New job and PT

First up....

Jeremy starts a new job in 2 1/2 weeks!  He actually isn't unhappy where he's currently at, but he's come to a point in his current job where there's really nowhere for him to go, career wise.  He began as an actuary, taking the rigorous tests that allow you to move up as an actuary.  However, after getting married, dealing with infertility, having 2 kids back to back, he came to a stand-still with his exams.  As hard as he studied, he just couldn't quite find the time to make it a priority.  So he stopped taking the tests and took his role as a Technical Analyst.  This was fine for him.  He likes the work he does and he likes the company he works for.

The problem is that he works for an Actuary Consulting firm.  And he's not an actuary.  There's only so far you can go.  There's really no room for promotions or pay raises as a non actuary in this firm.  They value Jeremy as an employee but were struggling with where his job fell. 

So about a year ago he began applying to State Farm.  SF's headquarters are here and a significant portion of our town works for them.  They have a lot of opportunities for growth and career moves.  A few weeks ago, he managed to get an interview.  It was just an interest interview.  The Finance Department wanted to meet him, see where his skill sets are and see if he would be a good fit and where.  At the end of the interview, they told him not to apply to any more positions, that they had him on their list and would call him when something opened up!  This was great news!

His interview was on a Friday.  The following Monday, SF called.  They were offering him a job!  After background checks and drug tests, he got his final offer.  It's a pay raise for us and SF has great benefits (including an adoption assistance program) and a park/pool that I'm really excited about using this summer.  He starts after Memorial Day.  He will now be a Finance Analyst and he's super excited about what his job description entails.  I'm so excited for him!


Second...

We had Anthony's Global Screening done today for Early Intervention.  The great news is that aside from his gross motor skills, he's at or above his age in all of the other developmental areas.  Even his fine motor skills have improved enough to put him at a 12.5 month level (at just barely 13 months).  This is significant improvement in the few weeks since we've been waiting for the screening.

This showed the Developmental Therapist and Physical Therapist that it's not a neurological thing.  They don't see any signs of Cerebral Palsy or Muscular Atrophy or anything.  It seems to be more of a muscle tone/desire to move kind of thing.

However, in his gross motor skills, he's at a 7 month old level.  No shock there.  He sits, he rolls.  The end.  That puts him at a 54% delay.  30% qualifies him for services.  So he will be starting physical therapy once a week for at least the next 6 months.  Their early goal is to have him crawling in 6 months.  The PT was pretty confident that he'd be crawling well before them, but she wants to focus solely on that in the near future.  Once he starts crawling, they'll back off the PT to maybe every other week or even longer to see if he can motivate himself to start pulling up, cruising and eventually walking.  Once he's walking, they said they'll likely stop therapy since he shows no signs of being behind anywhere else.  The PT was confident that once they can get him moving and have him realize its benefits, he should quickly progress.

I was glad he qualified for EI.  At 13 months old, it's time for him to get moving.  I'm excited that he'll get the help he needs and that they can show me ways to help him also.  They can see that it's likely that he's gotten used to being able to use his cuteness (he seriously charms the daylights out of everyone and he would gladly choose socializing over playing with toys anytime) and his excellent verbal skills to get what he wants.  Having an extremely advanced older sister has been a crutch for him, making him lack the motivation to get started.

So begins our "get Anthony moving" journey.