Eye's and more....

EYES
We went to the eye doctor, AGAIN, on Jan 4th. Well, Ella's eyes are crossing even worse, the left one slightly worse than the right. So it looks like surgery is in our immediate future. For the whole month of December Ella had some tearing issue going on with here eyes. She started off with just clear tears coming out of her right eye for about two weeks then had the nastiest greenist gunk coming out of both eyes. So we got on antibiotics because she had a sinus infection. As soon as the antibiotics were done the clear tears picked back up. The eye doctor said that she wanted to try some steroid drops in Ella's eyes and see if that helps the tearing before she does the surgery for crossing because obviously if she needs her tear ducts opened up she could do them at the same time. In the mean time she said we could give patching a try, so we are to patch her right eye for 2 hours everyday. Yeah, this isn't easy. It's easy in the fact that she will leave it on fine, but she cries when I say it's time to put it on, she runs into things while it is on and just seems sad and then cries again when it's time to take it off. Her glasses do not fit over the stupid patch so I'm sure she really can't see with the dumb thing on. What I have noticed since patching is that now her right eye crosses worse than her left......so does that mean the left is getting better or the right is getting worse??? I don't know. So back we go on Feb 1st to figure it all out. Hunter on the other hand is all done patching, it worked and we are done! Hooray!

SCHOOL

Kindergarten transition meetings are coming up soon. I have been stressing myself out about all of this. Ella will turn 5 on August 30th and because she turns 5 before the cutoff date of August 31st she is not allowed to return to her preschool class. She is currently integrated with an ECAEP class (kind of like Headstart, federally funded) and her class consists of 14 "typical" kids and 4 kids with varying needs. Apparently Ella has to follow ECAEP rules as far as age goes, even though we do not qualify for the ECAEP program. So because of 1 day, 4 hours if you want to be specific, Ella is being pushed on to Kindergarten. I have several concerns about Ella moving on to Kindergarten, that I won't specifically get into, including her safety, her size, and her maturity. I will say that had Hunter's birthday been on August 30th I would not have sent him to Kindergarten, and he has no special needs. So the school district wants to send my child, who is the size of a 2 year old, who has the language of a 2 year old (she was just re-evaled), isn't potty trained, and oh yeah has Down syndrome on to Kindergarten. I don't know, I just don't feel good about it at all. I see how much Ella has changed, how much better she is doing, from last years preschool to this year and think that one more year in pre-k and she would really be so much more ready for Kindergarten. So, I have been exploring my options and went and talked to the owner of the Montessori preschool that Hunter attended when he was 4 and they are willing to take Ella. I am going to go ahead and send her 3 mornings a week during the summer, which I think will be really good for her. I love that school! I really don't want to pay for school next school year, and am still going to try to fight for Ella to remain where she is, but it is definitely an option. It's all just exhausting and stressing me out. My opinion seems so logical to me BUT apparently not to the school district. We'll see where this goes.

FUN

Ella has been invited to a playdate with one of her classmates (typical classmates : ) so we will be going to her friends house on Sunday to play. I am SOOOO excited, oh yeah and Ella is too!

On MLK Day we went bowling with Hurricane Riley and his family! I was a little worried about how much time we would spend chasing Ella and Riley down the lane and about how many little fingers and toes would be crushed by bowling balls but the kids did fantastic!!!!! All 4 kids, the big boys, and the two littles had a blast! Ella would push the ball and stand waiting to see what happened, if she would only know over one she would put her hand to her forehead and say "aww man," but if she hit more she would throw her arms up and celebrate. Riley was hysterical, he celebrated no matter what jumping up and down all the way back. A fun time was had by all!!!!

"Hooray!" notice there is only one pin left up!

This is the giant smile that we saw every single time!

Crazy buddies!

I realize this is a crappy quality photo but I love it anyway : )

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