ECI Annual Review and other stories

I know! Nothing for months, and then 3 times in one week! What is this world coming to?!?  Well, I promised more posts, so I'm sure going to try...at least for this first week.

KP has had hearts on the brain lately.  When we are drawing, I tag every new piece of paper with "KP ♥ ".
Well, yesterday morning, we were drawing before school, and I tagged his paper, and he said, "heart", and then pointed to his chest.  He kept doing it until I said, "is there a heart right there?", to which he replied, "hai" (his version of yes).  I'm not sure where this kid is learning all of this, but it is certainly blowing me away.  I'm thinking that internal anatomy is not on the 2 year old curriculum....anywhere.  Yesterday afternoon, his teacher at school was writing on the parent board and asked the kids what they thought she should put on the board, and KP suggested a heart.  Because he loves us. :)

Today we had our annual ECI evaluation.  I wanted to link back to last year's post about his evaluation, but all I could find was this one about the appointments that came out of it.  As a refresher, last year, as a 14-month old, KP was testing at around a 6 month level.  ECI assigned us a Developmental Specialist and a Deaf Ed teacher, both to see him once a week.

In one year, he has progressed two -- according to his Deaf Ed teacher.  The results are in:
Cognitive: 33 months
Receptive and Expressive Language: 28 months
Fine and Gross Motor: 29 months
Self-help: 30 months
Social-Emotional: 30 months

At this point, the only reason he still qualifies for ECI is because of his diagnoses (VACTERL, unilateral deafness, cleft palate, etc).  Because ECI services will terminate when he turns 3, we also talked about his transition plan at that point, and the consensus seems to be that he may be able to skate by on his diagnoses, but if they base it purely on evaluation, he will not be eligible for PPCD (Pre-school Program for Children with Disabilities)!!  While it will be a sad day for us to say goodbye to our wonderful team that has helped get him to this point, it will be a glorious day as well, because it means that we have reached our goal.

We are so proud of our little man today (well, let's be honest, we are everyday).  He has faced so much, and has not only overcome, but excelled!