I mean seriously. I feel like I blinked and I missed it. September flew by sooooo fast! I guess staying busy keeps us out of trouble, right? ;)
We started out our month by visiting a local Mennonite family that has a child who was born with Spina Bifida. We met through GRSBA (Greater Rochester Spina Bifida Association). They found out that we lived near them and the mother invited us over to visit. We spent the afternoon getting to know both the parents and son (who is much older than Jackson - he's 28 now, I believe) and learned a lot about how they raised their son. I found them to be extremely resourceful (the father actually built their son what we would call a mobile stander - like Jax has now!) and they provided a very interesting perspective on how to raise a child with special needs. We learned all about how they made their home accessible and also learned about how they still instilled a strong work ethic and sought to include him as much as possible.
Inclusion is a key ingredient to the overall health and happiness of a special needs child, in my opinion. In fact, I just attended a consortium on early planning for families with special needs children last Thursday and inclusion was discussed at length. I could go on and on about that, but.....I digress.
Jax (and us as well) had a great time. Jax got to eat some cookies, play fetch with their dogs (who actually retrieves AND returns the ball to you - something Duke will not do), ride on a beautifully-made airplane rocking horse, play with some of the awesome toys that their son hand-carves out of wood, and even got to enjoy a ride in their horse and buggy. They even let him steer the horses for a little bit. :-) He also left with a copy of a short book that the mother wrote about having a son with special needs. The characters in the book were based on her family, but child in the book did not have Spina Bifida. I can't wait to go visit them again.
Next up, the GRSBA annual picnic. We went to our first picnic last year and our involvement in the organization just catapulted from there. I can't believe it took us that long to become involved. They are an amazing group of people. We love our GRSBA family!
Although the weather was a tad dreary and wet, we still had a great time. Grandma and Grandpa King joined us. There was a massage therapist on hand that both my Dad and I enjoyed, great food, fabulous friends, a face painter that Jax would go see but not allow to touch him (sensory issues!) and some equipment to try out from SportsNet. Jax, was able to try out a hand bike, even though he was a little too short to operate it on his own.
His arms were just a smidge too short so he couldn't completely turn the handles, but he had a lot of fun trying it out. Jason is actually working on building him an attachment that can go on his wheelchair and serve as a DIY hand bike. I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Let's see, what else happened in September. Oh yeah, I had a birthday and so did my nephew TJ. We're birthday buddies - September 8th. He turned 16 this year and I turned....29, again for a undisclosed number of years in a row. I can't believe he's 16. It seems like just yesterday.....
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For Grandparent's Day, Jackson made his grandparents this lovely painting (with Mommy's help). He's really starting to enjoy finger painting more and more. He prefers to start out with brushes, but will eventually get "hands-on". Which is a great improvement from Mother's Day where he wanted nothing to do with getting paint on his hands!
September also means back to school. Jax is going back to Happiness House three mornings a week now. He is in the same classroom and some of his classmates are even the same. He's been having a great time. There was a few weeks of transition issues where he cried when being dropped off in the morning but I think we are over that hump. He's always been all smiles when he gets picked up. They've been doing a lot of arts and crafts and learned about apples, leaves, fall and fire safety so far. He also gets Speech Therapy while he's there. All of his teachers and therapists at school have mentioned that he's becoming more involved with the group and using a lot of words. And we've noticed that at home as well. He's become quite the chatterbox. Still can't understand it all, but we'll take it. He has such an adorable voice!
Speaking of his adorable voice, I finally got him on video counting to ten (in English and Spanish - what an overachiever!).
Jax had his first ever dentist appointment in September. We expected that it wasn't going to be the most pleasurable experience for him and we were right. He did fine up until it was time for the dentist to examine and clean his teeth. He cried the whole time, poor little guy, but he was fine as soon as it was over. It also helped that he was able to pick something out of the prize bin. ;)
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| In the waiting room before the appointment |
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| "Hey wait a minute, what are you doing over there?" |
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| Two of his least favorite things - someone messing with his head/mouth and someone holding his hands. So proud of him though. I think it could've gone a lot worse! |
We also started going to Rochester Rookies practice in September. Rochester Rookies is a junior wheelchair and ambulatory sports team that offers children with physical disabilities from age 6 to 22 the opportunity to participate in recreational and competitive wheelchair and ambulatory sports. Jax is too young to participate in the competitions but we were encouraged to bring him to practice anyways. It's held on Saturdays at SUNY Brockport which is kind of long drive for us but we think it's completely worth it. He's spending time with his buddies and learning some new skills while he's there. In fact, we've noticed that after spending time with the rest of the Rookies, he's actually starting to use the wheelchair rim instead of the actual wheel to propel himself. Yeah! Maybe that will mean less stain-removal efforts on Mommy's part in the near future. ;) He's been having a lot of fun throwing a shotput (softball), javelin (a foam one) and discus (a foam one). Okay, the discus he doesn't actually throw. He prefers to where that one. LOL.
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| On our way to our first Rookies practice |
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| Throwing the Javelin |
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| The Discus - Fashion Trendsetter!? |
I can't mention September without mentioning Sons of Anarchy. We are huge fans here in this household. So, of course I tortured Jax by dressing him up biker-style in honor of the season premiere. The left side is the pic I snapped last year in his SOA gear. The right side is this year's outfit. I can't believe he kept that do-rag on his head for as long as he did. We're going to have to find a new shirt for next year though. The current one is a little snug. ;)
Some other happenings in September included a GRSBA Board Meeting and a Transition Meeting with Marcus Whitman. We met the CPSE chair during a brief meeting with her and our EI Service Coordinator. It was more of an introductory meeting rather than anything else. We discussed Jackson's current IFSP/therapy plan as well as our goals for the future and the next steps in the transition process. Somewhere around January, we will begin the process of getting updated evaluations for Jackson. This will determine where he currently stands PT/OT/SEIT/ST-wise and what services he will qualify for once he transitions into the CPSE program next fall.
The end of September always ends on a positive note for us as we celebrate our anniversary on the 30th. This year we celebrated 6 years of marriage and my in-laws celebrated 41 years of marriage. We are the third generation of Smiths to be married on that day (Jason's grandparents were also married on that day). Jason and I celebrated by going to the pumpkin patch with Jackson and picking out some pumpkins. Nothing special, but exactly what we loved doing - spending time together as a family. It also turned out that we bought each other the same exact card. Within 20 minutes of each other too. I know, that's too funny, right?
And there you have it. September in a nutshell. I'm sure there are things that I'm missing, so I apologize in advance. Maybe if I blogged more regularly, I'd be able to keep better track, right? ;)
Til next time,
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