A trip to the Zoo!

SPEECH!!!

And... we have SPEECH! At 4 years and 6 months, something has finally clicked and my little guy is begging to speak! He's repeating short words and phrases and doing it ever so well! Way to go, Pope!

Hot days

It's hot this week. Really, really hot.We've honestly had some very weird weather this past calendar year. This winter was so mild, we didn't get any snow. (We did get an inch or two on one Saturday in January, but it melted in a day) And we had a couple of days of near 90 degree weather in March! That's almost unheard of... So I guess I really shouldn't be surprised to see weather in the high 90's here in June. Pope LOVES water. We don't have a pool. Not even a kiddie pool since they attract so many mosquitoes which are already a big problem in our area. So we are resorting to good old fashioned sprinkler fun! And the Pope is having a ball!

Pope the scholar

One of the many things we hope for the Pope to learn and become proficient at is Braille. This isn't going to be an easy task for a lot of reasons. First, the Commission for the Blind doesn't want to teach the Pope Braille. Why? Because the Pope has a teeny-tiny bit of usable vision in his left eye. Don't get me wrong, we are thrilled, ecstatic, over-the-moon for the vision Pope has in his left eye. It was by the miracle work of Dr. Levin that he has any vision at all! And that vision is useful! And Pope CAN see... a little. But Pope needs Braille. The trouble is, around here, if you can see, even a little, a TVI (teacher of the visually impaired) can determine you are "visual learner" and deem you ineligible for Braille instruction.  So, what do you do? Well, you can fight. We have friends who fought in the court system for 3 years to get Braille for their now 11 year old son who has albinism. They won. But it took 3 years and I'm sure the process wasn't cheap. In our case, we're ahead of the game in one respect. Mike is fluent in Braille. So if the Commission refuses to teach him, by golly, we'll teach him ourselves! He'll be writing novels in no time!

First day - Last day

Today is the last day of second grade for the Princess and the last day of Pre K-1 for the Pope... Next school year, we'll have a THIRD grader and Pre K-2 kid! How did THAT happen??? My how quickly they do grow...

You're a star in our book

The Pope was selected by Toys R Us to model a toy for their 2012 Toy Guide for "differently-abled" Kids.
We went to the big apple, via the train for the photo shoot. The Pope loved the toy he modeled so much that the folks from Toys R Us wrapped it up and allowed him to take it home. It isn't even available in the stores yet!

Thanks, Toys R Us for a great day! And look for the toy guide in stores the first week of September! Pope is gracing page 24. :)