malcolm may have had an infection in the hole this fall that inflamed it further. There was no sign of infection last week so the doctor believes that the hole will start to get smaller. He will check it again in six months. He does not feel that the hole is so much bigger that there should be a significant change in Malcolm's hearing relative to the fall, so he's not sure that a hearing issue is at the root of Malcolm's recent speech struggles.
So at least we know Malcolm does not have any really significant hearing issues. Still not sure why the recent speech struggles but hopefully we can get back on track by following this speech program I just learned about. His learning centre teacher and EPAs are going to try to use it at school - all three were at the same session I attended, which is fantastic. Maybe it is just a matter of getting Malcolm to focus more on what he is saying.
Friday, March 21, 2014
World Down Syndrome Day 2014
Happy World Down Syndrome Day!
A few photos of Malcolm at Christmas time as well as one earlier in the fall holding his little brother.
If you have not yet seen this videoclip, suggest you take a minute - it's quite short but powerful.
Mary Ellen
A few photos of Malcolm at Christmas time as well as one earlier in the fall holding his little brother.
If you have not yet seen this videoclip, suggest you take a minute - it's quite short but powerful.
Mary Ellen
Sunday, January 19, 2014
Happy New Year!
We had another great holiday at the farm. My parents had a professional photographer come out to the farm and take extended family photo shots. We decided to have some baby photos taken at the same time. Below is a a photo of Kieran (at 4 months, 10 days old) and one of the two older boys - a silly shot where the photographer encouraged the boys to do something off the wall - not that much encouragement was needed! Much preferred by both boys to the more standard look ahead and smile. The problem was that after this shot Malcolm thought every shot was a funny shot and the result is that the best portrait shot of the family features Malcolm being silly.
At any rate we had a great Christmas at the farm seeing family and friends. We are settling back into life in Halifax. I will be attending a speech therapy training session next weekend and I intend to update you all on that.
In the meantime, we continue to enjoy our happy, healthy life. Donovan is doing rock climbing lessons and skating lessons this winter and I have resolved to try to have a few more of his friends over for playdates since we did very little of that in the fall. Malcolm is enjoying school but finds it tiring. We now have a family membership to Dalplex so while Donovan does his rock climbing lesson, Malcolm and Kieran are busy playing at the Funzone.
Hope that 2014 finds you all as content as we are,
Mary Ellen
At any rate we had a great Christmas at the farm seeing family and friends. We are settling back into life in Halifax. I will be attending a speech therapy training session next weekend and I intend to update you all on that.
In the meantime, we continue to enjoy our happy, healthy life. Donovan is doing rock climbing lessons and skating lessons this winter and I have resolved to try to have a few more of his friends over for playdates since we did very little of that in the fall. Malcolm is enjoying school but finds it tiring. We now have a family membership to Dalplex so while Donovan does his rock climbing lesson, Malcolm and Kieran are busy playing at the Funzone.
Hope that 2014 finds you all as content as we are,
Mary Ellen
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Rainey Family Christmas Letter 2013
-->
Family Christmas Letter – 2013
This
year was an eventful year – we experienced many wonderful things as a family.
In
February we went on our first ever warm holiday to spend a week in
Florida. We went to Disneyworld – the
Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom which was tons of fun. Mary Ellen liked seeing the shows but the
boys all liked the rides the best. We
also went to a manatee observation area, to Legoland and the Orlando Science
Center to see a special Star Wars display.
At the end of the trip, we met Aunt Lynn and Uncle Leroy for lunch and a
lovely visit, then stopped by a conservation area where, entirely by accident,
we ended up a few steps away from a rather large alligator out in the
wild! (We beat a cautiously hasty
retreat when we saw him…) We had
beautiful weather and a w onderful time.
On
June 6, we all left Halifax and headed to the farm. We spent six weeks in Ontario seeing family
and friends and enjoying ourselves. We
went on some great day trips and had some relaxing days with Grandma and
Grandpa and the boys’ aunts, uncles and cousins. We spent a great weekend in Toronto and made
it up to Camp Kintail to visit my brother and his family. We took in all the festivities of the local
Canada Day weekend including seeing Grandpa in the parade. Donovan loved the three-legged and
wheelbarrow races and Malcolm loved the fireworks.
Then
in mid-July it was back to Halifax.
Malcolm had his tonsils out and shortly after, Grama and Grampa Rainey
arrived back in Halifax. The boys spent
the rest of the summer enjoying the outdoors with Grama and Grampa Rainey –
digging at the beach, climbing on the playground, catching minnows in the lake
and playing tennis and soccer. It is
hard to imagine a better way to spend their August days!
On
August 20, 2013, we all welcomed Kieran George into our family. He was born a bit late and it was obvious
right from the start that he was ready to jump into life. He has grown into a bit, strong, alert baby
boy. His brothers love holding him and
talking to him and he is such a wonderful addition to our family.
This
fall, Malcolm started Grade Primary (Nova Scotia’s version of kindergarten). He is enjoying his class and gets great
support at the school. Donovan is
thrilled that his brother is attending school and they are both having a lot of
fun this year.
Both
Donovan and Malcolm took swimming lessons last spring, and Donovan took skating
and rock climbing lessons as well. He
also started piano lessons this fall, which he is really enjoying and doing well
with.
We
will be at the farm for Christmas this year and are looking forward to
that. We are also looking forward to a
visit from Grama and Grampa Rainey in Halifax earlier in December. We are looking forward to our first holiday
season as a family of five. Our very
best wishes to all of our extended family and friends!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Jan, Mary Ellen, Donovan, Malcolm and Kieran
Friday, November 1, 2013
Happy Hallowe'en!
Just a few quick pics from last night...
Kieran snoozed through trick or treating so he stayed home with Daddy. The boys and I went out with friends who live down the street - two boys the same ages. The kids had a lot of fun. Malcolm packed it in about halfway through - I brought him home and he was happy to have a drink of water and eat some cheesies on the couch. Malcolm was a storm trooper in the evening and had dressed as a superhero at school earlier in the day.
Kieran is a little over two months old now. He is big for his age but also very strong. He is generally a content little guy who is giving us more and more smiles, with hopefully many more to come.
Mary Ellen
Kieran is a little over two months old now. He is big for his age but also very strong. He is generally a content little guy who is giving us more and more smiles, with hopefully many more to come.
Mary Ellen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)