The Higgins Family: Everything Embry: July 13

ECI

This week we had a full developmental evaluation done on Embry. Her speech is definitely lacking and in my mind is WAY behind .Girlfriend just doesn't like to talk, well not actual words. I've brought it up at her last two well checks and been really concerned. At 15 months the pediatrician told me she's fine- with a few words and signs she was at the "five word" mark they want to see. At 18 months I knew she was behind with books and articles I had read, but again after interacting with Embry, the doctor tried to calm me down and said she clearly understands just fine and that's the important part. I asked about ECI -Early Childhood Intervention Services (which is an amazing resource in Texas, by the way) and she reluctantly gave me their card and said that she didn't think Embry would qualify, but I could call if I wanted. In Texas, children under the age of three are eligible for free developmental screenings and if they are behind, free therapy. And all of it comes to you, in-home. It's amazing.

So over a month ago, I decided I had enough of Embry not talking, surely she was SO far behind that we would qualify for speech therapy. Not surprising, we had to wait over a month for the evaluation, but it finally arrived this week. It doesn't matter if you have a concern about speech, or physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc.. they do the comprehensive developmental evaluation, which was actually very cool. Thursday morning a team of therapists arrived at the house. They come and do what's called the Battelle Developmental Inventory. It took close to 90 minutes. It was a mixture of about half questions for me to answer and half activities for Embry to participate in.

Let's just say it was a very fun hour and a half. Embry was SO interactive, so social, had everyone laughing and praising her. I realized that they probably see mostly very delayed kids. Almost every activity they "tested" her on, I would see them looking at each other and heard things like- "wow", "amazing", "never seen that one". It was a very ego boosting event for this mama! Hah. Some examples of the activities were- One therapist had a mom, dad, brother, and baby figurine. She'd hold up two, say the baby and the dad and say- where is the baby's daddy? And Embry would grab the correct one, every single time. Another one- she set out a toy shoe, ball, cup, and fork and asked- which one do you put on your foot? And Embry grabbed the shoe and tried to put it on her own foot. Same with when asked- which one do you throw? She picked up the ball and threw it. She would get so excited when they'd put away one activity and pull out another. One was hilarious- she put a small toy in her hand and then put it behind her back and had Embry guess which hand it was in. Well Embry just wanted the toy and she finally gave it to her and Embry started to play the game with the therapist. Then when she was done, she walked over to another woman and had her hide it behind her back. Everyone got a kick out of that one. She did great on matching shapes, doing puzzles, knowing words like "behind" and "under" (things I didn't even realized she knew).

The questions for me were scattered throughout the activities and on a bunch of occasions Embry would answer the question herself, not necessarily by talking, but it impressed the team. Like when I was asked- Does she show emotion when loved ones come home, like when Dad comes home from work? And she ran over to the carport screaming and saying Dada. Seeing how well Embry was doing in the activities I almost tried to be even more conservative on my answers and hope that maybe we'd qualify. I was trying hard to be critical and tough about each answer, like when asked does she communicate correctly for greetings and partings, I made it clear she STILL DOES NOT SAY THE WORD HI! Yes, she waves, gets excited, waves bye-bye, says bye-bye, blows kisses, totally understands everything about hellos and goodbyes- she does not SAY hi!

Anyway, when the entire thing was done, two therapists who'd been independently scoring the tests combined and gave me the final scoring. Embry passed, with flying colors. She not only doesn't qualify for any speech therapy, in the Communication category she scored 5 months ahead. Hmmm. I obviously was thrilled with the entire thing, but at the same time, I really wanted some speech therapy, free speech therapy. I realize I could take her to a private speech therapist, but with the amount of medical costs we already have this year, if it's not something we need, and since she's technically not behind, at this point we're not going to do it.

I knew Jacob was in court so I quick texted him a picture of the scores and told him to call for details when he could. We finally talked around lunch time and he said when he first saw the score sheet he got teary eyed thinking back to October 2012 when we were so scared for our baby's future and were told by medical professionals, we'd be lucky if she is even average. That totally got me. So despite her not saying much more than 20 words, she's ahead in ALL developmental categories and I am just SO thankful. So I am going to try my best to chill out, keep doing what I'm doing, keep reading to her, keep talking to her non-stop, and before long I know she'll be a little chatterbox.

If you can't see the photo, here's how the categories break down and what age, in months she scored. (She is 21 months old).

Adaptive: 23 months
Personal-Social: 36 months
Communication: 31
Communication (expressive only): 26 months
Gross Motor: 35 months
Fine Motor: 34 months
Cognitive: 26 months

First Movie

Okay, so I know 21 months is really young to see a movie in a movie theater, but Studio Movie Grill in Dallas has a Children's Summer Series where Mondays-Thursdays at 11:00 am they show an old kids movie for $2.00 a ticket. The movie changes each week and early on in summer I had looked at the schedule and thought that pretty much the only one I thought would hold Embry's attention was the original Rio movie. Lots of bright colors, songs, etc. So Tuesday we had an open morning and I decided to go. They didn't even charge me for her ticket, so it literally only cost us $2.00. It's one of those dine in theaters, so there was a lot of space and we got to eat lunch at the table in front of us. She got antsy about 30 minutes in and she got down and walked around a bit, then settled back down. We left about 15 minutes before it ended because I had to pee, haha.

Outings

Loves dancing along at story time

Our neighbors (two doors down) have a gorgeous pool and are very generous with letting us and other neighbors use it! We had a fun afternoon with Lauren and Eliot there Tuesday.

There's a perfect large "kids" area where Embry had a ball playing with her toys.

Walking home with her bucket of toys after a fun pool day!

Steel City Pops! Watching them make the popsicles

Embry, Eliot, and a school friend of Eliot's and his twin brothers! E was lucky to be with four cute boys ;)

Got our free 7Eleven Slurpees on 7/11

Embry and I went to a baby shower for our friend Danielle on Saturday morning

Embry was very helpful opening gifts with Danielle. ;)

Saturday night we had a friends 30th birthday party. They had an area for the kids which was fun!

This morning we already have been to the Children's Aquarium

Embry was a little obsessed with pushing the stroller around HERSELF

Stingrays smiling at me ;)

Five Year Anniversary

Friday July 11 Jacob and I celebrated 5 years of marriage. We both agree it's crazy how fast the past five years have flown. We also can't believe this means we've lived in Dallas for five years. Last year we had talked about hoping to go on an anniversary getaway and I actually feel like I could leave Embry, but with the circumstances of the year we've had, it just wasn't possible. We joked that our gifts this year were cancer and car. My sister, Ruthie, pointed out that the five year traditional gift is silverware...and my new car is silver. Hah! I'm just glad to have gotten a night out with my husband, with good food, with Embry in the care of our awesome neighbors and got a to reflect on the past five years, everything we've been through and everything we're looking forward to. So thankful that the three of us are happy and HEALTHY. That's what counts.

We went to the Bishop Arts District of Dallas and tried a restaurant I've been dying to try for over a year, Tillman's Roadhouse. It's definitely a "foodie" restaurant and had some of the best food we've EVER eaten. We walked around the area and knew we had to end up at Emporium Pies, an infamous specialty pie shop. We split a piece of pie (and two scoops of ice cream) and couldn't even finish it. We then walked around the area a bit more, walked through two art galleries and headed home to smooch our sleeping sweetie! It was the perfect day.

July 11, 2009

Love!

Ready to go out sans Embry =)

Family pics =)

Amazing drink! Vanilla/fruity, but spicy!

Appetizer: Trio of Fries- chili-lime, Bourbon sweet potato and Parmesan french fries

Sea bass is one of my all time favorite meals, so when it was the special of the day, I HAD to have it! It was delish! Jacob had a gourmet burger with the best thing we've ever tasted....goat cheese tator-tots....melt in your mouth!

Shared side dishes...yummm.

Emporium Pies

Double decker apple pie =)

Photos

Monday morning I was busy in the kitchen and realized Embry had been dipping her toothbrush in Athena's water and "brushing" her teeth for a few minutes. GAG!