After Jon and I got back from our trip to Vegas (Jon is already trying to plan when we will go back...or at least when HE will go back), I left the very next weekend for my 20th high school reunion (gulp!). Luckily one of my high school friends, Tonia, lives about an hour west of me and she was able to leave her family at home so we could travel and attend together. We were literally in Michigan for 24 hours, but it was fun to be back and to visit with old school friends at the reunion. It's funny though, because now that there is Facebook, I felt as if I already knew about their lives. It actually made conversations a little less awkward because you could ask about their kids and mention that you saw their recent vacation, and did they have a good time, etc. Plus I found out that one of my classmates reads my blog and I didn't even know - so I'll give a shout out to CF and say hello! It's nice to know that others read my random thoughts!
Jon and I took Gavin to the Circus for the first time - I would have to vote for "bust". Jon liked it (he's always impressed with acrobatics), I thought it was hokey and Gavin watched the whole show with his hands over his ears. And the BEST part? Everything they sold was WAY, WAY, WAY overpriced - from the souvies to the food. No wonder they only charge 15 bucks to get in, they'll steal 100 more before you leave. Luckily Gavin didn't really like it that much, so we didn't get suckered into a lot of the "extras".
So I have mentioned before that we had some concerns about Gavin but didn't really know what they were exactly and what we were going to do about them. Well, after a few evaluations and a few more meetings we have decided to enroll Gavin in 2 additional days of pre-school so he can get some assistance with his social/emotional development. He is such a smart little guy and can carry on a conversation with an adult like you wouldn't believe, but when it comes to interacting with his peers, he seems to struggle a bit. During the evaluation period, one of the tester told us that she stopped testing Gavin in his language abilities when he reached the 7 year old level, and laid one of our fears to rest in the process. We had always had the idea of autism/aspergers in the back of our minds, but when the evaluation was going on, the instructor told us how Gavin "tricked" her in order to get her to finish her evaluation sooner so he could get back to his trucks. She shared with us the fact that his ability to reason and figure out how to get around something is not typical for 4 year olds and definitely would not be possible on the autism spectrum. We breathed a big sigh of relief with that. Still not sure why he tends to gravitate towards adults, but he does seem to be always strategizing and planning what he's going to do, what he's going to play and his peers don't follow along so he gets very frustrated. His new school will help him work on that social/emotional link that he seems to be missing. The great news is that he seems to really like the new school, which makes us very happy. It gets a little hectic for me to keep track of what school he's going to each day and what he needs to take with him - I am sure that one day he will go to school with all the wrong stuff! I was able to go on his field trip to the pumpkin patch with his T/TH school - pretended I was a SAHM for a day. It was a lot of fun and it was fun to watch his classmates and to get to know them a little bit better. Another big thing for Gavin is that he now "plays" soccer each Saturday. He's actually good with the soccer ball and likes all the drills and running, but when they start to play a "game", he is always the one hanging out in the goal or watching everything except the ball. It's a good thing I'm not a huge sports nut, because I would probably be very frustrated at his lack of concentration, instead I enjoy just watching him run around for an hour.
Harper continues to delight! She has figured out how to roll over and so she is never on her back anymore. Lay her down in the crib and flip, she is on her tummy as soon as possible. The downside? Harper is a spitter-upper so the more time she spends on her tummy the more spit-up we clean off of her, the floor, the blanket, etc. I wonder how much of her food she is actually digesting since most of it seems to come back up. She is not bothered by this though, so it's just something we hope she grows out of as soon as she is more mobile and sitting up. Speaking of being more mobile, I swear she is trying to crawl! She figured out that if she is on her tummy, she can see and reach things that she couldn't before. She trys to crawl to get to things out of reach by putting her forehead to the ground, lifting her bottom in the air and scootching up a few inches, she hasn't figured out the hands and arms yet. Just today we found a bit of white poking through her gums - her first tooth! She is a truly happy baby - she smiles all the time and laughs a low, chuckle when you tickle her tummy. We have such a good time with her - if only Gavin would jump on that bandwagon! One day.....Oh who am I kidding!
Have a great thanksgiving everyone!
Gavin and some of his classmates at the pumpkin patch
This is Gavin's preschool class
Ok, so she's now 6 months, but here's the 5 month picture
Here we are at the Circus - can you find the $8 box of rip off popcorn in this picture?
Pumpkin patch again
I think I had to bribe him to take this one
Mr. Independent wants to do everything himself - including hauling our big pumpkins over rough terrain in a rickety old wagon. People were thinking how lazy we were because we weren't helping him.
We went to Grant's Farm as well - kind of a chilly day
Feeding the Llama (or something)
I caught Harper in the act of rolling over for the first time (ok, so maybe really the third time, but hey, it takes a while to get the camera)
Jon and Gavin
So glad to hear the good news about Gavin. That must be a huge relief! And I'm pumped to see the babywearing in this post, but we must talk about that carrier. The dreaded crotch dangler!!
ReplyDelete