I am looking for any ideas to help Braedon with a problem he is having. He has been attending a private preschool for almost 8 months and doing just fine. He would go four days a week for 2.5 hours. It is a school for children with special needs and typically developed children. Beginning the first of September he started to attend a public preschool two days a week and continued with the private school two days a week. There were a few changes made. The private school moved from a house to a facility, but with the same teacher and same children. He did fine the first day, but everytime I take him now he cries and yells.

He doesn't seem to be crying or yelling more at one particular school. He sometimes will cry for 30 minutes before calming down. He is absolutely beside himself and upset when I leave him there. I thought that the change has been too much for him. I thought that going to two different schools is too much for him.

Before giving up on the private school completely, I want to see if anyone has any suggestions? Right now, I give him a kiss and tell him mommy will be back to get him later and leave. Keep in mind Braedon has always had abandonment issues since he was born. He also has great difficulty communicating in words. He thinks differently then we do.

Maybe you have a child that has gone through this or you know someone. I'd love to hear any suggestions you may have. You can post it here or shoot me an email: kimasay@hotmail.com. It doesn't matter if your suggestions are from children with autism or a typically developed child. I'm up for any suggestions. It breaks my heart each day to see him struggle so much with this.

A bunch of pictures

I can't believe how quickly the boys are growing. Here are some random pictures we've taken over the past few weeks.

Reilly had a nice battle with being sick in the picture with the green shirt. That is his "Mommy hold me I'm sick" face. I did notice that in most of the Reilly pictures he has the same expression.

Once the birthday party ended and things had been cleaned up, we sat around the living room chatting. A few minutes passed and Braedon was very quiet. When we went in the kitchen he had used his little bus as a step stool to get at more cake. This is him being caught.

A few thoughts...

I just wanted to say a bit around the "Bridge to Nowhere". First off, this isn't a political statement. However, I will be voting for McCain! Anyhoo, I wanted to focus a little on what the bridge is and where it is. That seems to be lost in all the news reports. The bridge connects Ketchikan to the island that houses the airport. Ketchikan has about 9000 residents and is the first large island you come upon when heading from Seattle to Alaska. It is actually the 5th most populous city in the state.

As someone that has flown into Ketchikan many times it is a giant pain to have to wait and take a ferry across to the city from the airport. I don't think the cost needs to balloon so high, but it sure would be nice to have something in place to help people out.

I'm sure if we take a moment to look around each state, we can easily find 1 or more things that have been built that help just a few thousand people. Things cost more in Alaska because of the climate. I don't dismiss that the cost was way to high and needed to be done away with. What annoys me are those that make fun of it without understanding how valuable it could be to thousands of people.

Maybe this is just the Alaskan in me coming out, but people in the lower 48 sure don't have any concept on how different things are in Alaska and how much tougher it is.

We've had a busy few weeks as a family...

Braedon has started going two days a week to public preschool and two days a week to a private preschool. They are both designed to help him in specific areas; developmental delay in speech, social interaction, transitioning, and behavior modeling. He seems to really enjoy both schools. Although, tears are shed as I drop him off (by both of us), he does manage to come out on top.

Reilly has turned into such the little man. He is starting to make sounds and trying so hard to communicate. He is almost walking. He can stand on his own and walk with just the support of one hand. I would assume in the next few weeks he'll be all over the place.

Braedon turned 3 on September 8th! We had a wonderful party. I'll post some pictures later (I'm downstairs and my camera is upstairs and I am lazy). We had both sets of Grandparents (my parents came down from Washington), his Uncle Daniel, and two very special Aunts Jamee and Vikki over. Bascially, all of Braedon's very favorite people on earth. He was terrific. He blew out his own candles and sat and ate huge handfuls of frosting. When he opened up his gifts he would say, "WOW!" It was a really great day for everyone.

Life is dandy and starting to return back to our normal daily routine. We hope you are all well and happy.

I still love being a stay-at-home mom. I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Each day is a new adventure with new challenges and new rewards.