Another BIG Day

Alex started at pre-school today. Regular pre-school. Filled with quirky, normal, half-crazy children. We are thrilled. Alex took it in stride. He swung at any kid getting in his space, but the teachers took that in their stride. The principal is excellent. I think Alex will love it within a week. So far no official word from the school district, but we did hear from his old teacher the other day. We are going to have a meeting in a week or so. The school bus showed up this morning. That was kind of hard (we did inform the school we were not coming) because it had been our routine for the last two years. His best little friend was sitting right up front on the little bus and I wonder if he even knew he was at Alex's house. He's not visited here and he used to get on after Alex, but someone might have told him. I hope he didn't know. I feel a little bit bad for not sticking with the district and advocating for the changes we need from within, but I really did not want him to start kindergarten this year. So I would have felt bad bailing from the Autism program next spring and insisting he do kindergarten over. All things considered I'll take my guilt hits now. I am nervous that it will all turn out terrible, but that is just average nerves. I really do have a good feeling about the whole plan, and feel we are on the right path.

Another note, we found an excellent OT today. We started OT to just help get a handle on physical things for Alex. Our guy, Doug, diagnosed a few things right off the bat. He said Alex probably has a very hard time moving food around with this tongue and knowing where the food is, so he likes to stuff his mouth with familiar textures that grind up easy(bread and crackers) or eat smooth things. This is part of "motor planning" and we are going to start working on this from different angles. He also suspected that Alex can't lie on his stomach and put his hands out like superman, and dang if he wasn't right. We are going to work on that too. Should help with strength and balance to get that on line. Plus he had a riot on the zip line and stretchy hammocks and trapeze. I love our clinic. One other weird thing, Alex cannot step on big squishy blocks. They are too wobbly for him and freak him out. He gave up immediately. Oh. are we going to have fun building obstacles in the basement.

So, that's it. The boy is crashed already, and it is time to veg out to a fluffy movie!