Today was the second day of first grade for the Monster. Continue reading
Uncategorized
I’ve Got A Bad Feeling…
The new school year begins on Monday.
As I’ve mentioned previously, my wife took the Monster to his new school today to get him familiarized with the place before the chaos of the official “seat sneak peek” tomorrow night. it was a quick breeze-through visit – the staff were busy in a meeting, and so he was given the chance to go see his classroom and the like, and my wife briefly met his teacher and the vice-principal of the lower school.
I have to say, honestly, that I’m already concerned. Continue reading
Not Happening
Like so many other people, I’ve seen the whole ice bucket challenge thing spreading around online. It was only a matter of time before I was challenged… and my dad called me out this morning.
Sorry, Dad. Not doing it. Continue reading
Let’s See Those Pearly Whites
Monday was the semi-annual visit to the dentist for R and the Monster.
We use Dr. Bowden at Pediatric Dentistry – the practice has been wonderful with the Monster, and has a great strategy for easing kids into getting their teeth checked regularly. During the first year, you have appointments every 3 months (every other one is unbilled) to get the child accustomed to someone poking into their mouth, and then you settle into the usual twice-a-year practice of getting your teeth looked at.
Save that the Monster’s never quite been content to get his teeth checked. Continue reading
A Week Away
The Monster’s first day of first grade starts a week from Monday.
This will be another large change from him, on the scale of the change that he went through when he was pulled out of the private nursery school program he was in at the JCC and sent to Garrett Heights Elementary/Middle School for pre-K. The first day of school will find him at a new building – our zone school, Mount Washington – and in a far larger class than he’s been in previously in any prior environment, with fewer adults around him. Continue reading
And We’re Back
Sorry for being quiet for most of the last week. As much as I had intended to get ahead on posts and have the system automatically publish while I was gone, I just never got around to it – the story of my entire sabbatical – and once we were away, I didn’t feel like rectifying the problem.
So, my wife and I managed to get a stress-free week away from the children in Cancún. Part of this, honestly, meant getting over our concerns about leaving the children with someone who was not family for longer than a few hours… and it seems like everything went alright. (The idea to FaceTime fell through, though – the bandwidth from the resort was just not up to snuff.)
For our having been gone for eight days, the children did not seem to have minded it very much. We returned to an R who is a bit better verbally expressive than he had been before, and a report that the Monster even was more verbal (and better toileted) than he is with us. Both children seem like they’re no worse for wear while we’ve been gone, and… well, except for how the sitter probably did things a little different than us, they seem to be settling back into their normal routines this morning.
I’ll resume with real posts tomorrow, though. As much as I like vacations, it’s good to be home…
Stepping Up
I think everyone has seen, through the two plus years that I have been blogging about being the father of a child with Autism, about how I advocate for my son in the schools to get him the resources he needs to succeed. You’ve seen my struggles and frustrations, and the occasional victory, all while I’ve groaned and grumbled about how the school district seems to be rigged against children like my Monster and that they don’t seem to hear us when we complain to them.
Well, it looks like I’m about to have more of a voice.
Continue reading
Of Monsters and Manuals
So we’re coming up on the vacation trip, and we’re starting to finish our preparations to ensure that the kids are taken care of properly while we’re gone.
Now, when we leave the kids with their grandparents for a night, it’s fairly straight forward. But the kids aren’t familiar with the babysitter, nor she with them, so there’s additional preparations that have to be made. (To be fair, the sitter’s met them a few times before this, and she’s sat for us while we went out, so it’s not like she’s some total stranger… but she’s not family either.) Continue reading
Camp Thoughts
There’s always the question of what to do with a special needs child over the summer. There’s school-provided ESY, or other enrichment programs, or perhaps doing some home schooling… or there’s regular camp.
As we did last summer, this summer we decided to send the Monster to Camp Milldale. Continue reading
So Much Paper
As I mentioned a while back, the wife and I are hiring someone to watch the Monster and R while we’re out of town.
This is going to be our first vacation without the kids since… well, my sister’s wedding, back when we only had the Monster, and well before his diagnosis. (For reference, he was a 10 month old at the time, and stayed with his grandparents.) We’re fortunate enough to find someone with experience with children with Autism, coupled with the fact that the Monster is going to be out of the house for most of our time away, as he’ll be at camp from 8 AM to 5 PM each day.
Still, we’re trying to make it as easy as possible for the sitter, so the wife is making her all kinds of papers that talk about what passes for normal around the house.