The Otte's

What a fun week we have had.

We started off, actually last week, by saying "See you Later" to Grandpa and Grandma, who went South for the winter!  We will miss them, and hope they have lots of fun staying warm down there.

Then Tuesday we went to see Suzanne at therapy.  Quinn practiced driving and with just a bit of pressure on her arm, she can do great!  She turned and drove up two curb cuts all by herself!  (We won't talk about how last week she drove into therapy, and was excited to see her friend Matthew, and tried to drive right into him.  We had therapists coming from everywhere trying to get her to stop, thankfully Matthew was not hurt!)  So as Quinn was driving, Suzanne talked to her about how she can talk to me on the way to therapy, or the therapists when we get there using her dynovox, about what she wants to do, since they added that page onto her dynovox.

So Wednesday, Halloween Day, after she got home from school, we got loaded up for therapy, and guess what she did?  She went directly to her dynovox therapy page, and talked about how she wanted to stand up, stretch, and roll down the hill!  Oh, that is amazing.

To put it into perspective, we got her report card back today as well, and it was ok.  She gets her own special report card, and it was mixed.  The teachers and therapists are seeing that Quinn is super smart and can tell them things and write her name, while at the same time, they can't get her to show them other things, that she clearly knows.  Over all, these are new people in her life, and they are all on a learning curve.  I can't say enough good things about them all, but it's still not fun to see that she is not showing them all of what she can do, while at the same time, she has always been selective in who she shares her thoughts and actions with.

So with her dynovox, some days she gets on there and types random letters and I don't know if she is just playing or what, while other times she gets on there and really has a conversation with us.  So having her remember what Suzanne said the day before, and go to her therapy page, and tell me what she wanted to do was amazing, and just what I needed after reading her report card!  To top it off she told a few of the folks at Handprints what she wanted to do too, so I have back up that she did it!  Oh, how I love her!  So we were sure to do standing, stretching, and rolling down the hill!

Then it was time to trick or treat, so we made a quick clothing change in the Handprints parking lot, picked up dad, and (I'm sad to say) went around and met a few of our neighbors.  I have been wanting to get out to meet them sooner, but time has gotten away from me.  Thankfully, I have that done now, and we have some great neighbors!  Then we went out and hit a few friends houses.  By 6:45 Quinn was exhausted, and so we had to call it a night!  For a 5 year old, that is one busy day!  Actually I think I was as tired as she was, as I was sound asleep by 8:45, so I guess I need to say it was a long day for both of us.  You can tell, we have a tired little clown in the picture, but past that, it sure is good to have wonderful friends!
Blessings to you all!
Susan