Moving on up.....

The last few days have just been full of emotion. I've shed many tears already, and I know more are coming. I've never been good with change, or the obvious passing of time. And well, this week.. it's all over the place! I'm feeling so proud, and happy and my heart is bursting for these two precious souls I brought into this world. So here are my Anna and Aiden updates...

AIDEN
Last year at this time we were sad. We had to make the tough decision to hold Aiden back in first grade. It reminded us that even as far as he'd come, he was still recovering from a dramatic loss of speech due to an unknown episode. We were confident in our decision, but sad to realize Aiden would need to remain at UCP school, and have to watch his friends move on while he stayed back in 1st grade.


Well... today, the day before the last day of school, Aiden's class held a young authors tea at school. Each child wrote and illustrated a book, and read it to the other children, teachers and parents in the room. Aiden PROUDLY read his story, and you could see the happiness on his face at the opportunity to share his creation with us. His reading aloud was beautiful. We spoke with his teachers as well, and it's not a question that Aiden is promoted to 2nd grade. We couldn't be happier, or feel more blessed by this news. We received Aiden's IEP update, and he has reached so many of his goals, that they essentially had to re-write to raise the bar for him.


As we left his classroom today, I realized it was the last time I would be leaving that particular classroom. The room he's been in for 2 years. The room I've left numerous times feeling scared, worried, uncertain. The room I left today with tears filling my eyes at the wonderful fact he'll be headed upstairs to the big time -- 2nd grade. Next year, he'll remain at UCP Bailes special needs charter school where he'll continue to receive the help he needs through speech therapy, and individualized education, and maybe, who knows... but maybe one day, Aiden will move to East Lake Elementary. And if he doesn't, UCP is a blessing and we couldn't feel luckier for the gift we receive by having such a wonderful special needs charter school just down the street from us. Aiden is beating the odds, and overcoming his delays. SO congratulations to my amazing Aiden Jack - 2nd grader.

ANNA
It just feels like yesterday Anna made me a mommy. That was one of the happiest days of my life. From the moment Anna arrived we could see she had a passion for life and all the wonder around her. She has a strong personality (like me perhaps), and is a hard worker. Every moment since then, she has made us so incredibly proud. Tomorrow, Anna graduates 5th grade, and officially becomes a middle school-er. I have to admit, I'm feeling sad about this. I just can't believe it's time. It's times like this in life that I feel hyper-aware of how time is passing by...We just picked her up in the last ever car line at East Lake Elementary, and yep, I lost it again when I heard her name called. 6 years of that... well that's a lot of "Anna Lesnick, go to number 1".

So, the big news. Anna is graduating elementary school with nothing but straight A's from Kindergarten through 5th grade. Yes, 6 years of Perfect A's. Tomorrow is the awards assembly/graduation where I know Anna will be recognized for her many achievements. She has SO much to be proud of, SO much ahead of her, and we have so many things coming that we'll be kvelling over in the years to come. If you are wondering what Kvell means, it's yiddish, look it up. ;) Anna's school had a very fancy 5th grade graduation dance party last week. They started at the school and paraded around waving goodbye to all their old teachers, and were then bussed to a hall down the street for an elaborate party in their honor. She had a great day. Tomorrow, awards in the morning, and that's it. We get to take her home. So congratulations to my amazing Anna Elizabeth, perfect A's and now..6th grader.
(the first picture was taken on the first day of Kindergarten, the 2nd picture was taken before her 5th grade dance)


What's coming this summer...
Well, first, apparently the band director at Anna's new middle school has resigned due to moving out of town, so they are looking for a new band teacher. Will and I have been asked to be on the committee to help choose this new band teacher. YAY! We are excited to already be involved at Corner Lake Middle School, and hopefully Anna will LOVE her band experience.

Both kids are excited to attend our Kindermusik camp a couple weeks this summer. Aiden will continue private speech therapy and crossfit kids classes. They will also attend a drama camp, and their regular day camp as well. Swim lessons are in store, along with piano lessons, and if we're lucky, some R&R as well.

Will and I are running Grow and Sing Studios together now. It's our family biz. We work ALL the time, but we are having fun while doing so, and we do love it.

So.. with a box of tissues almost gone, and with a bursting heart of pride, I happily watch the passage of time as my two beautiful children move to their next chapters.

Thanks for reading,
Love, Holly
See my daily posts on facebook!

Matzoh Ball Chicken Soup

I'm sick and miserable with a terrible cold, so on today's menu....
HOMEMADE MATZOH BALL CHICKEN SOUP

I posted that this was my plan today on facebook, and was asked for the recipe. I've find myself continually looking to see where the last post was with my recipe so don't have to reinvent the wheel and this time, I'm posting HERE so it's always in the same place!



MATZOH BALL CHICKEN SOUP RECIPE

1 whole cup up chicken
1 large onion
1 large parsnip
1 large turnip
4 or 5 large carrots
4 or 5 large celery
fresh dill
fresh parsley
salt and pepper
1 or 2 packages of matzoh ball AND soup mix (found in ethnic/jewish food section of supermarket

Step 1 - wash chicken and place in the largest pot you have, and fill the pot with water almost to top (leaving a touch of room for boiling). Place on stove, high heat and bring to a boil.

Step 2 - You'll notice as the water starts to boil, and the chicken gets hot, that the fat will lift to the top. Skim the fat off the top and remove as it floats to the top. This can be a process as it continues to rise up. Once the water is boiling and no more stuff is floating to the top, lower heat to a slow boil (med/low).

Step 3 - Peel onion, and cut an X on both flat sides. Leave onion whole (just an X on both sides), cut ends of parsnip and peel like you would a carrot. Leave whole. Cut ends of turnip and leave whole. Peel carrots and cut in small circle slices. Wash and cut ends of celery and cut in small pieces. Chop Dill (about 2 TBSP). Tie parsley with cooking string and keep whole (bunch).

Step 4 - put ALL ingredients in the pot. If you need to, use ladle to take out a bit of water/broth and place in separate bowl. As water evaporates during cooking, you can add the extra back in! Also add some salt (I only add about a tsp, because you can always add more later), and add some pepper.

Step 5 - cook for about 1 hour at which time you will use a slotted spoon to remove all the chicken pieces only into a bowl. Let everything else still simmer. Let chicken cool a bit, and then with your hands, remove ALL bones and put all chicken meat back into the pot. IMPORTANT -- you need to do this before the chicken starts falling off the bone naturally in the pot as it will be hard to debone the soup. 1 hour into cooking is perfect.

Step 6 - The longer the soup simmers, the better it will taste. (and it even tastes better the 2nd day!).

Step 7 - follow the directions on the box for making the matzoh balls. Cook and make them in a SEPARATE pot from the soup. When they are done, you can ladle some of the broth from the matzoh balls into the other soup to add a bit more "saltiness". When the matzoh balls are ready, your soup is ready. Serve by putting some soup in bowl, and then some matzoh balls in too! Before you serve. remove what's left of the parsley and string. The onion will fall apart all by itself as will the parnsip and turnip!

Storage -- I like to store the soup separate from the matzoh balls because the matzoh balls will absorb a TON of liquid, and get too heavy.

ENJOY!

The gift of time... Celebrating Aiden. Age 8.

Today I woke up to the arms of an 8 year old giving me the biggest hug ever. Arms wrapped SOOO tight, as we exchanged our traditional morning words, "I love you mommy", and "I love you SO much Aiden", then.... "You are the best mommy".
Then I added, "I'm hugging my 8 year old now, Happy Birthday my love".

You see, Aiden and I have a morning tradition. Ever since he got his speech back, he comes to me while I'm sleeping in bed, and until I hear him speak, I'm scared. This has been the case since his "incident" as we call it, which was now 4 years ago. The tradition began 4 years ago, and has changed over the years, because it started with me running to HIM to check on him as a worried mommy, but now, Aiden is very adamant that he be the one who speaks first, and is the one who initiates the hug. So I am instructed to stay in bed until he comes to me. Thank goodness for time.

8 years ago today, I gave birth to Aiden Jack Lesnick, the most adorable baby boy I had ever seen. He has been nothing but smiles since he entered this earth, and my heart is bursting for this kid. He developed well, and was moving along nicely until his incident about 4 years ago. 4 years ago, due to unknown reasons (at age 4), Aiden was unable to speak to us. He was unable to give eye contact. In fact he had a very rapid eye blinking tick. His arm involuntarily jerked. We couldn't take him to places that had flashing lights. He was incredibly sensitive to sound. He was unable to initiate conversations with peers. It was one of the most terrifying things to go through as a parent when you don't know what's wrong (and neither did doctors and specialists) with your baby.

Okay, so here we are. February 4th, 2013. I couldn't feel more blessed or grateful for how far we have come. The last time I posted here, I was upset yet at peace that we made the decision to hold him back in first grade this year. Well, all I can say about that is it was one of the best decisions we've ever made.

Here's a photo of Aiden as I sent him off to school today.

In the last four years, Aiden has been through countless tests, both physical and developmental/educational. It has been a slow process to get him back to developmental age level and grade level. He has worked with speech therapists at his school UCP Bailes, along with his private speech therapist Jane who has been his constant the whole way through. His teachers at school are amazing and completely in tune with Aiden. We are SO thankful for his school which is an all inclusive special needs school with small ratios and the help and support Aiden has needed (and Will and I too!). We have supported and encouraged Aiden to participate in activities that are confidence building without any pressure to "perform" to a certain level in order to be accepted.

This year Aiden has progressed more than any other year. This year, in additional to his therapy, and school, Aiden LOVES attending Crossfit Kids classes where he gets to work to his own ability each day (and is doing amazing!). He also loves to attend Kindermusik, and in fact just began his last semester in Kindermusik for the Young Child. In May, Aiden will graduate out of my program at Grow and Sing Studios. This baffles me! At the beginning of this year, Aiden also wanted to try going to Hebrew School like his big sis, and is doing quite well and enjoying himself. Will and I were worried this would be too much for him, but he is loving every minute.

Our reports from school are completely different than what we have become accustomed to. They have been WONDERFUL! Aiden was tested on the F.A.I.R. test at the beginning of this school year in September 2012, and again when he just got back from Winter Break, and moved up an ENTIRE GRADE LEVEL in that time. His teacher was SO excited that she couldn't wait until the end of the day to tell us, she had to call us right then in the middle of the day. Aiden is now reading. When we go in for conferences, his teachers have nothing but amazing things to say, and those that knew him from past years, can't believe how far he's come. This past Friday, Aiden was tested by his speech therapist Jane, here at the house. I chose to sit in on the testing as I have done each and every year since this all started. Aiden was able to answer every single solitary question with ease. It was no sweat! As the test went on, I had tears (of happiness) streaming down my face, as his speech therapist looked at me and just said "I know".

One last achievement I would like to share before I end. Each and every year, as Aiden's birthday approaches we asked him what he wants to do for his party. In past years, we have had to show him pictures of different options, and he picks that way. In addition, if someone asked him how old he was, or other questions like that, he struggled to answer. WELL, this year, for his 8th birthday we once again asked the question, "Aiden what would you like to do for your birthday?". His response (more or less): "I would like a wonderful mickey mouse party at home with lots of friends, a bounce house, pinata, decorating party hats, and a yummy cake, and decorations." The moment he told us that, we knew, that just by giving Aiden the gift of time, we have come SO FAR. Aiden still has some work to do, but he's just amazed us all.

His party was this weekend, and he said it was the best day ever.

Happy Birthday Aiden Jack Lesnick, we love you!!!!

Love, Holly (his more than proud mommy)













P.S. If you haven't read about Aiden previously, here's our post from last May, and if you want to do reading from the very beginning, you can click here.

A tough decision......

I haven't been using this blog for a long time since Facebook came along. Facebook has provided such a nice, easy, way to keep in touch with everyone, and update them on the day to day.

However, this blog is the place I went to while we were going through our scary time with Aiden, and it seems I'm pulled back here tonight to vent, share, and update. Here is our very first post when it all first began (in case you have met me after the fact). This post is followed up by many others. It's quite the saga.

As most know, we haven't ever really found out what happened to Aiden, or why the regression and delays came about. We've been doing what we know is best, and that is providing him the very best educational environment for him, along with an amazing speech therapist, and positive low pressure activities that he can enjoy.

While Aiden most definitely struggles in some areas, he amazes us each and every day with new vocabulary, interests, and even....attitude! :)

Aiden is such a friendly, outgoing kid, and we couldn't be prouder of him.

I definitely have some emotional issues that go back to when everything first began. Because what happened to him was overnight (literally), I wake up each morning still in sort of a panic until I hear Aiden speak. Once I hear those first few sweet words, I can move on with my day. We have a little morning ritual where I do not get out of bed until Aiden walks in and climbs on top of me and gives me the BIGGEST cuddliest hug ever and says "Good morning, I love you." ahhh. I let out a big exhale, and the day can move on.

Aiden gets assessed often at school and with his private speech therapist. We tend to look at the big picture, and that is, that only 3 short years ago, Aiden lost ALL his speech. He was starting from scratch, and in that time, has progressed to about a 5 1/2 year old's developmental level. This is simply AMAZING. He's working so hard. The problem is that he's 7 and about to end 1st grade. He's not yet reading more than one or two words at a time, and struggling with academics. In school, his behavior and social skills are TOP NOTCH, but he's just having a lot of trouble keeping up. Thankfully, Aiden goes to an amazing school (UCP), where his teachers recognize that he needs to learn in small groups. He gets overwhelmed and distracted in larger groups. Because Aiden isn't really officially "diagnosed", we are still trying to figure out if he has a learning disability or something else.

So, it's with a sad yet confident heart, that we have decided that we need to retain Aiden in first grade. As his teacher so eloquently put it, Aiden deserves the "gift of time". We are hoping and praying that an extra year, will give Aiden that chance to catch up, and build the confidence we know is in him.

We are so incredibly lucky to have Aiden surrounded by loving, supportive and caring teachers. His Kindermusik teacher, Anna, goes out of her way to make sure Aiden works at his pace, and isn't pressured to keep up. His coaches at gymnastics are so loving and gentle and take the time each and every week to talk to us about his progress. His speech therapist Jane, well, she is our angel. Aiden's teacher Ms. Casey who has been with Aiden 2 years already (and who says she's SO lucky to have him a 3rd year!) is just unbelievable. We can't feel luckier to have the support we have.

Aiden also has the most amazing big sister in the whole world. Anna is just amazing with Aiden, and even reads to him. It's simply magical to watch.

Of course I wish Aiden didn't have these struggles, but wow, he's surrounded by SO much love that it's hard to imagine there isn't a reason behind everything.

I feel I had to write this more for myself. To actually acknowledge in black and white that Aiden needs to be retained, and to know that it's okay. It will be okay.

*sigh* Thanks for reading.

Love, Holly

And another year goes by...

Another year, another blog post. Sad. I know. BUT.. hope all that used to read this are keeping up to date with me daily on facebook.

Here is a darling picture of our 9 year old, 4th grader Anna with her new BRACES!


Aiden is doing GREAT as a first grader at UCP. He's still receiving speech therapy, and takes Kindermusik AND gymnastics each week. We'll never know what happened to Aiden, but he is progressing well each day. He's about a year behind developmentally, but that is a vast improvement, so we are feeling great!
Here's a picture of my two cutie pies!


Will and I are doing great. Just celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. We are running Grow and Sing Studios which has just grown by leaps and bounds - http://www.growandsing.com. I have started a new fitness program called Crossfit, and I can honestly say it's the hardest thing I've ever done, and I LOVE IT!

Okay, see ya on facebook : http://www.facebook.com/musicalmamaholly

Love, Holly

REALLY??? Has it been that long?

I was just chillin, looking at facebook tonight, and saw one of my new Kindermusik instructors had just created a new blog. It sort of reminded me that I was a very loyal blogger and then, facebook sort of crept in, and I just forgot all about this place. I miss it! So, I'm going to try to return to the land of blogging, as it really used to be something I enjoyed. It's interesting how certain phases ebb and flow.

Well, I'm guessing anyone reading this also keeps up with me on facebook, so I'm not even going to begin to TRY to start where I left off in NOV 2009!

But, I can say, that Aiden is doing VERY well. He still attends UCP, and is now in Kindergarten. I'm still a little traumatized about that fact. He still receives speech therapy through the county, and we have arranged for him to still receive private speech once per week with Ms. Jane, who has been treating Aiden since the "incident".

Anna just started 3rd grade. THIRD GRADE!!!!! Nuff said on that. :)

My Kindermusik studio has just exploded, and is really doing great. I'll fill in on all that on my next posting.

Will and I are about to celebrate 12 years of wedded bliss on September 6th.

While I would love to blog some more tonight, I dare admit, I'm off to watch big brother. It's double eviction night, and yes, it's my guilty pleasure.

I'm off to Port Orange tomorrow to do some Kindermusik demonstration classes for my new location there. As soon as I can, I'll be back with pictures, links, and all sorts of fun things to peruse!

Nighty night!
Love, Holly

Sharing my article...

Here is the article that was written about me in a local magazine. Hopefully you can click on the image and zoom in to read. If not, then just email me and I'll email it back! holly@growandsing.com.

Some Halloween pictures and videos to share...

It's been a VERY busy week. I took "off" from official studio classes to volunteer at various fun things for the kids. I now upload all my pictures to my facebook gallery, so if anyone befriended me there yet, that's the place to really know what's going on in Holly Lesnick land. :)

So, first, here's a link to my October 2009 picture gallery. I will probably add a few more from Oct 31st.. but otherwise, it's complete. CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICS.

Anna's ballet teacher asked the kids to dress up in their costumes this past week as they had practiced a routine. The parents were invited in to watch. I captured it on video! I was so impressed by the class and how well Anna did. Yes, I'm a proud mama.


I also was invited to entertain ALL the 4 year old classes at Aiden's school at UCP. They gave me 30 minutes, and combined all the classes together. It was great fun, and quite organized for that many children. :) Here's a quick snipit from that!


Hope you enjoy!
Love, Holly

Cruise with my mom and sister!

It's been so long since I've posted, and hope to catch up soon on the kiddos and how they are doing.. but wanted to post for those interested the photo gallery of the cruise I just went on with my mom and sister Dori.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT!

I hope you enjoy! :)

Love, Holly

Summer, where did you go???

Oh my word, it's been so long. Time flies when you're having fun I suppose!!

Since the kiddos have been out of school, a fun filled summer was had! It's virtually impossible to catch up completely... but here are the highlights! :)

First a picture of mother's day:


















Anna did her dance recital -this year she did jazz to "These boots are made for walkin". We are so proud of her!





















Each year I have a Kindermusik gig at the Nickelodeon Hotel, and in turn receive free nights to stay there! So.. we took the kiddos this summer and a fun time was had!























I have been working really hard over the last 6 months or so on my physical fitness. I started running, along with my gym time and pilates video. So.. with my good friend Rachael's encouragement, I signed up for my first road race. A 5K (3.1 miles) on July 4th called the Watermelon 5K. I am proud to say I did the race and finished in good time, and felt great. I've kept up the running, and plan to sign up for a 10K next which is 6.2 miles. Here's Rachael and I approaching the finish line!






















Along with these highlights, I led a VERY successful summer Kindermusik program with over 100 children. Both Anna and Aiden participated of course and had a GREAT time! Anna and Aiden also went to camp, and stayed very busy. Both kids had swim lessons as well. Aiden took a while to come around with those, but at the end, he started really loving it. Anna kept begging for more and more lessons and moved up a level in the red cross program she was in. Aiden continued private speech therapy this summer as well. Wow, okay, now I know why I haven't had time to post! wow!

At the end of July, we left Florida for a 2 week family vacation. We had such an amazing time away, and saw SO many family members and enjoy so many places. I think that deserves it's own blog posting, which I will do soon. I took so many pictures.. that it's hard to know what to share!! :)

I'm very excited also to share that my program WON for Best Music Class in Orlando in the Nickelodeon Parent's Picks awards. Thanks to all who voted!!!!


So.. as the summer comes to an end.. I will share a bit about the kids (since this is my blog I can brag as well).

Aiden is doing REALLY well in speech therapy. He's making great strides each week. His teachers fully expect him to meet his goals. We are really really relieved and just hope and pray every day that nothing else "strange" happens. Aiden will continue Pre-K school this year at UCP and receive speech therapy there. He will also continue private speech therapy as well. Aiden will be in Kindermusik and as the year goes on, we'll see where his other interests are (sports, etc.)

Anna is VERY excited to start 2nd grade! She was invited to test for the gifted program this summer, and while we are still waiting for the official results, we were told she more than qualified. So she'll be participating in that, and as far as Will and I feel about it, we just want her to be challenged and not get bored. She is excited about it, so we are too. She's been a bookworm all summer and we have been to the library a couple times a week! Anna will continue with dance classes. She chose to do classical ballet this year (as opposed to jazz or tap), and is really excited to learn more! She also will be learning more on her 3 Kindermusik instruments because her Kindermusik graduate class wants to stick together.

Our Connect Through Music DVD is doing well for it's beginning.. slowly we are trying to get the word out! Please remember it when thinking about baby and kid gifts!! http://www.connectthroughmusic.com.

Okay, I must sign off, but will be back with vacation pictures!!

:) Holly

Coming soon!

A new blog post is coming soon! The Kindermusik session is ending, and I'm going to be posting! So much to share!!!! Stay tuned!

Love, Holly

EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT!

Hi Everyone!

Gosh, I'm so bummed that I haven't been able to keep up with my blog like I had been. It brings me so much joy to post pictures and share my life with my friends and family. I truly hope that I have time to get all caught up soon or at least just resume posting from here forward.. but before I do that -- I have some really exciting news!!

As you all know I have sort of found my "calling" in life bringing music to families. I love showing and guiding parents on ways to bond and play with their children. To take that time each and everyday to just ENJOY each other!

Well, in addition to all my studio classes that I run (my studio is up to 150 children this summer), Will and I are proud to announce the release of our very first DVD!!! How cool is it that Will and I were able to combine our skills!

This DVD is called Connect Through Music, and is currently being sold online at
http://www.connectthroughmusic.com, along with a few retail stores who have already put it on their shelves. We hope to add more and more retail stores and online stores and get the word out!!

Check out the site. It makes a GREAT gift for someone if they are pregnant, or just had a baby, or has a child up to age 5. It encourages playing together as a family using simple household items. This is the DVD you DO want to watch with your child, not one to put on and go cook dinner! (though I guess you could).

Here are some still pictures taken from the photography shoot for the project. There are some video clips on the website. Please spread the word to everyone you know. Also, if you know of any children's stores or boutiques in your area who would want to try it out on their shelves, let us know, we would love if you all our peeps can help us get this out there! :)

















Love, Holly

Summer already????

Hi Everyone!
I have MANY things to update on as it's been quite a while since I've posted (sorry about that!). But.. my reason for this morning's post is this picture below. My cuties just left for their last day of school a few minutes ago, and I'm feeling sad!!!

How is Anna done 1st grade??? Anyway, I thought this picture was precious, and it's always been a tradition of mine to post first and last day school pics, so here you go!!



This summer lots of fun is planning. I'm KNEE DEEP in getting ready for the Summer Grow and Sing Studios Kindermusik session to begin. With about about 100 children enrolled, it's lots of prep! Anna will be going to camp 2x per week, Kindermusik, swimming lessons and hoping for LOTS of playdates with her friends. During the 5 weeks Kindermusik is in session, Aiden will not be at his special school (UCP) but will also go to camp 2x per week, swimming lessons and private speech therapy. He will resume at UCP as soon as Kindermusik ends. :)

I'll be back to post pictures from MAY as there are many good ones, and lots of fun things happened. It was a good month. :)

Back soon, Love...
Holly

PLEASE VOTE for my music program! :)

Hi Everyone!

My music program Grow and Sing Studios was once again nominated for the Nickelodeon Parent's Picks awards and we must defend the title!!!! Competition is fierce this year! :) You can vote once per day so please just make it a nice little morning ritual. Please spread the word to everyone you know to vote. You can vote from anywhere in the US and beyond!!!! Click the logo below to get there!

For Music Class
in Orlando

Love, Holly

I'm Baaaack! Here's the scoop!

Dear Blog,
I've been ignoring you and I feel bad. But I'm here now! :)
Love, Holly


Hello Everyone!!!

It's been a while. Life just sort of gets busy. But I really want to update everyone on what is going on. You can rest assured that in my case, no news is usually good news!

A couple of weeks ago, we did have our pediatric neurologist appt. for Aiden. We have officially stumped the most well respected pediatric neurologist in the state of FL! All of Aiden's tests have come back normal and despite the initial prediction that the neurologist had, he now acknowledges that Aiden is getting better. In fact, he performed the assessment on Aiden that he did with him just a few short months ago. It was really emotional for Will and I to watch our son answer questions and do as he asked like a trooper this time --- this was completely OPPOSITE to what he was like when we first went for help. The doctor basically admitted to us that he has never seen this pattern. We all agreed that it's a blessing and while we don't have "answers", we are all thrilled that Aiden is getting better. We are scheduled to monitor and return back in 6 months... but the best we can do for Aiden at this point is what we are doing - special school and speech therapy! He's rockin in speech therapy and LOVES his speech therapist "Miss Jane".

Aiden did receive a progress report at school this week. We were thrilled when we read it.
"Aiden is adjusting well to his new classroom and is starting to interact with his peers on a more frequent basis. Aiden has been using his words more when communicating expressively and answer questions receptively. Being around peers that talk frequently seems to increase Aiden's occurrence of verbal behavior. Aiden enjoys music and story time and loves pretend play. With continued hard work, Aiden should be able to meet his goals."

Halleluah!!!!!!!

While on the subject of progress reports, Anna also received her report card (3rd quarter). This is MY blog, so I'm going to brag!!!! Anna received all "S" which is satisfactory (the highest she can get) and had the following comments:
"Anna currently knows 100% of her high frequency words and is currently reading 154 words per minute. Anna continues to excel is all subject areas and is actively participating in classroom discussions. Keep up the great work!"

As a point of reference, children in her grade are expected to read 55 words per minute by the end of the school year. What a bookworm!!!!!

Things have been going very well the last month or so. I sort of made it my mission to exercise more. I've been faithfully going to the gym for over a year, but felt I needed to do more, so I've been running also. I'm up to 3.2 miles.. also doing pilates and other things to keep it interesting. I'm feeling good and it's nice to focus on me for a while each day before focusing on the hustle and bustle of pick up lines, grocery shopping, lesson planning, teaching, cooking. :) Bathing suit season, here I come!

We had a nice Passover this year. It was my first year cooking and hosting our family seder. Dori and crew were on a cruise that week, so it was my mom and Jerry, Cousin Meg, us, and our friends the Joachims. Here's few pics:

Here's a picture of the table before the seder, including the seder plate I painted

















Anna and Amy reading the 4 questions together

















Here I am reading the story of passover in the style of "the rugrats". :)
















Last weekend we decided to take the kids to Seaworld. They now have an easy pay plan, and so we now have a family pass for the next 2 years. I'm guessing there will be a lot of Seaworld pictures posted to the blog in the future. Here's a start!

Me and my girl

















My men
















The manatee exhibit was a hit with both kids. Here is Aiden cracking up at the manatees. He couldn't stop laughing.






















and here is Anna proudly posing with her manatee webkinz in front of the manatee trees.
















We are heading down to plantation to visit Will's parents this weekend. I'm sure some pictures will be taken.

I can't believe we are nearing the end of the school year. I have 3 weeks left of my Spring Kindermusik session, which then leads me into a month or so break. ahhh... I will be going on my annual Mom's weekend in May. Yay!! We are going to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is Hollywood, FL. I will be running a whirlwind of Kindermusik summer camp and then after that we plan to go up North for a family vacation to Philly, NYC, and the mountains (Bellasylva). For everyone reading from up there, we'll be there the first week in August!!! At least 10 days worth! :)

Alright, heading to bed.

Oh, one last thing - major congrats to two of my best friends who both had babies over the 10 days! Carrie and Elisa (and their hubbies of course) - I love you both so much and can't wait to meet your precious sons!!!!!!!!!

Okay, now I'm going.
Love to all ---
Holly

Cathing up once again!

Hello faithful readers,

Sorry it's been a bit of time since I've posted. Seems like such a long time ago now since that last update. A lot has happened that has just kept me from sharing, but today feels like a great day to catch up.

Last week was sad for me as I found out that my great Uncle Al passed away. He was so special to me (and everyone in his life) and he will be so missed. I have so many wonderful memories of Uncle Al, including but not limited to his talking banana trick and magic that he did for us kids. Not sure if Aunt Gladys reads my blog, but I want her to know I love her, and miss her and really hope to see her when we go up North this summer.

Also my love goes out to my Uncle Scott, Aunt Bonnie and cousin Meagan (and family) as they go through a really hard time right now as Uncle Scott battles cancer here in Orlando. I love you all and am here for you with whatever you need.

On the Aiden front -- Aiden is doing REALLY well with his speech therapy. Each week he improves on things that according to the therapist usually takes children months if not years to acheive. His situation just continues to be incredibly strange. But, he's improving, so HEY we'll take it!

Aiden started his new school at UCP this past Monday. He's adjusting really well to his new environment. The teachers are wonderful and Will and I really feel he's in the wonderfully safe and theraputic environment in which he needs right now. He's definitely a bit "shy" speech wise in school, but that is to be expected on week 1. The speech therapist at the school seems great, and we are excited that both the school and private therapists are going to work together (via email/phone) to be sure they are on the same page regarding Aiden. He's such a unique case so I think they are probably thrilled to be able to discuss and strategize together! A new and exciting development came about this week that we weren't expecting. Aiden had originally qualified for "Part time" school which was 1/2 day, 4 days a week. So we thought he was going to go just Mon-Thur 8:30am - 11:30am. Well.. it seems once you are IN the program, they can adjust things a bit. We were offered FULL TIME SCHOOL for FREE for Aiden. WOW!!!!!! Now, I'm not quite ready to let Aiden go full time, especially since he's still getting private speech therapy. So we settled on a schedule that works great for all of us. Mon/Wed until 11:30pm (and then go to private speech with me). Tues/Thurs until 2:30pm, and Friday is OFF to spend with me! We are really excited about this schedule and the fact that this is an option. We are so impressed by the resources being provided to us for our little guy!

On the medical side -- we have an appt. with the pediatric neurologist on March 31st. We'll go over Aiden's latest bloodwork, and discuss what to do next (or what NOT to do). All signs really point to Aiden having a mini-stroke that night. We have been doing a bit more reading and thinking, and it's quite possible that if it was a stroke, that by the time we went in for the MRI (which was about 3 weeks after it happened) it wasn't traceable. Again, just another theory.. but who knows? All we know is Aiden is healing every day, and we are SOOOOOOO thankful for that. I honestly didn't know if I would ever have my son back to the way he was. So, this is just a miracle to me. Please keep praying that whatever it was that happened doesn't happen again, or pray that we find out what it was so we can prevent it from happening again. Thank you.

Since Aiden is doing better, and we still want to keep things as normal for the kiddos as possible, we have been doing some fun things. We took the kids to the Orlando Repatory Theatre to see the play "If you give a pig a party". They loved it. In fact, Aiden was so excited that he couldn't resist labeling everything out loud during the play. "oh my, there's a bicycle!", "oh my they are eating ice cream", etc etc. It was darn cute! Here's a couple pics from that day:


































Last weekend, Will was working at a wedding, so we went over to my sister's place to hang out. We all went to a park and then back for some swimming...





































We were invited to a fun birthday party of one of my Kindermusik families last weekend, and I have some fun shots from that. Thought I would share!







































Also some park pictures at Lake Eola.. we took some on my phone, which I haven't quite figured out how to get to my computer, but also a couple taken with the camera for the batteries ran out...

































I had the chance to get out and see my girlfriends last night.. which was VERY needed. We took a pic (of course).

















Looking forward to the coming weekend and seeing Molly and Alan (will's parents), along with friends. I'm also in crunch time for releasing my Kindermusik summer schedule. I have many people ready to sign up for summer already! wowie.

Okay, now I'm off to spend time with Aiden, as it's our Friday "off". Will suggested taking him to Chuck E Cheese.. hmm.. shall I brave it? heehee..

Have a perfect day everone!
Love,
Holly

An information filled day...

Hi everyone,

If you are still keeping up with our saga, thanks! :) We are back home from the 24 hour long EEG test for Aiden. As we predicted and expected, that test came back normal/inconclusive. So.. we still haven't yet found any medical explanation for what happened to our little guy. We will be going back to speak with the neurologist again to see where we go from here, and what further testing Aiden may have to undergo.

In the meantime, while searching for a medical explanation, we are still trying to figure out where and what to do about Aiden's options for school and speech therapy. So as I mentioned in my previous post, we were offered a spot for Aiden in the 4 year old class at the UCP Charter School near UCF. We went today to speak with them, take a tour and find out some more information.

I'm happy and RELIEVED to report that this is most definitely the perfect match for Aiden!!!!!!!!!!!

The school is a charter school, so because Aiden has qualified for special school and therapy, he can go there for free compliments of Orange County Public Schools. This school has a waiting list of 180+, and there is ONE spot available, but because we have the blessings from Orange County, we get first dibs!!! How crazy is that?

This school believes in making all their classes "inclusive". This means that 1/3 to 1/2 of the kids in Aiden's class do NOT have any special needs of any kind. Their parents put them there because they believe in teaching their children about compassion and caring for all kinds of people *goosebumps anyone?*. They state in their literature that a benefit to a child without dissabilities attending this school is that inclusion provides opportunities for children to learn that being different is acceptable and not something to be afraid of or shamed by. Wow. Some of the kids are children of the staff at UCP. Some are children of professors at UCF. Some children just have parents that get the concept of an inclusive school, and know what a great school it is. Even if Aiden gets better, and doesn't need help anymore, this is something that is truly powerful, and something I WANT Aiden to learn about. The class has 15 children, and 3 teachers. So.. on a full day with perfect attendance.. the ratio is 5:1, which I think is pretty phenominal.

The teachers and therapists work together so that Aiden's "care plan goals" will be worked on by a team, and will be well integrated into his day. As I mentioned in previous posts, Aiden qualified for free GROUP speech therapy 2x per week for 30 minutes. Well, UCP will provide Aiden 1:1 therapy if they believe that is what he needs (still free to us), but also use the "group therapy" concept if it works for his goals. Basically they will do what is best for Aiden.

The school will give us a written report of Aiden's progress and what they worked on with him EVERY SINGLE DAY when we pick him up. I think that is amazing! Also, there will be a meeting offered to us every 3 months with Aiden's teachers, speech therapist, the director and us to go over Aiden's goals, how he is doing and what changes or adjustments need to be made to his goals, basically assessing where Aiden is developmentally every 3 months, verses the once a year we would get at the public school. WOW!

The class follows a daily schedule of course, but what I LOVED was on the door an newspaper article was posted. It discussed the fact that public schools (especially at pre-k) age aren't encouraging physical activity at school. In fact, that is one of the reasons we knew we would NOT be sending Aiden to Bonneville Elem. We were told at Bonneville when we toured there that there is no playtime, all academic (at 4 years old????). At UCP, Aiden will have playground time (which is amazing for socialization and speech), and then also in his day will be "walking" time. WALKING time! I LOVE THIS. I mean, how often to do you find a school that IN their curriculum they encourage taking a WALK as a group. Walking, talking, looking, exploring, socializing, smelling, and the list goes on. I don't know why, but this really touched me. Aiden's class also gets MUSIC THERAPY once per week. Umm... you think I like this? How absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!

In August, their new facility will open. This is a brand new state of the art facility with double the classrooms all the way up to Grade 3. It will have 2 playgrounds, indoor gyms and much more. We do hope and pray that Aiden does well over the next year and a half or so, and can go to Kindergarten at East Lake Elementary School where Anna goes, BUT.. if need be, this school will be there for Aiden.

So... we called Orange County Early Intervention to let them know that we have found the perfect match for Aiden, and the paperwork is in motion. We plan to have him start at UCP on March 17th. He'll go Mon-Thur from 8:30 - 11:30am. Afternoons and Fridays are for private speech therapy and MOMMY time!!!!

As of right now, we go back to the neurologist at the end of March to discuss the results of Aiden's latest bloodwork, and talk about what to do next.

Things are finally falling into place though and we look forward to Aiden getting what he needs to get better and caught up.

Alright, there you have the latest and greatest!

It's nice to be home, sitting in my family room with Anna and Aiden and Will. Not the easiest 24 hours, but at least we can resume the week with more normalcy. :)

Love,
Holly

The 24 hour EEG - The Day Time Stood Still

Here we sit, in the EEG room for 24 hours to rule out any seizure activity with our precious Aiden. My last post was primarily about the therapy side of things, and what we are going to do regarding all of that. I failed to talk about the MEDICAL side of things. We still have ABSOLUTELY no idea what happened to Aiden. As a brief recap - we have already gone through a 1 hour EEG, MRI of the brain, blood tests. Everything came back inconclusive.

So now (as in right now) we are going through a 24 hour long EEG. The doctor also is having more blood checked for other things (lyme disease, metals, other things). If that comes back inconclusive.. Aiden is most likely going to undergo a Spinal Tap test.

All the therapists we have seen since all this started strongly feel that some sort of brain injury or trauma happened to Aiden (be it a stroke, seizure, or something else). Hopefully one of these tests will give us some answers. But I have to admit I'm preparing myself for NO answers. We may never know what caused all this. I hope that isn't the case but one must be prepared for all possibilities.

The good news is that Aiden continues to improve. His speech and communication is better and better everyday. He is absolutely 100% no longer ticking in any way. No more rapid eye blinking, throat clearing, arm flailing. Nothing. (YEY!!!!)

It would be nice to get a medical diagnosis though so we can do EVERYTHING we can to prevent this from happening again!!

In the meantime - I do have an update on the school and therapy decision. My last post talked about 4 options that we have. Well we have definitely narrowed it down. We went to Bonneville Elementary to check out the public school special needs class. Without getting into details, this is NOT an option to us any longer. We will NOT be sending Aiden there.

We JUST a few minutes ago found out that Aiden HAS been given a spot at UCP Charter School if we want it! This is HUGE news. We still haven't toured there yet, and talked with someone about Aiden's situation, but this is a VERY exciting option for us. Here's the website if you are interested in this particular school. http://www.ucpcfl.org/. What is really exciting is that a new building is being built right now and the facilities come next school year are going to be state of the art!!!! Check this out: http://www.ucpcfl.org/EO_Bailes_Campus.shtml.

We have an appointment there tomorrow at 1pm to tour and speak with them about Aiden... I'm guessing that by the end of day tomorrow we'll have our answer on what we are doing. If we choose UCP, it will be FREE because Aiden qualified through the school system AND he'll get his FREE speech therapy right there at school as well. This could be really great for him. At the same time, until we see the school, meet the people and decide if it's right for Aiden.. we will not get TOO excited.

So.. that is where we leave things for now. I'm attaching a picture of Aiden at the EEG taken with my phone so not the best quality.. but you get the idea. We are here at the EEG ALL night until the morning. Send good vibes and prayers!!!!!!!!
















Love, Holly

The Curious Case of Aiden Lesnick

Hi Everyone,

Thank you everyone for all your love and support during all this. It really means so much to us, and brings us comfort as we go through the trials and tribulations of this entire situation. Will has appropriately deemed this "The Curious Case of Aiden Lesnick". :)

Last Wednesday, Aiden started private speech therapy. For the first session, it went well, though Aiden was very reserved. However, IMMEDIATELY following the session, he started talking like crazy. More than he was. It was quite interesting. Over the weekend he continued to talk, label, and surprise us in so many ways. Yesterday (Monday) was Aiden's second private Speech Therapy session. OH MY GOODNESS what a difference!!! He was amazing. I won't describe it too much yet because I have a letter from the therapist which describes it so beautifully. Yesterday, we were sort of gearing up mentally for the meeting scheduled today (Tuesday) with Early Intervention Services. In preparation for that meeting, I thought it would be helpful if Aiden's therapist Jane wrote a brief letter detailing Aiden's weird and rapid progress. Mainly because the meeting we attended today was reporting on the Aiden they assessed 1 month ago. An entirely DIFFERENT Aiden. Here are some of the things she said:

"I have seen Aiden Lesnick for two, 30 minute speech-language therapy sessions. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought that I was working with two different children.

During the first session, Aiden did not greet me and used very little eye contact. The few words that he used were all imitated and were typical of echolalia. Aiden did not comment on things in his environment and he did not make any requests. Aiden’s attention span for tasks was very short except when we played with cars. Aiden had a very flat affect—showed very little emotion.

During the second session, Aiden came in with a smile, looked at me, and said “Hi” when he was given a prompt. When given a verbal prompt, Aiden was able to attend to tasks, name common objects, and use short phrases and sentences. Aiden made a few requests and said a few things spontaneously. Aiden’s demeanor was very different than it was in the first session. His eye contact was much improved and he smiled and clapped his hands appropriately during songs and a game of bowling."

She does go on in the letter to say that he is still speech/language delayed and will benefit highly with more help of course.

So today we went to our Early Intervention meeting. In attendence was the developmental specialist who assessed Aiden, a speech therapist, and a staffing specialist. Everyone was so warm and kind. They first reported on Aiden's results, but acknowledged that they understand he is different now. Then they read the letter that was written by Jane, our private speech therapist. With all that new knowledge they re-wrote (with us) new goals for Aiden that are more appropriate with his new skills that he has re-aquired. They explained to us that Aiden has qualifed for FREE speech therapy 2x per week for 30 minutes. He has also qualified for part time Developmentaly Delayed school. We did find out that free speech is a Group Speech environment, not 1:1. SO... we are SO happy that he is getting the 1:1 therapy already through the private practice. We intend to keep that going along with the free group therapy. We were offered two options. 1) just speech therapy - this would be done at East Lake Elementary where Anna goes to school. 2) Developmentally Delayed school at Bonneville Elementary where he would get speech during the school time. This would be 2 1/2 hours per day. Not a full day each day.

Our dilemma really is towards the Developmentally Delayed school. All the therapists agree that children learn from their immediate environment. We are concerned that if we put Aiden in a classroom with children that may have more severe delays or behavioral problems, that this could affect him negatively. At the same time, it would be a small group setting where Aiden would get WAY more attention and focus. hmm... We decided to leave the meeting without deciding yet. This means we have to go back downtown to sign the papers when we figure out what we are doing. We really feel we want to OBSERVE the actual class Aiden would be joining at Bonneville Elementary before we agree to put him there.

So, Will and I went to Panera for lunch to talk things over, and just de-compress. Sitting next to us was Anna's Sunday School teacher. She said hello, and engaged us in conversation, and asked us about Aiden. Her friend sitting opposite her contributed to the conversation by letting us know her son had serious delays a few years ago, and goes to a school nearby called UCP (http://www.ucpcfl.org/). She spoke so highly of the school, and then told us that it is a charter school, and if Aiden has qualified through Orange County (as he has) then it would be FREE to send him there! Oh my, something else to investigate and ponder. Anyone find it strange and interesting that we ended up next to this woman in Panera RIGHT AFTER our meeting at Early Intervention services. Wow! She gave us their business card which she had with her, and Will and I decided to run over there before picking up Aiden from school. We went in, and requested a referral to speak with someone there. We were told that we would be called back within 48 hours.

We picked up Aiden, who had a pretty good day today at school. He just LOVES it there. We spoke with his teacher who loves having Aiden in class, but did express that sometimes she wishes she could do MORE for him, but with the class size and her lack of qualifications that folks would have at the special school, she sometimes is frustrated. At the same time, Aiden doesn't "stand out" often in class as "different", and for the most part does very well there. We did discuss the fact that on Mon/Wed/Fri at Aiden's current school there are only 5 children in the class. So.. we could move days and have him in a smaller class setting so the teacher can work more closely with him. hmm....

While we were driving to pick up Anna from school, we got our call from UCP. 48 hours? More like 30 minutes! Wow, quite impressive!!! They asked some questions, and explained that they are having a meeting on Friday and will find out if there is currently space for Aiden. If so, we'll go in and speak with them.

We also spoke with the staffing person over at Bonneville Elementary. We arranged to go TOMORROW to observe the class that Aiden would be in if we chose this route. So.. we'll see what we think about that option tomorrow. So much to think about!

As I see it, we have 4 options:
1) Pass on the special school, keep him in his current school, and have therapy 4x per week for 30 minutes (2 group, 2 private)

2) Accept special school at Bonneville where he would get group therapy 2x per week, while continuing private therapy 2x per week.

3) If an option, send him to UCP where he would get therapy 2x per week there, while continuing private therapy 2x per week.

4) Pass on special school, but change days at his current school for smaller class size, and have therapy 4x per week for 30 minutes (2 group, 2 private)

To be honest, we have NO idea what to do. We really don't. We are torn. We are confused. Aiden is changing so much everyday, that we really don't know what would be best for him. We want someone to just give us an answer, but the fact of the matter is, there is no right or wrong answer.

If there is anyone reading this who has any information on any of this, or the different schools, opinions and feedback are welcome.

We don't want to wait too long to make a decision, but we want it to be the right one.

A side note: Anna's Sunday school teacher couldn't say enough about Anna. She can't believe after only being in Sunday school just a few weeks, that Anna virtually knows the entire Hebrew Alphabet. Anna has studied that completely on her own, and is pretty much caught up to where the rest of the kids are at who have been going all year. That's our girl!

Sorry this one was so long, but I guess I had a lot to say. :)

More soon.

Love, Holly

Love is in the air....

I first want to wish all my friends and family a belated Valentines Day. We had a nice weekend. Will and I went to one of our favorite restaurants, Colorado Fondue on Friday night to celebrate V-day. Here's a picture before we left.





















We had quite the family weekend after that. First a birthday party to go to. Then we went to visit my mom, where we of course had to pratice our Guitar Hero skills. Then we took the kids for some Valentines Day ice cream.



























































Then on Sunday, Anna and I had a date at the Orlando Repatory Theatre to see "Junie B. Jones and a little Monkey Business". I buy season tickets for her and I each year for shows I think she'll enjoy. This one was a sure fire hit! And.. the most exciting part.... Anna has always been quite tentative and shy to go meet the actors for their "meet and greet" after the show. She told me a few months ago that when she turned 7, she would do it. Well, this was the show she decided to go for it. So, after the play was over, we waited in line to meet "Junie B. Jones" and got a picture.



































Sunday night we had our friends over for dinner and hanging out so that was fun!

The week has begun and on the Aiden front, we are scheduled to start speech therapy tomorrow. I'm SOOOOO relieved and look forward to getting started. I spent a whle on the phone with our therapist today and she seems quite baffled (along with everyone else), but also very excited to meet Aiden and help him the best she can. :) YEY!

Well, I believe that's all I've got for now! Until next time!

Love,
Holly