The Alex Report

I know I was supposed to blog more about Jamaica, but first I need to put out another Alex Report.  It has been far too long.  Plus I have a blogging announcement for the end.

As I put Alex on the bus this morning I considered how far we have come.  The Spring Concert at school rolled through my head, where Alex had a Maraca solo.  He is in Kindergarten now, and we are living the dream.  The dream my favorite autism books talk about, where your child is fully integrated into a regular classroom, with pull out time to work on the skills he needs.  That is what we have, and the school is fantastic.  They have bent over backwards to accommodate Alex, and had fun doing it.  He has an aide to die for.  She was a elementary school teacher for many years, had had time off due to illness, and decided to work another year in the classroom.  She is the most loving and invested person we could ask for.  She has read every book I recommended, and fully immersed herself in learning autism.  We have tea every month or so, and she has been a delight and a comfort.  His teacher is also a beautiful soul, she knows young kids, and has made a perfect learning environment.  She is very structured, and predictable, but also builds in super creative days and projects.  Alex loves her, and was imitating her within a week of being in her class.  He was also terrified of her, because she is somewhat intimidating (a Nordic goddess in Kevin's words), so he played hard to get for the first few months.  She has been great at insisting on eye contact.  And then there is the special education staff.  They are all hard working, super invested, and cool people.  And all there, on site.  No traveling to other schools.  No leaving the adorable country school, with it's woods and trails, gardens and greenhouse, and multiple playgrounds.

So, it is all going great, but of course I still worry.  I worry that I have not been working with him enough at home.  Worry that we let him veg out on the computer for half an hour after school, sometimes even 45 minutes.  Worry that his hand writing is atrocious and he hates writing.  Worry that his bus ride is an hour each way, and he is not learning or socializing, just stimming.  Worry that this is as close to the norm as he will ever get.

The kids at school seem to love him.  He has his favorites, all girls of course.  He likes the boys too, and there is one little one that keeps asking if he can give Alex his phone number.  Next time I will say yes.  There is a mean one too, and Alex bit him a few weeks ago.  I was not too sad about that and I suspect the staff really wasn't either.  Alex is talking a lot about feelings and trying to understand what others are feeling.  He will ask, "Was she sad?" or, "What did my teacher feel when I squished Isaac?".  He talks about sitting on, rolling on, and hitting kids, but the teacher reports he is very well behaved and only grabs kids sometimes or pinches a little when excited.  Maybe he is thinking about sitting on them??  He can now tell a story from beginning to middle, and sometimes even the end.  We have made lots of progress, but sometimes it seems we are still very far off the mark.  When I get too worried, however, I pull out a recent cherished memory.  One of the most popular, smart, and sweet girls in his class wants to marry him.  Lily Brown told my husband this when they were having a play date over a month ago.  I guess we are doing okay.

Blogging announcement-  I have started another blog.  I felt like I wanted this blog to reflect Family matters and Autism more than anything.  My other blog is all the random musings I am sometimes prone to.  Feel free to visit Bethupnorthramblings.blogspot.com, I have been rambling there for a while now.  Cheers!