Dominic and Damien

Well Monday was Dominic's first day at his new school. This is the school I worked really hard to get him in at our Grade School. It's not a Special Ed setting like before. He LOVES it. We hung out for about 1.5 hrs and watched how the day normally goes there. Dominic had so much fun showing off his little brother. It was cute. There were 5 other parents there and I did feel abit ackward at times. It's hard because you feel like you need to explain how he acts so they aren't automatically thinking, "what in the world is wrong with her kid!??" He was so excited and a bit loud, he would do what he was asked for about 30 seconds and then wanted to go somewhere else and he was making all sorts of laser sounds from Action figures. lol There are a few things though that I plan on writing a letter to his teachers about. I did explain the ADHD/ODD thing already but I haven't said anything about his sensitivity issues. When they put an art apron on him, he flipped out. He started screaming "IT'S SCRATCHING ME, IT'S SCRATCHING ME!" He was really upset. They were loosing the belts and trying to figure out what the problem was. Finally he stopped. I probably ought to make them aware of the sensitivity thing because I'm afraid after seeing a whole row of bongo drums they will pull those out and he'll run out the door crying! lol He hates certain touches, sounds, smells will make him throw up easily, textures on his tongue cause him to gag at EVERYTHING. For 2 years he had Kristi as his teacher and she knew every little unique detail of him so now I'm starting all over so we'll have to do alot of communicating with his teacher the next few months.

Then Damien had his first homevisit today and will have visits every Tuesday at 9 am. It went well and he really clicked with his teacher. I like her too! Very nice lady. She tried getting him to point out animals, they played ball, tired to get him to say anything different then his normal little "dis, uh oh, yeah, and whoa!" She's going to talk to some of the other ladies about his tongue thrust and see what we're going to do. His tongue always comes out when he says his few words. She thinks that it may be more tongue thrust than Verbal Apraxia. So... we'll have to see. Whichever it is, I can already tell he's got a long road of speech therapy ahead of him like his brother. This is much different than Dominic though because Dominic just wasn't talking! Damien says a few words but he's more like Sylvester the Cat when he says "Suffering Sucatash!" That's the best description I can give of Damien. lol

So that's about it! It's weird having one sorta leaving this journey and then entering it again with another little one. I have learned so much through all this. I think Early Childhood Development would be a great field to take up once my kids have entered school. Dominic has came a long way on his speech although he does have a lot of other things on his IEP to work on, he's made SO MUCH progress! I am so proud of him! Damien so far just thinks this is all fun and games! lol Although he cried the first few times being in Speech Playgroup during the summer, he loved it in the end. Today when she arrived this morning you could tell he was thinking, "cool! Someone else wants to play with me!"

I'm really lacking on updating this blog! So I'll try to sum up our summer in a few paragraphs. First, Dominic language has completely exploded like it did last summer! It's amazing how much he says now. He's is almost caught up to his peers I think. He will be going to Alex's Elementary School in the mornings for preschool. He'll be only M-Th though which kinda bites but they're both at the same school which is awesome!

Dominic did a few productive things this summer. He passed swimming lessons, and tried really hard at T-ball although when that sun started blazing during the games he wanted to quit so we'd have to bribe him to keep him out there. One thing he really will have a hard time with after school starts back up is detoxing from websites. lol He's played Starfall, Hotwheels, Cartoon Network, PBS kids all summer long. Usually about 2 hours a day! He's really good at chores and helping out if he gets a reward for doing so.

The biggest change as of lately is he's transitioning from that preschool stage to a young boy. He's facination of Thomas is still there but not as much. He likes bigger boy things like Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Monster Trucks. He's using her bigger words such as ridiculous. He's saying things like "mommy! I told you....." or "you have got to be kidding!" He's just a riot.