Week 114

Ryan is now a first grader!  On his last day of school we took him out for a special dinner and dessert to celebrate.  Not only did he have 100% attendance, but his 4th quarter report card was the best he's had so far!  He came home with his notebooks of work he did throughout the year.  I was happy to see how many times he drew pictures of, and wrote about our cat Helen.  I miss her so much and sometimes catch myself thinking that any moment she is going to jump on my lap.

During the week the school mailed Ryan a Perfect Attendance certificate.

Although it took Ryan some time in the beginning of the year to get into the swing of things, overall he made some great improvements with his writing, reading, and math (especially math which seems to be his top strength!)  Hmm....do you think with two math teachers as parents that he was destined to be a strong math student???

Here is one of the projects that Ryan came home with on his last day of school.  It says:

My name is Ryan and I look just like my mommy.  I am now finishing kindergarten and boy, am I good at math.  Do you know my parents are teachers?  I may do that when I grow up, but I really want to be a police officer.  I can't wait to eat lunch in 1st grade, but nothing will be as good as dad's chicken.  When I am in high school I am going to be great at reading, just like my mommy.  I am going to study hard and make everyone proud!  But for now I am going to enjoy vacation with my family, it's my favorite thing to do!

One of my students gave me a special gift this week.  It is a bracelet that was made by someone with autism and it is called the Lucas Works Autism Awareness Bracelet.  It has silver and pewter charms on it, and features beads of glass, moonstone, hematite and gold.  The charms stand for different things and it came with an explanation card describing what each part of the bracelet means to help spread awareness.

Children with autism (puzzle piece charm) are found all over the world (blue bead).  Here are some of the keys (key charm) to helping them:  Autistic children thrive on a schedule to keep their world ordered (1,2,3 charm) and calm (clear bead).  Visual cues (easel with picture on it) help them to navigate the waters of life (aqua bead) and the helping hands and loving hearts (hand charm with heart shape in center) of special teachers and therapists can mean the difference between night (black bead) and day (white bead) to them, along with a good (gold bead) school program (school bus charm).  And like all children, they need lots and lots of love! (double heart charm).

Here is a picture of the bracelet.  It is one of the most special gifts I've ever received and to receive it from one of my students was a truly touching moment.

Ryan attended his sister's dance recital this weekend.  Last year he barely made it five minutes before we gave in and let him play games on the Ipad because he was so bored and disruptive.  This year he played a game during intermission only; during the rest of the recital he sat and watched.  He was bored at times, but he made it through the whole thing!

Julia is tall for her age (almost 5), so this picture shows you how tall Ryan is compared to other 5/6 year old children.  It is difficult to believe that they are only 1 year apart. 

DC

Week 113

Happy Father's Day!  Another busy weekend for us.  A big thank you to Phil for all he does for our family.  We love you!

Ryan with his participation trophy after his last game this season.

Phil and Ryan with this year's soccer team.  As much as Phil complained about getting roped into coaching, he is doing it again next year!

Julia at her dress rehearsal for next weekend's recital.

Tomorrow is Ryan's last day of Kindergarten.  Barring any unforeseen circumstances, he will attend his last day and end the year with perfect attendance!  I don't think they give awards or recognize students for that accomplishment anymore, and that is unfortunate.  It is a big accomplishment and especially for Ryan who typically doesn't receive any awards during the year, we are making a big deal about it at home.

Ryan's kindergarten class did a trial run in the cafeteria.  We could choose to send him with money to buy lunch or send him in with a bagged lunch.  We sent him in with lunch, and when he came home that afternoon we asked him all about it, curious as to whether most kids purchased lunch or brought their own.  I didn't want him to be the only one who has to bring his lunch everyday to keep him on his diet.  Here's how part of our conversation went when we asked him who he sat with in the cafeteria:

Me: Ryan, who did you sit with in the cafeteria?
Ryan: My girlfriend, Ava.
Phil: Did you sit with anyone else at the table?
Ryan: No, it was just the two of us.

We got such a good chuckle out of the entire conversation.  For those of you who may have missed it, here is the picture of the artwork we found in his backpack about a couple of weeks ago, given to him and made by above mentioned Ava.

By the way, Ryan has been doing a great job getting up in the morning and making his bed.  He does it everyday without us asking!

DC

Week 112

Ryan went to his follow up with the pediatrician and the fluid in his ears has cleared up.  The Claritan worked and we are grateful.  He will stay on it through the rest of June just to be sure he gets through the allergy season.  Next spring we will be better prepared to watch for signs of allergies and start him on the medicine earlier to avoid any fluid build up.

Julia lost her first tooth on Friday night and she was thrilled, especially since the tooth fairy brought her $5 just like Ryan got for his first tooth.

It's been a long and exhausting week with evening school events for both of us, and of course the travelling and emotions associated with the funeral for Uncle Tony.  I still can't believe that he is gone!  We received a lot of condolences and many people attended the services, both upstate and the memorial mass held in Westchester.  We greatly appreciate all of the support my family received this week!

One more week of Kindergarten left for Ryan.  Two more weeks of school left for me.  A little more than six weeks left until my due date.  The weekend events continue as we are still attending soccer games and ballet, but both of those are coming to an end over the next two weeks.  We attended a Christening this weekend and still have some other events in June like a baby shower and Julia's recital before we can have some care free weekends to spend up at nonna's and papa's pool before the baby arrives.

I'm chalking it up to "pregnancy brain" that I've been forgetful lately and unfortunately forgot my camera for the Christening we went to today.  Ryan had a great time playing with his cousins, but strayed terribly off of his diet. I hope we don't pay for it tomorrow!

We'll be sure to post pictures next week of Father's Day Weekend.

DC

Week 111

This week we had Ryan's CSE meeting.  At this point we are pro's at these meetings and yet we are still amazed at how our district runs them.  First the good news.  They are not taking anything away from Ryan.  This is the first time that this has happened.  They recommended that he enters an Inclusion Model for first grade.  This is similar  to what he was doing last year when he was at the PARC program.  There will be a regular education teacher, a special education teacher, a teaching assistant, and no more than 12 special education students with 12 regular education students.  We are hopeful that he will make more progress in this program than he did in Kindergarten.  While it was great that he entered our local elementary school, we felt that he did not make as much progress as he did last year.  Now for the bad news, they did not feel that he needed summer services.  For those that know Ryan he is all about routine.  He is in the routine of school and once summer hits it is going to take us a long time to get him back into the school mode when he enters first grade.  While he did well entering kindergarten, it is a worry.  Other than that the meeting went well and there were no surprises.  At this point they know that both Dawn and I are educators and we know how this game is played.  We just feel badly for those parents that do not know the system and do not know how to properly advocate for their child.  Maybe Dawn and I should volunteer to be parent advocates!

Autism Walk

This weekend was the Autism Speaks Walk and The Ryan Express was there!  While it was our smallest group we all had a great time.  One of the biggest reasons for the small turnout (15 people) was the fact that Dawn's Uncle (and Godfather) Uncle Tony passed away this past Friday.  This is someone that we had seen the weekend before and we were all surprised at his passing.  Over Memorial Weekend he had brought over a train whistle to Dawn's parents' house for Ryan to test out.  He is someone that was great with Ryan and he will be missed greatly.

Uncle Tony 10/24/52 - 6/1/12

Those that went to the walk had a great time and the weather was perfect.  The only bad part was the field that they used to set up the huge jumpy houses was completely soaked from all the rain.  The kids took their shoes off to go jump and their socks were instantly soaked!  The jumpy houses were full of water and Ryan and Julia did not even want to go in them.  The rest of the walk went great and both Ryan and Julia walked the entire 2 miles!  Below are a few pictures of the day!

PC