Random stuff

Dakota's school is finally done with all the testing on him. They did a bunch of tests and even had outsiders come in to evaluate him. Yesterday, we had a meeting with the school to go over everything and it took over an hour. On all fine motor skills, Dakota's results were equivalent to a 4 year old. His eye/hand coordination was equivalent to a 3 year old. He has problems just catching a ball. His mind processes things so slowly that it takes him a few second to react. Just like when you ask him a question or tell him to do something, he has to think about it for a little bit before he can answer. Also, he can only concentrate on one task at a time. For example, if his teacher asked him to go put up his school bag and then go sit down, he would only put up his bag. He constantly needs reminders to do the second step. He does not have average intelligence - and that statement makes me sad. Dakota needs many modifications in the classroom. He can't do any of the work on his own. By the time he is finished writing his name, all the other kids are done with their papers. He is really slow at writing and he doesn't write very well. All the testers and teachers pretty much said that Dakota had trouble focusing on what is going on, and he often just spaces out. A couple of people said that Dakota's gait when walking is not typical (like walking on tiptoes, large steps, or very close together steps). And one of the testers said that he has quirky behaviors and his speech and body movements were awkward and jerky. Anyway, the school basically said that Dakota doesn't have any learning disability - they said that he has a health impairment. His doctor has diagnosed him with ADD and the school seems to agree with this diagnosis. Surprisingly, they are not going to hold Dakota back this year. They've made up an "Individual Education Plan" for him, that they are starting today. Basically, he will only be in his regular classroom about 75% of the time. The rest of the time he will be in Special education classes (Speech, Occupational Therapy, Language Therapy, Math, and General Academics).

A couple of weeks ago was the Kindergarten awards assembly. Only parents whose child was getting an award were invited to attend. When we got a note saying that Dakota was getting an award, honestly - John and I were surprised. We knew it wasn't going to be for academics but we weren't told what it was for. Anyway, Dakota's teacher made up an award just for Dakota. It was called Dakota Digs Dinosaurs Award and it said that it was for "showing the most excitement for learning about and playing with dinosaurs". Dakota was so proud. It really meant a lot that his teacher did this for him.

Mikayla's birthday was on April 1st. She is 3 years old now. She is able to start preschool this next school year but we are going to wait. Honestly, I don't think she will need 2 years of preschool before she goes to Kindergarten. And I want her to stay little for as long as possible. Having her start school at age 3 would just seem like pushing her to grow up. She already knows her ABC's and she can count to 20 with only missing 2 numbers. We've even heard her count to 10 in Spanish. She knows several Spanish words - thanks to Dora. She even knows some Chinese words because of the cartoon Ni Hao Ki Lan. She loves that show. Mikayla just seems to soak up everything she hears. She knows words to a lot of different songs. She just seems very intelligent for her age. The only thing we can't get her to do is use her potty chair. She is very independent and likes to do things herself, so I'm surprised she is not potty trained yet. Her brother was hard to potty train as well. I don't know what the deal is.

I think it's ok to announce this now - my brother Ryan and his long-time girlfriend Kayla are having a baby! I'm so excited to be an aunt again. I hope they get married. They've been together for a long time. There aren't many girls that like to go hunting and fishing, so I think that Kayla is perfect for Ryan. They already bicker like a married couple (well, ok, worse than a married couple). But they've been doing that for years and are still together so I think they will last.