Day +898: Neuro-psych testing
Mina is finally having her neuro-psychologocial baseline testing. She spent an hour and half alone with the researcher last Monday in Palo Alto, and she's going back for more sessions the next two Mondays. Mina wasn't able to tell me much about the session, other than that she liked the doctor and she had fun. She did tell that they played "guessing games", and gave me the example that an animal says "Meow" and she guesses "Cat!" I already knew she knew that one, of course, but it was funny to hear her tell the story. Keri wasn't quite expecting to be alone for an hour and a half, so she hadn't brought anything to read or do. She said the researcher returned at noon and told her that Mina was "absolutely delightful" and that she had done very well.
We won't really know what anything means until we go down for the parent conference on the 26th, but it's nice to get that initial reaction anyway. Mina does very well in one-on-time with adults, so it's not too surprising that she would do well. Also, from the questionnaire we filled out, they appear to be looking for things like autism or anti-social behavior. There's no question that Mina is very advaned socially, so I'm sure there won't be any red flags from the questionnaire. We're more concerned about how well she'll be able to learn abstract concepts. Two things happened over the weekend that gave me some comfort, though. We have a "music maker" toy, a stringed tabletop instrument that comes with a sheet of notes that kids can follow in sequence. Each note is under a different string, and there is a line connecting them, so the child can pick out a tune by following the line. Mina has never been very interested in it, but yesterday I showed her how to do it, and she was able to pick out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" all by herself. It almost brought tears to my eyes, watching her slowly and carefully pick out all the correct notes. Then today I had the alphabet blocks out, and was spelling "dog", "cat", "dad", etc. Today was the first time she's been able to string the sounds together and figure out the word.
Mina really, *really* loves her friends. Last week she had another playdate with Anika, and when Keri arrived to pick her up, both the girls hid so Keri wouldn't find them. Keri finally had to drag Mina out of Anika's house kicking and screaming. Yesterday we went down to Santa Cruz to visit Mina's friend Maddie, who is just moving into an awesome new house with a view down a redwood-lined canyon to the ocean, Monterey Bay, and Big Sur in the background (on a rare clear day like yesterday). Mina was just so happy to be with friend. I had to drag her out crying too, although luckily she calmed down quickly in the car. It's funny, everyone has noticed that she just really has no time at all for boys. Isn't interested in them in the slightest. She wants to play princess, ballerina, and all the girly stuff, and all the animals and characters have to be girls too. The other day she was playing with my cell phone, and she was calling it her "Gamegirl". Her *Dora* Gamegirl.
Mina reached a very exciting developmental milestone recently, and I've completely neglected to write about it. She lost a tooth! We were initially less than excited, because of all our worries about potential tooth problems due to radiation and, to a lesser extent, chemo. And I'm sure Mina could pick up on that, even though she herself was really excited. But she finally lost it a week or so ago after it was loose for about two weeks. We can see the tip of the adult tooth just at the gum line, so hopefully everything will be fine. Her dentist doesn't seem too worried either. He says the teeth fall out when the new ones are ready to come in. Seems pretty simple, actually. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that it really is that simple for Mina!
Isaac has been taking the music thing to another level. Dear Amber brought him a little plastic saxophone for his birthday. It makes a sound kind of like a harmonica, so it's not too bad. And it has little colored keys that he can press and make different notes. He's thrilled. The other thing he's doing now is setting up a drum set and playing them all. Melissa's son Austin has a drum set, and I sat with Isaac for half an hour or so last time we were up there. He methodically goes through each drum, including the cymbals and not forgetting to get off the stool and stomp on the foot pedal for the bass drum each time through the rotation. He doesn't have any rhythm at all yet, but he doesn't just bang the drums as loud as he can, either. He is definitely listening and making a sound that is at the right volume. We had two sessions, one about half an hour and the other about 20 minutes. Since that day, he's been setting up his three drums in a row on the couch and doing the rotation among them. Not quite as satisfying as the different sounds between the snare, the kettle, the bass and the cymbals, but he enjoys it.
Last week was the "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" festival, a free music festival in Golden Gate Park. Every year a lot of big names come, and it's totally free. Last year we were able to go and enjoy one of the smaller stages, but this year it was harder because the crowds were bigger so the amplification was too loud for us to get near enough to the stage so Isaac could see. He must have picked up something, though, because ever since then he's been doing this funny nodding motion with his head when he plays his guitar. He's also starting every song with "1-2-3-4!". He asked me why they say that, and I said it was so that all the musicians could start at the same time. That seemed to make sense to him, because he's repeated back to me several times since then.
Today we went to the playground and brought bouncy balls. It was the first time he and I have had a real game of catch at the park. We were both playing with separate balls for a while, but then I threw his back to him a couple of times, and he started throwing it to me every time. It's amazing how nice it can feel to do something simple like play catch with your son.
Please keep my godmother Nancy Smith and her family in your thoughts and prayers. She's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, and is looking at a year of heavy-duty chemo. Also my brother-in-law Steve, who lost his mother to cancer last week, and his family.
We won't really know what anything means until we go down for the parent conference on the 26th, but it's nice to get that initial reaction anyway. Mina does very well in one-on-time with adults, so it's not too surprising that she would do well. Also, from the questionnaire we filled out, they appear to be looking for things like autism or anti-social behavior. There's no question that Mina is very advaned socially, so I'm sure there won't be any red flags from the questionnaire. We're more concerned about how well she'll be able to learn abstract concepts. Two things happened over the weekend that gave me some comfort, though. We have a "music maker" toy, a stringed tabletop instrument that comes with a sheet of notes that kids can follow in sequence. Each note is under a different string, and there is a line connecting them, so the child can pick out a tune by following the line. Mina has never been very interested in it, but yesterday I showed her how to do it, and she was able to pick out "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Row Row Row Your Boat" all by herself. It almost brought tears to my eyes, watching her slowly and carefully pick out all the correct notes. Then today I had the alphabet blocks out, and was spelling "dog", "cat", "dad", etc. Today was the first time she's been able to string the sounds together and figure out the word.
Mina really, *really* loves her friends. Last week she had another playdate with Anika, and when Keri arrived to pick her up, both the girls hid so Keri wouldn't find them. Keri finally had to drag Mina out of Anika's house kicking and screaming. Yesterday we went down to Santa Cruz to visit Mina's friend Maddie, who is just moving into an awesome new house with a view down a redwood-lined canyon to the ocean, Monterey Bay, and Big Sur in the background (on a rare clear day like yesterday). Mina was just so happy to be with friend. I had to drag her out crying too, although luckily she calmed down quickly in the car. It's funny, everyone has noticed that she just really has no time at all for boys. Isn't interested in them in the slightest. She wants to play princess, ballerina, and all the girly stuff, and all the animals and characters have to be girls too. The other day she was playing with my cell phone, and she was calling it her "Gamegirl". Her *Dora* Gamegirl.
Mina reached a very exciting developmental milestone recently, and I've completely neglected to write about it. She lost a tooth! We were initially less than excited, because of all our worries about potential tooth problems due to radiation and, to a lesser extent, chemo. And I'm sure Mina could pick up on that, even though she herself was really excited. But she finally lost it a week or so ago after it was loose for about two weeks. We can see the tip of the adult tooth just at the gum line, so hopefully everything will be fine. Her dentist doesn't seem too worried either. He says the teeth fall out when the new ones are ready to come in. Seems pretty simple, actually. We're just keeping our fingers crossed that it really is that simple for Mina!
Isaac has been taking the music thing to another level. Dear Amber brought him a little plastic saxophone for his birthday. It makes a sound kind of like a harmonica, so it's not too bad. And it has little colored keys that he can press and make different notes. He's thrilled. The other thing he's doing now is setting up a drum set and playing them all. Melissa's son Austin has a drum set, and I sat with Isaac for half an hour or so last time we were up there. He methodically goes through each drum, including the cymbals and not forgetting to get off the stool and stomp on the foot pedal for the bass drum each time through the rotation. He doesn't have any rhythm at all yet, but he doesn't just bang the drums as loud as he can, either. He is definitely listening and making a sound that is at the right volume. We had two sessions, one about half an hour and the other about 20 minutes. Since that day, he's been setting up his three drums in a row on the couch and doing the rotation among them. Not quite as satisfying as the different sounds between the snare, the kettle, the bass and the cymbals, but he enjoys it.
Last week was the "Hardly Strictly Bluegrass" festival, a free music festival in Golden Gate Park. Every year a lot of big names come, and it's totally free. Last year we were able to go and enjoy one of the smaller stages, but this year it was harder because the crowds were bigger so the amplification was too loud for us to get near enough to the stage so Isaac could see. He must have picked up something, though, because ever since then he's been doing this funny nodding motion with his head when he plays his guitar. He's also starting every song with "1-2-3-4!". He asked me why they say that, and I said it was so that all the musicians could start at the same time. That seemed to make sense to him, because he's repeated back to me several times since then.
Today we went to the playground and brought bouncy balls. It was the first time he and I have had a real game of catch at the park. We were both playing with separate balls for a while, but then I threw his back to him a couple of times, and he started throwing it to me every time. It's amazing how nice it can feel to do something simple like play catch with your son.
Please keep my godmother Nancy Smith and her family in your thoughts and prayers. She's been diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, and is looking at a year of heavy-duty chemo. Also my brother-in-law Steve, who lost his mother to cancer last week, and his family.
posted by Arne Olson @ 10:29 PM
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