Must have been a calm day at school because Kathy (speech teacher) wasn't there today. Still, his progress report looked productive. He did some apple star story, worked on a tissue paper apple, played outside and did an apple taste graph. Fall is definitely in the air. I expect to get more apple construction paper projects soon.
After lunch I rallied the troops together to go meet up with Jovy, Anna and Max at the Rec Plexx. The boys were very excited about it and I think Jovy was, too. They wore socks in the ball pit, but when Ronin got stuck in a side-ball pit because his feet were too slippery to scale the walls to get out, I had to crawl through the pit to take his socks off. Then I let him try to scale the walls on his own, which he did. Jovy was brave enough to climb up the multi-level nets to a really tall slide tunnel, and then the boys followed her. Ronin smartly used his hands and feet to slow down his speed in the tunnel. Nikko didn't anticipate the speed and looked a little scared when he came out, but I encouraged him to try it again and he did. Soon both boys mastered it and resumed crawling all over the apparatus.
A lady and her son came in the room and I recognized her to be Venus, the co-founder of the Parent Support group for District 57. Her son, Colin, is Nikko's classmate. She also has a 7 yr old son Aiden who is autistic. I acknowledged her and we had a nice conversation about our kids as well as the group. I told her about our observation with Linda Hoeck and she was supportive in our efforts to find outside services. Venus mentioned Aiden's social skills group at Half Dreams, which is something I should consider for Nikko in the future. Not sure at what age it would be helpful to him, but I'll keep it in mind. We also discussed how Blue Cross Blue Shield didn't cover anything for her either since her husband works for a bank, so everything is out of pocket for her. The speech therapy is partly covered. She also agreed that it takes a lot of effort to coordinate all the therapies. It was reassuring to talk to her, but I hope I didn't look too desperate for feedback. We snacked the kids in the outer rooms at the Rec Plexx, and as I anticipated, all kids fell asleep on the way home. They ran around a lot and had fun. Audrey was walking around and wasn't really supposed to go into the ball pit because she's so little and would get crushed if someone jumped on top of her, but when I had to rescue Ronin I did put her in the pit near Anna. Audrey seemed to like it, too. She is very physical and wants to rough and tumble with the boys if she's able. At home, she just started walking last week and this week she wants to jump on the trampoline like the boys. Sheesh!
Tomorrow Nikko doesn't have preschool due to some school-wide student improvement day. Ronin has an OT evaluation in the morning, and his speech therapy was moved to 3pm. It will be a challenge to have all the kids in the room with the therapists around, but they are probably used to that. I'll have to work hard to keep Audrey out of the mix.
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