Saturday morning...

Saturday mornings at our house are definitely the most free-flowing times of our week. We cherish this time, probably at the expense of getting quite a bit done :)

In the spirit of Saturday mornings, here are a few thoughts from the week.

Grant came down with an ear ache on Monday. On the positive side, for the first time ever he was able to tell us what was hurting him. He came right to us and said "ear" while holding it. Of course the negative side was that he was in pain. In addition, this is the first time since he's been on this strict diet that we've had to deal with a medical issue. Ok- get some pain reliever. Wait, what's in that pain reliever? Food coloring? Sugar? Are you kidding me? Ok - get to the store and find something more suitable for him? What - you mean there is not one children's pain reliever at the drug store that doesn't have sugar or food coloring? Hmmm, wait, what's this? Ear drops? Hmmm - maybe if this helps we won't have to worry about going to the doctor and dealing with antibiotics...
So, after some struggle, we applied the drops, and then some more when he was asleep. He had a fussy day the next day at school, but he hasn't complained about his ears since. Yeah!!

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I haven't posted about the pool in quite awhile. It's been just over 5 weeks and this is the progress so far. We're maybe a week behind schedule, but overall it's gone very well.

As you can see, the next step is to pour the concrete around the pool, this will be done by Wednesday. Next comes the equipment and hookups, and then the Pebbletech finish on the pool. Finally, fill it up and swim! We are almost there!

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This morning, Grant was looking at the Teletubbies on pbskids.org and wanted to print some. Fortunately, after a couple of months since our old color inkjet bit the dust, we just got a new one this week. We printed a few out, and then I asked him to cut them out with scissors. He did such an awesome job! It takes so many skills coming together to cut out a picture. For our other kids, it could not have come any easier. For Grant, it's been 5 years of school to get this skill. Focus, hand/finger coordination, holding the paper while cutting - wow, it's just amazing to see him do it.

A few years back, we experienced our toughest time with one of his teachers - an OT at school. It was so apparent, so quickly, that she was not the right person to work with autistic kids. In some ways, it reminds me of Melissa's and Tara's struggles. In more than one meeting, the OT described Grant as "weird", and it mostly started with his struggles with using scissors. Looking back, we should have ended all contact right then and there, but we tried for a few months. Finally, we parents collected our voices together, made our concerns known to the district, and the OT was removed. We sure won't put up with anything like that ever again.

But, back to the positive. What a day - what a joy to see him learn and put his skills to use.

Love Thursday - Animal Style

MMM - I am so hungry right now and I'm trying to be really good and not eat so late, but my hunger has inspired my Love Thursday post.

In-N-Out Burger.

double-double animal style
fries
x-LG iced tea - no lemon or sugar

Is there any better food in the world? Certainly there is no better burger, and no better fries. And, almost as good, the service ALWAYS is done with a smile, and it is ALWAYS right.


As always, Love Thursday brought to you by Chookooloonks.

Catching up

Sometimes time flies so quickly by it seems like the clock hands are going to spin right off the wall. Before I let them spin any faster, here are some happenings from this week.

After our team meeting last Thursday, I decided it was time to put training wheels back on Grant's bike. It's been far too long since we made any progress and we just needed to start over again. Earlier in the week, I had made just the opposite decision for Owen and had taken his training wheels off. While I was driving home on Friday, I must have had a really bad reaction to lunch because I thought I would be able to take the boys to the park on their bikes. In a moment of delirium, I figured Grant would just magically take to his new training wheels and I would be able to hold Owen's bike while he learned the trick of riding on two wheels. Um, no. Grant still did not want me to let go of the bike so, for the most part, I ended up walking/running to the park holding the back of Grant's bike while also holding on to Owen's little bike (w/o training wheels). Needless to say, my back will never be the same.

On Sunday, I had the opportunity to speak to the congregation about Club Kangaroo. Pastor was teaching on parenting and he wanted to highlight Club Kangaroo as an example of how we are supporting both parents and kids. I probably was not quite as prepared as I could have been, but the response was really great. We had 3 new requests for helper applications, and one new application for a child. Great stuff!

Sunday was also a day of hard work (Sabbath anyone?) since the pool guys were supposed to fill in the trenches with dirt so the concrete work could begin on Monday. Since that didn't happen and we didn't want to delay our concrete work, I spent about 5 hours digging, swinging the pick, spreading, and moving dirt around the back yard. My back was already on the verge of meltdown from Friday's bike escapade, but we got the job done and work has been going strong on the concrete this week. Hopefully we'll have something to take pictures of by the end of the week and I'll post them here.

Today, one of Grant's paras was eager to tell me a "Grant story" when I dropped him off this morning. On Monday at recess, he initiated involvement with a group of boys who were playing with a ball. All on his own, he went up to them (wow!). They were nice enough (yeah!) to hand him the ball and ask if he wanted to play. Apparently, it looked like he was going to run away with the ball, but then he turned around and threw it back to them. They bounced the ball to him and it caught his finger and bent it back (ouch!). He didn't play any more after that, but what a wonderful new experience for him!

Off to a good start

Grant has been in the Kindergarten class an hour a day since Monday - it's going good! He's been following along, doing the projects, focusing, and all that good stuff. It's funny, we started the school year less than 2 months ago and this was not even a glimpse of a dream for us. It was completely off the radar. And yet, here we are.

We had our team meeting today with his teacher and the district clinical psych (his main para was out today). This is the last review before the yearly IEP meeting next month. As we went over his data, he's meeting almost every goal in the IEP. So now, over the next month, we need to start planning for the new IEP, coming up with the plan for the next year. What do we think he can accomplish in a year? What's doable? What's a stretch? Is there anything "out of the box" that we should be considering?

At each team meeting (3-4 times a school year), it is our practice to bring a list of "the good things" - about 10-15 things that Grant is doing in his home life that his teachers may not know about. We started this back in the early days when there was a little more contention between the sides. By starting off with the positive, it gets the meeting off on the right foot and seems to always bring the two sides together. In fact, it's been a couple of years since we've even thought of "sides". We really are a team.

Believe me, I'm not saying that we don't struggle with the district for services. We do, and that will continue throughout his education. But our team works together and we do trust that when we drop him off each day, he's getting their best effort.

Happy stuff

Tomorrow is a major first for Grant. In is 5th year of school, he'll be joining the Kindergarten class for 1-2 hours a day, his first foray out of his special-day class. Our excitement is not about the mainstreaming, it's that he's ready; he's making progress. Here are some other firsts from the past week (so many in one week!) that have us so encouraged.

• A shipping box full of styrofoam peanuts became the box that Bullseye popped out of to meet Woody in Toy Story 2. No first there, he loves to re-enact Toy Story scenes. But, what happens to all the peanuts? That's right, all over the floor, and that's where this first comes in. I asked Grant to clean it up, and he did it! Every last one, he picked them up and put them in the box. He looked around for any stray peanuts and then knew he was done. Never Before! Of course, we have tried to get him to clean up his stuff, but his attention span usually lasts for about 30 seconds. Not this time!
• Like most special-day classrooms, I would assume, Grant's works according to a schedule. In addition to the main class schedule, each student has their own work/reward schedule. Each child has their own method for tracking their schedule, according to their abilities. Currently, Grant copies a written schedule to a small whiteboard. But, on Friday, Grant wrote his own schedule, all by himself! He walked over to his board before his para ever had a chance to write hers and started writing - video, A, B, play-doh, Toys. As his teacher said, most kids will learn to write their schedule by rote, but Grant wrote down what he wanted (and wrote the words correctly!), and included the A B options (picking a lesson). An amazing first!
• On Friday night, we watched The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen. Grant wasn't too interested so he went to bed while the rest of us stayed up and watched the movie. I didn't last much longer and started snoozing about an hour into the movie. Everybody must've left me there because Grant woke up around midnight and, not finding me in bed, came looking for me downstairs. He woke me up, and took me back to bed. A first for a few reasons - normally, he would just wake up and climb in our bed; if I'm not in bed, that's just more room for him. Otherwise, if he wakes up and comes downstairs, he's most likely going to try and watch TV. But not that night, he was just so aware.

There was a time a few years back when one first every 6 months was a cause for celebration. Now, in the matter of a week, we have 4 firsts, all unique and oustanding in their own right. It's actually early Monday morning now, just a few more hours till his big day at school.

Moving Forward

As the clock ticks into the wee hours of Sunday morning, my attention is fixed to a show I Tivo'd last week - Eyes on the Prize, on PBS. Evidently, it has not been shown on TV for quite some time, and this is a shame. As someone born the year that both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were killed, my experience with the Civil Rights Movement comes purely from TV, Film, and stories handed down. This documentary is mesmerizing. If you have the chance, watch the 2nd and 3rd episodes; you won't be sorry.

While watching, the sight and sounds of MLK speaking reminds me of a thought I've had for several years now. Why is it that our public leaders are so devoid of speaking skills? It strikes me that no leaders, at least at the national level, are able to lead us with their speech. No one is willing to write their own material, speak their own mind, and say it in such a way that we would actually want to listen. I have no doubt that the day is coming soon when someone will figure this out. As much as I hate to say it, I don't think it even matters what this person says, it will be how he/she says it. This country is starving for a leader and one will eventually arise. Someone will step out from behind the disgusting party lines and become so popular that the parties won't be able to reign him/her in. As history has shown, this type of leader can be the best and worst of times. It is our responsibility to only allow for the best.

Love Thursday - pumpkin time

Even early on, big sister was right there for little brother. I love how her hands are pressed just tightly enough to comfort him.




See more Love Thursday at Chookaloonks.

BIG DAY

Every morning, it's the same routine. Get everybody ready and out the door. Get the boys in the car. Take Grant to school. Try to control Owen in Grant's class (he tries to run the class). Take Owen to school. Drive to work.

Every day - the same schedule. The only variety is - how late are we, will the boys behave, or will one of them (usually Owen) be tough to deal with.

But Not Today. No, today was Good News Day.

After walking Grant in to his class, his teacher pulled me aside.

"We're going to start mainstreaming Grant", she said. My morning-fogged brain suddenly cleared - did she really just say what I thought she said?

"We were going to put him in a 3rd grade class, because there is a really good teacher in that class. But his para said 'Let's put him in the Kinder class. I think he can do the same work as the kids in the class.' He'll be in there 1-2 hours a day. We think he's ready, is that OK?"

"Of course, if you think he's ready" I said. My eyes welled up with tears; I couldn't say anything more or I would have lost it.

"We are really excited - he's ready", she said with a smile.

Can it be? Are we really making progress? In the first few years of school (ages 3-5), we had hopes of mainstreaming. But, over that time, it became clear that his speech was not going to come as quick as we hoped, and his ability to take instruction was not where it needed to be for a classroom environment. In addition, he receives more individual instruction in his SDC than he would in a 2nd grade (his grade level) class. We knew that it was not in his best interest for us to push mainstreaming. It would happen when and if the time was right.

And today, the news came that the time was right. He's making progress. He's learning. He's applying his skills.

It's a beautiful day.

Club Kangaroo - the beginning

Next week will be 5 months since Club Kangaroo's first Sunday. I'll have to figure out a way to throw a celebration here on the Siren blog for the 6th mensiversary (that's a new word I just learned!).

Although it's been 5 months since we started, it's been just over a year since our journey began. Here's our story.

During the summer of 2005, we began to seriously consider moving out of California. Both of us had been born here, gone to school here, made friends here, had family here, got married here, had our kids here, and so on.... In addition, neither of us are risk-takers, and moving - to us - was the one of the ultimate risks. So why?

Real Estate is expensive here - just living here is expensive. Do a search if you don't believe me. The school system used to be great - about 40 years ago. The infrastructure of California used to be great - about 40 years ago. Ok, you can probably say that about a lot of places, right? Those reasons by themselves are no reason to leave home. But in combination, our plan became:

• sell our home here
• move someplace "better"
• reduce our mortgage to almost nothing
• leave the "tech" career and become an elementary school teacher
• Have enough money to do what was best for Grant, and plan for all of their education.
  

After a lot of research, we decided on Raleigh, NC as that "better" place, meeting our criteria of:

• Good weather - no freezing winters!
• Good/Great schools, especially special ed.
  
• Affordable Housing
• Good job market
  
• Good community
• Near water, and not too far from the beach.

And, in September, the two of us took a road trip! After all, if we were really going to get serious about this place, we better see if we liked it, right? Prior to our trip, we thought it would be great to visit a church while we were out there. Although we were getting information from various sources, I actually ran across an online newspaper article about a church with a special needs program! How cool! We had never heard of such a program, but it certainly sounded perfect for us.

Our trip to Raleigh went way better than we had expected. I was sure that Staci would find a few reasons not to move, and so was she. But we were both wrong, and we were quickly becoming excited about our big life change. Our trip to Crossroads Church was a highlight as well. If you are ever looking for a church in Raleigh, check it out! We felt welcome on our first and only trip there. We didn't get a chance to speak with the leaders of the special needs program, but we did get to check out the children's programs - we just felt so at home!

Over the next 3 months, and into the beginning of 2006, we just kept waffling back and forth. Yes, we're moving! No, we can't do that- it's too nuts! How will we survive without our extended family?

And then, the moment of revelation. We were having dinner with our Children's Pastors (I've been working in our Children's Church for about 8 years now) and talking about the move. It suddenly became so clear, to both Staci and I, that this whole "move journey" was about one thing - we were to start a program at our church for special needs kids! It was so instant, and so clear, that it could only have been God speaking to us. The Children's Pastors were so excited to hear us proclaim this decision, right there at the dinner table; they had been praying for someone to start such a program for over 2 years. No more move - no more indecision. On to His plan...

It is a wonderful place to be where you know you are doing what you've been called to do - this is how we both feel about starting and leading Club Kangaroo. In future posts, perhaps on the 6th mensiversary, I'll detail how we got started and how the Club is progressing.