Another Reason to Love Camp

When I picked James up at summer camp yesterday, one of his  counselors informed me that he'd spent 45 minutes playing Go Fish with some of the other kids and counselors.

45 minutes? A card game? With others???

Awesome!!!!!!

Another best-case scenario for community involvement and full inclusion. And now I can add another item to his Activity Board.

I am thinking about this image for the board - what do you think?

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: First Day of the Second Grade

Today James had his first day of the Second Grade (*clap-clap* -- man, I've got that song from Veggie Tales in my head!) ... and he as excited to get ready. He could hardly turn loose his brand new Angry Birds lunch bag for me to fill it. He was so proud and excited it was his, I would gladly have paid twice what I did just to see him with it this morning. He ran to pack his backpack, and thanked me for getting it out for him this morning.

Here is our guy, ready for some new adventures:

He's wearing size 10-12, folks, with size 3 sandals .. and is still 7.

The First day, of the Second Grade (*clap-clap*) ... no to first aid, in the Second Grade!

Even though it's Thursday, for more images from the heart and to share some of yours,
visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.






               and ... Wordless Wednesday

Father's Day, Green Style

For his special day, James' dad wanted to visit as a family a place that he loves to explore with the kids when he's giving me a break -- the Solar Living Center in Hopland.

Eager to be eco-friendly, we piled into our new Leaf and took off up the highway. The scenery was beautiful and the weather gorgeous and warm, not sizzling hot like the day before. When we arrived, we were dismayed to see charger stations, but no cords that we could use. Ah well, we decided to explore first and worry later.

While James' dad talked solar shop at the alternative energy counter,  the kids swung on the hanging chairs, chased butterflies, and ate ice cream treats. They loved to play by the water!

After a bit it was time to charge at an outlet that was fairly close. Our best bet was back the way we came, at Coppola's. I teased my husband, "Happy Godfathers' Day!"

It took a while to get the car properly hooked up, so I fed the kids some lunch from our reusable picnic bag. Then we headed into the gift shop, where James wanted to drive the Tucker and climb aboard the model ships from the movie Marie Antoinette. So we took Monkey Man outside, where he gave his dad a tour, asked to go swimming, and finally helped us down gelato at the snack counter.

 

After an hour or so we returned home, happy from a family day trip, in which we burned no fossil fuels at all.

Giving Our Spirits a Lift

James and I set out a little earlier than usual for summer school this morning. This weekend a big hot air balloon show is happening in our town, and last year we stumbled on the test launch the morning before the main event and were treated to the sight of many beautiful and colourful ascensions.

This year, we caught the last two balloons to lift off. I am calling them the Panda ...

... and the Purple Thing (which James calls the Cat):

James was so excited, because we could see balloons floating in the sky on our way to school. He talked all the way about seeing the balloons and how they were following him to school. It was very cute.

After all the stress from end of February through last week's illnesses, we needed a lift to our spirits!

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: Eclipse 2012

While looking through photos for end-of-school year activities, I found pictures from the Annular Eclipse earlier this month.

While I got all excited about the fluke that let me catch the event via a reflection inside my camera, James and others loved all the eclipse shadows that turned the afternoon into a once-in-a-lifetime event:

Leaves that created the shadows.

For more images from the heart and to share some of yours,
visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.






               and ... Wordless Wednesday

Magic Marker Monday: May

I will miss these great calendars coming home! They hung on the wall for Open House and now James' is hanging up at home:

For more great masterpieces or to share some of your own, visit
 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Monday.

                             

I Am a Boy Who Loves ...

Family. Friends. Playing. Life. Apple bars & milk in the mornings. Being silly.

And lest we forget, It's a Small World ride at Disneyland!

Special Exp./Wordless Wednesday: School Kid

James loves going to school. There's a lot going on, the people are wonderful, and he wants to be like big sister. Here he is, heading into his new preschool on a Friday morning this fall.

For more great images or to join in the fun, Visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

and ... Wordless Wednesday

Magic Marker Mondays: Face Painting with Frosting!

James loves finger painting. Usually too much for me to feel like I can keep up with it. I have a beaut of a photo of James, clad in a diaper, finger painting in the backyard. He is wearing the paint all over his hair, face, and body. He looks like Baby BraveHeart.

Well, I have yet to find that photo tonight. Meanwhile, here is one of James' first forays into painting with his fingers, using the frosting from his first birthday cake. His first taste of sugar and all those bad dyes.



Man, he had a blast! My mom had tied helium balloons behind his chair and he started beating them with his hands in a completely joyous session of baby smack down. Completely adorable, and he totally destroyed those balloons by coating them with frosting.






Way to go on those artistic boxing endeavours, James!

Visit 5 Minutes for Special Needs for more Magic Marker Mondays.

A Child Is Waiting

I was up late last night and saw the beginning of the 1963 movie A Child Is Waiting.

I had to turn it off, it disturbed me so much. Because the opening sequence haunted me. If we'd had James 40 years ago, he would have been that boy and we would have been told that our best hope was to institutionalize him.

Our sunny, funny, smart James.

Seriously, I have tears in my eyes as I get shivers down my spine, just thinking about it.

If you want to read more, check out this blog post.

Giftulation!

Despite colds and a bit of GI bugginess, we had a great Christmas and quiet New Year's Eve.

Before I even opened one package, I had my best Christmas presents: watching the kids' faces as they opened their stockings and presents. Especially James. Two years ago he was so disinterested in the whole event that we just stopped opening his presents. It made me cry. Last year he was politely interested. What he really liked was playing with the tissue paper: Wheeeee!

*This* year, he ripped those wrappings and got into what was inside. Sounds awful to say this, but my heart sang. Because he was engaged and right there with us. Best gift hands down!!!

He loved his laptop toy so much he wouldn't put it down ...


... until his dad helped him open his bowling set:


Which encouraged him to open his toy stick/wand that makes things slide, twirl, and make noise:


He got a Leapfrog fridge Word Builder magnet set from his Nana. He and his sister have been playing with that, and his laptop. On his new bed. And they play really well together. THANK YOU!!!

School, and a Rant

Wow, it didn't seem like there'd be a lot to do for school with James this year, but there was!

First day back was August 18th. Yikes!

Same school, room, and teacher. The new assistant for his classroom was his favourite SHAPE assistant from last year. Yay!!!

James is excited and engaged. Talking in phrases and sentences. Looking at peple and trying to talk with them. Doing some imaginative play and using the tricycle. Actually using the classroom swing for the First Time Ever. Starting on patty training Big Time. Awesome!

The school bus system, however is new. The school district brought that inhouse, to save costs. I know that there are going to be bugs in a new system, but the first day was so bad that I don't ever want to do it again.

First, the bus never showed up in the morning. At 9:00, I just threw in the figurative towel and drove him to school. I found out later that the bus had broken down and the bus arrived 2 HOURS late. Note that I found this out from James' teacher; the school's transportation people never bothered to call and tell me this, let alone apologise for the delay. Oh, and school is 3 hours long. Way to go.

Going home, the bus was a good 10 minutes late getting to the school. I know because I called his teacher at 12:25 to find out where he was. School lets out at noon, and we live *maybe* 10 minutes from the school. Last year the bus was never later than 12:15. I knew there were only 2 other local kids on that bus, and one of them lives down the street from us.

So I tried calling the bus coordinator. No answer. Left message to please call me because I want to know where my son is. I repeated this at least twice more. I guess they were out to lunch. In more ways than one. At 1:05 someone finally picked up the phone. She asked me to repeat myself ... someone was talking to her in the background and evidently it was more interesting than me. Then I was told no one knew where the bus was, and put on hold so she could call the driver. At 1:10 the bus pulls up *next door.* I am still on hold, so I hang up.

The bus driver could only shrug and tell me they were driving around all over. The wrong addresses were given and my son should have been first off the bus, not last. I said "Really, so you have been driving for an hour all over town?" (which, BTW, is small). He thinks for a minute and laughs and says "Yeah."

Un-friggin' believable.

So I canceled the bus service. I had to do it over via message machine because ... no one was answering the phone at this point. MUCH later in the afternoon, I got a call back saying they got my message. Would I want to try again next week? Not bloody likely. Oh.

Are these people for real? A busload of Special Needs kids, 2 of 3 who have trouble talking, goes missing for an hour and oh-that-shouldn't-have-happened-but-it's-the-first-week-you-know is the best they can do? I will never know what happened to my son on that bus. I am hoping that it was nothing except a lot of driving. But I will never know.

Oh, and if they know it's a new system and things happen in the first week, why did they just walk away during the homeward route and leave the transportation line unmanned? Especially considering their less than stellar performance that morning? If their lunch break is more important to them than getting my son home safely then I will never use their system again.

Has anyone else gone through something like this? I am not a panicky mom (worried and stressed, you bet, but call-the-cops-my-kid-is-missing, no) and I was on Red Alert.

Oh, and I am staying tuned on what SHAPE will look like for him this year. He only has 2 of 5 days a week covered. And he keeps wanting to take naps because that person can only come later in the afternoon. Then there is the CATS program to consider. Hopefully I should hear in a few weeks what that will look like.

I think I will schedule him for a class that I can take him to on either Friday mornings or a weekday afternoon. Sitting and waiting is not my forte.