Family Updates And Report Card Time

It's been a long time since I last posted.  We had a really great holiday season.  The kids were super excited for Christmas, and for the very first time, weren't afraid of Santa!  The city we moved to over the summer, brings Santa through town on a fire engine the Sunday before Christmas.  I was super excited to find out about it, and couldn't wait to take the kids outside to see him.  I was a little bit nervous because my kids have been afraid of Santa for years.  The only time we've had a positive Santa experience, was when Edward was 5 months old, and Chris and I took him to get pictures with Santa. That was the only time we haven't been faced with kicking and screaming.  Last year, we avoided Santa altogether, because we knew it wouldn't go over very well.  But this year, was a complete game changer! With Santa coming to our turf, things went super smooth.  The kids were super excited, and watching out the window with their shoes and jackets on, while I was watching online, waiting for Facebook updates from our city mayor, about where Santa was, and what neighborhood he would be hitting next.  When I saw the post that our neighborhood was next, the kids were already trying to get the door open to run outside. Edward took off toward the fire engine as it was coming down the street, and climbed right up to see Santa as soon as it stopped in front of him. Serenity was a little bit nervous, but once I assured her that everything was ok, and lifted her up to join Edward next to Santa, she was thrilled to be standing on a fire engine. I got some cute pictures, and the kids had a great time! We are hoping that next year will be just as great.

We've learned a huge lesson in the Autism life lately.  Shortly after Edward started school, I canceled all of Serenity's therapy appointments with the new therapy center that the kids had started going to, because they just weren't making much progress, and the therapists that the kids were seeing just weren't connecting with my kids, the kids weren't happy, and it was beginning to be a HUGE hassle to go there.  Plus, I swear the speech therapist had it out for me. Every single time she saw one of my kids, she had a problem with them that she would bring to my attention.  Whether it was Serenity having muscle tone issues, or Edward having something else, I was getting seriously annoyed.  Never once, in the entire time that I've been a mother, nor in the year or two that I had been taking the kids to get therapy, had I ever been bothered with any sort of problems, much less things that were so quickly dismissed by both Chris and I, as well as our pediatrician, as non issues.  I finally asked the doctor to call the therapy center and basically tell the lady to shove it and do her job, because I was so annoyed with her idiocy. A couple weeks later I was told by Serenity's ENT that I needed to call the state Early Invention office to get help for Serenity, so I did that, and she's been getting all of her therapies thru them, and the therapists come to us!  I never have to leave the house for therapy, and it's been so much easier. Serenity is responding a lot better than she was, and making a ton of progress. She gets both Speech and Occupational therapy, in home, twice a month.  Speech for 30 minutes, and occupational therapy for an hour.  It has made a world of difference having the therapists come to us.  Serenity is always super excited to see them, and opens up really well.  Before, when we were going out to the therapy office, some days were better than others, but a lot of the time Serenity would take 90% of each session to finally start to open up and participate.  But now that her therapists come to us, she is definitely more comfortable and excited to participate.  She actually starts to get upset when her time is up, and the therapist needs to leave to go to their next appointment. It's such a huge improvement from before, and it's been great to watch!

Getting Serenity's therapy thru Early Intervention is about to come to an end for us in the next few weeks.  The state only provides the services to children under 3 years old, but they work with the local school district to integrate the kids into the school system.  Next week, Serenity goes in to do all the testing for her to start Pre-K, as soon as she turns 3 next month.  We are excited because she'll be sharing Edward's Pre-K teacher, who we absolutely LOVE.  Edward still goes to Kindergarten in the mornings, and then switches to Pre-K after lunch.  Serenity will be going to Pre-K in the morning, but then I'll be picking her up at lunch time when Edward switches over.  The only time they will be together in Pre-K will be for special events.  Having them both in school every morning will definitely make my life a little bit easier.  I am looking forward to going back to bed for a couple hours.  I may eventually get myself a gym membership, and attempt to go exercise while they're both gone, but I'm not sure.  I'm kind of lazy.

Edward's report cards came home the last few days.  Yesterday was officially report card day, but because he's got several teachers, and an IEP, we've been getting reports sent home all week.  Edward is doing really well in school.  He's definitely not at all the same kid that he was when he started school back in August.  He has grown and changed so much, and it has been such a privilege and blessing to watch.  He is learning to read, write and spell, count, etc. Lately, Edward has been asking how to spell different thing that he wants to do on his tablet.  There are so many different apps on there, that it gets tedious having to scroll thru the endless list to find what you want.  I recently taught Edward how to hit the search button, and he now types in what he wants.  He knows how to spell Mario, Everleigh & Cole (he LOVES watching the Labrandt family and Everleigh opens toys on YouTube), Ryan (Ryan's world also on YouTube), Bounce Patrol, and a few others.  It is so exciting to watch Edward learning to spell.  We are so proud of him! Every day he is asking us how to spell different things.  As I sit here typing, Edward just asked me how to spell YouTube. He doesn't quite realize that he doesn't have access to YouTube on his tablet.  He only has access to select videos that both the Amazon Freetime department have pre-approved for him to view. Having the tablets for the kids has made a huge difference in our lives.  There are so many educational apps available to them, and it has really helped both our kids.  I'll do blog about the Amazon Fire Tablets that we got our kids at a later time.

Here are Edward's report cards that we've received this week.  He's definitely made some really great strides over the last 9 week, and we are so proud of him, and excited to see how well he does in the next 9 weeks.