September 23, 2011

it's ollie's turn...

...for school pictures!


Finn and Calvin just had their school photos taken...so sorry for the redundancy... but Ollie's classes did not start til a couple weeks later. But I did not forget about him!

little pointed toe.


When Ollie started his {speech} preschool last year, he was very pensive about the whole thing.


When he got home, I would ask about his day, but he just did not have the words or sentences yet to tell me.


I just had to wait and wonder what in the world was going on inside that little classroom.


Last year in class, Ollie was shy and quiet. There were times he would cry and not want to go.

As the year progressed, and his sentences started to develop, he was finally able to tell me one thing. "had fun at school today mama".


That was my first glimmer of hope that this school thing was gonna be okay.


This year. Oh my word! Night and Day!


I met with his teacher last week and she could not contain her excitement and enthusiasm over Ollie's drastic improvement!

He is now her eager little sidekick.

He wants to volunteer and be her little helper all the time. He now talks in the classroom all the time. He is having so much fun and I am still blown away by it all.

So this post sounds really peachy and optimistic and pretty much like Pollyanna. Or like Mary Poppins who is 'practically perfect in every way.'

We struggled really hard to get to this place today and there are still days we fight just to get out the door.

But two things have REALLY helped us.
1)Getting up early(that means 7 a.m.). Ollie needs lots of time to eat and play and get ready. Otherwise there are tears.

2)Bribes. Calvin gets chocolate milk at his school, so therefore Ollie wants chocolate milk at his school. So I make up a batch of special chocolate milk, made of coconut milk, ghirardelli unsweetened cocoa powder and honey.

Tastes like a yoo hoo. And if you like yoo hoo's you'll like my concoction. Otherwise...notsomuch.

I think it's yum and I drink it too because I cannot digest regular milk.