First week of school

I'm pleased to say we had a successful first week of school. Easton seems to love it, really!  We love his teachers, for many reasons, but mostly because she celebrates even the smallest victories with us!

He gets so excited each morning that we pull into the parking lot and walks straight to his classroom. He jumps with joy every time he goes in there. Picking him up is another story. Dustin picks him up and he usually falls asleep before even making it home lol!!  School is wearing him out!  We are fortunate he's such a morning person because he loves getting up to get ready!

Here's  a picture from the first day!

We are all learning each other and his teachers are still learning all of his special quirks and signs!!  But on the third day we got this sent home...

You see, these are one of those small victories!!  Easton hates Hand over Hand help.  He acts like it hurts him almost, and I'm sure for something he's not use to it is quite uncomfortable.  BUT...just after working for 3 days he was tolerating it. Not only that but he's learning to pick up a pencil/crayon properly and independently.  This is so exciting!! 

We've also started new OT and ST which we are really excited about.  They seem to really be going back to the root of his issues (institutional life) and treating that, instead of just treating the symptoms/issues we have now.  They truly get the cause of his behaviors and without that it would be impossible to correct/treat.

Behavioral therapy has been a God send.  Originally our goal was for easton to be able to sit at a table for an extended period of time and focus on puzzles/work.  Well that took 2 trips to therapy and he will sit for the entire time! Of course we use pediasure for motivation. Pediasure can get that boy to do anything!! So now she is changing our goals to work with a new program called Ables.  We are anxious to see how much it helps but it focuses on fine/gross motor skills and receptive language.

 I'm so proud of my sweet boy and how hard he's working to overcome everything that once held him back!!! 

We are starting school!!!

First let me say we are wrapping up our t-shirt fundraiser and we are overwhelmed at the support. We were able to sell over 100 shirts which was our goal woohoo!!!

Next...
Easton Is Starting School!! YAY
We are excited about this for many reasons, but mostly because he will be exposed to so much more in the public school setting (i.e. language, other kids, etc.) and someone much more capable of teaching him than me will be in charge of well..teaching him!!

Summer is coming to an end, and he continues to grow like crazy. We had a school physical where he checked in at 45.5 lbs and 42.5 inches tall!!
In case you forgot, that's 22.5 lbs gained and 4.5 inches grown in 8.5 months..unreal!

We started behavioral therapy last week, and I think the Dr.'s office and school shots must have sent him into a frenzy because he cried the second we walked into therapy. I'm assuming he thought he's be getting shots again. Hopefully next week will be better. Their goals are to improve his ability to sit at a table and focus on activities, potty training, reducing the hand flapping, throwing, and climbing, and of course eliminating the screaming!!!  Well, if we even get remotely close we'll be singing hallelujah!!!

We will also start a new ST and OT this week. We are pretty excited as they seem to have a lot of experience. Easton is trying harder and harder to talk but still just can't form proper sounds to make correct words. He says daddy a lot though and is using his sign to communicate properly much more.

In more exciting news, we got our hair cut this week and he sat all by himself and laughed the entire time! YAY..he's growing up so fast!