School Days

Evan had adjusted well to this year's routine of two pre-schools. Every once in awhile, he'll have a rough day at one class or the other but usually he does great on the days he goes to both (Tuesday-Thursday).

Sherri continues to be Evan's one-on-one aide at the Developmental Preschool. This fall, she is taking an ASL class--the same class and teacher Jeremy and I took last spring. We know the additional signing Evan sees from Sherri will help his receptive and hopefully expressive communication.

Evan is becoming more and more of an active participant in art projects at school. He will now place stickers, scribble lines, and sprinkle glitter. I used to look at "his" projects and admire the aide's handi-work, but it's pretty obvious now Evan's involved. He brought home a pumpkin face on a piece of construction paper--Sherri said that there were "x"s drawn where the eyes, nose, and mouth were supposed to do but that Evan stuck the pieces in the right places himself. He further embellished the piece with some attractively arranged Halloween foam stickers.

This past Tuesday was the class trip to the pumpkin patch. Sherri was sick that day, so Jeremy accompanied Evan. This was the first time Evan got to ride sitting in the regular bench seat (before he's always been strapped into one of those fold out child car seats). He loved it! He was belted in, but he just sat there looking out the window and having a great time. He was not as much of a fan of the actual pumpkin patch, but at least there was something redeeming on the field trip for him.

At Head Start, Jeremy has been Evan's "acting aide" while they've been looking. They just hired someone this past week, and she will be shadowing Jeremy and Evan next week. Her son had both a g-tube and trach, so she is very well-prepared to handle Evan's medical needs at school. We have met her before--this is one of those "it's a really small world" stories that requires some background explanation.

When Evan was an inpatient at Children's, the volunteers gave us several beautiful blankets. After he came home, I wanted to give back so I made some fleece quilts and donated them to Children's. A couple of years ago, we were at March for Babies in Yakima--and I saw one of my blankets on a child at the event. I went up to the family and asked them about the blanket. Sure enough, their son had spent a lot of time in and out of Children's and they were given the blanket by the hospital volunteers. As it turned out, this family was also from Ellensburg. And--you've probably figured out by now--this mom is going to be Evan's new aide at Head Start. Coincidence???

Short Cut

I know I've posted before about our hair-cutting technique: Jeremy does it at home, while Evan's asleep. Usually this works great. We lay him on a towel, roll him on his side, cut and clipper that half of his head, then flip him over and do the other. The next day Jeremy makes any necessary touch-ups.

This did not work for Evan's last hair cut--at the half-way point he woke up! So for a day, Evan looked pretty scraggly with one side basically finished but the other just had a few random clips. Thankfully, the next night he slept soundly through the remainder of the procedure.