Preschool, Already!?

Yesterday, I went to look at a preschool for Leah. Yeah, she just turned 1 and won't be going to preschool until next year, but I have to sign her up a year in advance at one place! It's crazy, but Leah will be going to a private Jewish school and they fill up fast!! So, yesterday I went to observe. I have a hard time picturing her old enough to be going to school, but the school was cute. I'm being overly critical about it, because I was a preschool teacher! I have another school to look at before I make my decision. Question for those of you who have looked into schools or daycare...what were some of your concerns when sending your child? I asked the director of the program what they do to accommodate special needs kids and I told her that Leah was mild special needs, but that there are certain things that she will need help with. Obviously, I don't know what Leah will be doing in a year so it was hard to describe to her what I meant. I can only hope that her fine motor skills will improve, but what I told her was that things like placing beads on a string or other two handed activities are going to be a little more difficult for her. She said it doesn't sound like it should be an issue, which is good. Mind you this is not a huge preschool, it's one classroom, 3 teachers and about 13 kids. It's 2.5 hours a day, 2 days a week. So, her skills with special needs children are probably not as good as a bigger more accredited school. I have a lot to think about and I just can't get over that I have to think about it now!!! Leah is still a baby!!!

In other news, Leah had a speech re-evaluation yesterday. Well, Leah didn't because she slept through the whole thing, but I covered everything with the ST without her. I'm so glad I trusted my gut and got her re-evaluated, I really didn't trust the first ST. The first therapist said that Leah needed speech therapy weekly, while I would have been ok with it, I just didn't think that was the case! The therapist that came yesterday said that Leah does not need speech therapy and in fact thinks she is a bit more advanced in her speech then she should be! I knew this was going to be the case because really in the past month Leah's language has exploded! She talks all day long. She has a vocabulary of about 7 words. My biggest concern was that she wasn't saying Mama or and "M" sounds, the ST said to just keep working with her and it will come. Thank God! I'm so glad that Leah can finally catch a break! The speech therapist will come back to check on her in 3 months!

The casting is going well, Leah is still un-phased. I have noticed that her sleep is a little bit more interrupted at night, but she is still sleeping well. She wakes up, wants me to pick her up and she falls asleep on my chest then I put her down and that's it. Right now that's probably once a night, she was not waking at all before the cast. I have to admit that I love when she falls asleep on me, it's just so special. That's probably the one reason why I don't mind that she is waking up!

I have seen so much more usage of lefty lately. It's amazing! She is really trying hard to use it and in general I just see her looking over at it, which is awesome!! Like I've mentioned a million times, Leah has a huge issue with awareness, so just looking at her hand is amazing! This morning we went to the grocery store and Leah's pacifier fell out of her mouth and onto the seat of the shopping cart (on the cart cover of course!)and on to her right side, she wanted it back in her mouth and I watched her take her left hand and put it over the paci to try to pick it up. She still doesn't have the grasp, but the mere fact that she reached over to her right side with her left and tried to grab it is just unbelievable!! I'm so excited about seeing how much more awareness and ability to use that hand she is going to get over the next couple weeks! Awesome, just awesome!!!!