Happy Happy Spring!

Finally!
What a beautiful day it is today- a perfect day for Harrison's first school field trip, to Southwick Zoo, and he had a great time! He was in a van instead of his regular bus and loved being up so high and looking out the windows on both sides. His friends helped him check out the animals and took turns pushing his chair, which he loves!!

Harrison has been working so incredibly hard and having a blast. OT/PT and Creative Movement are still his favorites- he even cried the other day when the OT said their time was "all done." He does a lot of warm-up work for standing balance and walking, and then he gets going in the gait trainer (one at home, one at school). 

(I am having trouble uploading videos to this blog)

A little girl in 1st grade was so proud of him walking up and down the hallway that she brought him a picture she had just colored, because "he deserves it!"

Harrison is still riding and swimming, and he still sees a music therapist (LOVES HER) and a feeding therapist at home.

He is doing so amazing with eating- for a while he was eating half of a meal, so he would get half of his formula through his gtube. Now he is eating an entire meal and we can actually toss the rest of the formula!! He still likes ground burger or turkey with avocado or apple sauce, tofu with pumpkin, marscapone cheese or yogurt with his special almond crackers, plain whipped cream, the list goes on. He is taking little drinks too, which is so awesome!

Allergies have been rough this season, and seizures are still happening, although there has been a lot of improvement with some tweaks in medication. We are so grateful that, even though he often sleeps for a good 30-60 minutes after a rough event, his development just picks up where he left off.

Harrison really enjoyed the Sing Along and art show at school. The Sing Along is part of Creative Movement, which for some ridiculous and backwards reason will no longer be offered next year. I am pissed. It is so wonderful for all of the kids, and for Harrison especially, it's his favorite thing. He even got to go twice a week, sometimes with his class and sometimes with the other K class...I just don't get how schools can sacrifice the arts. Budget Schmudget, find a way to keep it on the schedule dammit!

Anyway...

Harrison also went with me to the library to be with his "reading buddy" once a week. His friend is in 4th grade and absolutely adores Harrison- reads and records stories for him, teaches him letters and sounds...great kid!

All in all it has been a very good year in Kindergarten. So good, in fact, that we decided to let him do one more year with the same teacher- I feel like we won the lottery with the support he has in school! He will have a new Special Ed teacher, because his wonderful Mrs. W is retiring...we will miss her tremendously and we wish her much happiness in her next chapter! He will thankfully remain with his angel, his aid Sally, and with his phenomenal teacher who includes him in EVERYTHING and all of the kids follow her model. We thank you, Mrs. L.

This last picture is of Harrison and one of his besties Kaitlyn, talking about things they like to do in the Springtime. She always puts a smile on his face (she's adorable, how could he not be happy next to her?)

Happy Spring...