"Poo poo is not a bad word but SHIT is a bad word"

Yep, you got that right. Kyle is now knowing what words are bad words and what is not. He decided to say this several months ago. I had to bite my tongue from laughing my ass off.

Kyle is doing so good in kindergarten. Has alot of friends and has aced both of his six week progress reports. Actually, it had superior on both sheets. He knew all his sight words the first 6 weeks. His teacher just loves him and he has gotten all stars on his folder except for one day. He was playing with scissors and he and another boy was "pretending to stab each other". Didn't touch each other with them but it wasn't that bad she said but wanted to make sure they didn't do it again.

I went to his Christmas or should I say "holiday party"(you know you can't even say Christmas in school anymore) and I was so thrilled to see him with his classmates. There is a girl that sits next to him and I think she "loves" him. Well, who wouldn't, right?

He is reading 2nd grade books and his teacher lets him lead when they split up in groups. It makes him feel special. I tell ya, a good teacher makes all the difference. She sees his strenghts and works with his weakness's. I sure hope Ryan gets her when he starts kindergarten. I am going to push for it.

We went to my parents for Christmas and my nephew had a Wii he brought up. We are planning to get the boys one but wasn't sure if they would like it. Boy, oh boy, did Kyle take to that. He figured out how to do it. He played Boom Blox for hours and was damn good on it. So, now I guess I have to find one for his birthday in March.

He also has not peed in the bed for months so we are over that hurdle. Actually, Ryan trained overnight before Kyle did. However, it seems that each morning I am cleaning up pee off the floor. Ryan gets up in the middle of the night, Kyle doesn't but still stays dry. It was so nice to not have to buy overnight diapers anymore.

Kyle will be retested in January or February for his speech. They will be doing the CASL test. They do it every 3 years. I remember at age 3 when he was tested like it was yesterday and them telling me that he had a severe speech delay and needed 5 day a week therapy for 3 hours a day. I would love to run into the lady that tested Ryan last year (she also tested Kyle) since she told me that Kyle probably had PDD too and they missed it. Well, fuck you lady, look at him now. Kyle was WAY worse than Ryan was at age 3. A part of me wants him to test out but a part of me wants him to stay with his SLP for another year. Everything will work out the way it is suppose to.

Christmas was much more fun this year for the boys. They actually "got it". We stayed at my parents for 4 days and the boys went to bed very late each night and slept in. School next week is going to be tough getting them up at 7am instead of them sleeping until 10am.

Ryan is also doing great in preschool. They have never called me to pick him up, never called me to say he did something bad. They always say he "did great" at school. When I pick him up, I look in the window first to see what he is doing and he is always around the kids playing with them. The 3rd teacher, Ms. J, adores him and is very close to him and says she has noticed a great change in him since day 1. She is the only one that I discussed what happened to Ryan during his evaluation only because her daughter was in EI and we just started talking. One of her daughters (they are twins in kindergarten) was not looking at the teacher. The teacher scared the crap out of her and told her she thought her daughter had autism. She went and got her tested and the developmental ped told her that she had nothing to worry about. She still freaked out about it and got another opinion. Both doctors told her the same thing. The teacher eventually told her that she probably jumped the gun. She was just a shy. I am sure there is more to that story but that is when I let her in on what happened to Ryan. She was very supportive and said that she didn't see anything that would cause her to think Ryan had autism/pdd. Of course, the psychologist told me point blank that Ryan didn't have autism but PDD. Well, PDD IS an autism spectrum disorder. Autism is autism not matter what kind of gravy you put on it.

I did learn a few weeks ago that Ryan will have the same preschool teacher Kyle did last year. I am a bit leary of her but hopefully she will have a better attitude towards Ryan next year. Remember, she is the one that told me that Kyle probably isn't ready for kindergarten and told one of the teachers not to tell me he could read. When one of the asst teachers told her that Kyle could read, her reply was "well, you can't tell his Mom, it will get her hopes up." However, when she got the C's report in May (a few weeks before school was ending" she said "oh, ok, that makes more sense to me" and was alot nicer to me.

I am thrilled with their progress and can actually breathe again. 2009 is going to be a great year. I am going to try and make ME more of a priority. Of course, my family comes first, but I have not made ME a priority at all. Things are gonna change.

So, for all of you going through this journey, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I certainly have learned alot these past 2.5 years.