Greatest Hits

You didn't think I was going to waste your homework did you? I think the list of 21 is the perfect way to wrap up this long month of 31 for 21 Challenge. While tomorrow we all move on to other awareness months and the next challenge in our world Riley doesn't get to slip off Down syndrome. He works through those challenges on a daily basis. Sometimes he's so good at dealing with the challenges we all forget there are any but some days he wears them like a badge of honor and the entire world is going to know he's having a hard time.

 
Thank you to all of you who have been reading along and who always support Riley and our family. It truly does take a village and man are we lucky to have such a huge and amazing village.  Typing up this list has me totally laughing down memory lane.  He has made you all do some funny things or said some hysterical things to you.  I feel like this entire month has been a Riley's greatest hits countdown and he is certainly a funny funny boy.  

 
Here is the 2014 List of 21 Fun Riley Memories

•  Riley loves people and really loves names and connecting people by family. I can't count how many people have comment how much they love that overtime they see him he says hi - you Jake's mom or you Johnie's dad. 

• I remember Riley saying "you my teacher !" even when I was just a substitute. But my favorite thing to do with Riley was race with him to line from recess ! I also loved reading with him in Monica's room ! Miss his smiling face!

• One of my favorites is when I walked into the football game and he yelled, "Hi Liz! You wanna sit with me? (Pause) I have M&M's....." Nothing like a chocolate bribe

•  His love, kindness and compassion for everyone he meets. The weaker the person the larger Riley's heart grew to envelope them in ways.

• The smile on my face when he wanted to play let's make a deal to avoid work.

•  The teacher is nice - lies!

•  Hearing aids in the toilet, in the sink, in his pocket.

• OMG you stink!

• "Sarah wipe my butt!, Sarah wipe my butt!"

• Chasing him through knee deep snow, while wearing shoes, so he could hide up behind Mary. After hauling him down, he informs me his socks are wet!

•  Eyes on You Cranky!

• Watching him knock on the door to the chicken coup asking if they were home. 

• When he was the Little Drummer Boy in preschool and he spotted me in the audience and yelled "GRAMMA"

• I love the times he has demanded I come to his room to read books. 

• He is the only one who can swim vertically with his eyes wide open even under water! 

• This last summer when we visited Riley and I were home alone and Riley convinced me to jump on the trampoline. I have no idea what possessed me but as you know Riley is convincing. It's a lot harder than I remember but maybe it has something to do with being 63! Anyway I landed a bit hard and Riley stopped jumping, looked concerned and asked, " Gramma are you alright?" 

• Watching him squeeze under the church pews and kneelers to sit with the Kelly Family.

• How he called Eva EBA for so long. 

• How gentle he is now with Colin

• How he took Kaitlyn on a date and brought her flowers.

• I really love what he taught me and that he has brought you into my life as a friend.

I certainly am constantly learning from Riley.  Sometimes I am a better student than others.  Riley has brought some amazing people into our world.  I am a better person for the friendships I have.  

Thru the Years

Riley is a big believer that costumes are year round fun but here are some of the Halloween highlights.  I wish I could find the pictures of Rex in the duck costume.  Shouldn't the first kid be better documented?  Poor kids before digital cameras....  I'm sure Rex is relieved.

2008

2008

Ella, Hunter, Rex and Riley

2009

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

Cranky

Riley William and William George  

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of my dad.  He and Riley have a very funny relationship they love to pester one another.  Dad isn't known for his skills with electronics and sometimes the TV/cable remotes have been known to get the best of him.  One day he found Riley in the living room and the TV wasn't working.  When dad asked why he had touched the TV Riley simply replied....  I buggin you.

Currently Riley refers to my dad as Cranky.  As he left Rex's football game on Sunday Riley yells "bye Cranky"  while dad shakes his head and smiles.  Not just anybody could get away with that.

A Look Back

The 31 for 21 Challenge is winding down and the end in sight.  So if you have burning questions about Riley, Down syndrome or the insanity we call life let me know.   For tonight I leave you with this little treat circa 2007.  

Rex 5 years and Riley 11 months

Late Summer 2008

The Linebacker and Cheerleaders

The linebacker and the cheerleader were back at it today.  Rex's team played for the Catholic School league 5/6 grade Championship against their biggest rivals.   It has been a fun season to watch the boys grown and improve.  They have made huge gains this seasons.  Plus I love Rex's class.  They are just a really really nice group of boys and they are fun to watch.

Were all super excited to win. They pulled out a 30-0 win against an undefeated team. Rex even felt it necessary to strike a pose in his champion shirt.  12 year old boys are hysterical!

We decided to stay and watch the 7/8 grade team play their championship game.  While Rex was excited to see his buddies play ball, Riley was excited the cheerleaders would be there.  Someday Rex will be excited for the cheerleaders....  

I gave my phone to Riley to take pictures at one point and here is what came up with.  

Riley of course had to join in the with the cheerleaders as well.  It was a bigger display of his dance moves than normal.  Rex and I may have pretended we didn't know him for a while.

Fun end to a great season.  Now on to wrestling.....practice starts Wednesday.

The Pink Eraser and other Updates

As you all know to say this school year has been bumpy for Riley is an understatement.  This last week has been a particularly bumpy one.  Monday and Tuesday Riley had great days and then every thing went sideways on Wednesday.  The morning aid was gone and they weren't notified of the right away so the day started out bad and Riley was not able to pull it together the rest of the day and Thursday wasn't much better.  Thankfully Friday he was back to himself and had a great day at school.  

I should start by clearing up what little I know about the pink eraser incident.  I think it was a misunderstanding based on half a conversation.  I've come to the conclusion that they were checking/helping look for the hearing aid that Riley had taken out.  I think in addition to the hearing aid he turned up a pink eraser.  The kid has a serious addiction to pink erasers. I seriously would return them by the handful to his 1st grade teacher because he collected so many of them.   So there is no ongoing pat down going on.  The person that helped Riley to the car that afternoon passed on a message and something was seriously lost in translation.  At the end of the day I am totally ok if they help empty his pockets to make sure the hearing aid is accounted for.  

After this train wreck of a week I was ready to have a sit in in the principals office next week but I'm happy to report I won't have to do that.  Riley's special ed teacher called Friday early evening.  She has been one of the few people on Riley's team that I do truly trust.  She has been put in a challenging position.  She is new to the school that Riley is at and her time is split between two buildings in the district so she is only at Riley's school in the morning.  So she is having to build relationships with a new principal and new general education teachers.  It has been a challenge for her as well.  She called Friday evening because she didn't want me to go into the weekend without the information updates on what was happening with Riley at school.  

We spend 45 minutes discussing the challenges and my concerns and fears.  She addressed head on my fears that he is in a gen ed classroom with a teacher that doesn't doesn't like him and is too overwhelmed to help him be successful.  There is a lot of coaching going on with her and her comfort level with being able to balance it all is improving drastically.  I have to trust that report.  

She had a few ideas to help with teachers anxiety with Riley being "destructive" in the classroom.  Apparently she has a very complicated organizational system for her classroom library and gets quite upset when it takes hours to put back together.  Riley seems to be one being blamed for all of the disorganization but really its something that all the kids struggle to put things back where they belong.  So the special ed teacher has suggested a much easier system that I'm going to help get set up in the classroom.  Imagine this....  we are going to put a pink dot on the books that go in the pink bin and a green dot on the books that belong in the green bin.  I'm going to help get this earth shattering system set up.  Something as simple as books shouldn't cause anyone that much stress.  So a little help from us will hopefully take a bit of frustration out of the equation.  

The really big piece that will be implemented next week is the fact that they had aid hours approved to help Riley.  He won't have a one on one all day but he will have extra support as needed through out the day.  A key piece will be to help with transitions and help him get back on track right away instead of letting things escalate to the point where he is under the table refusing to come out.  She will not be in charge of Riley's instruction.  That remains the responsibility of the gen ed teacher. The aid they have set up to start next week is transitioning from an assignment with a couple of other boys at Riley's school who need less assistance.  So the teachers are already familiar with her and know the quality of her work and she is already family with the school and teachers.  Riley has met her but hasn't worked with her.  

The possibility of Riley moving schools during this school year has been taken off the table.  Unless something really really drastic happens he will remain in his current placement.  They are committed to making him successful there.  During his next IEP all placements are back on the table and really they should be.  I think it is only fair to Riley that we evaluate at the end of every year.  I'd prefer not to keep moving him around but we have to do what is best even its hard.  

FEB 2012

 

Harmony Testing

This evening in my Facebook feed a FB friend of mine posted a picture of a brochure for prenatal Down syndrome testing.  All I saw was the picture of the brochure she posted and my heart sunk. My immediate reaction before I read the comments in the feed was to think about statistics around prenatal testing.    Most sites quote it to be approximately 90% of pregnancies with a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome are terminated.   Every time the topic comes up all I can think about is what our life would be like without Riley.

I was brave I scrolled down to read the post and the comments.  Nothing traumatic but apparently you can find out the sex of the baby as well with this test.  I can see why it would be so exciting for parents to have access to this test.  Information on the sex of the baby potentially as early as 10 weeks.  So of course I had to be nosey and ask about the testing and how the conversation went with the Dr.  This test was covered by insurance because of the age of mom and is more accurate that other tests.   So for some peace of mind and the ability to plan and educate yourself it seems like a pretty good option.

As a person who loves information and loves to plan I am all for getting the information and using it to be prepared.  I think that tests like this can be a positive thing in the hands of a Dr that shares information appropriately.  Families have to make decisions for themselves and my personal beliefs don't work for every family.  Now that we know and love Riley its pretty challenging to separate the that and remember not to take it personally.

Its pretty amazing that almost 8 years later and I can remember those moments like they were yesterday.  I remember being done with my first ultrasound and feeling like something wasn't quite right even as I said it was all good and we had counted fingers and toes and the baby was perfect.  I vividly remember getting the phone message from the nurse at the Dr's office telling me about the results of the screening test we had done.  My Dr always referred to the genetic clinic if the screening tests came back abnormal.  I think this is a very abnormal process and not to many women I've talked to had this experience.  The genetic counselor we talked too was very calm and a comprehensive family history and a ton of other information as collected and then based on all of that we were given the statistics.  I honestly don't remember the odds we were given.  I want to say 1 in 10 but I could be totally imagining that and dropping a 0.  It could have been 1 in 100.  I just knew that I had to know for sure one way or another and if that meant a three foot long needle than so be it.  That was a scary time in my world.  My imagination went wild with that needle.  In all honesty it really isn't that long. I hate needles anyway so it isn't like I was taking an up close look at it the day of the test.  The actually process was super easy and fast.  It was the waiting for results that nearly killed me.  Seriously 10 very long days..........

Well obviously we know how those results came back....

Those were scary days.  I wish I'd know a friend of a friend or had access to real people even if just on FB back then.  Lurking on a blog with pictures of a baby with Down syndrome I think would have helped relax my mind a bit.  And this is really the heart of the reason I end up blogging each year during 31 for 21.  Knowledge makes things less scary.  The more people know Riley and his friends with Ds the less scary it is for everyone.  Do you supposed 20 years from now a women and her family will discover they are pregnant with a child with Down syndrome and say "hey when I was in 2nd grade I knew this really awesome kid named Riley" ?

Opposites Compliment

Normally during the 31 for 21 Challenge I reserve the post for my list of 21 Fun Facts about Riley.  I decided I wanted to take that list and share it with you all.  Riley has such an amazing support system or fan club as I like to call you all.  So I'm giving you all a little bit of homework and the list of 21 is going to be published tomorrow.  I need you each to send me a little something about Riley.  I'll leave it up to you what you want to share.  A funny story, something he's taught you,  a horrible name he called you...  what ever strikes our fancy.    Shoot me an email or a FB message and we will see what kind of fun list we can come up with.





  Currently its football season at our house.    We'll roll straight from football into wrestling, basketball and then onto baseball.  Rex is typically happiest when he is chasing down a ball of some sort.  He isn't the loudest flashiest kid on any team he typically just keeps his head down and does his thing.  He's loves to be in the middle of it and loves the time with his buddies.  Its almost comical to watch him blush when someone compliments him on a game.  He loves it but being the center of attention is not is comfort zone.   Get him in setting with just family or a close buddy and he is a chatter box that is animated and is fun to listen replay all the best parts of every game.  Funny funny boy I have.

Riley is pretty much the polar opposite of his big brother.  This boy loves to be the center of attention.  He uses the hundreds of team practices and games as a way to make his way right to the front of the crowd.  This last weekend was a play off game for Rex's team.  The 8th grade cheerleaders came to cheer not he boys.  It was a big deal......and they brought pompoms and megaphones.  Riley's version of heaven right there.  

I have two sweet compassionate boys but man do they deliver their charm in drastically different methods.  Their personalities compliment each other well.  Once in a while people ask if I think Down syndrome has caused certain personality traits in the boys.   We will never know what either Rex or Riley would be like if it wasn't for that pesky extra chromosome.  Regardless I like the results.  

Some Call it Desperation

As we have moved through the month of October and the 31 for 21 Challenge I have tried to share an honest picture of our world.  We aren't wallowing in Down syndrome most of the time.  I think like all families we are trying to cope with day to day life and making sure our kids have the most opportunities to be healthy and successful.   Honestly the truth be told I my goal and motivation behind most things is how to make life easier.  

Riley isn't sleeping well -  then how are we going to get him to sleep better.  Rex is coughing up a storm -  how are we going to get his asthma under control.  The list goes on and on.  

 Both of my boys have health issues.  Rex seems to outgrown the worst of  his asthma but he kept us on our toes for along time.  Thankfully the days of driving to daycare with the portable nebulizer going in the back of the van are behind us.  Riley has been so lucky not have to deal with the really big health issues that so many children with Down syndrome have.  We don't have life or death issues going on so we get to work on fine tuning things for him.  Down syndrome presents a unique issue in the fact that Riley's parts are small. The facial anatomy of Down syndrome predisposes him to ear infections.  The middle ear is aerated by the eustachian tube, a small tube that goes from the middle ear space to the area behind the nose in the nasopharnex.  Upper airway infections and allergies can cause the eustachian tube to become swollen, trapping battery and causing ear infections.  Low muscle tone affects the opening and closing of the eustachian tube as well,  which can cause negative pressure to build up in thimble ear space, leading to fluid retention and infections.   He has tiny ears on the inside and the out.  The short version is his snot just doesn't drain very well.  A typical cold for him will usually end up with an ear and or sinus infection that requires a trip to the Dr and an antibiotic.  He has had tubes in his ears since he was about 9 months old and thankfully we are still on that original pair.  

I'm a big believer is modern medicine.  I'm all for a well used antibiotic but I also am all for trying things to prevent things naturally.  I decided to explore the world of Essential Oils this summer.   I have a few friends that have gotten into them and had success helping their family deal with a  variety of issues.  I decided to go with a company called  Young Living.  This is just one of many companies that are available that has high quality essential oils.  I don't want to debate the qualities of one company over others.  Young Living works for me and I have found oils that work for my family.     Young Livings website gives this short description:  

The next time you drive by a field of fresh peppermint or hike through a pine forest, breathe deeply—you’re experiencing the soul-soothing power of essential oils. But essential oils are more than nice scents; these powerful plant extracts are your path to the lifelong wellness we are committed to helping you discover.

At the intersection of cutting-edge research and traditional wisdom, Young Living formulates targeted, essential oil-based wellness solutions that empower you to dodge harmful chemicals, energize your life, ditch stress and negativity, and reclaim your natural radiance. 

My original focus was to help Riley in a few key areas  including trying to boost his immune system,  help him focus and also to help his sleep.    Riley seems to really like them.  He asks for his smoke every night.  I diffuse a variety of oils directed at helping him relax and promoting sleep.  Lavender is a common oil we use.  When he had a cold we added immune boosting and purification oils.  Most of the oils we choose to use with Riley can be added to coconut or other house hold oils and massaged into the bottom of his feet or on the back of his neck.  This has become a nice few minutes that we spend most nights calming before bed.  I figure even if the oil does nothing more than encourage a few quiet moments before bed it can be bad.  We have started adding oils to his bath as well.  I use epson salt as a quick and easy bath salt to add the oils too and now Riley asks for his sugar in his bath.  

I've started getting braver in how I use them.  Rex is a bruised mess after football.  I've been using a few on him to help promote the healing and relaxation of bruised muscles.  Basically a natural icey hot type product.  Justin has been the biggest skeptic in the house.  He makes fun of me and was pretty sure I was wasting money.  He is becoming a big fan of an oil blend called Peace and Calming.  He can actually feel a relaxing calming feeling when its applied to the back of his neck.  I'm not the biggest fan of that one because I don't like the smell of patchouli oil but if it helps promote calmness around this house I'll take it.  I used a lot of peppermint with a sinus thing I had to help me feel like I could breath and to ease headaches.  There are so many simple things we have done to help make life just a little calmer and easier.  

My mom may have accused me of being a desperate women when I started.  I'm the first to admit that  is a true story.  You live with a tired Riley for a few days and then we'll talk.  Riley's behavior is often our first indicator that he is getting sick.  It is amazing how much more sassy and stubborn he gets when he is focusing all of his energy on fighting off a cold.  There is a certain amount of sassy Riley that we expect on a day to day basis.  It is a part of what makes him who he is but man there is a line he crosses that is simply exhausting to parent.  So yes I'm a desperate mom trying most anything to keep my nice boy around and not his evil twin.  

YOU... BAA LIKE A SHEEP!!!

Yesterday the boys and I headed out to my mom and dads for a party.  Father Pat was visiting from Ireland so the entire Reardan church was invited to gather and visit.  While Father was in Reardan he became part of our extended family so it was fun to see him.

Riley loves a good party and he knows how to hold court.  He has met most of these people when he has sleep overs at Gramma and Grampa's and goes to church with them.  They have certainly heard plenty of Riley stories.  Gramma isn't shy to brag about all her grandchildren.  

At one point I walked out side where a large group has gathered and I hear Riley saying  "YOU KNEEL DOWN"  when I look over there is a man actually leaving his chair to kneel down and Looks to Riley for further direction.  Riley then says  "BAA LIKE A SHEEP"  And sure enough it starts to sound a like a farm with the animal noises.  He was bossing these grown men around and they listened.  Its insanity.

I've never seen adults do such insane things for a child before.  Riley has a strange ability to get people to do what he wants.  Such as the night he had Gramma and Grampa playing in an air band while we ate a Chinese restaurant.  Its the strangest thing I've ever seen and if you know my dad in real life you'd know just how insane it is to see him playing the air drums.

Pudge and Biggs: What Fuels the Helicopter?

Tonight I was trying to gain some inspiration for my 31 for 21 post and stopped to read of a few of my favorites.  The mom that writes this blog below is hysterical and real.  Her life is chaotic and she paints the story beautifully.  This particular post really hit home with me.  I think its a great read for all my teacher friends.  Just a little something to file away as you deal with IEPs for kiddos in your classrooms.





Pudge and Biggs: What Fuels the Helicopter?: Recently, I've been fielding a few emails from parents who are faced with the task of writing their child's first IEP or working to ...



Tune in tomorrow.  I have some good Riley stories to share.

Love Songs

Riley sings to Maddy almost every morning during the car ride to school.  This is his current favorite.  He makes me smile!  The video isn't the greatest but its still pretty sweet.

The Insanity in My Head

I'm not even really sure where to start with this question and really its a whole bundle of questions that doesn't get tied up with a nice bow.   You'll have to forgive me if I don't make much sense.  I've been thinking a lot lately about why I care so much about what type of classroom Riley is in at school.

We have pushed and pushed Riley from day one.  Seriously the hospital OT or PT saw him in the NICU.  Then we started at the Guilds School and then on to private OT, PT, Speech and tutors.  All for what?  Riley's happiness?  I'm not so sure he is happier than he would be if we hadn't done all of those things.  He's happiest when he is with his brother or his friends.  None of these activities have given him his hysterical sense of humor that we all love so much.

So are we pushing and pushing for us?  Am I the one that cares too much about what stinking room he is in and who he is allowed to be with in class?  If he gets moved to a different room that is more self contained is it really going to stunt his happiness and prevent him from making friends?  Could we just over compensate with extra curricular activities and make sure he stays social that way?

They often tell us he does so much better work in small groups and one on one situations.  I am sure most kids would.  Seriously isn't the entire issue with classroom size...the bigger the class the bigger the distractions. Are we slowing down his academic progress by insisting he spend a large chunk of his day in a general education classroom.

 Riley has trouble transitioning from one activity to another.  Sometimes he just needs more time.   Sometimes he is just a stinker.  He knows when it is time to line up from recess.  He knows what is expected of him and yet he chooses to keep doing the activity that makes him happy.  No matter what classroom he is in he'll need to learn to come in from recess.

Riley is just about to turn 8.  He doesn't have the ability to make choices that impact his future.  His hold world is about immediate happiness.  Listening to his teacher doesn't often bring him immediate happiness so often he doesn't choose to listen to her.  I know that while doing math today doesn't make him happy it will ensure that at some point in the future he is capable of managing a bank account and budget so he can live independently.  Is that more or less important that learning to act appropriately in a social situation, or learning to make friends with new classmates.

I'm tired of having to work so hard to convince people that my child is capable and worth the extra effort it takes for him to be part of the group.  That seems to really be the core of all of this...  he deserves to be treated like a kid with potential not a kid that needs to be kept separate from other kids.   Every child deserves that.  Every child deserves to know a kiddo like Riley that sees and navigates the world a bit differently.  I don't think that the message it sends to the kids left behind in that general education classroom is considered.  "Don't act different kids...they will send you away."  They also see how the adults interact with Riley when he is in class.  So many life lessons area taught to all the kids in such a subtle way.  They see when everyone is treated with respect and they also see when every one is not an integral  part of a classroom.

OK I'll stop talking these circles.  These are complicated issues and they confused me daily.  So if you have a crystal ball let me know.....how far to do you push and when do you just throw in the towel and take the easy road.

Bye Bye Hearing Aid...Hope To See You Again Soon

I don't know too many parents that would give their toddler or even their 7 year old and really not their 7 year old with Down syndrome a couple thousand dollars and send them to school.  I'm sure you are thinking I'm crazy with even bringing up the idea of it.  Those of us that have kiddos that wearing hearing aids have the joy of doing this every day.  Did your heart just fall through your stomach?

When I put Riley's hearing aids in each morning I'm doing the equivalent of saying "here Riley take two thousand dollars to school and be careful with it all day and make sure you bring it home with out any wrinkles."  Then he gets to school and they add an FM system to it and it brings the value up several hundred additional dollars.

My freak out level with this has gone down considerably over the years that Riley has worn hearing aids.  With each new incident or game of find the hearing aid I have learned to just let it go.  I can't possibly expect Riley to completely understand just how much value he totes around in his ears.  Over time we have worked through many issues and Riley has become much more responsible with his "ears".  He often will ask for a break when the sound is overwhelming.  He typically will give them to an adult or put them in his special cup.  He hasn't hid them under his bed or behind the books in ages.  We have survived preschool, kindergarten and first grade along with multiple babysitters, trips to Gramma's and just the over all craziness that comes with Riley.  We had a good long run of being able to find his hearing aids after a night spent on the playground, a random day in our drive way, hidden in classrooms, and goodness knows how many times we have turned our house upside down looking for them.  They have always turned up.  I have learned to stay calm....they always surface.

Well, last Thursday he didn't have them on when I picked him up from school which is not abnormal. They have been packing them up in his back pack so I didn't think about it and off to OT we headed.  Didn't cross my mind again until Justin found just one hearing aid on the couch Friday morning.  We can only assume that sometime during the school day on Thursday he took them out and stuffed them in his pocket.  He started doing this because his teacher doesn't stop him.  She seems to think this is an acceptable thing for thing for him to do so he continues to do it.  That hearing aid is somewhere between where he stuffed them in his pocket and here.  The possibilities are endless.  We don't know when during the day he took them off so they could be anywhere in the school or playground.  We do know they aren't in the van, the OT's office and likely aren't in the house.   There is a distinct possibility that Oakley chewed it up and is currently trying to digest it.  It is equally likely that she has already pooped it out somewhere in our yard.  Feel free to look...I'm not going to.

As  Rex says.....we had a good run.  It took him over three years but he finally managed to lose a hearing aid.

This afternoon we went to see our friend Nancy at Columbia Hearing and had molds taken for new aids.  We go back on Halloween to get all set up.  He is pretty relaxed at Nancy's office.  He just hops up in her chair and chats away while she squirts this silly putty like goo in his ear and then waits for it to harden so she can remove it.  It makes me a little twitchy just thinking about something squishy in my ear.

You'll have to tune in later to see what kind of sweet new hearing aids he picked.  Or try to get him to tell you about them.  I'm excited we get them on Halloween.  Its going to complete the costume.  He's pretty excited too...  I'm hoping that the excitement of it will help him want to wear them at school.

The really frustrating part of all of this is that he has more adult supervision this year than he ever has at school. Add that to the fact that any adult would watch a kid put a pair of hearing aids in their pockets and think it was ok is more than my current frustration level and lack of patience can handle.  I get to spend the next two weeks trying to get school on board with a better plan to ensure we don't have anymore lost hearing aids.  Why do I some how think this is going to be one more reason they try to take him out of a gen ed classroom.

Happiness

Our minds are as different as our faces:  we are all traveling to one destination- happiness; but few are going by the same road.  ~Charles Caleb Colton~

Riley has a smile that lights up the world.  I love that he smiles with his entire body!!!