Busy, busy, busy

This week has been busy.

Anna had her musical theater dance performance one evening. We all went to cheer her on!

She had so much fun and it showed!
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Adam and Julia have had music practice every night this week. I happened to catch the last fifteen minutes of tonight's practice and boy am I excited!
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I attended Sveta and William's annual IEP meetings. Two hours later I felt really good about their achievements, goals, and future plans for the next year. It was pretty much decided that Sveta would stay where she is and not be moving up a grade. This decision came after lots of discussion and I am at peace with it. So is John. Sveta is doing so well where she is at-- why rock the boat? I asked for her teachers to include teaching her simple measurements for cooking that I can reinforce at home by having her cook more with me. Right now she helps with a lot of the prep work when I cook-- which she enjoys-- but I can't wait till she learns how to bake a cake all by herself because she can at least identify and understand what a 1/2 cup is. I know she will be so proud of herself!

William is being evaluated in the classroom by the psychologist-- but boy is he smart. Even though she didn't let on that she was in there evaluating him specifically, he figured it out and was on his best behavior. So, she plans to go in a few more times and also have her assistant evaluate him so that they could compare notes. It will be interesting to see if they come back with anything. He is still classified under Autism and it is crystal clear to everyone on the IEP team that he continues to struggle with social skills and pragmatics all the way around-- but we still have not figured out what behavior modification plan would be most beneficial for him. By the end of the meeting we all agreed that continual positive encouragement with short term incentives seems to be the best thing for him-- but what we are unsure of is--- Is it enough?

Teachers for next year were discussed for William and Sveta-- something I normally let fate decide. I am pleased with the suggestions they have made and I think that William and Sveta will have a better school experience placed with a teacher who is familiar with each of their individual needs.
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Today I took Caleb to the Orthodontist. We got some great news! After what seems like three plus years-- Caleb finally has a definitive time frame as to when his braces will be coming off. Praise the Lord-- Caleb will enter high school with no braces! The highlight of the trip was my Mom coming to the dental office to sit with us and visit since she lives only five minutes away. Afterwards we went shopping at Costco and then had lunch together. The visit was very nice but way too short!
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John and I have decided to have Alex and Dennis baptized this coming Mother's Day. We had held off until now because we wanted to get a clear understanding of what this meant since our last church only did believer's baptism and child dedications. Now that we have an understanding of what baptising our two youngest sons will mean we have excitedly decided to do this.