Fork you!

This morning Jaymes popped out of his room and I was actually awake! He is currently lining forks up on the table, looks like a fork party is about to happen. Straws are also involved. I'm not entirely sure what his plans are, but as long as it doesn't involve skewering me or Sierra on those forks, I'm good with it. It looks kind of neat; long rows of shiny forks, glinting in the rainy morning gloom. Jaymes keeps life interesting, that's for sure!

It's been a pretty good morning, already! I woke up at 7, after a really strange night. My hip was killing me last night after scooping out the pasture (mostly because I'd put off scooping twice a day like I -should- be doing and let the manure monsters do their own version of the Blue Ridge Mountains in feces) so I took a Percocet and went to bed a little early. I guess the Percocet affected me differently that last time, because I had a really restful sleep in that I woke up totally refreshed and not too lightheaded, but the sleep was different. All night I recall waking up without really waking up. More like my drugged stupor lifted just enough to make me aware that it was raining outside and I left Jaymes therapy swing out in the rain, which does not make me happy. With my limited ability to function, I attempted to harass my husband out of bed to go get it, but I couldn't actually talk and so he remained asleep and I fell back to sleep. This repeated several times, and it was so weird, like being underneath a very thick layer of jello. Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. Whatever it was, it was not unpleasant at all.

This morning I'll have to head out and get the wet therapy swing out of the yard, and the wet fly sheet off Lucy. Why does it always rain the day after I bathe the horses and get Lucy's very complicated bunch of head-to-hoof fly gear on? I body clipped and did ears on the Moal, then gave her a bath for perspective buyers- hopefully i'll have her sold by this weekend. I need to get Lucy's teeth done, buy some more hay, and pay some bills. Bye bye, Moalie.

There is now a line of spoons on my other side, and it would seem Jaymes is surrounding me with silverware. Jaymes is in a wonderful mood, cuddly, a little wild, lots of babbling and a few real words. I was shocked to hear him say "Sierra sleeping in room" when he woke up- how awesome is that?

Oh, more good news! I had mentioned that OT annual evaluation Jaymes had last week and how impressed with him I was for how hard he tried... The OT (who doesn't take nearly enough credit for Jaymes progress!) went over his results with me and well... It's time to crack out the confetti and balloons because he did AWESOME. He scored most things at around a cognitive age of 3. It was measured in months, which always confuses the heck out of me. The scores were all 38-43 months. WAY better than last years testing, and even this year's school testing topped out at 2y, 3m. I am so incredibly impressed and proud of him. Jaymes is the man, but then you all knew that.

It can be kind of hard going over those test results. To the rest of the world, Jaymes scores are awful. Really, really bad. The word "poor" is all over the place. He scored poorly. I've found that if I focus purely on the wording, and not just at the age equivalents, I get very depressed, because somehow they manage to make even a wonderful score suck. But, we've done enough of these now that I can see past that part of things. Yes, a 3 year age level is terrible for an almost 6 year old. But for Jaymes, it's an all time high. It means extreme progress has been made, and it means he's doing a GREAT job. I was (and still am) just so thrilled with how hard he worked and how well he did.

And do you know, Jaymes can draw a circle every time? He is starting to draw squares and triangles and he can say the word triangle and identify one. He can string beads, and cut with scissors, and draw a cross. He can use his Vantage Lite to ask for a food or drink item. He finally knows his name and answers when you ask him. He knows the names of everyone in the house, and of lots of family friends and therapists too. He's controllable in the car, most of the time. He's not hurting others or himself nearly as much. In general, he's a happy, slightly wild boy who has his meltdowns, but in general has improved drastically. I'll do a comparision post soon, because he is a totally different child than he was last summer.

So, a quick summary of our morning. Jaymes is awesome. Forks lined up to my right. Spoons to my left. Giant pile of silverware in the middle of the table. Jaymes is dancing and pointing out that one fork is pink. Sierra still sleeping. Wet, muddy horse who needs her fly gear removed and washed, outside. Muddy Moal who will need another bath so she gets sold. Jaymes is awesome. Mommy woke up at 7am and survived!

Oh, and Jaymes is awesome.