What has Will been up too?

Communicating!! That is what!!! This is Will's communication station...

His teacher and speech therapist came to the house last week to teach me how to use his PECS boards. We have been doing this at home since last Thursday and let me tell you that it is empowering!

We put the board on a wall in the kitchen for now because Will is just learning. But in the future he can take the board/book with him when he goes places. The idea is that when Will wants something he goes to the board, takes the picture of what he wants and brings it to me. I then give him what is on the picture. His pictures are: Cow, cup, pretzels and various toys. It is amazing. I cried when his teachers were showing me how it worked because I was so proud of Will and also amazed at how well he did. They came in and put the board on the floor and he went straight to it and got the pretzel picture and took it to his teacher! Give the boy a PRETZEL!!!

He has been requesting pretzels ALOT!! I break them into little pieces and hand them to him and he eats them...EATS them!! No spitting! Did you hear that?? Angels signing Hallelujah! It is amazing!! I think that we need to add more foods to the board so that he can broaden his food choices.

He also likes to sing If Your Happy and You Know It. Which we sing ALL. DAY. LONG. But he requests it so we sing it!

I am working on taking more pictures for his board so that he can communicate more! I am so proud of Will and I am so excited about our future communication possibilities!

We Did It!!

Will's new favorite show is Dora the Explorer. When the song at the end of the show comes on he will come running to the tv to dance. In the video he is dancing then waving bye-bye to Dora and Boots. When he bends forward he is trying to jump (Dora and Boots jump on the show).

I'm Back!!!

That's right!! I got my computer back!! I can not tell you how excited I am to have my laptop, it has nothing on it, boo :-( but at least it is mine!!

I also got a new camera! I got a point and shoot for blogging and everyday snapshots that I am very excited about! It can also take video so I am excited to put some video on the blog.

So my blogging mojo is coming back folks!! Look out!

In the meantime...I will leave you with Prince William!

Because that is what you really want, right??

The blur that is my life...

What is going on with me?? It has been over a week since I updated!

Honestly, the past few weeks have been a blur.

Josh is on a crazy travel schedule, I have only seen him on weekends for the last 3 weeks. He will be getting home on Saturday and leaving again at the beginning of the week. It's exhausting, for us both.

The kids are on cycle break, so they don't have school. Which has been going really well. Caroline is enjoying being able to play with her friends until dark, sleeping in and living free again. They go back to school on the 9th.

The kids both had dentist appointments and Will had an eye doctor appointment. Both appointments went well. Neither of the kids had cavities. Their new dentist is fantastic, I really like him. He specializes in special needs children, so that makes me feel confident in his ability to treat Will (and Caroline). I see lots of dental work in their future.

Will saw a new eye doctor too. We went to a doctor at St. John's Mercy and really liked him. Will's eyes looked good and the doctor said "see you in a year!". I am a bit confused though. With RTS, there are certain things that "they" say need to be followed closely. One of those things is glaucoma, high pressures in the eye. I am not even sure how they check the pressures in your eye without sedation, but I asked the doctor if Will's' pressures needed checked. The doctor said that he didn't feel it was necessary. I had brought my "Brown Book" (you RTS Mommas know what I'm talking about!!) showed him the article again and said "you sure??" He told me that if I wanted we could have them checked the next time he was going to be sedated. The thing is...I have no idea when he will be sedated next. Does this sound right to you guys???

I have an appointment with an orthopedist tomorrow. I have been having some hip pain (lordy, I sound like I am eighty!!) But the fact is that my hip has been giving me major pain for a month now so I finally broke down and made an appointment. I am sure that everything is fine but need to have it looked at.

Caroline's birthday is Thursday. She will be six years old! I just can't believe it!! I have been working on the final preparations for her parties (yes, you read that right...parties!!) this weekend. We are having a family party on Saturday and a party for her school friends on Sunday. Her theme this year is Hello Kitty. She is looking forward to the weekend!

Computers, Christmas and Cycle Breaks

So last week my computer died. The computer is still under warrenty so we took it to Best Buy to see if they could recover any data from it. Josh also tried to recover data but nothing worked. I have lost every picture that I have taken since December, not very happy about that. Actually it really makes me sick, I want to hurl. But life goes on...I guess.

Best Buy had to send it off to get it fixed, so I am using my old laptop right now. They said it will take two weeks to get it back!

Last week, we had an appointment with a new OT. She is supposedly the "yoda" of feeding. She worked with Will and told me that if I do the exercises that she showed me that Will could be eating by Christmas! WOW!! What a fabulous Christmas present that would be! And we have also found out that Will swallows food when he is able to move around while eating. When he is sitting in his highchair he will chew and spit his food out. But when he is up walking around he swallows! So I think it may be time to put his highchair way for awhile. We need to change his behaviors when it comes to eating. I am hopeful about Christmas!!

This week is the kid's first cycle break, they don't have school for three weeks. Will is going to do Extended School Year, so he will go two days a week (two hours a day) for the first two weeks of break. He will be riding the bus to and from school, which I am sure he will be more than thrilled about when he finds out!! We are excited to have some fun on cycle break. We are planning a trip to the zoo and a few other places.

Happenings

Not much has been going on here lately.

We celebrated Josh's birthday yesterday. Caroline painted 2 little plaster figures for her dad and she was very proud of them. Josh took them to work and put them on his desk.

Caroline lost her second tooth. Now she is missing both bottom teeth. The tooth fairy brought her a dollar for each tooth. She was very excited about her dollars. She kept asking how the tooth fairy flies into her room at night. ;-)

William is doing great at school. They have starting using the PECS system (picture exchange communication) with him. Yesterday when I was picking him up his aid said that he walked over to his picture board (which has 12 pictures on it), got the picture for pretzels and handed it to her. He had pretzels for snack! I am really excited that he is picking up on the system and hopefully we will be able to start using it at home.

Exceeding his goal!!

Have you been watching the little thingy over there!!?? Michael, Addie's amazing Dad, reached his goal!! But please don't think that there is no need to donate now, he can always go over his goal!! So if you haven't donated yet, you still can!! Go Michael!!