My Twice Baked Potato

I was looking at the “home” page of my site and realized that things were really changing.  First, my son is turning 7 years old.  When I say this outloud, I am flooded with memories…

-getting the phone call from the hospital and holding him for the first time

-watching him breathe while he slept (which I still do sometimes)

-holding him over head and playing “flying baby”

-his adoption day

-the Santa pictures and Easter Egg hunts

-being called when he broke his leg or when he had a reaction to a bee sting

I think of all the growth (physical, social, and emotional) and I am amazed at where we are today. It seems to be going all too fast!  I blinked and he went from being a baby to a toddler and then I blinked again and he wasn’t a toddler anymore. I can honestly say that if there was a way to slow time, I would do it!!

Another change is our pet status…We currently have a precious dog named Stella.  She will be 13 years old on the same day that my son turns 7 years old.  We love this dog and already cry about the day when we will lose her.  In an effort to soften this inevitable loss, we have decided to get a puppy.  Over time, we have become more and more excited about our precious Summer.  Summer, a 6 month old labradoodle, arrives on June 22nd. We decided that our boy should have a larger dog and that this would be a great addition to our family. I have never had two dogs in my life, but I am hoping that Summer brings us all (especially Stella) tremendous joy.

More changes?  I finished school today and my son completed his first grade year.  When I saw his report card, I was thrilled.  My TBP developed into a responsible and engaged student. There are still important accomodations that are made at school, but we expect that he will continue to make great gains.  Like his portfolio (that I blogged about in my post Green Day and Working Parents), the report card clearly demonstrated consistent progress.  He received 4s in reading, which we expected, but the surprise was the previous 2s in effort were upgraded to 3s.  The biggest success was the “following the rules” grade that went from B (Below grade level) to W (Working toward) to M (Mastery).  Yes…I said it…Mastery!

There were many things that ultimately impacted my son’s transformation…Dr. S (therapist #2), Dr. Curtis (therapist #3), consistency, perceptions & expectations, social coaching, and maturity helped too.

So…I guess I might have to update my “About Me” section.  Maybe it should read something like this…

“My name is Kelly and I am the proud parent of a 7 yrs old boy. My 2e son continues to make great gains in school (both academic and social). He has taught me so much about patience, acceptance, and listening!  Although we have the occassional challenging day, we are no longer in crisis mode! We are starting to forget the chaos of the earlier days… before we understood him better!  We have two precious dogs, Stella and Summer, and look forward to swimming, Minecrafting, and family trips this Summer!”

Yes…I think I like the sound of that! 🙂