lots to say today, most of it good

What a lovely weekend we had. I wish I could bottle the feeling of the sunshine and being with my sons and save it for a rainy frustrating day.

Saturday morning Henry and I went to Target for the Peter Pan DVD (he did have a very good day on Friday, thank God.) I also picked up materials for future sticker charts and I found a dry-erase "chore chart" upon which to track the boys' new chores. So far we have feed the turtles, take out the trash and recycling, put away clothes, clean up, and homework, and they have earned quite a few stars already.

Sunday the weather was finally nice enough to go to the ZOO!


We needed to wait in the "member services" line to activate our new membership and, unfortunately, so did many other families. It took us about half an hour to get in to the zoo. But my sons were so patient and so good for the whole wait. I was really proud.
That's why, when Henry asked right away to go to the gift shop, I said "ok". He specifically said he wanted to go to the gift shop to get a zoobook. He ended up finding 3 that he wanted (Big Cats, Wolves, and Lions) and I was an indulgent mom and let him get all 3.
True to his personality, Thomas picked out a white tiger mask at the gift shop. He wore it the entire day and it was a lot of fun to see all the curious looks he got from other kids, and all the smiles from grownups.
It won't surprise you to know that Henry was not interested in riding the carousel with his brother.

But I was so pleased with his plan for what he would do while we were on the ride: I'll just wait in the chairs, he said. (His Zoobooks are in his hand.)

When we left the zoo, I told them both that I had such a wonderful time and I was so proud of how patient they had been and what good listeners they were...

"When was I a good listener?" Henry asked. That made me laugh a little, because I didn't exactly want to point out all the times I thought he was going to get mad, but didn't.

_____

Today was the IEP meeting. It was held in the same conference room where we had our first disability-type meeting (wow- that was 4 years ago!) Anyway, it was a strange feeling to be back in that room, but a good feeling considering how far we have all come and how much more we know now than we did then.

One great thing about the meeting was that the "regular" 1st-grade teacher came in to talk with us. We've never met her before and she seemed like a very good fit for Henry. She said that she is a very structured person, and runs her classroom that way, and that Henry has seemed to respond to that. He is spending more and more time in her class and she sees him making progress as far as his participation in things like circle time (instead of covering his ears, he now occasionally joins in the singing and hand motions!)

As handwriting is the activity he is most adverse too, they are going to look into some computer programs available to modify his writing assignments. Right now he is equally opposed to writing on the computer and writing by hand- writing is writing and he doesn't like either! But perhaps if the work of writing is made easier, his sentences will get longer, etc.

When we talked last week, his teacher (Mrs. C) told me that she is hoping to catch one of his "tantrums" on videotape to share with her supervisor. Mrs. C says that whenever she tries to get ideas from others about dealing with this behavior, they all act like they don't believe her: "sweet Henry doesn't kick and yell and lay on the floor! I can't believe it- he's always so sweet." She's thinking "yeah, he's sweet MOST of the time..."

After the meeting I caught up with Henry as he finished lunch and then we went out to the playground. I wish I could have stayed all day!