31 for 21: Day 27—Fun after therapy today

A diagnosis of Down syndrome usually means some form of therapy for our children at some point during their lives.  For some it starts shortly after birth, some a half year into the journey and for some even later.  Of course there are probably exceptions to this as there are with all things in life and they take therapy for a short time or never.  For Katie, we were in contact with Early Intervention services as soon as we got home from our NICU stay.  We didn’t actually start any therapy until she was 6 months old and then it was a monthly thing, then bimonthly, then weekly and now we are even doing triweekly services with speech.  (just to clarify—2 days of speech are private and the other day is public with the school)  She has never had an actual session with a physical therapist, but occupational therapy did the job of both.  People ask me all the time how come we didn’t have a physical therapist.  At the time we were getting evaluations, there was a waiting list to get a consult with the therapist and I didn’t push for the services like I should have.  I didn’t even ask to be put on the PT list for a consult.  My OT, Missy, did a great job with Katie.  She would show me what to work on with Katie PT wise and she did just fine.  Therapy won’t work if you don’t apply what they are teaching your child.  You can’t expect your child to work an hour in therapy and that is it until the next week.  You have to apply everything they are teaching BOTH of you.  Learning never stops for any of us.  So, as we continue to move forward with therapy, we are steadily working on old and new skills and I don’t feel that therapy services will be stopping for us anytime in the near future.

For the first three years of Katie’s life, the therapists came to our home.  (It was lovely too!)  Now we go to them.  She loves therapy.  Those first initial visits were rough.  Katie has to grow into things I’ve noticed.  She screams and cries like her whole world has gone to pieces (and for her it has)  until she adapts after a few days or weeks in the new routine.  Just like school was at the beginning of the year.  Everyone at the therapy clinic can tell a big difference in how she was when she first started.  We started with new therapists last year when she turned 3 and moved out of Early Intervention.  My girl loves her therapists!  I have been lucky in that Katie has loved them all past and present.  Today they had a bounce house, hay rides, games and treats for the kiddos at the clinic.

Katie woke up at 1 am last night, stayed up for about 15 minutes, back to bed until 3 am.  Then she proceeded to stay up the rest of the night.  So, come therapy time today, she was exhausted.  She still had a great time, but was ready to go after she had an allergic reaction to the bubbles solution.  Here is some snapshots from today’s event.

We have to be appropriately dressed for these type of fall festivals! 

 

Katie and her speech therapist Mandy.  We love Mandy!

 

 

Fun things like the bounce house and the pumpkin ring toss!

  

Going for a hayride with Mandy. 

 

 

Katie doing her favorite thing ever—bubbles!! This girl loves bubbles. Pop, pop, pop,pop, pop!  That’s what Katie says. 

 

Note that Katie is wet and that she has her hand (both at different times) in the soap dishes.  She had soap all over her.  You can’t see it, but her hair is slicked down with soap on her right side.

 

Love this game!  Pin the “stache” on Mr. Frank, who also sees Katie as her OT.  We love Mr. Frank too!  Katie is like what the heck on the middle photo.  Mr. Frank is hanging sideways.  Kiley found it amusing and of course pinned it perfectly.  Great game for those who are looking for a twist on pin the donkey!

Okay, so remember Katie got her hands in the bubbles several times.  She ended up with bubbles in her right eye.  You can’t see it here, but her eye is really red and she had a rash pop up on her right cheek.  She was miserable by this time.  It was time to go.  She fell asleep about a minute after we got in the car, took a nap for a few hours (remember she had been up since 3 am), and when she woke up, the picture on the right tells how she was still feeling! 

My sweetheart did ok after an hour or so once she fully woke back up.  Her eye is no longer red and the rash is gone.  She is ready for more fun tomorrow!  It’s character day at school tomorrow.  She will be a character from the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar, along with the rest of her classmates.  Stay tuned…..