Christmas is REALLY Here! (Part I)

So far this year, the kids have really been exceeding all of my expectations for Christmas.  Last year Kailey wasn't even a year and Colin "knew" about Christmas, but did not talk about it much.  They have been really excited about different things we have done (especially the Christmas tree!) and it's made things really fun for us this year.  The other night we decorated the tree together and it was so exciting for me because they really enjoyed themselves.  They were so happy to put the ornaments on the tree.  

Colin helping Daddy put the tree in the stand.

Kailey gets in to help.

Colin asked for every opportunity to say "cheese" in front of the tree!

Checking to make sure the lights work.

Helping Mommy put the angel on the tree.

Can I say again how much he LOVED decorating the tree?

Kailey greatly enjoyed herself as well...

Conferences

Because the Hurricane changed things immensely in terms of school schedules, Colin's teacher and therapists have been setting up phone conferences to discuss progress that Colin has made so far in different areas.  While our communication is pretty good on a regular basis, it was really nice to spend a little time discussing different topics regarding this school year.  

Colin's speech therapist reported that he has been a bit "scoochy" and silly lately when it comes to working together.  It has only been the last week or two and coincidentally he is trying to fight off a cold when Daddy hasn't been around much, so we are hoping this was just a "short phase" that he will come out of soon.  He hasn't been unproductive, but I often receive status notes that say he needed "maximum cues" for production.  While we have all seen progress when it comes to communication, there are many things that he needs continued work on.  Some of the major things that she has been working on have been "wh" questions like "what" and "where".  She finds (as do we) that with maximum cues he will ultimately answer the question (ie: where does a hat go? A maximum cue would be, "Colin, a hat goes on our ___" and he will answer head).  I feel as though we have made progress here, but ideally we want him to answer head without needing the prompt.  We also want him to initiate more like instead of just saying "milk" or "eat" when he wants those things, we want him to say "I want milk" or "I want yogurt".  Colin has always been an observer and then one day shows what he knows, so I know that with time we will see progress with these things as well.  

Colin's teacher discussed how he is doing in her class and I always love getting glimpses into his day at school.  I really wish I could spend some time "watching" to see how his day goes, but don't we all?  We discussed different things about his day, like the fact he loves circle time and does really well coming up with the pointer when they work on days, numbers, letters, etc.  She said that he does well initiating which center he wants to work on and communicates where he wants to go or what he wants to do.  Behavior is always a concern of mine just because of how it's been with Kailey lately, however, she said that his only negative/inappropriate behavior has been poking his friends at circle as a way to get their attention.  She said it's obvious he isn't trying to hurt anyone but rather, get their attention and be silly so they have been working on "quiet hands".  We discussed how I feel about his low success rate in identifying colors (she already tried changing things around today) so we are all going to try a few things to make improvements here.  

I feel confident that there is progress so we will just continue to work with him as we always do to continue to move in the right direction.  

Report Card

We got Colin's first report card today for the 1st marking period.  I'm not sure what it was exactly about it, but it left me feeling very uncomfortable and overwhelmed.  To be honest, I had to keep myself from crying (well, I did a bit).  Now, I understand that he is in preschool and this is really just to show progress he is making so far, but to me it just felt like one of those "tests" that we had faced for years showing where the challenges lie.  

The report card was set up so that they used a number scale of 1 (N/A), 2 (needs practice) and 3 (accomplished) to reflect certain areas of development.  The majority of Colin's numbers were 2s, and that in itself was fine because I do understand that he is only in preschool and these are things he needs extra work on to be where peers his age are.  However, what was harder for me to read was the areas for letters and numbers where she listed the numbers he can count to (3), numbers he can identify (just the #1) and then letters he can identify (just one).  I was actually quite surprised by this because while I know it really just depends on the day (we all have been in those situations where our children are being tested and do not show the things they can really do) I'm sure it's a pretty accurate reflection given that she works with him on these things daily.  I guess I just expected this to be better.  

In combination between this and all of the notes we have been receiving from speech regarding the things she is struggling with with him and some of the issues we have been facing because of his lack in communication it's just a bit tough to take/hear.  I know we will keep pushing through and in essence, those tests don't mean as much as long as he is improving; still just upsets this Mommy a tad...

But in true Colin fashion, he really knows how to make a girl feel better...

A GREAT Weekend

This was one of those really great weekends, and not necessarily because we did anything super big, but because all of the things we DID do were really enjoyable and most especially, we were all together all weekend (a rare treat for sure!).  At this time of year, it's really hard to have Chris home with us for even part of the weekend, so it was really great for all of us!

In starting off the weekend, the kids were pretty good about playing together while we were able to sit around for awhile and stumbled across their "pretend play" in feeding Mickey and Minnie.

Through one of the Down Syndrome groups that I belong to, I found out about an organization called Variety The children's Charity of Philadelphia (I have come to learn that it's on a much larger scale) that was providing tickets to Sesame Place this weekend for children with disabilities and their families, free of cost.  Sesame Place is currently set up for a "Very Furry Christmas" so we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and register for the event.  I have to say that I have never been and was really pleasantly surprised by how nice it was it terms of being set up for Christmas.  When we got there, we ran into Cookie Monster who went out of his way for Colin (who tried to escape out of the back of the stroller out of fear for seeing him in person) and watched a show with the gang for the holidays.  The whole thing was just really cute.  I can honestly say that I really enjoy watching the kids enjoy themselves.  They seemed to really like it.

For the rest of the time there, we really just walked around and took it all in and saw the parade down "main street".  The kids loved seeing the characters sing and dance in front of them.  

At one point, we tried to get a nice picture of the two kids in front of the Christmas tree at the front of the park, and had one classic meltdown moment from Kailey because she did not want to be up there.  Hysterical...

Makes me laugh every time I look at that time lapse...We finished the night at the pizza place down the street from us and were actually able to order something for Colin there!  He did a good try at trying but mostly just picked some pieces off of the top and ate what he could.  

We finished the weekend off today at the Special Olympics of NJ annual Jingle all the Way 3K.  It was a lot of fun as always.  This year we had a handful of our family there running and supporting, and added some new friends in as well.  Colin and I finished the race together with him RUNNING this year (it's hard to believe he wasn't walking independently last year and I had to help walk him across the finish line last year).  There was lots of festive cheer, dancing, and fun had by all.  

As the Fresh Beats would say, "What a great weekend.  What a great day!"