He's got an autistic southern drawl

Who knew? Jaymes has many fun, amusing, and downright eccentric qualities, and now we can add what one therapist refers to as an "autistic southern drawl" to his list. I don't know why, but that cracked me up. I need to take some video of him asking for a brown crayon, he sounds like he's from Alabama. It's beyond adorable.

I spent a couple days sulking after the not-so-great IEP meeting, because sometimes you just need to stew for awhile, but I'm feeling a lot better about things now. There's no use in stressing over next year's issues until they occur, and I guess it's smarter to assume it'll go as promised at the meeting, rather than badly. We've had enough issues with various schools over the last 3 years that I've become just a little pessimistic and not what you'd call trusting in the schools doing what they say they will. Current school is a very good one though, and we'll see what happens. I guess the worst case scenario would be having to call another ugly IEP meeting.

I have to say, IEP meetings are really good for me. I remember Jaymes' first IEP years ago when he was 3 and starting school. I was so shy and nervous I didn't speak at all the entire time. I didn't know to read the IEP goals, or that I had a say in things. I had no clue, and Jaymes had some utterly ridiculous goals on his early IEPs. Every meeting I attend teaches me something new, and forces that assertiveness out of me. I am, by nature, incredibly shy. I don't like confrontation, and I prefer to just go along with whatever everyone else wants. It's been so hard to break out of that, and even when I know I'm pushing what's best for Jaymes, I still feel slightly ridiculous and like some awful bitch for pushing the issue. It's character building, to say the least. Painful, uncomfortable, humiliating sometimes... But good for me as a parent.

Jaymes is loving summer break. Monday we had my friend Kristi and her 2 sons over to play. Her older son is a couple years older than Jaymes, and also autistic and her other son is Sierra's age. They're both adorable, and it's a lot of fun to have them come over. The kids love it. They played in the front pasture with the kiddy pool and slide. The older boy, D. had a blast, and it was just such a cool experience. Younger son had a lot of fun spraying me and Sierra with squirty gun things. Went inside later and D buried himself in Sierra's stuffed animals. Her bed is covered in them, and he had SO much fun. It was really cute to see. Sierra and the younger son, W. played with the box of rice and pinto beans (for playing, not eating) and at some point rice began flying across the room. In the end, the room ended up being vacuumed for a long long time, then swept, then I gave up. Lesson learned? Rice is a BAD toy. BAD. Very, very bad. No more playing with rice. I'll buy more beans for Jaymes to dig in.

Today, we watched Thomas the Train, played ball, and grandma came over for a little while. Then we took the kids out to Harris Teeter for cookies and to get subs (yum) and brought them home for naps. Jaymes had OT at 5:30, and he really did a wonderful job.

He was so happy and excited, although he was a little too hyper. Tons of talking and expressions of pure joy on his little face. He did some animal stencils, then colored the animals and cut them out (square, not the exact outline of the animals). He is so good at cutting with scissors, he can do it all himself and he's so close to being right on the line she draws to keep him on track. He's come such a long way. He used his Vantage Lite to request the ball pit a whole bunch of times, and had the time of his life leaping and burying himself and squirming around in the balls. I love watching him play, he's just a vision of happiness.

Jaymes is doing really well lately. His meds are stable, and he's not up and down all the time. He still has his difficult moments, but for the most part he is really a pleasant little guy and I am really enjoying having him home. Tomorrow we're going to get some summer stuff- paper, stickers, crayons, sidewalk chalk, sprinkler, etc. The busier he is kept, the easier he is to handle. Hopefully our friends will come play again, that's really a lot of fun for everyone and I love having some adult conversation!

All in all, things are going really well. I'm tired, been having trouble sleeping again. Can't take sleeping pills because I can't wake up with Jaymes if I do, so I'm trying to just fight it and sleep when I can. My hip is hurting me really badly lately, from my fall off loony nutball horse back in jan? feb? Some days I'm fine, others I can't sit comfortably, and if i move the wrong way everything sort of seizes up. Very painful. I miss my percocet.

But like I said, i can't complain. My son is doing the best he's ever done before, my daughter is developing at this crazy, insanly rapid rate (she's so smart!), and life doesn't suck. That's what matters, life not sucking. Hooray.