A Change in the Team

I had hoped to not see this day for a couple years, but I'm sad to say we are losing our much-loved Speech-Language Pathologist. She has helped Audrena grow tremendously in the past several months. We wish her the best in the future, and we will greatly miss her. Our SD School for the Deaf Outreach Team is currently trying to get someone else lined up. They didn't fail us before, and I'm sure they will find someone again who will fit in nicely as part of Audrena's team. Those who know me well can testify that I am a worrier, and I'll likely be worried until sometime next month when we hopefully get settled in with the new SLP.

In the meantime, Audrena has learned a couple of new words. She now says "eat" and pairs it with "more" to request more food. She brings me things from the cabinet, or she points at food on the kitchen counter and says, "More eat!" She also pinches her nose and says, "Pew!" Daddy taught her that one while he changed her diaper. She also says "zip" when we zip her coat, and occasionally she says "out" when she wants out of her booster seat at the dinner table. Overall, Audrena is just getting better with using her words to communicate her needs. She has figured out that words have meaning, and using them will get a response from us.

In talking with our SLP, she told me that no matter what happens, Audrena will be ok. She has already exceeded her IFSP goals with the amount of words she is using, and we are only halfway through the 6 months. She has also exceeded everyone's expectations at this point. I know that Audrena is doing fine, but it's hard to lose a valued member of Audrena's team. Hopefully her replacement will work out perfectly as well.

Also this week we have an appointment with Dr. L. to make sure Audrena is ready for the CT scan a couple weeks from now. I am starting to get a little nervous. I so badly want this scan to be clear so that she can have her second CI!