Taking the Scenic Route

As I predicted, Zane would do a lot better at VBS about the time it was going to end. lol.  He had a good day today.  He loves the singing and doing the actions to the songs, had a great time participating in a game of duck, duck, goose, fed a goat, played with some clay and generally had a good day. 

Speech therapy this afternoon was like the same old Zane again too.  The ST was prepared for another meltdown, but he was back to normal again.  A good thing.  In ST he did an experiment and participated well in the games and such.  When we went to pick up Zach, both kids chanted “DADDY!” in the back seat every time we drove past his building (I had to make loops waiting for him to appear because the loading zone was occupied by other cars). 

The only meltdown of the day was the quick diaper change after picking up dad and before going to his evening speech.  He also unbuckled his seat belt on the way there and I had to pull over to refasten it when he refused, but even though he was complaining about the seatbelt, he was mostly fine once we got there, and in a good mood again once in the ST’s room. 

We are all now home and happy.  I am glad he had a better day, but I am also very glad the week is over.  I think I am going to order the CD from the VBS program because he really seemed to like them. 

I couldn’t possible manage my regular camera during the bible school, but I did have my phone camera and would occasionally remember that it existed and take a picture.  So, here are a few pictures, although none of them are great.

Doing actions with the singing

Waiting with the group for the game activities to begin

Playing a game (the one I talked about yesterday)

Watching the weavers and spinners

Noticed the ticker this morning and laughed.  Looked at it again after bible school and it seemed appropriate. 

As I was pulling out the drive way this morning, when I turned, something sharp cramped in my back.  Shooting pain.  I didn’t have any ibuprofen on me either.  My dear husband put his warm hand on the spot and I really tried to relax my back as much as I could.  Not a great start.  After I drop Zach off I take the kids to breakfast.  (this week was the first time Zora has seen a McDonalds, the 2nd or 3rd time for Zane…one of which was meeting Bede and his family at a playdate years ago…not because of some ethical issue like other boycotts, but because it is nasty.  lol).  I got everything ready for the kids and went to sip the coffee and about passed out from pain as it hit “the” tooth (The same one that started giving me problems about 2 days after our insurance ran out)  Yeah me.   At least I didn’t spill the coffee today…I didn’t realize how flimsy the trays were yesterday and tried to grab it with one hand…the former waitress in me was horrified.

There were some really good moments today.  He loves the singing part and did a pretty good job of doing the actions along with the song.  He did a great job when they played a game sort of like musical chairs…you walk around a circle on rug squares with numbers on them.  When they stop the music, they call out a name, and if you are standing on the number, you go get some candy.  Not only did he do it with almost no prompting, but he didn’t complain when others won, and he went to get the candy when they called his number.  I was proud of him. 

During craft time I started to smell something.  Lovely.  Ended up having to go out to the car to change his pants after that one.  We went back and had snack and he didn’t want to eat the grapes and apples, two of his favorite things, which is very weird for him.  After snack is story time, but I had decided that we weren’t going to attempt story time (he knows as soon as he hits the room that it is just story/sitting and listening time and I saw an actor dragging a cross around the hallway earlier when going for the diaper change and realized that it was probably supposed to be more solemn today…not a good mix with a boy who will fight being in the room.)  That turned out to be a great decision.  While we were sitting there watching the weavers (and actually helping her spin bobbins) I heard, then smelled something very, very bad.  Even worse than the first time.  It was liquid and horrid.  I got him changed, he was screaming because it was hurting him, so we just went and got Zora and left.  It was almost time to go anyway by the time I got him changed.

I decided to just pick up Zach for lunch and go home so that he could drive himself back from work later.  Originally I was thinking of going to Exploration Place in the afternoon before picking up Zach, but Zane needed to be home more, and I don’t want to deal with diapers like that in public if I don’t have to. 

Back home now.  I have Ibuprofen in me, Zane is happily watching some Mario Bros. videos and Zora is playing in the playroom and occasionally bugging Zane (I hear playing noises, abruptly interrupted by “No Zora!” and “Mine!” and such.  lol.)  So, back to normal.  I am achy, but it is manageable, Zane seems comfortable and happy.  (love Butt Paste…miracle butt protector). Zora took a nap in the car, but won’t go back to sleep and I am now at the threshold where I hope she doesn’t fall asleep any more because it will interfere with nighttime sleep.

The vacation bible school theme is about the streets of Jerusalem.  So far, they had the Palm entrance (Palm Sunday on the Christian Calendar) and today they were talking about the Seder and Passover meal, leading into the Last Supper and what communion is about.  (I thought for a minute there they were going to actually serve communion, but thankfully they stopped short of that). 

Every day they have market place tents set up showing different trades and skills of the day, with an activity the kids can participate in.  (like pounding nails into wood at the carpenter shop, making a necklace with some beads at the merchant, smelling and touching the herbs (or grinding some with a mortar and pestle) at the food stand, etc) and almost everyone is in costume.   It is pretty cool.  They also have games outside that don’t really keep with the theme, but provide some much needed active time.  They divide the kids up into groups named for the 12 tribes.  I was hoping to be in Zebulon’s tribe (it was in consideration when we named Zane), but, alas, we are in Joseph’s.  lol.  When we have snack, they have a mezuzah and were explaining that it was used in Jesus’ time and you are supposed to kiss your fingers and touch it when you enter your home  (Isn’t that still done?  I was thinking that I had seen those at friend’s houses, but maybe I just have weird friends. ) and we pretended to enter and exit our “home” (blanket on the ground) where we ate.

The snack today was a large piece of matzo with cheddar cheese on it.  I sort of giggled inside at the use of cheddar, but considering the weirded out reactions to the matzo cracker, I understand why they didn’t go with goat cheese or something like that.  The funny thing was that I was the only person in the group that knew what it was.  (and could pronounce it).  I explained that it was unleavened bread (and then explained what that meant), but they were a little hesitant until I said it was basically a big cracker with cheese.  lol.  Zane, of course, dug right in.  Matzo was not unfamiliar to him, although I don’t think I have ever put cheddar on it.  (was good though). 

The part that made me duck behind Zane to conceal my giggles though was when they were doing the story time.  To set the scene a little…it wasn’t going well at all for Zane and I at this point.  He had done really well in all of the other activities, but this was the last thing of the day and it is the story time.  When they sat a big plate of food in front of him and he wasn’t allowed to eat it as he wanted, it wasn’t pretty.  They were going through what each item was on the plate and it’s symbolic meaning.  I wish the meat would have been sooner because that is what was causing the ruckus.  (grunts and yells of protest, me wrapping myself around him to keep him from lunging at the meat, with him protesting loudly) and when they FINALLY got to the meat, she asked the kids what kind of meat they thought it was.  A few kids offered “beef”, and after a “no”, a whole group of them yelled out “PORK! and PIG!”.  Maybe it was because of the absurdity of trying to keep Zane from diving into the plate, but that just made me choke back laughter.  None of them could come up with what it was, so I finally asked what the shepherds did in the bible, which finally lead to saying sheep/lamb.  Finally, a right answer, so everyone could taste the meat and I could let go of Crazy Boy and he could have a bite.  I was impressed that he only took a small bit instead of grabbing it all in his hand.  I tell you what….THAT is progress my friends.  The funny thing was that only one other boy (the one who bravely downed the horseradish) was willing to try it, so Zane got most of it any way.  lol. 

The rest of the day

Not great.  (understatement)

We had time between bible school and speech therapy to eat and change diapers, and not much else.  Zane wanted to play his Nintendo DS and was not listening when I gave him the warning countdown that he needed to save the game and close it up.  Right before we were ready to go out the door, I had to change one more diaper while telling Zane that he needed to shut down the game NOW.  Still not listening, so I took it out of his hand, closed it, and put it up high.  (something I almost never do because it is not good for anybody…but I was hoping that the meltdown would resolve itself on the trip to ST so he had time to pull himself together before ST).  Well, it didn’t go well.  It was like a cartoon character trying to get through doorways.  He was screaming, I was carrying, he was expanding his body and limbs so that it was a major feat to cross a threshold. 

It wasn’t over when we pulled up to ST (late I might add, because of the drama of getting him out of the house and wedging him into the car and trying to snap the carseat straps shut with every ounce of strength I had).  He wouldn’t get out of the car.  Once out of the carseat he dived towards Zora’s side of the car and I had to drag him out of the car too (with the same uncanny ability to make himself too big to get out the door).  As I carried the full blown meltdown to the door, I see the face of the student speech therapist who was waiting for him. (terror) I got him in the front door, told her I had to go get Zora out of the car and that if she needed to pick him up she had my permission.  I went back to retrieve Zora and some change for vending machines (planning on a cookie bribe to get her to come into the observation room that she hates) and got back to the door…she hadn’t even made it halfway across the lobby with him.  I told him that he needed to stand up and walk, or we were going to carry him.  He refused, and she picked him up (I was carrying Zora).  I went down the hall with her just in case she lost control and to open the door for her. 

When I opened the door the clinical educator was wide eyed and commented that she couldn’t believe that was Zane (that she heard yelling all the way down the hallway) because he has never done that in the 2 years he has been going there.  I knew she was going to be able to handle him just fine (and he did calm down fairly quickly), but I also knew I needed to let her know what sparked it all so that she had something to work with. 

I was able to see most of the ST with the cookie bribe.  I managed to miss the biggest dramatics though while getting another bag of cookies for Zora and then convincing her to come back into the room.  (I almost never use bribes of any kind, but I was at that point today).  Apparently, on the list of things to do today was to help him deal with losing a game.  The poor ST student…can you imagine having a start like that and then finding out that you still have to let him lose the game if that is how it goes (he is playing another autistic girl and they are working on playing games and sportsmanship) and then seeing that he was, indeed, going to lose.  She got a trial by fire today, but the Clinical Educator worked really closely with both of them to help pull out PECs cards to help him identify and express emotions a bit better.  He still had a really rough time, but was able to pull it back together again. 

I HATE HATE HATE days like this.  I hate seeing him upset and it just hurts so badly to see him struggling so hard.  He was smiling through more of the session than not, but it was still hard. 

It was easier getting them back into the car than it was getting them out, but I knew there was no way I wanted a repeat scene of earlier and I had about the same window of time.  I decided to go to downtown and stop by Exploration Place (we were wanting a family membership again anyway) since it was near where Zach was working.   I got down there and look in the back seat to see both kids fast asleep in the carseats.  Not a huge surprise with Zora, but seeing Zane asleep is a rarity these days.  He was REALLY worn out.  I parked under a tree, opened the windows, and dug Zane’s maze book out of his backpack and read it while they snoozed.  Eventually they woke up and we still had about a half hour to kill, so we got a new membership and looked in one wing of the building and then went to get Zach from work. 

The evening

better.  Zach grilled some burgers, Zane is playing his Nintendo DS, Zora is playing independently.  Robert stopped by after supper and we will watch a movie with him as soon as I get off the computer and get the kids to bed. 

There are two Christian kid’s songs that just drive me batty. 

The first one, “Old Time Religion” (the Cedarmont Kid’s version that I hear a lot).  The lines that really bug me are:  “It was good for the prophet Daniel…it’s good enough for me” and “It was tried in the fiery furnace…it’s good enough for me”, “it was good for the Hebrew Children…it’s good enough for me”, and then “Paul and Silias”.  Now there are a few verses that are fine (because they are generic…good for our mothers, etc.), but all of the aforementioned verses are talking about the religion being “good enough for them, it is good enough for me”, but for all of those people, the religion is Judaism, not Christianity.   (of course, the verse about Paul can be argued, because he was following Christ, but at the time, Christianity was a Jewish Cult, not “Christianity”.) Not a problem if you are Jewish, but I see it all the time in Christian circles and it just makes me twitch in the utter stupidity of it.

The other one that bugs me is “Onward Christian Soldiers” because it seems so wrong to me to pair an institution meant for killing as many people as possible with Christianity, where Jesus calls us to LOVE our enemies, not kill them.  I know am probably not in the majority on this one, because Pacifism is generally seen as a character flaw, but it still bugs me and makes me feel a little ill when I hear the song.

Let me start with:  the “Vacation” part of the name is really misleading.  lol. 

It went alright.  We had a rough start…while I was dropping Zora off at the nursery, Zane walked away from me.  He was there one minute, and disappeared the next.  The crowd was FAR more than I was anticipating too.  I started to look for him in the crowd, then quickly realized he probably headed the other direction given the noise and chaos.  Sure enough…he was outside, walking the perimeter of the landscaped island that defined the drop off drive area.  It took some convincing to get him to come back in.

For the most part, he did fairly well, especially if you take into consideration the amount of noise and chaos there.  They had actions to the songs in the big room (the area that is usually the sanctuary, with all of the chairs removed) and he followed along better than I thought he would.  He was able to participate in most of the activities, although a few of them were just too challenging for him on his own (carrying a plastic teaspoon of water from a bucket to a 2 liter bottle about 20 feet away…the water stayed for about 3 steps.  lol.  I helped steady his hand and we walked back together with the spoon).  The weaving activity he did well at, even better than some of the kids around us.  He also was able to put three little beads on a little string to make a necklace…all of the painful hours I have spent working with him on threading paid off…yeah!  The most challenging part of the day was getting him to stay with his group, but I could hardly blame him because you really had to pay attention to your group because there were just too many people going every direction. 

It was worth it, but it was hard on me.  When I finally got both kids back into the car afterwards I was choking back tears from the stress and sadness of seeing that gap widen between him and his peers.  I was also very proud of how far he has come though.

I think he liked it, at least most of it.  The church really did a nice job of organizing it and making it interesting for the kids…I was impressed.  We will be back tomorrow, and I suspect it will go a little better.  Of course, by the time he really has the routine down, it will be over. (it is Mon-Thurs, just this week).

For those wondering “what’s a dedication?”, Mennonites only do Believer’s (Adult) Baptism.  So, instead of doing child baptisms, we do child dedications.  It is  really similar to baptism, except no water.  Basically, there is a long extended version of “Will you raise this child to be a Christian?” and we say “We will”.  In every church I have been to in the past, the congregation also has a litany where they promise to support the parents and the child as they grow in the church, but this church, apparently, doesn’t do that.  I don’t know if that is a Brethren thing, or just a “by church” thing, but I assume it is an individual church thing.  I was a little surprised because I was always under the impression that the church family was as much a part of the dedication as the individual family.  The rest of the dedication was beautiful though.

So today was Zora’s day.  (some of the pictures aren’t great because there wasn’t quite enough light and it wasn’t appropriate to use a flash)

On the way to Sunday School

Singing “Deep and Wide” in Sunday School.  (they had the Moms there for a special Mother’s Day thing)

The Dedication

After the Worship Service we went out to eat with my parents.  They came up to see the dedication (and she took the pictures for us) and spend lunch with us, and they go to my brother’s house for supper tonight.  It was a nice lunch.  Good food, great conversation, and the kids did a MUCH better job of waiting with Grandma and Grandpa there.  A nice Mother’s Day for me. (although I do need to invest in some hair clips…I had hair clip failure today and felt a little like Cousin It today.  The sad part was when I got into my car after lunch and some of my hair got caught in the door.  I leaned back to see several full length hairs hanging from the door jam onto my lap with the roots on the end.  owie)

Church

Zane was totally on his own today (meaning, I dropped him off at the class with his buddy/para, and didn’t return until the end of class) and he did really well.  Zora also enjoyed her Sunday School and came out of the room with evidence of studying Jonah and the Whale. 

With Zane independent at Sunday School, we went to the Worship Service that takes place during the Sunday School time period.  Although the service itself was a little more traditional, I think we have come to the conclusion that nothing is going to make the sermon any better.  He wasn’t as offensive this time around, but it still isn’t really working for me.  I did give him the Biblical Parenting book after the service today and told him I would love to hear his opinion on it and discuss it with him.  I hope he takes me up on it.  If it doesn’t start changing, we are going to see if the timing works out to go to the Children’s church there, and then go to another church for the adult Worship Service, especially now that we know we can get Zane to mostly sit during a service.  (and I know that there is a nursery available for at least two of the three possible churches we might go to for Zora, and I suspect there is one at the third).  We are now closer to the regular Mennonite church, but I will have to check times.  Sort of weird to talk about going to two churches, but hey, unconventional solutions are what makes life interesting.

After Church

We stopped by a restaurant for lunch and everybody got to eat except me.  They brought me my food, but unlike the other times I have ordered it, this time they put chives on the dish and mixed them in.  It was obvious they were added post cooking, so it was doubly annoying.  It was too busy to send back and Zora was losing her cool at the table so we couldn’t wait for a redo, so I just didn’t get to eat.  That sort of stunk.

We had plans of meeting Carrie, Zane’s first ST, at the Zoo.  She and her husband were going to take Zane around the Zoo while we either went there with Zora or went shopping.  We drove up to the zoo to meet them and it was more packed than I thought possible.  There weren’t any parking spaces and the line was all the way out into the parking lot.  It had to be an hour wait just to go through the doors, and more cars were circling the parking lot.  We decided that we should go to Sports World instead.  We assumed Zane would like the go carts and golf, but apparently when he saw the video arcade, he made a bee line.  They had a ball with him.  Zach, Zora and I headed to a kid’s consignment store and browsed for a long time.  I found one dress (she is wearing in the picture), a book, a game for Zane, and a building set for Zora all for under $20.  By the time we returned to Sports World, they were having a drink and ready to head to the counter to redeem the 200+ tickets they had gatherered.  Zane didn’t want to go home.  (big surprise).

An evening with Grandma and Grandpa

Once we got home, we called my folks because they were planning on being in town tonight.  They were just checking out at Sam’s Club and headed over right away.  In the course of the evening Dad fixed our BBQ grill & our living room light (a bulb had exploded and was smoking and we didn’t know how to get it out so we hadn’t used the light for a week), we grilled some burgers, watched a program on tv that was highlighting antique farm implements, and read books and played with the kids.  A lot of fun, but I am so tired now I can hardly think.  I think I will just post a picture and go crawl in bed.

Zach and the thesis

Thesis is DONE.  He might have more revisions, although he has already completed the first round of revisions wanted by his thesis advisor.  (he wanted him to change something that would make it more usable for him (the advisor) in his project, which makes it more publishable).  Right now, it looks like he might not be able to defend it before the Spring graduation deadline.  It works for everybody on the committee except the head of the department.  We are now aiming for before graduation so that he can be technically done with all of his degree requirements before he walks, even if the degree won’t be conferred until the Summer semester.  At this point it is out of our hands.  If the defense date gets pushed beyond graduation, it won’t likely happen until the end of summer because his thesis advisor is leaving the area for the summer, so we really hope that won’t happen.

Zach and employment

No real news.  He has an “interview” for the same job he has had the last few years, for another 1 year contract.  woohoo.  No summer teaching jobs are available right now.  No summer jobs available anywhere that we have found yet.

No word from the job he wants in the south.  It is a federal job and it can take a long time to process everything, but we are still hopeful of getting it.  He is going to talk to the temp agencies tomorrow again to see if they have anything.  He is also expanding his job search to KC and OK City besides Wichita, but we hope that we don’t have to move unless it is the job down south.  Mostly, I hope we can just hear something good soon.

Church stuff

It is going well.  This week Zane went with his class to the big group (they have a group story time in a theatre/auditorium area with grades K-5 before breaking up into individual classrooms).  He sat better than most of his classmates (they put him in the 1st grade class instead of the kindergartners…the plan is to keep him in the 1st grade classroom next fall also, so he will be with his own age then but be used to the classroom already.  The Kinder kids have a slightly different schedule than everybody else, so getting him used to this when it will be changing soon seemed like a better idea).  He was participating in the activities in an appropriate way, and his “buddy/para” is a nurse and seems to really ”get” him.  I am very happy with how it is going.

There was a funny moment with Zora this week.  I dropped her off at the desk this week, and they took her to the classroom.  Because Zane and I are starting our day in the office instead of the classroom, right after I dropped her off and filled out the forms at the desk, we walked past Zora’s classroom.  (normally people can’t walk back there for security reasons).  As I walked down the hall, a teacher poked her head out of the classroom to say that “I don’t know her…are you sure she has been going here for several weeks already?”.  I turned to the person and asked if they were talking about Zora…they were…I looked up and realized they put her in the 1yo classroom.  I pointed out that she is 2, almost 2.5, not one, and the situation was resolved.  Later, when I passed by again, I took a close look into the two year old classroom and noted that she really was a lot smaller than her classmates.  lol. I am still not used to being the parent of a petite person. 

I still haven’t had the opportunity to talk to the pastor about the disgusting sermon he gave last week.  I was planning on talking to him a little after church, but when I took Zane out to the playground in between services, I failed to notice that the rain had settled on the bottom of the dirty slides, and Zane slide right through it.  His entire back of his pants were muddy and gross, and I didn’t have an extra set of clothes, so we just went home.  I think I will call this week and see if he has a time he can meet during the week.

Zane and his reading tests

He took the Woodcock and the RAN/RAS (and maybe something else too…I will have to wait until I get the written report to see if I missed it).  He did fairly well.

For word identification he is at 96% for his age, and considered to be working at the level of a kid in grade 2, 1st month.  For decoding/silly words/word attack he is at 91% for his age, working at 3rd grade, 0 month level.  For Passage comprehension he is at 64% for his age, and at 1st grade, 0 months.  His receptive language 1 word recognition is at 21% in his age level, and he is working at the age of a 5yo,2mo level (a bit more than a year behind).   With the Rapid naming (how fast you can “read” a line of letters, numbers, colors, symbols in various combinations he was average and above average for his age.  He is working in the range of 1st grade, 2nd month to 2nd grade, 7th month for those tests.

So, as expected, his reading level is high for a kindergartner, but his direct language skills are behind.  (but receptive language not as behind as I thought they might be…a year behind is really not terrible given that is expressive language is quite a bit farther behind…he probably isn’t much more than a 3yo for a lot of his expressive language, if I judge where he is compared to Zora.  She is actually ahead in nonverbal language I would guess, and just on his heels for a lot of the verbal.  I suspect she will overtake his expressive language within a short span here).  The biggest thing we have to really keep an eye on is his comprehension, but we knew that. 

One of the things I do that I need to continue, and probably expand, is pull out vocabulary words in the things he is learning and make a visual reference card for the vocabulary word.  (I take words and find pictures that match it and have him glue them to an index card with the word on it to help him learn the word better).   Google is my friend in this project…I love the ability to google images. 

It sounds like it is probably time to start trying to find chapter books for him.  They said the “captain underpants” books are probably too high a level at this point, but maybe the “boxcar children” books might be ok. (I remember loving those as a kid…it will be interesting to see if I like them as an adult) ”Junie B Jones” was also mentioned.  I wonder if the first Little House books would interest him…I know the first ones are at a much lower reading level than they are later in the series.  If anybody has other suggestions, I would welcome them.  I haven’t really had time to look through books at the higher reading levels yet.

A few pictures

 Watching Daddy outside

During Speech Therapy..A Little Sailor Boy, pulling his boat behind him

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My view of him at ST (unless I am watching from behind a 2-way mirror)

Putting Yarn on a Yak (guess what letter they are working with.)

Discovering the joys of music in the headphones.

The Party on Saturday 

Robert’s middle child turned 8.  The gaggle of boys were really loud and rowdy, and Zane came to the backyard to be with the girls instead.  They shared wagon rides and then helped Dori plant tomatoes and cucumbers, then water the garden.  I think they enjoyed the garden more than the rest of the party.

Church today.

Finally, everybody was well enough to resume the Sunday School project for Zane.  I felt really good about it when we were done with the hour.  Every time I go to the Kid’s Ministry stuff I am left more and more impressed, and both kids seem to love it.  I couldn’t be more pleased with the whole program and the people I have met there.

However, the worship service was sooo bad.  The songs were annoying at best, weird melodies that I didn’t recognize and couldn’t figure out the alto/tenor parts to be able to sing (and the soprano lead was beyond squeaky for me) and just seemed uninspired.  The sermon taught me a lesson in patience and the ability to resist temptation.  (the temptation to chuck the hymnal at the preacher, a first for me).  I just spent most of the sermon wondering if the guy ever actually studied biblical history and understood what the original documents say instead of the outdate, narrow interpretations of them.  I am used to educated, intelligent ministers who, even if I don’t agree with them, at least are reasonably logical.  This guy was out to lunch.  I am not sure if I even want to go to another worship service there at this point. 

As much as I want to, I will probably keep going for a bit to see if this is a fluke, or if it is the norm.  I need to exercise patience and see if it improves.  We will be able to go to a different service or Sunday School after Zane is mainstreamed into the Sunday School program, so I need to just hold my horses right now.  I was hoping to be able to take Zane into the main service and get him accustomed to it, and this is the only reasonable option for that right now. (there is a service before his Sunday School, but I don’t want to wear him out in the big service before SS,  so I need to give him time to adjust to SS first, then we can go to the earlier service without it causing as much difficulty for him).

*sigh*  I wish I could combine the University or Chapel Hill service with the program at the MB church.  Right now, it is more important that the kid’s needs get met than ours though, so I will have to just suck it up and deal.  At least it does accomplish one thing very well…stimulates lots of discussion in the car afterwards.  lol

This week it finally started really clicking with his ST student.  I am quite happy about that. 

I am going to try and get another session of ST instead of OT at Heartsprings.  Evidently, they made an offer to somebody, but last I heard there is no definite replacement for Elise yet, and I would really rather follow Elise since she and Zane have such a good relationship.  Plus, when we changed STs, he lost one session a week, so he only has one half hour a week there.  I really want more for him.  She is very good and I think they would go a lot further with another session.

I was asked if I would come in to be interviewed about the Autism Walk.  We will film the interview on Tuesday and it will air the following Monday, in conjunction with Autism Awareness month and the Autism Walk.

We went on a playdate with the gal from the MB church this week.  She has 4 kids (and is expecting again in Oct), and the twins (#2 & #3) have autism.  The oldest is Zane’s age, the twins a year younger, and the youngest is about 6months younger than Zora.  I saw them at church this morning too.

I really, really, REALLY like the Autism coordinator person at the church.  She drives all the way from Mac right now to help set the program up.  She is such a valuable resource and I was really impressed with her.  She was able to pick up a lot of who Zane is even without me saying it.  The program requires a lot of parental involvement at first as they get to know him, but I like the approach a lot because they are obviously wanting to work with the kids and not the label.  This week she did a lesson with him, to start getting to know him.  Next week I prepare and teach a lesson to him so she (and maybe one or more of the potential “buddies” can observe how I work with him to learn how to interact/focus him) and the following week I will prepare a lesson and teach the first half of it, and they will teach the second half.    It was also really a shift for me to hear an autism expert talk freely about the spiritual aspects of autism & special needs kids.   You can see in her eyes that she doesn’t come from a place of pity, she genuinely loves these kids and values them from deep inside.  It isn’t just lip service.  Everything from the language she uses to her nonverbal communication confirms that she is in this for all the right reasons, and I really feel blessed to have found this opportunity.

On a funny note, when our friend went with us to pick Zora (and her youngest) from the nursery, another couple came up behind us.  She went to introduce us, and as I turned around and saw his face, I was a little shocked.  As she said “This is…” I filled in the blank.  It was one of my high school classmates.  Now keep in mind there are only about 30 of us in my class (small school) and you understand my surprise.  He said that another guy from our school (one of my brother’s best friends way back when…that was a class of 20-25..so even more of an interesting coincidence) was a member too, and had actually just walked by.  (I missed it, obviously).  The pastor in the church used to be in the MB church about 6 miles from my home, in the neighboring town, and knew my mom’s parents.  I am quite sure there are quite a few people there I am going to know somehow, even though it is an MB church.  lol. 

A few quick photos

Zora in her new outfit from Gramma Z.  I LOVE it, and the shoes will also be great with her Easter dress she will be wearing this summer.  (we had her in the winter dress today because it was drizzly and cool, and they looked great with that too)

My Zanester

And the family’s view of dh this week as he spends every waking hour on his thesis.