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.