Birthday Madness

Amelia turns 3 on Saturday. I can hardly believe it. Time has flown. Nestor and I are having a gathering of family and a few friends with kids. It will be chaos as we are expecting 34 people in our little one bedroom 725 (?) sq. ft. apt. Thankfully our landlord has given us access to a vacant apt upstairs to put some of our stuff into for the afternoon (stroller, some toys, etc.). My parents, sister with nephew, cousins (married w/ 2 kids) and Aunt are all schlepping up here for the toddler party. It's so sweet and we really appreciate all the effort they're putting out to get here. Nestor's family will be here too and it looks like even Spike, Mr. Collegiate himself may make it (and he's studying non-stop for his MCAT's, so we really appreciate the effort). It's crazy.

Tomorrow is Amelia's IEP meeting. That's the meeting where we sit down with Amelia's service coordinator, Tamara and her new CPSE Administrator, Alice with all the evaluations that were just done, doctor's "letters of necessity", etc. and figure out a mandate for her for the next 3 years. I'm pretty nervous about getting everything for Amelia that she needs. All her therapies -- in and out of school will be decided here, so we have to be really clear and concise about what we want. Alice seems to be lovely, I spoke to her briefly on the phone, so I expect it will go well. I'll let you know.

We decided last week that we will be extending Amelia's EI services. With everything that has to happen before she goes to school, there would be a lapse in services. Even though she won't be getting Speech, our PT has extended his time in NYC for another month, so she will be getting all of her PT, 2/5 of her OT and all of her special instruction. Better than just lying around for a few weeks while we get everything in order. We can pull Amelia out of EI anytime and put her into school then.

Yesterday we went back to UCP for Amelia's 2nd fitting of her replacement braces. They look great. We chose "Tinkerbell" as the fabric on the braces and it looks really cute! Getting the braces fitted is like having a wedding dress fitting. You keep having to go back for them to tweak it. Anyway, we get the completed pair on Monday morning --YAY! Also, we ordered a new stander for Amelia from a picture I found online. It looked so petite and utilitarian -- no bells and whistles, just a simple place to stand up. WRONG! Michelle,PT at UCP ordered this monstrosity for us and....WOW...forget it. I couldn't put Amelia into by myself and it was HUGE! It was really wide, no castor's to move her around and she hated it the moment we finally got her into it. It was not user friendly and I was really upset that I had put Michelle through all the trouble to order it. She was, as ever, gracious about it and even lent us her Gecko stander which Amelia is doing great in. It's low to the ground (her Rifton stander was high off the ground) so I'm hoping we can put her in it a little during her birthday party so she can play with her little friends at their level. We were also supposed to get a Rifton gait trainer (like a walker) to borrow, but the one that the supplier brought was sized for a young adult -- I think it was actually bigger than our apt! Forget that. We don't really have much use for a gait trainer until the warmer weather anyway because there's no room in the apt. to move around much in it (it's fun to take to the park or up to the house), so we'll get another loaner in spring.

On a personal note, I've lost 17 pounds. I'm getting to the gym 4-6 times a week and really counting calories. It seems to be working and I'm making smarter choices and really not hungry, so that's great! I'm just measuring everything out and keeping it healthy. I went to the Gap the other day to replace the one pair of jeans I had that fit, that were in our stolen suitcase and guess what? Size 8! Truly and I can even breathe in them. I'm very motivated to keep it going -- I'm beginning to feel and look like me again and that's all I need to stay on track.

It looks like Nestor will be heading out to LA next week for pilot season (when all the Network's greenlight their new shows for next season and actor's flock to Hollywood to audition for them), so Amelia and I will be flying solo for awhile.

A shout out to Jodi for kicking my butt to update this blog. I've been a little hectic, but love getting our updates out there. Thanks for the shove!!!!!