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.