End Of The Year Already?

Hello friends!

I hope you're all well.  Life has been very busy.  J graduates from preschool in just two short weeks!  Where has the year gone?  It seems like he just started.  He loves it there so much, and has made so many friends.  I hope that he'll get to see them over the summer. His preschool is doing something fun, a birthday party for all of the kids who's birthdays fall during the summer months.  Isn't that sweet?  That way all of the kids are celebrated.  They always do such fun things at school, I love it!  This Tuesday they're having toast and jam for snack. J will love that!  Anything to do with food...he sure does love to eat!

So, we still haven't gotten 100% confirmation as to which school he's going to, but they've gone ahead and set up the school-level meeting. It'll be at the school that we're hoping for, so fingers crossed!

I've been trying a new method of helping him to control his temper and come down from meltdowns. A friend of mine told me that if I speak in a low-pitched, quiet voice, in contrast to his high-pitched, loud meltdown voice, that it would help to ground him.  It's working really well!  He had the mother of all meltdowns at group the other day, even getting so mad as to hit "C", and I was able to talk him back down. He even apologized to C without being prompted, which is a good sign.  When he apologizes on bis own, we know that he means it.

We've decided to do preschool work each day over the summer. Writing, tracing shapes, reading, that sort of thing, just to keep him in practice. He's been fighting M at school when they have work time, so we hope that doing work at home might work better.

He's been talking so much, mostly "why" questions, he's so curious!  It's nice to have real conversations.

Here's a conversation with him:

"J, eat your cereal."
"I want milk on my Cheerios please!"
*I pour milk*
"Mommy, I spilled my milk.  I will clean it. This is soooooo yummy. Does K have cereal?  Does K love her cereal?"

And year ago the conversation would have gone something like this.

"J, would you like Cheerios or toast?"
*J grunts*
"J, would you like some milk?"
*J grunts*

You get the idea!  He's come so far in his speech!  We're pretty proud.  I never realized, until having a child with such a severe visual impairment, just how much the ability to see affected the ability to speak.  Knowing that, I see how far he's really come.  You rock, J!

He's going to his first birthday party without us today.  Due to certain crcumstances,  my best friend is taking him.  He's going to have a wonderful time!

Have a great day!

~Dee~