A Day At The Fair!

Today, we packed up and took Andrew to the Coweta County Fair, to spend a day with his friends Noah and Molly.  Andrew had a great time.  He rode several rides (some by himself), slid down a huge slide, went on a ferris wheel, and got to pet and feed some goats, a yak, and a mini horse.

Emily and Andrew on the ferris wheel.

Way up there!

Driving his own 4-wheeler.

High five!!

Taking a ride with Noah.

Feeding some goats.

Flying fish!

And a flying elephant.

Feeding the animals:

Riding the rides:

Preschool is AWESOME!

Andrew loves it!  He is super excited to go and exhausted and smiling when I pick him up.

Building sandcastles with friends.

A little help to put his name on his latest masterpiece.

How do you celebrate a good day at school?
A trip to the park!

. . . . and maybe a little ice cream. 

Second week of school!

So far, so good!  Andrew really seems to like school.  We get all sorts of pictures throughout the week, which is great!  I love knowing what types of things he's doing day to day.  I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from this week so you can see just how much fun he's having!

His classroom, bright and early before a herd of two
year olds have gotten the chance to make a mess!

Playing in the sandbox.

Snacking on snap peas and plums with a friend.

Time for a story!

Young artists, hard at work.

The final masterpiece.

Working with clay.

First Day of School!

How did we get to this point already?  He's growing up so fast!  Today was Andrew's first day of preschool.  He's in a classroom with nine other students, two teachers, and his very own "inclusion specialist."  The I.S. is there to help him throughout the day with anything he might have trouble with, such as transitions between activities or listening/following directions.  When Andrew is doing well, the I.S. is just like an additional teacher, helping out with all of the other kids.

Yesterday, Andrew helped me tie dye a t-shirt for him to wear for photos this morning.  We made it with a men's large t-shirt, and I plan on making him take a picture in it every year until he finishes college.  It was a little hard to get a good picture of him in the shirt.  He was too excited to sit still.  We might have to recreate this photo this weekend when Sam is able to help.

At some point, this shirt will likely be
too small for him.  I can't wait to see the
photos from all the school years and see
how much he's changed.

Looking quite dapper in his first day of
school outfit!

One more quick picture before we went inside!

One of the bonuses of Andrew having an aide is that Sam
and I get photo updates throughout the day!

Apparently Andrew and this little boy really hit it off.
After playing puzzles for a while, they shared a snack
of fresh peaches together.

This is what Andrew was doing when I went to pick him up.
At the end of the day, they have some free-play time.  Not
surprisingly, Andrew was playing with the puzzles again.
Here, his I.S. and little classmate were giving him a hand.

Sweaty, messy, and smiling from ear to ear.  I
think it's safe to say that he had a great first
day at school!

 We also get daily e-mail updates from his I.S. every afternoon.  She said he had a great first day!  He had a little difficulty with transitions, especially when he had to stop doing something that he loved.  But, he was easily redirected and would quickly join in the new activity.  That's all pretty standard behavior for a two year old, and he had a easier day than a lot of his classmates!  She is very excited for this year and so are we!

Andrew is reading!

Yes.  I said it.  Andrew is reading!  It's exciting and slightly terrifying all at the same time.  I bought him a new puzzle game today, one that's meant for older kids, to try to challenge him and see how much he knows.  I took this video as soon as I opened up the game and thought you'd like to see it.

Therapy Update

Andrew's been in speech therapy since October of last year, and started with ABA in May.  He's doing really well with both and loves his therapists!  We're going to be stopping speech next month when he starts preschool, but we'll continue with ABA for the foreseeable future.

ABA is hard to describe.  It stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis, and is a reward-based therapy program that can help with just about any skill a child has trouble with.  On occasion, his therapist takes videos of some of their sessions together, so I thought I'd share some of them here.  Maybe it'll make it a little easier to understand what types of things he's working on.

Kids on the spectrum frequently have problems thinking and reacting quickly.  Their brains get stuck on one type of thinking and it's hard to transition.  His therapist quickly asks a bunch of questions that require him to change the way he's thinking.  When he gets stuck, you can see her gently suggesting the right answer.  In ABA, the kid is "never wrong."  The therapist will help as much as necessary to make sure the kid gets the right answer and positive reinforcement.  The next time, she'll use a little less, so on and so forth, until Andrew gets everything on his own.  In this session, you can see him asking for "Phonics."  When Andrew works hard, he gets rewarded.  Sometimes it's snacks, sometimes it's tickles, and on this particular day, he was working to get to play "Hooked on Phonics" on the iPad.

We're also working on Andrew's fear of haircuts.  They've started having pretend haircuts to get him more used to the process.  Usually, he screams and cries as soon as he gets in the chair.  During therapy, they go through all the steps that are required of a haircut at his barber.  When they first started, Andrew wanted nothing to do with it.  As you can see in this video, he's getting a bit better.  He's still not thrilled with it, but he doesn't cry or fight it.  I'll be interested in seeing how this translates for his next haircut!

This last video is from this morning.  He's already able to answer questions much faster, and goes for longer stretches without asking for rewards.  He really loves his therapist and works really hard to make her happy.

Each of these videos is less than a minute long, but he works for two hours at a time, twice a week.  It wears him out, but he does very well at it.  He rarely complains, even when he's forced to do things he doesn't want to.  The therapist is working on skills to help him get ready for school next month, and will work closely with his school aide to make sure that Andrew is doing the very best he can.  We're all very proud of how well he's doing and hope to continue seeing so much progress!

July Update

We've gotten really bad about updating this on a regular basis!

This post covers the last couple of months in the life of Andrew.

Andrew has learned how to feed himself really well with a spoon.
And he loves frozen yogurt with some fun toppings!

Here's a video of him eating:

Andrew has also become fond of making sure the lights
are on or off for his daily escapades.
Where he got this obsession with lights is unknown.

Sometimes, Andrew is just plain silly.

Andrew loves going to splash pads to play.

On this trip, ge got a special surprise from one

of the other kids.

And that silliness can wear a kid down.

And sometimes, after a long day, you just have to
sit back in your favorite chair and play a game.

A trip to Memphis.

We recently took a trip up to Memphis to see some family we hadn't seen in years, and to let Andrew meet his cousins who he had never met.  It was a great weekend for Andrew, although Sam ended up in the hospital and missed most of it!

Here are some highlights.

Playing in the Mud Island Riverwalk.  Andrew had a blast here.

And playing at the Childrens' Museum in Memphis with their

wall of tubes.  Andrew was fascinated with this!

Meeting and playing with Cousins Will and Ellie.

Playing the alphabet with Cousin Will.

Andrew got into a tube of toothpaste when
he was supposed to be taking a nap.

Reading a book with Papi.

And reading with Jaja.

And finally:

Andrew is saying his name!!!!