Thursday's 10

1. AJ's IEP earlier this week went well.  15 people: 2 hours.  In short: AJ will be in full-day kindergarten next year.  He will keep his 1:1 and we'll be adding special education to his education plan.  A handful of the people at the IEP are going to pow-wow and figure out what his day will look like.  After that, I'll meet with them and we'll make changes, if needed.  He qualified for ESY (Extended School Year AKA summer school) so he'll have 40 minute sessions 3x week.

2. Per #1, I have the sudden urge to go and purchase school supplies.   Seriously, I can smell them.  The smell of new notebooks, crayons, and pencils excites me.  I'm positive the supply list for kindergarten is longer than it is for preschool.  HOORAY!

3. AJ put his coil back on his own head yesterday! It was a random thing that I happened to witness.  Total awesomeness. 

4. We're seeing a HUGE decrease in ripping off the whole kit and kaboodle AKA cochlear implants and glasses.  HUGE.  In fact, I cannot remember the last time he went to pull the whole thing off. 

5. AJ brought me a spoon and a Frosty the other day.  He had gone in the drawer, grabbed the spoon (which is not new), grabbed the Frosty off the table, and brought it to me in the living room.  When I asked what he wanted, he signed "open".  For him to put these two ideas together, pardon me, three ideas (I want to eat the frosty, I need a spoon to eat the frosty, I need an adult to help open/access the Frosty) is HUGE.

6. AJ is officially signed up for his challenger baseball league and hippotherapy (horse-riding therapy) over the summer.

7. AJ had an evaluation with the SLP Guru who is the co-founder of the intensive therapy program he attended last fall.  She was very impressed with his progress!  She observed AJ eating with his own SLP, and we talked about his trunk, balance, sensory needs...we talked about it all.  She is amazing, and I am so thankful we get to check in with her at least once a year.

8. AJ is doing a much better job of waiting for his food.  Last night, when he was clinging to my legs as I was trying to move around the kitchen, I told him to go sit in his chair, and pointed in the direction of our kitchen table.  He walked across the kitchen, into the dining room, and climbed in his chair.  Hello Receptive Communiation.  Oh how I love you.

9. I made Pillsbury brownies the other day.  Yep, right out of the box.  They were DELICIOUS.  They tasted just like homemade.  I won't be buying those again anytime soon though.  Between hy hubby, his brother, and myself, they disappeared very quickly.

10.   AJ was denied speech therapy through his state insurance. Currently his primary is Jeremy's insurance and the state serves as a secondary.  He is getting to an age/stage in his therapy career that getting services will be an increased challenge.  Part of the challenge being that he is doing so well.  For now, AJ's primary is paying for speech 1x week.  Well, he's seen twice a week.  Once for feeding, once for speech while he's in the pool.  I'm not giving up speech in the pool.  Sorry peeps.  It looks like we'll be covered for one visit, and we'll be paying for the 2nd session per week ourselves.  All in all, AJ's had 4 1/2 years of therapy, with, quite honestly, only minor hiccups.  We have to be thankful for that.