First Day of Preschool

Today was Brandon's first day of preschool. He qualified for special needs preschool and is now on an IEP at school. Brandon qualified for special needs preschool due to speech and fine motor delay. He will be receiving occupational and speech therapy. He attends daycare in the morning and then the bus picks him up in the afternoon for class. Such a big boy! Special thanks to the daycare workers for taking pictures of this milestone!

All ready to go...

Waiting for it to be time to walk out to catch the bus.



Taking a picture with Miss Amy. She was one of the first daycare workers to care for Brandon. He was just 4 weeks old when she met him. Time has gone by so fast.

Brandon's classmate and bus buddy Maddie!

There's the bus...

All aboard!

Painting at school. A special thank you to Brandon's teacher, Ms. Bass, for surprising me with this picture.

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

Last day at daycare for the week before his birthday...so proud of his birthday sign.

Birthday morning...opening his present.

Practicing his pitching...look at that form :)

Trying out his new toy...

Lunch with mom and dad. The waiter brought out a special birthday sundae.

Party at Frickers Sports Bar...Picture of Brandon setting eyes on his birthday cake for the first time...Loved it! Special thanks to my brother Jon and to Shelly for making such an amazing cake.

Making a wish!

So proud of my little man and how much he has accomplished so far in life. He is so amazing and I look forward to watching him grow and learn more every day.

Another trip to Cincinnati: Division of Human Genetics

On January 28th, 2011 we traveled back to Cincinnati, OH to see Dr. Hopkin, a genetics specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Since our last visit there, we had done a number of genetic blood tests on Brandon and on this day we got to review the findings with the doctor. As it turns out all of Brandon's blood tests came back "normal". In my mind this is great news, however genetic studies are not 100% accurate. What I found out though is, even though genetic studies may not be diagnostic, a person can still receive a "clinical" diagnosis if they exhibit many of the same characteristics. After a detailed discussion with the doctor it was decided that Brandon meets criteria for a clinical diagnosis of Aarskog Syndrome. They will further investigate and study other conditions that could overlap with this particular syndrome, but at this time he will have the Aarskog diagnosis unless an alternate diagnosis is found to be more appropriate. What does this mean? The important part I took away from this is that Brandon is "at risk" of learning difficulties and attention problems as he gets older. In light of this information and in addition to Brandon's speech issues, it is more important than ever to make sure he gets linked well in the school system and receives appropriate services. Help Me Grow has been fantastic in preparing us for this and Brandon was evaluated for special needs preschool and has qualified. He is currently on an IEP and will start preschool on March 7th where he will receive speech and occupational therapy to help him progress developmentally. Because there are different types of Aarskog, we are unsure exactly what this will mean as far as Brandon passing any genetic conditions on to his children. I will say this...Brandon has been an amazing boy and if his kids are anything like him we will all be lucky :)