Spring IS Sprung!

Finally, finally... after way too many cold days for my taste, Spring weather has hit the East coast! It's been nearly 80^ here and we are LOVING it! JP and Mike spent yesterday afternoon at the playground. JP returned home absolutely filthy ... Happy, but filthy.

The kids are back to school after a nice long Spring break. I managed to take a few days off and we spent them at a local water park and hotel for a three day "staycation". Everyone had a wonderful time.

Spring also means it's IEP season if you have a school aged child with special needs. JP is transitioning out of preschool into Kindergarten this fall. Our IEP team, who are really terrific people, are conducting a battery of tests, although we've already determined that JP will go into mainstream Kindergarten, at public school, with an aide (we are still not sure if he'll be sharing an aide with another student, or if he'll have his own one-to-one...) The IEP still needs to be written and I'm still hopeful we'll get all the Braille services we've requested to date.

Cami is doing a lot of dancing and preparing for her recital. She's in the home stretch for third grade. I'm very proud of the work she's done so far.

Spring sports start this coming weekend. We're excited for Challenger Baseball which begins this Sunday and TOP Soccer which starts April 27. It sounds like a lot, but baseball is played on Sundays at noon for about an hour, and soccer is played on Saturdays at noon for about an hour. JP had a lot of fun playing Challenger Soccer this past fall, so I've decided to let him try TOP Soccer. It's a little different program with a different Soccer club. But he loves to run and I'm not certain Challenger Baseball will be a quick enough game to maintain his interest. We'll have to see. I want him to try as much as possible to see what he really likes.

Put that down, please.

I ask my children, both of them, not to play with my iPhone. I know, I know... It's an attractive nuisance. They are both experts at working it, and I do have games available to mitigate the occasional melt down when we're out in public.

Sometimes, I find a little evidence... and it makes me smile. Here's the latest "self portrait" by JP...

Happy Easter

We are Roman Catholics. We celebrate Easter the way many Roman Catholic families do... We kick off Holy Week with Palm Sunday and spend a lot of time at Church..., symbolic washing of the feet, stations of the cross, Holy Thursday, Good Friday until finally the Lord IS RISEN... Easter Sunday! This Sunday our parish had a special treat. Our Bishop, the Most Reverend Dennis Sullivan, said the Easter Mass. My daughter was thrilled and insisted we HAD to attend the bishop's Mass. We fought the crowds and attended the Mass. Afterwards, she got the opportunity to meet the bishop and she was thrilled. I grabbed a quick snapshot.

Easter Morning and feeling good enough to smile for the camera....

Having a visual impairment can have it's advantages... While the other kids were enveloped in a sea of colored plastic eggs, JP's eye went to the shining spot. There he found the golden egg. He only got one egg in the hunt, but boy, what an egg!

JP with his "Golden Egg" prize from the community Easter egg Hunt.

2 Letters (Please excuse the shameless mom brag!)

This past week I received 2 letters. The first came home in JP's backpack. He was selected by his teachers as the most improved student in his classroom this year! Way to go JP! Even more exciting is that he'll be recognized at a Riversharks game (our local minor league baseball team) where he'll get to participate in special pregame activities and enjoy fireworks after the ballgame! I am so proud and I know JP will enjoy his special night. He truly deserves it!

The second letter came from VSA The State Organization on Arts and Disability in New Jersey. A painting submitted by JP's teacher was selected for the Art Par Excellence 2013 Statewide Touring Exhibit of Student Artwork... My son, my blind son, the artist... no boundaries... no limits. We are doubly proud this week!

So you just never know... Our kids can do some really incredible things... no boundaries, no limits... just LOVE.

Something so small, but such an important "inch-stone"

Tonight, Mike read a book a to JP. It was a familiar book. One they've read together many times before. A book about Ernie. One of JP's favorite characters from Sesame Street. But this time we tried something different. We switched books. We gave JP Mike's braille only copy of the book to follow while Mike read from the Braille-Print-Picture version of the same book. I want to say the results were amazing... to many, they may be simple... but to us, these these simple images mean so much... JP used his finger to follow along with the braille! He may not yet be actually reading it, but he "gets it". He gets that he uses his fingers to follow the dots to make the words and that is AWESOME!

Classic Perkins Brailler

Here's a little clip of JP using his regular Perkins Brailler to write the letters "A" to "E"... he can do it, but it's not much fun... and it provides little feedback... there must be a better way... hmmm....

Oh, Please, oh, please, oh please!!!

I don't usually beg for things... but this is something I really, REALLY want for JP... REALLY! It would be a HUGE opportunity for him... For us as a family really! It's the Backpacking SMART Brailler Event hosted by WonderBaby... a wonderful blog... There is no way for you wonderful readers to vote for us to be chosen to participate (though I wish there was!) The website simply has to chose us, or rather JP... and I hope they do! He really needs this... and deserves it. Please Wonderbaby! We won't let you down! :)

If JP is selected, Wonderbaby will send the SMART Brailler to JP for a couple of weeks to give it a try. In return, we'll blog about his experiences. They'll then select one lucky participant (out of 6) to keep the SMART Brailler. It's a very good tool for young blind children.

So please post a comment to show Wonderbaby how much JP deserves the opportunity to give the SMART Brailler a try! Thanks so much!