This is a new toy the teacher brought out for Cooper.

He was super excited!

Sitting with his friends and reading books during circle time.

ABA Therapy

Cooper is doing great with his new ABA therapist. She is a tough cookie and doesn't let Cooper get away with anything. He still seems to really like her though. Today was a super long day for him. He had school in the morning, followed by an hour at Loyola Speech, then 2.5 hours of ABA therapy. He started at 9 AM and didn't get a break until almost 5:30 PM! He handled it really well. He said lots of things during ABA, including verbally identifiying all of his colors. There is something so cute about the way he says "pink"! He didn't say much at speech, but I think he was tired and slightly intimidated by the new little girl in his group. We got there ten minutes early and he did an excellent job waiting. He went and played with one of the toys in the waiting room for a little while, then tried to get me to take him back. I told him "No, we have to wait" and he just looked at me and then went back to playing with the toy until his therapist came out. That is a big deal for Cooper!

Tonight I ordered pizza for dinner and made the mistake of telling Cooper that the pizza was on its way. He went and stood at the door crying for half an hour until the pizza guy got there and then was suddenly happy as a clam. I suppose expecting him to wait for pizza was just too much to ask for :)

He pooped on the potty!!

Today I went and spent some time at Quinn's school. His aide was so excited because she had big news for me. Quinn pooped on the potty! This was his first time ever and yes that is very exciting. I was hoping he had actually said something, but I guess I can be happy with a poop in the potty. She was extra thrilled because it meant she didn't have to change his diaper. He usually pees on the potty a few times a day there, of course he did nothing while I was actually watching. He doesn't request or anything, they just put him on the potty a lot. I figure I will let them train him and then we can try it at home :)

That was the good news, the bad news is his teacher is pregnant. I knew this was going to happen because she is young and newly married. Don't get me wrong, she has every right to start her own family....but what about Quinn?? There is no way he will do as well with a substitute and what if she doesn't come back? I am not happy about this at all, but I am happy for her. Now wasn't that so very grown up of me?

After school we went to Annapolis to have his orthodics checked. He definately needs new ones. Apparently his feet have grown a ton in width, but not at all in length....weird. I just hope his insurance will pay for another pair since this will be our second this year. They are $1500 if not :( She didn't even want to tell me, but I made her...after this last year with Cooper you can't scare me :) Quinn needs them, so he will get them; that is just the way it is.

Cooper is doing great with his new ABA therapist. Tommorow is a really long day so we will have to see how that goes. Wish us luck :)

Finally a good note for Cooper!

Cooper has had a rough couple of days at school. Finally I got a good note from his teacher, thought I would share. He is such a goof, stealing other kids food! LOL!

"Cooper had a good day. He played outside with another boy in our
morning class. They were running and laughing together. We are
outside with the “gen. ed” children at the same time – so the opportunity and
the models are there for his “inclusion” time. However, right now, he is
choosing the little boy in our class. He looked so
happy!

Cooper loves apples. I can’t remember if I told you
this or not. He is “taking” another child’s sliced apple pieces and just
loves them. Is it okay if he has these apples?"

Celebrities and Special Needs

While surfing the web tonight I saw two very interesting stories about celebrities and their children with special needs.

First of all, John Travolta finally admitted that his son had Autism. About time!!! It really pisses me off that they wasted all those years claiming their son had Kawasaki Disease (a complete lie)when they could have been helping the Autism cause. This week John Travolta had to testify in court for the extortion case that followed his sons death. He admitted under oath that his son was Autistic and had a seziure disorder. No one knows better than me how hard it is to tell people that your child has a disability, but seriously he was 16 years old! John Travolta is a very famous, very powerful man...he could have made a difference if he wanted to.

In happier news, Katherine Heigl (yup, Izzy!) just adopted a little girl from Korea. She told Ellen that the adoption moved so fast because the little girl has special needs! Good for you Katherine!! I can't wait to hear more about what these special needs are, but for now here is the link to some pictures. http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/katherine_heigl_brings_home_baby_7AY7u97vne2ToDgwvQ97PP

Ornery

Ornery is a new word for me. It is kind of an old fashioned word that is defined as "having an irritable disposition". So why am I suddenly googling this word? Because Quinn's teacher keeps using it to describe his mood in his communication book!!! Now this is not a word I would have ever expected anyone to use to describe Quinn (Cooper maybe), but today it was followed by a description of how he pinched and bit his aide and hit another student! Honestly, my first thought was that the teacher must have put the wrong note in the wrong book, because my Quinn would never do that. But that is very unlikely, so I guess he did. Once again I am waiting to hear more details. Was he happy or sad when he did these things? Maybe he was just trying to interact with the other kids and didn't know how? Maybe it is just acting out because he misses his father? He never hits Cooper!

Oh well, his note also said that they went swimming for the first time today and he had a great time and was really good. I knew he would love the swimming! It looks like he will only get to go every other week, but we will see.

Back to School Day

Today was Back to School day at Quinn's new school. I took Grandma Berta and we went to watch Quinn's class for a while. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera! It was really nice to be invited to watch the class like that. We saw most of circle time and then their entire "station rotation". There were a few other parents there, but they were only parents of the typical kids. Their kids were excited to see them, but Quinn really didn't care that I was there. Oh well, at least one of the other boys in his class was happy to see me. He is a sweet little boy with special needs that is a little higher functioning than Quinn is and he is in love with me :) He must have remembered me from last time I visited because he got all excited as soon as I walked in, LOL!

Quinn did a great job while we were there. They finally found him some chewy tubes and gave them to him whenever he tried to put something inappropriate in his mouth. He wore his glasses almost the whole time, he only took them off when he was looking in the mirror (I guess he thinks he looks better without them). Then when the aide put them back on he was really great about letting her. He is starting to understand that he needs to go and check his schedule between stations. They are using actual objects instead of pictures, so he picks up a puzzle piece when his schedule says puzzle time, a computer mouse when it is computer time etc. They adapted that for him really nicely. During puzzle time he identified the "red" frog over other colors very consistently (suprising both his aide and his mom). His attention level during his one-on-one time with the teacher has also improved. The teacher is really happy with his progress and so am I. His aide told me that he is doing so well with the potty that yesterday he didn't have any wet diapers at all!!! He peed in the toilet three times and pooped in his diaper once (but it wasn't wet)!!! All I can say is....wow!

And to top it all off, this morning our neighbor was talking to him from across the street. He has been doing this for two years now and Quinn has never paid any attention to him at all. Bless that man, because he never gives up even though Quinn gives him no response. Well, today Quinn stared right at him while he was talking to him! It may seem like a small thing, but it was huge!! This school is obviously the right place for Quinn, I can't wait to see what he learns this year.