The boys have discovered snakes out in the field behind our house.  They have created a 'home' for one of them.  I am so glad that my negative feelings about creatures have not affected their desire to seek them out. The snakes home is under the grey brick.  They were adamant that snakes can not go straight up the side of something, so we will see how long he sticks around.

They will spend hours out there.  Just excites me that there are outside options that they really enjoy - no prodding them to go outside.  They just grab a few neighborhood kids and off they go!

B has gotten his rapid palate expander (RPE).  Every day I have to stick a 'key' in his mouth and turn it.  Not as easy as it sounds!  We will go back in 2 weeks and hopefully progress is being made.  Jbird has lost a second tooth, and as with the first, the permanent tooth was already coming in.  No snaggle-tooth for my boy!

We had JB's IEP (education plan) at the school the other day.  As expected, he has improved so much he no longer qualifies for their pre school.  He will be enrolled in a private pre-school in the fall, to continue with the socialization.  Really curious as to how he will do around 'typical' kids.  I don't anticipate any problems because I think his personality will compensate for anything else he might be lacking.  He is working hard on his pronouns and appropriate times to use them.  He never knows when to you he or him, she or her or me or I.  When he is referring to a girl, he will often say 'sher', because it is easier than trying to think if she or her is right.  Another comment one of the therapists made was about his volume.  He can talk really loud.  Because of the apraxia, he does not have inflection, so we all wonder if his volume is his attempt to get inflection.  Guess I had never thought of it, but just one more thing he is going to have to learn.

JB's class had a circus day on Friday.  JR was able to get off work early (a perk of self-employment) and he joined us.  You can't tell from the picture but Joseph is walking backwards on the tight rope (balance beam) while lifting weights.

Here is the cutest little clown.  I was shocked how willing he was to wear it...none of the other kids would.  I love his eye lashes.

 They showed us their tricks....they had to jump through a hoop.  JB never quite got the hang of diving through the hoop, because he would always try to do a 180 as he jumped. (His teacher is the one in pink hair...she is hilarious)

Dad willingly played the part of clown for a brief bit.