Star of the Week

Our little man was Star of the Week, which while it seems like something super cool for him it ends up being a way for the school to get supplies from parents.  But regardless, it was our little man's turn.   I had already arranged to have a half day from work on Friday due to his extended evaluation follow up so I just made it work out double duty and I was able to come in an observe him in his class, read a story to them all and get to see my little man in action. 

Let me just say I am one proud momma! Grayson is doing unbelievably in his class.  The first thing I got to watch was them all getting ready to go to the playground, being the Star of the week allows him to be the first to go out to the playground and he gets to pick his partner as well.  He very clearly chose his friend Abby and off him and this adorable little brunette skipped to the door.  He was super excited for me to be there and I think it limited a lot of his activities on the playground.  But he was climbing up structures I didn't know he knew how to.  He engaged with his peers, was eager to play with them. 

From there we headed into centers and I got to watch him play a game with his peers and the speech teacher.  He was very engaged with her and the game (a Snakes version of Chutes and Ladders).  He loved rolling this big fuzzy dice  across the floor and I am finally understanding where the phrases "I got it!" and " I did it!" have come from.  From there we headed to another center in which they read a book about mom's and while I think he enjoyed the book it seemed to just make him sleepy, at one point his head was on the table.  The third center they drew pictures and told why they love their mom's.   Grayson definitely was trying to tell his teacher something but neither of us were really able to understand what exactly was coming out of his mouth. 
                                                                                                            (Grayson & Thermaputty)
After centers it was time for his IEP meeting.  This might be the first time my little man has actually gotten sad about me leaving him somewhere.  We had some clingy hugs and lots of requests for "Up!"  but he realized it was snack time and was able to move on.

The meeting went fabulously.  This was to go over the new OT assessment and to go over the further observation from the BCBA. First we had an update from his preschool teacher and his speech teacher, both of who agreed he is doing fantastic.  They have already changed one of his goals on his IEP to focus on his attention to activities versus worrying about his ability to follow the routine and sit for table tasks with a group.  Based on the small observation I had, I completely agreed with them.

The OT believes that he has some really strong fine motor skills and that a lot of them are developing.  She did specifically mention his lack of ability with scissors but also followed it up with a how often do we really introduce 3 year olds to scissors.   She will be adding a 30 minute pull out to his IEP every week.  The BCBA had a lot more information to share.  She quickly reaffirmed what she had stated in the previous IEP meeting, that she wants him there all day.   She wants to begin to do morning sessions with some discreet trial training and to also expand it into some appropriate play, generalizing of all skills and more peer interaction. 

What does this mean for Grayson??  Well starting August 31st (or around there) he will be a full time preschool student.  He will be picked up on the bus around 8:30 arriving to school for 9.  He will then have 3 hours of ABA work followed by lunch and then followed by 2.5 hours in his preschool classroom settings with his peers.  At which point he will promptly return to daycare and fall asleep until we pick him up (I expect we will be keeping naps for quite a while with this schedule now).  It has also been decided that Grayson will be in the summer program which lasts for 1 month from July 7th-August 7th.   He will have preschool class 9-12 and then will follow it up with ABA and that will be 3 days a week.

After a fabulous meeting we then returned to his classroom, where I received a truly wonderful greeting from my little man and we began circle time.  The star got to pick a song to sing, and I finally understood why he keeps running around the house singing sticky sticky bubblegum.   Then I got to read his favorite book Pigs Make Me Sneeze by Mo Williams (seriously if you haven't read these books yet I highly recommend them).  The kids loved it, the teachers enjoyed it, and Grayson was really excited I was there.  Then we took his poster with all his pictures around circle and let all the kids pick their favorite one.  It was an absolutely wonderful       day.  I am so proud of my little guy and the little person he's becoming.

Today, Wally took him to get his hair cut and Grayson not only wore the smock (something that's normally a very big fight) he actually sat through the whole hair cut with no tears and let her use the cutters!!!   As I'm sure you can see from the photos below it was much needed.

In other news, Mother's day is tomorrow.  We are going to the local Animal Shelter and visiting with some baby kittens.  It has been about 8 months since our beautiful girl Sakura passed away.   Her older sister Sashimi has been overly lonely lately and we think it might be time to bring in a new friend.  Wally is really enjoying his job, he's doing very well and working super hard making us all very proud of him.  He will be off to Chicago for the week of the 17th.  I will be taking my first dip into the pool as a working single mom and frankly I'm not looking forward to it.  Thankfully, we have Wally's parents near by if I do get into a jam and my job is very flexible in regards to my afternoon hours so I will be home early most of the days that week.

We will have a mother's day special post early tomorrow, I've been working on it for a while and I plan to share it with you all bright and early.  Have a wonderful weekend!

            Grayson Before                                                                                            Grayson After