Week 60

It was a busy week with the Autism Walk, soccer practice, and PARC graduation.  He did amazing through all of these things and we sometimes have to remind ourselves how far he has come in such a short time.  Looking back over the blog we sometimes forget how far he has come.  Considering all of the things that we have done over the past year, without this diet and treatment, this year would have been much different.  When we went to Ryan's CSE meeting Dawn commented that without the diet we rarely left the house because Ryan was too difficult to manage.

This past Sunday we had 27 people walk for The Ryan Express at the Walk Now for Autism Speaks at New York Presbyterian Hospital in White Plains, NY.  This was almost half the people that we had last year but we still raised over $2000 for the cause.  It was a difficult weekend for people to make it but we want to say a huge thank you to those that took the time and supported Ryan and us for this cause.  It was a nice day and the walk was very well organized.  Ryan had a great time playing with his cousins, Nick and Christopher and this time he walked the entire 2 mile course.  His stamina has improved over last year and Julia almost walked the entire distance.  However, she did manage to hitch a ride on the the back of one of Dawn's former students.  Thank you again for those that came out to walk and for those that supported us in this cause.

We attended his second soccer practice and he did great.  Believe it or not he was able to keep up with the all of the stretching exercises.  He was the only one that was able to keep his legs straight, hold the ball between his feet and roll backwards onto his back.  He was so proud to be the one that the other coaches were telling others to look at and see how Ryan was doing the exercise.  He was then placed in the upper level group and "played" his first soccer game.  It was just a group of special needs students with high school students kicking the ball around.  Ryan had a little difficultly understanding the game.  He latched onto the concept that if he kicked the ball out of bounds, he could then  kick the ball back into play.  He had a grand time and was so excited to get his soccer jersey.  He went right into the box of jerseys and picked out a neon green and white jersey with the number 12 on it.  He went right up to the two coaches and told them that the number 12 was his birthday.  He demanded that I put it on him and he wore it home.  It looks like he is excited about soccer and he really played well with the other children in the group.  Hopefully he will have a good time in the fall and spring under-6 league.

On Tuesday we attended his PARC graduation.  He was so excited to tell Nonna, Papa, and Grandma that he was graduating and going to kindergarten.  It was a very nice ceremony and he had a great time. They had each of the preschoolers come out one at a time dancing.

They were all so excited to come out and dance for everyone.  Ryan was thrilled to come out and he danced the entire time. 

 America the Beautiful...

They then sang the alphabet while signing the letters.

Ryan was not interested in singing all of the songs because there were so many dragon flies around he often got distracted watching them fly around. Here's a couple of pictures from the skit they performed.

 

When they had the students come out in their graduation robes we knew something was up.  He just walked out and lined up without any smiles.  We found out later on that they had used hair pins to keep the graduation hat on his head.  Since he  just got a hair cut the pins scraped his scalp and he did not like how they felt on his head.   This is something that we will have to remember for his next "graduation" ceremony.

Ryan's class in their caps and gowns.

Towards the end of the ceremony, he had such a look on his face and he just stood there while the rest of the class was performing the last song.  He participated a little bit, but he was not focused on what he was supposed to be doing.



























 














The video clip was too long to post on here so we had to upload it to You Tube.
Click here to watch Ryan perform part of the last song.



Diploma time...

He was really happy running around with all of his friends afterwards and was happy to take the hat and robe off and get his snack.We bribed him with a cupcake to take a few pictures before disrobing.
 

Kindergarten, here we come!

Ryan with nonna and papa

Ryan with grandma

family shot

sibling love

Ryan with Ms. Clair, Ms. Angela, and Ms. Rose

Ryan with Ms. Sue, his Special Education teacher

Ryan with his teachers again, this time Ms. Raina also joined in

It was another busy week and Ryan had a great time.  We are glad that we remember all of the good things each week and not just the meltdowns and struggles.  Hopefully these good times will continue.

PC

DC- pictures and videos