Summer

Today is my first, official, day of summer. School didn't end, for Braedon, until yesterday. Today marks the days of sleeping in, staying up late, and doing whatever we want..kind of. Due to the need my children have for structure, or any child for that matter, I keep a somewhat tight schedule in the summer. I like to know what I'm going to do the day before.

I was laying in bed this morning thinking of what a successful year it had been for Braedon. All his accomplishments, efforts, milestones, and goals he met. He turns 5 in September, so he will receive one more full year of preschool, which I am very happy about.

This year he learned multiple word combinations. He still will need a verbal prompt most times, but that's fine. For example, when he wants juice he will often just say "juice" over and over. If I say "I", he'll say "I want juice please". If I ignore his demands for juice by about the 10th time he'll give the "I want juice please" a try. He is saying "Thanks" when I hand him something without a prompt. That is huge! His vocabulary is really impressive. What we are focusing on now is using those words in combination and where appropriate and also annunciation of the words. He works with a speech therapist to help him pronounce words. Often it's hard to understand what he is saying unless you spend everyday with him.

He was potty trained this school year. In fact, once he started he never had an accident at school. He had a couple at home. Number 2 proved to be difficult. I was told that sometimes it could take months or years to develop that task. Oh please don't let it be years. Nope. It only took a few months. I even taught him to pee outside. We were outside one afternoon and he had to go. Really had to go. He was doing his dance. I started fumbling with the house keys and remembered he was a boy. I took him out into the yard and taught him how to pee outside. I'm starting to think it may have been a mistake. He now will go when he is playing in the back yard without asking. He especially likes to "water" the flowers and play "sprinkler". I worry we'll be in a public park and he'll want to drop is drawers...

He started to notice other children. He learned the names of some of his classmates and would play with them now and again. That's a big accomplishment for Braedon. Normally, he doesn't even notice other people around him. In Church, he has really enjoyed Primary. He walks in the room and immediately tells me goodbye. The other boys in his class seem to really like him and often I hear, "Hi Braedon" as I'm leaving. He never responds back, but he appears happy to be there. That's enough for me.

It was a good school year. There are many other things he's done, but I wanted to touch on a couple. Every parent is happy when their child makes progress. I'm so happy and blessed that he is making progress and is excited to learn. This summer we are going to work on being clam and okay when things don't go according to plan. It's okay to do something different. There's no need to cry, spit, scream, yell, hit, or destroy things. Really. No need!