First Day, First Week

We completed the first week with great success, and there are volumes of things that went so right, and not much that went wrong. Zachary's teacher seems so impressed with his academic abilities, that I think it has put her at ease. He wants very much to do stuff independently. So only time will tell how the rest of the year will go, but I'm hopeful and staying positive.

The traditional first day photo...


And then a few extras. He was totally posing, so I had to snap a few and share. This is so like him. but lately he has become the little ham!

Closing the Therapy Chapter of our lives

After a diagnosis in the summer of 2003, I jumped into therapy with two feet and started a program in September. In the meantime, I tried alternate ideas that parents mentioned might "fix" Zachary. I was grasping at anything that might help my son and getting advice in all directions. In retrospect, I can see the silliness, but I understand any parent that does the same, and how do you deny a parent that sees a change in their child. In the end, we stuck with what was proven, and have worked tirelessly with Zachary for eight years.

And what I could have done with what it cost us and the insurance. But I am thankful that John works for a good company, and for a few people that worked diligently behind the scenes to help get the majority of expense paid for.

Zachary will always be autistic. He has a few quirks, but what child doesn't. He has come from being non-verbal, to a pretty good talker most of the time. He has a few friends he likes to hang out with, and plays pretty well with the rest of the children. And while we won't have anyone come to our house, go to school, or stay after school, we still have work to do. We will continue to work mainly on socialization. Praise the Lord we are to that point. Short of comprehension and listening skills, he is pretty much on target academically. To say the least, he has turned out to be a delight.

Tomorrow, he is headed off to 5th grade...alone. (I feel like a parent dropping off their kindergartner.) So will you join me in giving glory to God for the work He has chosen to do in Zachary, as well as offering thanksgiving for the underpaid, but loving therapists and supervisors I have had over the many years. And last, would you applaud Zachary for all his hard work. We start a new chapter tomorrow. Life without a Therapist.

What is it about Dads?

It's all about Dad these days. Dad watching a movie with him. Dad taking him to pool, and me being told I don't have to go. And then he says, when are you going on another trip? Because Dad is going to take me to Boudreaux's. And Dad let me sleep in the bed last time you were out of town.

He was even found on the computer, looking like his dad...

I thought my dad was pretty cool too. Mom was always the enforcer, but he was Mr. Fun. I think I see what's going on here, but I'm glad he loves his dad and his dad loves him.

Swear Jar

Diary of a Wimpy Kid has come in handy again. Zachary announced he was going to make a Swear Jar. He explained it to John, and then announced he was going to get rich. John asked him what it would cost him if he said an inappropriate word, and Zachary said, "$1." In our house, curse words of course are off limits, but so is calling people names like idiot or dumb, and then there is s*cks and cr*p. John is going to go broke if he is not careful. And I'll tell you one thing, my son does not have a hearing problem.

A friend of mine the other day was meeting me and she said s*cks, and Zachary busted her. She is our first contributor. Zachary has officially set up the jar. So if you plan to stop by, either watch what you say or come with your ones.

Puzzlemania

During the summer, Zachary takes to assembling puzzles. He actually is on his fourth puzzle right now. He's so sweet to watch. He quietly works on these 750-1000 piece puzzles. I had some friends over the other day and they didn't even know he was in the other room the whole hour and a half. He loves it when we help too. I've promised to do a piece a day, although I normally get sucked into more pieces. "Just one more, and then I am stopping."

We started at the lake with our family reunion. We had about 8-10 people working on this puzzle at various times.

Work in progress.

A completed puzzle (he's in his swim jammers), which came apart right after he finished and took 3-4 pictures. John nearly died after we worked on this for so long. He said the other day he wanted to build it again, and then frame it. And the puzzle on the right, thanks to Aunt Kathy, is our newest challenge.

Family Reunion 2011

I'm a bit behind on my posts, but for those who were not at our reunion, this is worth seeing. We often have an ice cream freeze contest, accompanied with a skit. The skit and ice cream are voted on separately.

Mom came up with the clever idea of dressing as Wal-martians. I was pleasantly surprised that John was willing to dress the part too. So once we decided on our skit, we had to think of an ice cream to match. We decided to make B.S. - Beer Sorbet. And surprisingly we only got 2 votes. We came in second on the skit though.

We competed against Uncle Mike's Irish Cream, which apparently was pretty lucky because he won the taste off. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Bill brought "Whataicecream" with all the fixings, and it was da-gone delicious (but not low-fat). Aunt Ruth and Uncle Steve brought their own booty-lisheous ice cream for non-dairy fans. And Eric and Ryan, with their families, added the Swamp People with a tasty treat of pistachio ice cream.

And a few photos for your viewing pleasure (in order of mention above)...

And last, but not least, the Walmartians...

Walmartian in training...

Junk mail

Too much, I say! It is just too much junk mail, so back in April, I decided I would get my name taken off these mailing lists. I spend about 30 minutes 1x a week calling, and now it is only about every other week. It doesn't take much time, and I cannot tell you how little junk mail I receive. I know many of you are thinking you don't have time for this, but I came across an additional solution too...dmachoice.org. You can select which catalogs, magazines, and other mail offerings you receive. You can be specific on the catalog or say "none" to all of them. That is one place to start.

This photo is just the ones I have called and noted the dates. Of course when you call they tell you it might take 4-8 weeks to be effective, but I don't care. I check additional junk mail received against those I have called and toss them. It is so freeing not getting all that in the box. I was to the point that I only checked my mail 1x a week because I hated to get so much junk. If everyone would do this, think of the trees we would save, and the amount of time we would regain.

People, take a stand against Junk Mail! Reclaim your lives and save the trees!!!

PS I know I've been a bad blogger. I want to post Zachary's solo from his play, but the time it could take to extract just that part is weighing heavy on my shoulders. Oh the stress! Just kidding.