Almost time for school

It's Saturday morning at our house. We are all in the front room watching Chuggington. Reilly just completed a meltdown because he wanted something and we could understand or find it. Braedon is trying to figure out how to convince me to take him to Toys R Us for a train named Calley. He's asked several times already, and has not been happy with my response.

In a bit we'll have two young boys come over for a few hours while their parents go to a funeral. They are about 2 and 3 years-old, so we will be very busy. Once they head home it will be off for haircuts and new shoes, all in preparation for school to begin.

Reilly starts this coming Tuesday, which is a very good thing. I'll go in on Monday to sit with his teachers and plan his goals for the start of the year. I'm thinking potty training, sitting still for five minutes, and starting to speak.

Potty training happens a little later in our household then it does in most homes. Typically children with autism aren't potty trained until they are between 4 and 5 because of a lack of verbal and receptive language skills. I think Reilly is just about ready. I'll be happy to not put a diaper on him anymore. It does get harder when they weigh 40 pounds and are almost 4!

Braedon has another week of summer break, but we are spending it meeting with teachers for goals and evaluations, going up to Primary Childrens for speech therapy and the dentist. We are going to have both boys evaluated with a dentist that can sedate them if necessary. We tried our normal dentist, and that is just not going to work. I'm not really thrilled about sedating my children, but I'm less thrilled about poor teeth.

We like to make a special day of the start of school. Dean takes the day off and there are lots of pictures and fun to be had. I think Braedon will really enjoy dropping Reilly off and having his mom and dad with him all day. Maybe we'll go do something fun. I know Reilly will be so happy to start school. I know Braedon will be too, but not as much as Reilly. Braedon prefers to just stay at home with his mom.