Jeremy is emerging!

Jeremy is almost a different kid. It's amazing. Words are just flying out of his mouth all day, he makes more and more eye contact and he's engaged more. It's amazing! I knew my little blue-eyed boy was in there somewhere!

The school he will start attending in about a week or so is a special education school, mostly for children with Autism. He will start out in a 1:1 setting with an instructional aide in a classroom. The school is located in Manteca, where Hal and I lived 6 or so years ago. It's about 20-30 minutes south of us. He will eventually be transported there by bus, in his car seat. He will attend everyday of the week between the hours of 8am and 12 pm. In 2 months they will review his goals and see if he is capable of 2 additional hours a day, totalling 30 hrs a week! It will be totally new for him but I know he'll love it and do great!!
This is the outcome of the IEP meeting last Thursday. Because Linden's school district is so small, they have to send the special needs students to a school that is ran by the County. He will stay here until he is ready to be mainstreamed or sent to a special day class.
We are nervous and excited for him but we know this is the best right now. We may also receive further services through the regional center as well as through Kaiser since medical insurance can now start covering these types of services. We have an appointment with Kaiser on Jan 22 in Rancho Cordova with their Autism Spectrum Department.
Great things are happening and we are all excited and proud of our little guy. And Ian too! He'll start Kindergarten in August!! My babies are growing up.

IEP preparation

With 2013 beginning and 2012 behind us, I find myself finally satisfied with the way things are going for Jeremy.

Therapy is working. Jeremy picks up new skills everyday. Just two days ago he drew an A on his magnadoodle. It was amazing!!

Our first IEP meeting (individualized education program) is taking place on January 10 @ 2:30pm. I am kinda prepared. Have a few more things to read/research. I have a week! Wish me luck!

Some amazing happenings!!!

Just real quick because I'm entranced by the 121212 concert-benefit for Hurricane Sandy, but Jeremy made a few VERY big steps today.

He requested a show on DVD, VERBALLY. This is very big. And quite amazing.

He had a poopy diaper that he DIDN'T play with. I'm not sure if he came into the living room to tell me or to bring me somewhere but there was no poop on his hands! These "poopy" incidents are occurring less and less and that makes me ECSTATIC!

The most recent step, just about 30 min ago, our Jer Bear had his teeth brushed without any fussing, crying, kicking or screaming. It was amazing. I couldn't stop praising him.

These little steps every day make all of the work the therapists and us do every day so worth it. I was starting to think that he would never develop these skills. So so so so awesome!!! Yay Jeremy!

A new blog for a special person

Since Jeremy's "journey" in my blog  has taken on a life of it's own, I thought I would start a blog totally dedicated to his progress.
Last week I had a meeting with the service coordinator and the lead therapist. We discussed his review and his recent autism diagnosis. The regional center has approved the increase of hours for therapy. This makes me ecstatic, especially because we have seen so many super cool improvements already. The increase in hours (up to 15 a week including an hour or more of parent training) will mean their ability to work on self-help skills...including learning to use the potty!!
He is imitating all the time. He is more verbal than ever. His tantrums are still the same as well as the biting but we know how to deal with them better and we know where they are coming from so we know how to avoid them, for the most part. We make as many opportunities for him to request what he wants and he is very open to this. There are so many good things that I can only be positive about his future instead of scared straight!
The next step is preparing for his first IEP with the school district. I'm hoping to find lots of information about how to prepare for this. We need to ensure that he gets what he REALLY needs and not what the school THINKS he may need.

So for now we just continue therapy for the next month, enjoy Christmas in California and try to stay positive!