Valentine's and Easter

Valentine's is like speed to me.  I get all excited about making rock star valentines for AJ to take to school.  

This year, not only could I find the perfect valentine for us to make, we also ran out of time.  So, I had to simplify.  We came up with this:

I stamped the greeting and wrote his name and he put the stickers on.  He absolutely loves playing games with stickers.  Put them on your nose and he'll find them in no time at all.  And, of course, it is a great OT activity.  I heard from the kindergarten teacher that the kids all loved them.  Sometimes I think AJ could have given his classmates bags of pebbles and they would have been over the moon.  Our little guy sure has his own fan club.

I made these for AJ's school staff, courtesy of Pinterest:

For Easter, the Easter Bunny forgot-ok-has no idea where his basket is.  I saw a cute idea (again, on Pinterest) to dye eggs using koolaid packets instead of the 'ol vinegar and color tablets.  Yeah,  good intentions.  And then I got to thinking about what the Easter Bunny should bring AJ....

He brought all his favorites: Freeze pops, glow sticks to play with in the bathtub, 

sour straws, and a light-up yoyo.

AJ attended church for the first time hearing (back in December we took him for Christmas but later found out his processors weren't working then so it wasn't such an accomplishment then) on Easter.  He did very well and even signed more for the lights after the music was over.  It was seriously cute.  For Easter dinner, he wasn't the least bit interested in eating, he only wanted a freeze pop.  He proceeded to entertain us with that one freeze pop for at least a half hour.  He then devoured several pieces of Irish Cream Pie.  

We've settled into a groove where I no longer feel the stress of having to have holidays a certain way.  

We do what works and enjoy every moment of it.

Sharing

I have so much to share.  As usual, I'm behind on the blog.  What happened to posting every day?  Yeah.  Not so much.

Tonight we had the privilege of sharing our family's story with our special needs group.

Our what?  Yeah, I haven't shared about that-but I will.

Our group is devoting the first 15 minutes of each meeting to focusing on a particular family. We paved the way tonight, sharing our family's story first.  It has been quite a while since we've shared our story.  But there was something very different this time.  We went from the beginning to now, spanning almost 5 years.  We had AJ in the meeting in the beginning to show everyone who he is now. Then, we shared our story. I think it really helped the group, and us as his parents, to see how far he really has come.

The purpose was to share our history and share our child's strengths.  And sharing the things "they" said he'd never do and is now doing.  AJ's determination slapped me in the face as I was speaking.  He doesn't know he's any different than anyone else.  We all love the same, don't we?  He's determined.  The most determined person I've ever known.  If he can be that determined, then we can be that determined to keep advocating for him the very best we can.