TYLER:
Tyler was told at his last dentist appointment that all of his remaining baby teeth were loose and would come out soon. ALL? He knew about one of them and it did fall out later that month. Then there was a lull. Then he lost another or two in December and January was pretty crazy. He actually didn't lose his first tooth until he was almost 8 so he's always kind of been behind in this area, but I keep telling him that's good news as far as our future orthodontia bill is concerned. Anyway, he came home from his weekend away on Sunday night and informed me that he had lost another tooth which he has done about once a week lately. He said:
"Geez, usually I lose one or two teeth a year. I've lost three in the last month! This can't be normal!"
He did announce to me last night that all baby teeth are gone now except for a couple of molars, but he can't tell that they are loose yet. That's what he said before though and he's lost at least one of those. He will be 12 in just 2 short months and I have a feeling that those teeth will go quickly as well. All I can say is that I am grateful he doesn't believe in the tooth fairy anymore or I would be broke!
Tyler's disappointment over his Junior High selection has been slow to dissipate so I did agree to put him on the waiting list for a possible change. It's unlikely anything will come of it, but I did warn Tyler that even if he did get a spot I might not let him take it. If the change in placement happens later than spring registration we won't be changing since the classes he is taking are more important than where he takes them. We won't risk facing filled classes and a less than desirable schedule. He came to me yesterday and said that he thinks this Junior High thing might be like the Violin thing and if he lets it just happen he will probably like it better eventually. Yeah. Okay, he had to think it through for himself and me talking until I'm blue in the face didn't do one bit of good. I'll have to remember that. Anyway, we have his big informational night at his new school tonight and I have a feeling that once we go to that he'll be more excited about next year. We have to figure out the PE vs Athletics thing since he really doesn't want to play football, but he does want to try out for Basketball and play Tennis. We are also encouraging him to consider trying out for Track since he is so fast, but that is still in the works and might require an encouraging, excited call at some point from his Aunt Asheley (hint, hint). Choice cards for registration are due on Friday and then I think I can breathe easier about at least one school placement/issue for a while. Next up - finding a private lesson teacher for Violin over the summer to take some of the pressure off of him in the fall with all the added pressures and changes coming.
One other interesting development: Tyler took a friend with him to church recently and the friend didn't like it at all. In fact on the way home this friend told me he didn't listen to anything that was said the whole time because that's what he always does. Hmmm. The kid had every opportunity to not go with us, but came anyway. Then he told Tyler he 'just wasn't into Church and God'. Tyler has been stressing about this for over a week even though we told him not to worry about it. Today he told me he might have pushed too hard and tried to get the friend to like it while they were there and told him how important it was a little too much. It was an interesting life lesson for my little man. I told him that was something he was always going to have to deal with in life - knowing how much or how little people wanted to be nudged/confronted, etc. in so many areas of his life. I was proud of him though for being BOLD about who he is! Yay!
SCOOTER:
Oh man I love this kid! He's so friggin cute sometimes it almost hurts. He's doing really good at walking into school on his own still. He kinda stalled this morning because he was tired, but recovered quickly and did go in on his own.
I spent 2 hours last night filling out paperwork and questionnaires so that he can have his new evaluation. Some of the questions are still in regards to his birth/babyhood/development, but most of it is about where he is now. And the answers to those questions are so very different than what they were a year ago. Scott wanted me to answer a little more 'light' in a couple areas, but I refused to be less than honest because that wouldn't be helpful to our son. Scott said 'MY Scotty is perfect'. I get what he means and he's perfect to me too so it hurts to have to put Scooter on some rating scale. However, the goal here is to get him officially OFF of the Autism spectrum as far as the school district is concerned if we can since no one is seeing anything even close to those indications at school. He is still shy, he still doesn't look people in the eye or respond to people he knows when he is outside his comfort zone, etc. and those answers were telling, but I do believe that all this shyness is the only indicator and probably not enough to have him on the spectrum. We'll see.
The most telling differences to me though on the forms were that we have no more senseless temper tantrums, no crying for some unknown reason, he plays cooperatively with kids his own age and slightly older and despite his love of play acting and pretending, he isn't solely focused on any one thing, moving easily from topic to topic. (This is more evident all the time as our neighbor with PDD-NOS struggles with moving from one play focus to another and even Riley's play is more sophisticated than his now.) Anyway, I think the main thing is that they have a lot more to work with for his evaluation than just my answers and Scooter clinging to my leg. They will observe him in the school setting without me there and they have been gathering information from all of his teachers for months. I was kinda surprised to see a note that he would also be evaluated for a 'speech impediment', but I think that is because he currently gets pulled out for speech and socialization therapy twice a week. It's for the pragmatics of speech and Scooter tells me they also work on 'expected behaviors' sometimes. So the evaluation would either prove that this should continue or be discontinued. I can't tell. The speech teacher just sends a report home every six weeks that basically says he is making progress but has not mastered anything. Since the goal post is continually moving I don't think they ever get to full mastery so this tells me absolutely nothing.
In the midst of all this Junior High stuff with Tyler, I am finally getting what all the benefits of the Magnet school have been about. I have always known it was beneficial, more challenging and would be helpful to him in the long run. I just didn't get that there was a political angle as well and that it was going to get him on a tract for first dibs on even better programs as he gets older. And thinking Scooter was going to need a lot more help and a more comfortable environment, I pulled him out of that tract. And he's fine and is of course one of the smartest kids in the class. OOOOOOOPPPSSSS! Oh, Sugar Plum with a big fat cherry on top. I knew at the time the decision could go either way on the wise/foolish scale. Urgh. I have reapplied to the Magnet schools under the sibling clause thingy and I am keeping my fingers crossed. I keep telling Scooter we'll find out by letter which of 3 schools he will attend next year and he seems fine with that so far. After all, that's how he finds out which teacher he has too, right?
Anyway - what I really want to share with you is how funny Scooter is. He's always been silly and had a good sense of humor, but it's shining through more every day. We've had a big rash of 'pick a hand' games going around with the younger kids lately and last night Scooter took it to a whole new level. We were all at the kitchen table chatting and Scooter came up to Tyler and played the game. Tyler chose one hand and there was predictably nothing and then he chose the other and Scooter showed him some small lego thing. Then he moved on to his dad, first hand nothing. Second hand nothing. First hand again, nothing. Scooter was giggling so hard while his dad picked hand after hand and there was nothing in any of them that I started chuckling too. Of course he was moving the toy from hand to hand, but he had 'invented' this game on his own so he thought it was the funniest thing ever.
After Scott & Tyler left for Basketball practice, Scooter told me he had a joke for me. Okay.
S-Why did the Chicken cross the road?
M-I don't know, why? (Of course I know why, it's the oldest joke ever, but new to S. right?)
S-To get to the other side!
M-Ooohhh! Insert obligatory laughter
S-Momma - Why did the Chicken cross the playground?
M-I don't know, why? (Thinking-here we go, he'll do the same joke over with slight variations)
S-To get to the other side - you should know that!
M-Oh - the other side, right.
S-No mom - not side - slide! To get to the other slide! That's what I said!
M-Insert GENUINE laughter, That is very clever Scooter!
The sense of humor thing, by the way, is a wonderful indication that we are coming off the spectrum as well since the nuance of it is something that most autistic children don't grasp.
And later, while I checked my Words with Friends page, I heard Scooter go up to Riley who has had 3 whole days of school at a local church preschool program, 'Riley, by the way, so who's your principal?' Riley had no idea! No principal, just a director Scooter. It was so precious!
RILEY:
Riley loves school. He doesn't write his name on his own yet and all the kids who have been there all year (and previous years) can do it. They are working with him and we started working with him at home too. We sing R-I-L-E-Y to the tune of BINGO so that he can learn how to spell his name without dropping the 'I' completely or turning it into an 'A' or an 'L'. He proudly comes home every day and tells me he got a green card. Honestly, I don't even know if they do the color change thing or not, but he's heard so much about Scooter staying on green every day I think he just assumes since he is being good he's on green.
After the first day I asked him if they sleep during quiet time or just rest. He said 'just rest' and then later crawled up into a chair next to me and said "Momma, I heard a rumor . . ." This by itself made me smile because I know he got it from me. I'll throw that out to the kids all the time with a tag like 'there was a little boy who needed a kiss from his mom' or something like that. It has never been thrown back at me before. After a pause, he started again 'I heard a rumor that a kid was still sleeping after quiet time'. It was funny to me because no one was sleeping in his room, but there was a little girl in the other Pre-K class getting carried out still sleeping that day. So maybe he did 'hear a rumor'!
Friday was rough for me because one of the teachers made comments to me about Riley being behind the other kids (something we knew going in, but I guess she was out of the loop) and also about him being 'so small' and that the other kids noticed, mentioned it and 'baby-ed' him. I cried and my sweet friend Mandy immediately ordered me to her house for newborn baby therapy which worked like a charm. (Thank you Mandy and Caitlyn! You are the most awesomest friend ever, ever, ever, like in a million years!) But the cute part of that day was that Riley had said to me on the way there that he had one friend at school that was 4 like him. I told him all the kids were 4, he was definitely the youngest and some were getting ready to turn 5 already, but everyone was 4. "Yeah, but they are bigger than me." "You are just short sweetie, but you'll grow. I am short, Grandma's short, etc." "And Great-Grandma, momma, she's really little. She's Grandma Barrow's mommy." "Yep, she is." Just before we pulled in the parking lot Riley said 'So, momma, I am 4 and I am big, I am just short." "Yes, Riley, you are big and short!" It was good enough for him.
On Mondays, the kids start their 'letter of the week' and 'number of the week'. I knew they were 'Q' and '17'. She sent home a 'counting jar' for Riley to collect 17 of something and bring back on Wednesday with something for show and tell that starts with a 'Q'. (Ok - side note here, please tell me you can think of something other than a quarter because I am pretty sure there are going to be 13 kids doing show and tell with quarters on Wednesday!) I made sure that the teacher knew that Riley could count to 15 without fail and even though he was still struggling with the upper teen numbers like all kids his age I had overheard him counting from 20-80 in the car the other day. All that listening to his older brother learn to count to 100 has paid off and was kind of the point of putting Riley where he is, etc. That was kind of petty on my part, but I was still hurt. I promise I'll get over it and I will forgive the teacher for not being in the loop and saying my kid was little and 'behind'. Eventually. I might sulk a little more this week first. mmmmmkay?
When I picked Riley up the teacher said her camera ran out of batteries before she got all the pictures taken she needed for open house this week and took Riley to their bean bags to take his picture with fresh batteries. She posed him on his knees and asked him to hold up his sign language 'I love you' sign she had taught him that day. Later, on the way to pick the boys up, I asked Riley what his letter of the week was, already knowing it was 'Q'. "ummmmmm, my letter of the week wasssssss . . . 'I love you'" and he held up his hand showing me the sign. Okay - he's still figuring it all out, but it's so cute.
That's what's going on. Just super cute boys being super cute. Most of the time. Everyone is being really good about their chore charts for the most part and we should be ready to start giving them their allowances and introducing their 4-part saving/spending banks soon. We are also starting our own little behavior color chart here today too that is currently centered on 'No Whining!' The boys have to work together to earn family fun time. The first goal is for a family game night and the second level will get them to the theater to see Star Wars Episode I in 3D. They selected these and are currently debating between bowling and putt-putt for their 3rd level of achievement. Once whining is reduced we'll switch it up to 'No Arguing'. That's the plan anyway.
I finally met up with one of my closest friends for our 'Christmas' lunch yesterday. We were cracking up that it is February and we were still hauling around Christmas packages for each other. We exchanged them as we said goodbye and Di told me that mine was for the whole family and I should wait to open it with the boys. I'm so glad I did, but now that it's here we are sure eating a lot of toast. Ha!
Her husband is from Minnesota and a Viking fan so I am sure he was happy to have this out of his house, but my hubby is a die hard Cowboys fan. Scott likes the Packers and roots for them when they aren't playing his Boys. He 'lets' the kids be dual fans, but so do I. He kind of looked at us like we were crazy when he came home and saw the toaster. I think he was afraid I bought it, but since it was a gift it gets to stay. He's probably a little softer about it since I let him give the two younger boys Cowboys gear for Christmas. Now they can 'choose' whether or not to wear Packers stuff or Cowboys shirts instead. Anyway - it's a cute addition to our house and we were pretty excited. I didn't even have any problems getting the kids to write in the thank you note they were so pumped!
God Bless you and Keep You!
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