Sunday, November 2, 2008

November Update (About Time !!)

To all my loyal readers - my apologies. Been a crazy couple months - I can't believe it's already November. I love this time of year. I've been out hunting once already and am looking forward to another weekend spent in the woods for the opening of rifle season. Thanksgiving will soon be here - which starts the Christmas holiday season. Wow - another year is about to pass.

Well alot has gone on since the past update - so I will try to fit it all in and not get too wordy.

School

I think Hayden has suprised us both with how well he has adapted to going to school. But I think the routine of everyday has been really good. We have seen great progress with his social skills and just his attempts to play with children which he didn't really do before. He gets speech throughout the week and also thankfully qualified for OT and PT as well - which he gets once a week each. We haven't seen a whole lot of progress on the speech side - but we know this takes time. You can tell sometimes he really tries. He has a lot of sounds and we know he says some things to us sometimes where he knows what it is - but we have no clue. But with the signs we have taught him and just knowing Hayden and his personality and routines - we can communicate pretty well with him - and that is really great.

Hayden went on his first field trip this year. Early in October the entire pre-school class (regular and special ed) went to an apple orchard. It was a pretty long day - so towards the end Hayden started to fizzle out - but overall I think he had a great time. Here are some pictures







I think he really likes riding the bus. He was also in our cities Homecoming Parade and got to ride the bus with daddy.






So all in all - school is going fairly well. Tina gets some "personal" time each day and I think it's really great for her to have that time. I get to go to work each day - so being a stay-at-home mom - that time is really beneficial.

Soccer

Through some friends of ours we heard about a soccer team in Grosse Pointe for children with special needs. I was a little skeptical at first thinking he was kinda young and probably wouldn't do all that well - but as usual Tina was right - so we signed him up. I don't think he really understood the whole concept - maybe thought we were just out at a park playing - and kicking the ball wasn't something he really wanted to do. But with some bribery (toys and food) he and I would kick the ball for about 20-30 minutes of the time we were there. After the season was over they had a little halloween party and all the kids go trophies. We will definitely do it again next year - it was great to get out like that.





Playhouse Disney

Hayden loves the Disney Channel - The Little Einsteins, Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Handy Manny, The Doodlebops - all that stuff. We saw Playhouse Disney in May when we went to Florida, but a different production of it came to The Palace of Auburn Hills near where we live. I got some tickets for us and also for my niece and her parents. The kids had a great time - and so did the parents. We were in a suite - so it was a really comfortable situation. Not sure how it would have been on the main floor. It was really great to watch the kids faces as the characters came out. I was kind of bummed that all the characters didn't have costumes - for example the Little Einstein's were actual people while Pooh and Mickey were in costumes. I think Hayden would have related better if the LE's were in costumes - but he still really enjoyed it.







Other Stuff

Tina and I are still very involved in the Fragile X Association of Michigan, and thusly that National Fragile X Foundation. We are blessed to have the 12th International Conference in 2010 right here in Michigan. We are now actively in the planning stages of that. I'm hoping to become more involved as time goes on with the foundation and I'm planning on traveling to Washington D.C. in March for advocacy day. There will be more info on these activities as time goes on.


All things considered - things are pretty good. Most of our days are good - but we still get those days here and there that are very challenging. On October 22nd it was 1 year since we got our diagnosis. I think back to that day and how devastated we were. I know personally my thoughts were "he'll never play sports, he'll never ride a bike, he'll never go to school, he'll never....whatever"..........just all kinds of negative thoughts - actually, very selfish thoughts because they were all about things I wanted my child to do that I wouldn't be able to do with him. He played soccer this past year, we've been working on the bike thing, he goes to school, he has friends, he loves his toys.......all kinds of wonderful things I probably would have taken for granted - but because of Hayden, he makes each thing we do, each game we play, each day we wake up better than I ever imagined it could have been.


In two days from this post - we as Americans get to do one of the most precious things in our great democracy - we get to vote. No matter your political affiliation - please, please get out and vote. Much blood has been spilled to defend these freedoms we have - and God Bless all those who protect us and help us protect those rights. Those men and women have a courage I can never realize. So please - get out and vote.

I promise to update more often.

God Bless

1 comment:

lifejourney said...

YOu promised and I'll be waiting.....

I know most of these updates, but the pictures were super sweet of my (not so little anymore) man. Love you guys!