Summer vacation

Am I the only one ready for summer vacation to be over? Don't get me wrong I love getting to spend more time with my kid but after a little over a month he gets pretty restless. A little more whiney, all the things that have been fun up to this point are no longer fun and of course it is up to me to find something he wants to do. There's always the iPad which I'm sure he could play now until the first day of school but we really try and limit the amount of time he immerses himself into the wonderful world of games and electronics. He loves the ninja turtles and he has quite the collection but now those aren't even appealing. Of course there are plenty of things to do when you have money to spare but for a one income household that's just not going to happen. We still have over a month until school starts and even though that will be a battle in itself I can't wait for that bell to ring! 

Proud of my kid

Yesterday I took the boy to McDonalds. This doesn't happen often and Dominic was very excited because they currently have the Minion toys. He kept asking me the whole way there if he could get Kevin, this kid knows his Minions. I told him I was not sure which ones they had and we would have to see. We get there and he is looking at them all in the case and he can barely contain himself because he is so excited. Right as I was about to order the food he walks up to the counter leans in towards the lady and says 'so, do you guys have Kevin?" He didn't whisper, he did not ask me to ask her he asked her himself! Not surprisingly she did not know which one Kevin is so I had to explain what he looked like and they did have him so it made his day. I was so proud that he took it upon himself to talk to the worker and was confident in doing so.

Brothers

Watching Dominic with his brother is an amazing thing. He is his big brother so of course he loves him that's kind of a given, but watching him overcome and deal with things that bother him because it is his brother is heartwarming to see. Ukiah is 18 months old and like most toddlers he gets pretty loud sometimes he hits those certain pitches that really bother Dominic but he tries really hard to not be upset by it. He knocks down blocks when he is stacking them which Dominic has turned into a game to avoid getting upset. Story time can be hectic because he gets stressed out having his things touched but I can see him trying to not be upset or choosing a toy to distract him so he doesn't try and touch them all. He even accepts his slobbery kisses even though it grosses him out. He has come so far and is such an amazing brother 😊

She failed him

Today I got his report card in the mail. He spends part of his time in a general ed classroom and part time in special ed. I've been told eventually he will have to be solely in a special education classroom but I refuse to make that determination right now. Anyway a little background on this year, his kindergarten teacher who he loved had moved to teach second grade. We were so happy to hear that and requested that she be his teacher. Instead he was placed in another teacher’s class. The entire first week was a substitute. After that we learned his teacher would not be coming back and he would have a series of substitutes until they could find someone to fill the position permanently. I immediately requested that he be moved to his old teacher’s classroom for fear of regression and because I knew having different teachers would cause him to shut down completely. I was told no multiple times by the principal, she said that she could not make exceptions for any students because it would make it look like it was okay for anyone to request to change classrooms. I went as far as emailing the superintendent to which I never received a response. They ended up hiring the substitute from the beginning of the year and I was completely uncomfortable with her as a teacher but still my complaints went ignored. She started missing days at a time and he was becoming more and more frustrated every time a new substitute was there. She never left any notes informing the substitutes of his autism. We went in with him every morning to help with his work because if we didn’t he would just sit there or she would have him coloring instead of doing real work. The last week of school she asked us to stop coming in because he would need to learn to come in on his own once he started third grade. There is so much more that I could complain about but this has already turned out to be pretty long so back to the report card, the last quarter of the year he made no progress on his IEP. He has NEVER not made any progress until this year. I believe she absolutely failed him and I am so angry that my concerns went ignored and that he paid for it.

He always amazes me

It always amazes me how far he has come. He seemed to be a typical child until around 18 months when it all suddenly seemed to go away. He lost the few words he knew, didn't make eye contact or even respond to his name. Fast forward to today and he can hold simple conversations and even look you in the eyes although I think it gets uncomfortable for him after a while. I love to watch him study people's faces. He is very facial expression oriented and relies a lot on them to understand how someone is feeling. If he can't tell how I am feeling he will make a point to make eye contact with me and smile until I smile make. He really is such a sweet amazing boy. I would not give up this journey with him for anything in the world.