Things in our little MERLD world have been clicking along. Will is making progress in development and language. We are now concentrating on pronouns which as you may know are REALLY hard to teach. Right now we hear a lot of "You need a chocolate chip cookie please!" Slowly we are hearing I first in this sentence, but only about 40% of the time....I'll take it.
General development has come a bit since February too. Will is now more interested in being with us....we call him our shadow and copying our actions. We are also getting a nice play by play. At dinner time we are likely to hear "Dadddy sitting down to eat....Mommy sitting down to eat" "Mommy eating a hotdog" etc. etc. Asking where questions is now second nature to Will, although some of the time he asks knowing where something is so we can get it out for him ie. "Where is the kite Mommy?", but most times it is genuine.
School is going by so fast and this Wednesday we have our IEP meeting for next year. Funny how a year can bring so many changes. Last year I was all in a panic and now, well I'm just looking at it as a formality. Next year will be a whole day repeat of K with ST, OT and now Music Therapy too. Also next year Will will be receiving a 1-1 aid to help him attend to activities. Since he is in a typical classroom with 1 teacher and 20 students this will be a great help both to Will and his WONDERFUL teacher Mrs. Pilon.
I've heard stories from a few of the school peeps of how they are having short (4 exchanges) conversations with Will in the last few weeks.....so great to hear. We are now also way more independent getting out of bed turning on Mommy and Daddy's light, going downstairs for toys and THANKFULLY using the toilet (no more OVERNIGHTS!!!!) I have to say I miss going to his room in the morning, after I've woken up on my own thanks, to get Will, but now I wake up to "Mommy wake up please!!" so it's a good exchange.
Lastly I finally bit the bullet and enrolled Will in an extra school activity. We are now in week 4 of 6 for bowling. Will was SO SO exciting when I took him to the alley. I think he thought bowling only existed on the Wii and not in the 3D world! He is now happily taking turns and giving high 5s to his bowling partners. It really is too cute. This gives me hope that maybe next year we will go full out and try t-ball in the summer.
And one final word, thankful. I am truly thankful for my son. He is probably one of the easiest kids to raise, language disorder or not, on the planet. His easy going nature and beautiful smile make me realize that life could be so much worse.
