So here we are again playing catch up with our family blog. This time instead of trying to make a blog out of each event we failed to post, get ready for a shorter mega blog.
SCHOOL UPDATE
The first big event following our road trip to Disneyland was the first day of school. Jayme returned to the same school same classroom and same teachers he had the year prior but this time as a second grader.
Jayme is in a blended special supports classroom K-3. He was so excited to get back to school. Over the summer we worked very hard on his reading and sight words. Something he could not wait to share with this teachers. After mentioning Jayme’s great new reading skills to his teachers at open house, Jayme packed in his backpack one of the books we worked on over the summer and the next day after school kept 2 of his teachers captive in front of the school until he finished reading the WHOLE book to them. He was so proud.
Since summer ended we have really seen some major growth from Jayme. Behavior wise he is making much better choices and his whole persona is much calmer and he seems to have more normal self-control. We have also seen some big physical growth, not only in height but his whole posture is different. One of his therapists even noted that he looks like he is standing taller in a figurative sense. At some point we crossed some sort of developmental growth mark. Each day our little boy fades farther and farther away and this new older kid is starting to emerge.
But with all of his growth he is still behind other kids his age. It’s funny we have had Jayme now for almost 2 years and we are still finding things that shock us… like up until today he had never had a KitKat bar.
DAY CARE
Since right before the school year ended in June Anthony has been the designated stay at home parent, having been laid off from work due to lack of customers and polite nepotism. This was great as it allowed us to keep Jayme home and not in a expensive summer day care. One of Anthony’s strongest summer memories was spending them at home with his Grandmother. So it all worked out great for both of them and allowed Anthony to make new memories with Jayme.
But once Jayme was back in school, the boredom of staying home alone was too much to bear and Anthony found a new job. It was not until after he was hired that both of us realized that it has been almost 2 years since both of us worked full time at the same time (our wallets noticed but we had not). Since the day Jayme moved in at least one of us (if not both) has been on leave, part-time or reduced hours. Without really planning to we kinda rewired how our family runs… again.
Anthony’s new job has him traveling all over the Portland area and working different hours week to week. While the money is about the same as his old job (for now) the benefits are better and he has great advancement prospects. But it also requires him to dress up like a grownup; suits and business casual. No more jeans and sandals with socks for Anthony.. well at least not on a work day.
Each morning now Joshua or Anthony (depending on schedule) drives Jayme up the hill to the school bus and after school Jayme heads to day care.
Putting Jayme in a mainstream daycare has been something we have been VERY nervous about. Jayme is still working on learning some of the interaction skills that kids his age use and when he get confused or upset he tends to blow his top. So we were quite nervous about daycare. We spoke with all of Jayme’s teachers and therpists in length and they all said “Let’s try and see what happens.” Not the comforting words one might want to hear, but truthful ones none the less.
Anthony did a tour of the day care and met with the staff. They all seemed to be on the level and well skilled. So that afternoon Anthony and Jayme did a drive by of the day care so Jayme could see the day care from afar. The following day Anthony and Jayme stopped by for a short visit. Jayme got to meet the staff, the kids and tour the day care. He seemed pretty ok and the staff interactions with him were very positive. The very next day we did a dry run and Jayme did a 2 hour visit alone and did great.
As of this blog we are a week into daycare and no issue to report yet. He seems to really like the daycare and while he can not name any of his new friends, he does state he has made some new ones.
2013 ELECTION
On a funny note, we should mention that we are a few days out from the 2012 elections. Our family has watched each of the Presidential debates and we have tried to express the importance of voting and being politically informed to Jayme. Even let him help with our mail in ballots. The funny thing is Jayme made his mind up on who his Presidential choice was without any help from us. Jayme is an Obama supporter. He watched most of the first debate with us and half way through decided that Romney was a bully and was not using his manners and “he should get in trouble for that”. Since that night he has been very vocal about his support for the President, even getting into a debate with his bus driver telling her all about how great Obama is. Out of the mouths of babes…