August 18th

This has been the fastest summer ever! Tyler's summer schedule was a bit different this year. Last year we had the option of morning or afternoon summer school so we chose afternoon so he could go to Splash Camp in the morning. This year summer school was morning only so that limited him a bit. We were however able to get into Splash camp for 3 weeks, yeah. Today is actually his last day. We had been on a wait list but someone cancelled for those weeks so there was an opening. Given the schedlue this summer, we decided to pull Tyler out of his typical day care center. He used to get bussed there after school during the regular school year and did fine since he was only there for a few hours at most, but when I projected his summer schedule he was going to be there for quite a few full days. The facilty is large with many classrooms and of course mostly full of typically developing kids and the caretakers are young with little special needs experience. Don't get me wrong they are awesome with Ty it's just that I was already anxious about it and hten his first full day did not go well. In fact we had him there for a week and by the end of the week we were all in tears and we decided to make a change. I guess Tyler was upset about something, they weren't sure what and therefore weren't able to console him and he got so upset that he eventually wore himself out and fell asleep. Unless he's sick it's very unlike Tyler to take a nap, in fact, he has sleeping issues and without melatonin is bouncing off the walls well into the wee hours of the morning. It broke my heart to think of him struggling like that and not having a way to communicate to them his problem and them not able to read him enough to be able to figure it out. Anyway, long story short. We found a special needs nanny on care.com. She is a college student with a major in therapeutic recreation and a minor in american sign language. She's been with us now most of summer and in fact today is her last day too. I'm not sure that this was the best decision for Ben, however. Ben's been in a daycare/preschool situation with other kids since he was 6 months old. He is a social butterfly who loves to be around other kids. We couldn't afford the nanny and a care facility, heck we could barely afford the full time cost of one, so he's been home with the nanny too. We figured that half of the time Tyler would be in some sort of therapy, camp, school anyway so that would give Ben the attention he lives. I do think he struggled a bit because he hasn't been around other kids this summer. He's been very emotional. We did get him into safety town which was great because there were two kids in his class that will also be in his Kindergarten class so it's nice to make that connection early.

I've also joined the PTO for Ben's upcoming elementary school. I just wanted to be able to do something for Ben as most of our school related decisions and meetings have also been prioritized by Tyler's needs. We actually chose our house/neighborhood becuase we wanted Ben to go to this specific school. Anyway I was voted in sometime in June and we just had our second meeting this week. I'm the PTO Secretary and looking forward to being involved with Ben's educational and social life:) will help with some of my mommy guilt that's for sure.

As for Summer, it's been going great. Tylers still non verbal but is really realy chatty. we've stopped b12 and speech at this point and Ty is still chatting away. He's also really getting creative in terms of communication and for hte most part is very patient if you aren't understanding him. There was a day that i had to take both boys to the grocery store. May seem normal to you but trust me this is pretty rare. I may run into the grocery store to pick up an item or two with both kids but never a full on shopping trip. But on this day we had so much to do I had no choice. I won't lie, I was anxious. So I brought a bunch of supports for Ty, Ipad, books, etc. He sat in the cart no problem, yeah! Ty gets confused in a big open space and those lights are just horrific for the guy so putting him the cart is the easiest way to keep him happy and safe and let me get the shopping done. So at one point during shopping, he kept pointing at his bag full of goodies. I go through each one asking if that's what he wanted but it wasn't working. Finally I gave up and went back to shopping. Ben and I are looking at food and I'm hearing Tyler push a certain item in his Vtech Bugsy book repeatedly. awesome books, the pen talks to him. I had tuned it out but finally it caught my attention that he was pushing a picture of juice so the pen kept saying "juice, juice, juice, juice".... then I had an aha moment.. that's what he wanted juice!!! which was in the front pocket of his backpack, no problem little dude.. I gave him his juice and he was good. He flipped through his book to find that specificially so I'd get his juice. He does this type of stuff often, he's very creative and resourceful!

Last night he was having a hard night. He's gotten into this ritual lately of needing everything under the sun when he goes anywhere or moves from one floor to another in our house. He'll point at one of his toys and then sort of do this big circle in the air with his finger which means I want ALL OF IT... um no kid we can't move your bedroom to the dinner table. Had a stand off one day trying to get him in the car for splash camp over this. Anyway, last night we actually couldn't figure out what he wanted. We had already gathered his blankets, books, ball, and whatever else he pointed at. It always has to be mom that carries him to bed, he won't walk and half the time I'm buried with toys, Dad was helping carry more stuff. So then we got him into bed, he jumps back up and heads downstairs, ok we must hvae forgotten something. We go with him. He was pointing to the top of the pantry at the battery case... ahhh... the leapster was in there. Must be the nanny "hid" it when it ran out of batteries (we should seriously buy stock in batteries, it's like water in our house"...so luckily dad had came up with batteries after work, yeah dad! So I replacedthe batteries and we took it upstairs..got him into bed and then he jumps back up to head downstairs. I finally said enough, no more, your room is packed with stuff, go to sleep. He then gets upset that I raised my voice and starts to cry, boo. Sorry bud but honestly Mommy can't keep hauling the entire house (and him cause each time I have ot carry him back up) to your room. it's time for bed. He lies down tears still flowing.. i offer a few tickles and now giggles, yeah.... he starts to close his eyes, i'm just sitting next to his bed watching him. he's fine if I leave but I was enjoying being by his side.. he opens his eyes and looks at me and I smile and then he smiles and closes his eyes... awesome!!! when you have a non verbal kids who lacks appropriate emotions at times and certainly has limited facial expressions and eye contact.. when he looks right at you and smiles... it's like a typical kid saying "I LOVE YOU MOMMY!!"... sorta just melts your heart.

So we've been keeping busy this summer. We went to Sandy Pines for 4th of July with the intention of going to Michigan Adventure but the boys both got Strep Throat, boo. We didn't let it ruin the trip though, antibiotics and some ibuprofen and we had lots of fun at the water park, beach, and pools. We even made a trip to South Haven. The boys really like it at Sandy Pines. I'm attaching the view from where we stay. There's so much for them to do, and Tyler now loves the golf cart rides, a far cry from 2 years ago where he'd go crazy if we stopped for any reason. We are hoping one day to have a membership to Sandy Pines.

So that's about all from the Ty update...looking forward to a new school, teachers, therapists next year. He's moved up to level 2 and I couldn't be more proud of him. Happy that Ben will be back at school and hanging iwth his friends and that I can be more involved. My boss is going to let me work a flexibile schedule so I can be with the kids when they get out of school. Not only will this help with our child care costs but it also allows me to spend more time with them during the week. On the family side of things, are doing what we said we'd do... time to relax more and focus on the famly so we've sort of stopped pushing so hard this summer to work with Ty and just hanging out more having fun as a family. The boys were actually wrestling together last night, not just Ben tickling Ty and him laughing but Ty wrestling back. He didn't used to know how to do this, he'd get frustrated and try to hurt Ben, but last night they were having so much fun. Ben knows it makes me happy to see them play togehter so i'm not sure if he doesn't to mak eme happy or if he does it because he likes it, hopefully a little of both. So financially I think we are starting to move in the right direction, cutting down on child care costs will help ALOT..... and there is another prospect we have right now that hopefully I'll be able to give some good news about soon.

On top of all that, i'm seriously considering going to Grad School and getting my Masters in Marketing & Communication. We'll see how everything comes together.

Love to all,

xo