This Boy

Duder has had a great year thus far as a gigantic 1st grader.  He's focusing, he's making it through his long days with just enough gusto, his creativity is off the hook (we have to tell him to turn his brain off quite regularly when we can't keep up with all the words), his sweetness has been charming the pants off his teachers, he's making fun friends and playing Star Wars (and kitty cats to please the ladies).....the past 6 months have brought so much awesome growth for our budding dude.  And we couldn't be more pleased.

It was a tough decision to start him in Occupational Therapy, but we thank God for leading us down that ginormously stressful and pricey path.  It's been worth every penny and every minute of pulling our hair out trying the fit it in.  Dude's core strength has remarkably improved - his new found endurance is mind boggling to us.  He leads our mountain hikes with zero complaints about his legs falling off or needing to take a quick nap on a rock.  Tim and Grandpa V recently took him on a 9 mile bike ride and he rode up our substantial hill like he was king of the trail.  He's also much less sensitive to touch.  This does still depend on the amount of sensory overload happening around him, but he's been much more snuggly, huggy and able to handle adults touching his shoulders or head.  He doesn't even feel the need to be the caboose in line anymore.  This was a defense mechanism to ensure that no one would touch him. Makes sense right?

Don't get me wrong - OT has not turned our son into the perfect little human.  Who wants a perfect little human anyway?  He's still a 6 year old kid with plenty of irritating traits - like eating the occasional booger, taking 20 minutes to put socks on, peeing all over the toilet seat...you know how it goes.  It has just been thrilling as a parent to see your kid better able to navigate the world around him in a positive and happy light.  And to understand all the quirks and what his little sensory system is going through on a day to day basis.  Now, rather than being sad about the way he "feels" the world, we can celebrate it with him and guide him down a constructive and appropriate path for him as an individual.  That's cool friends.  So incredibly cool.

Just love this little goof.  And we're so proud of his bad self.