Beach!

We got to the beach Saturday night.  We made a quick trip to Food Lion then let Adam unwind at the house after the long trip.  I think he ended up staying up to close to midnight.

Sunday morning was pretty chilly!  Dave loved it! We took a walk down to the beach with our jackets on and then it started drizzling so we decided it would be a good Walmart day.  Ha ha!  The day ended up warming up nicely so I took a walk on the beach while the boys decided to hang out at the house.  After dinner, we checked out the concert under the bridge.  It wasn't really a band - more like a couple of guys in Hawaiian shirts singing along to some music maybe?  WE got there when they were doing a "dance break".  They were playing the Electric Slide and other songs had a bunch of people line dancing on stage.  Adam had fun dancing!  Then they took a break so we left.  Dave's favorite time to walk on the beach is in the evenings when it is cooler so we headed back out after the "concert". The tide was pretty high which made Adam freak out!  I think he was afraid it was going to go all the way up to the houses or something.  I don't know but all of a sudden he was screaming and running back up the walkway.  Oh, well! Bedtime!  Nope - he stayed up again until close to midnight.

Monday was beautiful!  I got my favorite of the day - my morning walk/run on the beach in the morning.  After breakfast we all headed out to the beach for awhile.  It was actually a little chilly for me.  Adam and Dave said that once you got used to the water it wasn't so bad but I never got warm enough in the sun to even want to go in the water. The breeze was pretty cool. Once Adam played with everything we brought down and got buried in the sand he was ready to go back to the house.  It was lunch time anyway.  We went out later (before the tide got too high) to go fly a kite.  Adam was more interested in trying to find the kite's shadow and then once he lost that, he grabbed handfuls of wet sand and threw it in the ocean.  Then it turned into walking handfuls of sand into the ocean. Next, he was in the ocean.  He was having fun but it was that time of day where it looked like he was waaaayyy out there even of the water only came up to his knees.  It made me nervous so we finally got him to come in.  Showered and asleep by 10:45!

Today we headed out to Broadway at the Beach/Myrtle Beach to check out the Wonderworks museum.  It began with yet another freak out.  To get in to the attractions you are "supposed" to go through an "Inversion Tunnel" (because the building is upside down).  Adam saw it and started to run back out the entrance.  The staff showed us the door to bypass it but I just carried him through.  One of the first attractions through the tunnel was the Hurricane Shack where you can feel the effects of high winds.  Adam HATES wind.  Any little bit freaks him out since last year's power outage.  (We didn't go in the hurricane shack but man, Dave and I wanted to).  Right next to that was a thing where you stuck your hand in a metal like glove and use your hand as a lightening rod.  Dave did it to show him it was OK.  FREAKED him out again.  He says he does not like this place and wants to leave.  We get to the next room and there's some basketball hoops games, virtual air hockey, virtual other things...and he's OK!  Not the most interesting stuff on the next couple of levels but then we find the arcade and ropes course.  We all get suited up for the ropes, walk up the steps, Dave goes across one of the planks to show Adam and Adam says nope so we turn around and head back down the steps and get all unharnessed.  It's arcade time!  124 tickets later and a super nice guy working the prize booth and Adam leaves with a push-pop, a couple tootsie rolls, a laffy taffy and a HANDFUL of army guys.

We decided to see what else might me fun in the area.  We spot this giant inflatable Superman from the parking lot and find out it is like an outdoor Kingdom of Bounce - just a bunch of inflatables for kids to play in.  We told Adam we would see how much it costs then decide if there was anything else to do.  $9 so we tell him we are going to walk around first.  Adam did not want to go in any stores (not even the giant candy store) and was Mr. Grumpy face until we turned around and went back to the Bounce Houses.  Then he was a happy camper for nearly an hour!  (Found some kids to play with).  We asked him if there was anything else he wanted to do and he said he wanted to go back to he Wonderworks.  OK!  (They stamp you so you can come and go all day).  He Dave played a couple more games of air hockey and attempted the virtual rollercoaster but Adam hit the abort button as soon as it started moving.  What he really wanted to do was go back to the arcade.  While they did that, I decided to do the rope course on my own.  It was fun!! I don't think Adam would have been able to do it since some of the ropes that you can hold on to to help you across were a little high.  But that was my favorite part of the place!

Dinner, home, now sleep.

Parent/Teacher conference

Dave and I went to Adam's parent/teacher conference on Friday.  We chit-chatted with Mrs. Tucker while waiting for Mrs. Allen and she showed us Adam's self portrait that will be hung up the school's art show next month and talked about how good the class was on Thursday when they had a substitute teacher.  She said, "Even Adam was pretty mellow!"  I thought that was funny since he was waiting anxiously for Gramma and Pop-pop to arrive that day.   Mrs. Allen arrived and she passed us a folder that had some of Adam's pictures and writing from the year in it as well as his evaluation.  She mentioned Adam being as smart as a whip and funny. I told her I think Adam's goal is to be the class clown sometimes. She told us how cute it was one day when they read a book that Dave illustrated.  They always read the author and illustrators names and Adam perked up and said "That's my Dad!"  For the next 15 minutes, she talked to Dave about work.  I looked over the evaluation form and noticed 3 D's (for developing skill as opposed to M for meets) and they were for sitting, following directions, and something else I can't remember but along the same lines. Not surprising but a little because they didn't both check those things on the add evaluation earlier in the year. Mrs. Allen said something about it being the rowdy boy class.  Then our time was up and the next parent was waiting.  Sooo...I guess he's doing well!

We're in!

If you couldn't tell from the Facebook post, Adam got accepted into (or is it at?) Columbus Academy!!  Yay! We got an acceptance letter from All the Children of the World Academy last Saturday and Adam said that wasn't the school he wanted to go to.  We told him we were still waiting to hear if he got in to the one he liked.  When I picked him up from school, I told him he got in.  I don't think he was nearly as excited as I was.  All he asked was which room he was going to be in.  Ha ha!  I think he wants to be in the room he was in for testing that had a little playhouse thing in it.  He's going to be a little disappointed to find out that none of the K rooms have one of those.

Grounded

Weekends tend to be get out of the house and go shopping days.  Yesterday, Dave and I wanted to run over to Walmart, Target, and the Dollar Store but as usual, Adam wanted to stay home. We bribed him by getting him a slushy on the way there.  We were in Walmart for no more than 2 minutes when Adam took off and disappeared!!  Usually we can see him running off to the toys or hear him giggling or something but he was just gone!  Dave and I circled the area he ran off in and checked in toys a couple of times but still nothing.  I called for him. Nothing.  I am FREAKING out!  Finally, (possibly after I called for him again), a lady comes out of the sheet/comforter aisle and asks if I am looking for Adam.  She said he was hiding on the shelf with the comforters. (At this point I can hear him saying his name or something).  Oh. My. Gosh!!!  Dave takes him to the car while I finish getting what I need.  No one speaks on the way home and he is sent to his room.  He had just gotten his DS back and now it is gone for another 2 weeks.  At dinner, we tried to explain why what he did was wrong.   We asked what he would do if a stranger had tried to take him to their car.  He just doesn't get it. He thinks some karate moves will save him.  We explained that if for whatever reason we get separated at a store again, that he needs to find someone who works there so we can be paged.  

Now, with his DS being taken away again, he acts like he has never been without it his entire life and he doesn't know what to do with himself. He was coloring when I got up this morning. Then he said he was tired of coloring and there was nothing to do.  The boy with a playroom full of toys and Legos who never wants to leave the house.  Summer is going to be, ummm, fun?

Patiently waiting...

A week from today, we should know where Adam is going for Kindergarden!  Hoping he gets into one of the two we applied for since I didn't go to packet pick-up in Westerville. 

What's going on...

Just a quick post to update on what's going on around here.  It is time to start thinking about Kindergarten! Here are the places we have been thinking about.  If we stay in Westerville City Schools, Adam would still go to school for 2.5 hours either AM or PM 5 days a week, which is just a day more than what he has been doing this year.  I think he is ready for more.  There is a place called All the Children of the World Academy that gives a 3-, 4- , or 5-day all day option (~8am - 3pm).  I went to their Open House last week and although I didn't get to stay for the whole Kindergarten meeting, I saw enough to like it.  I have also heard great things about it from area moms.  I will be calling to get a tour and more info this week.  And lastly, there is Columbus Academy.  Crazy expensive but you get what you pay for.  We've seen the end product.  Ha ha! Adam had his admissions screening on Friday.  He did run out of the building at first and refused to put on his name tag or take off his coat but once the other kids showed up, he didn't care when we left.  When our tour and the testing was over, all the kids were sitting out in the lobby on these little risers and Adam was yelling "surprise!" and jumping up and down.  He said it was a lot of fun and the kids were really nice.  He had no idea he was being tested..well, other than being asked what some words meant.  At dinner that night, he put his thumbs up and said he really liked that school (Academy) and the school we went to the night before (All the Children).  Now we wait until March 1st to see if he gets into Academy but in the meantime we'll apply to the others because we know Academy only has so many openings. 

Adam started Sporties for Shorties again today.  He did a really great job and didn't obsess about being next to any certain kid like he did in the summer.  One of his classmates Josie and her little brother are in the class as well so that might have helped.  Then they went on a field trip to the New Albany library for school today.   I think his favorite part was seeing where the books go when you drop them in the book return from outside.  All the kids got to check out one book that the teachers will take back to school for them to look at there.  I think Adam was pretty tired after all that.  I wish there was Sporties for Shorties and field trips everyday - minus the crazy that Adam gets when he's tired.

Contacted Westerville Schools

So I finally contacted Westerville schools to see if I could get Adam into speech therapy through them.  We love Columbus Speech and Hearing but with a new insurance year and $70 a visit, I thought we would try something we're already basically paying for.  I emailed the special needs preschool secretary to find out how to go about getting an assessment.  The first red flag was "after the second screening...if your child is eligible, would write an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and get him ready to start school in our program”.  Umm, start school in your program?  So I asked if that just meant starting therapy through the school or actually taking him out of Central College and sending him there (Adam would NOT be happy about that).  She said normally the child would come to their school but they offered "itinerant" services where I could bring him to the ELC each week.  But I would be contacted by someone soon to discuss any questions I had.

Yesterday I got the call from Ms. O'Leary.  After asking some questions about Adam and his speech and development, she said she was sorry but his issues are too minor.  She said they could come and do a first screening if we wanted but she could pretty much guarantee there would be no second one and he would not qualify.  Apparently, much like the birth to 3/Help Me Grow Program, if your child does not have major delays, you don't qualify.   She said to try again through the schools next year once he is in Kindergarten but speech for preschool is only offered through special needs. As thankful as I am that his Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome has given us very few issues, it's still a little frustrating.