Everyone has Facebook account these days, and everyone share the photos they took with their family, friends; things they eat, whom they hang out, where they went to, etc. Some of my friends have children about William’s age; and they posted photos of their children went hiking, shopping, eating, birthday partying with other children; look like they had so much fun. Looking at those smiley faces and thinking about William: he has no friends at all, not a single one!
So I asked her if William could join if they have any gatherings next time. She said she had no plan this week. Few weeks later I asked again, she said No in a nice way. I felt really sad, why is it so hard for letting a little boy to join her friends? It’s not like I asked her to babysit William. Everyday I looked at William playing inside the house by himself, I ask myself how can I find friends for him. I don’t want him to be lonely: having at least 1 close friend would be good for him because we’re getting old and we will not be there for him forever.
How do I find friends for William? – It’s the question that I still don’t have the answer yet.
Vy (Eliza and Bruce’s daughter) wanted to invite some friends for her birthday and she wanted to have the party at Chuck E. Cheese in Huntington Beach (15511 Edwards St, Huntington Beach, CA 92647).
William & I arrived a bit early; we waited at the table because he refused to go play: he wanted to wait until everyone got here. 10 minutes later everybody showed up, now William was willing to go play! But …
Sophia (his 3 years old niece ) also came. He kept following her everywhere she went. I asked why, he said “Little children is not supposed to play in here!”. I told him this place is for everyone, but he did not listen: some times he would sit on the table next to the game that Sophia was playing and watched. There was 1 time Sophia got in the little school bus, he got inside also and sat on the back! Sophia’s mom (Hang) did not like that, I could tell.
William stopped following Sophia when everyone went to the table and had lunch; we sat on the next table which was a bit far from Sophia; and I distracted him by giving him the iPad. That worked because he enjoyed watching the videos and eating pizza in our booth. Some times I wanted to take pictures of Vy and her friends so I went to the main table, he went to look for me 2 times, but the rest of the time he’d sit at our table watching his movies; did not care much about the going on birthday party.
Weird behaviors like this make me feel sad, this is exactly the reason we can’t take him to any friends events, with family is ok because everyone is more tolerance, but other people would not understand. I felt sad thinking about how lonely he’d be without having any friends.
Nov 24, 2013: William was born at Fountain Valley hospital.
Jan 2014 – Jan 2015: William was sent to Babysitter at Mrs. Loan’s House (Westminster) when he was 2 months old because Mom had to go back to work.
Apr 13, 2014: William was baptized when he was 4 months old at La Vang Church, Santa Ana, California by Father Bảo Thai. William’s Holy name is Paul.
Jan 2015 – Nov 16, 2015: Stayed home with Dad because Dad was laid off from work.
Nov 16, 2015 – Aug 16, 2019: Day care at Children’s World Preschool in Westminster, CA. He started at the daycare two weeks before he turned 2 years old (because Dad came back to work). He goes 5 days a week from 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM. Mom drops him off and Dad picks him up.
When he started school on 11/28/2016, Mom picked him up from school then drove him to the day care and then went back to work. For those days that are no school, he’d spend the whole day at the day care.
From 8/20/2019, his aunt Lily picks him up from school then babysit him at our home until we get home from work.
Nov 28, 2016 – May 31, 2018: Mitchell Child Development Center in Santa Ana, CA because he’s diagnosed with Autistic. He’s 4 years old as of May 31, 2018. This is a special education school for children with Speed Delay. The school principle is Mr. Bello . His first school teacher is Mrs. Hana Suh at room 309. School schedule is from 8:15 AM – 1:10 PM. Hot breakfast and lunch is provided. At 8:30 AM, there will be DTT (discreet training trile) session for 30 minutes. And there’s 15 minutes a week for Speech therapy. So in the morning he goes to Mitchell school; Mom picks up at 1:10 and then drops him off at Children World Preschool; Around 5:30 Dad comes and picks him up at the day care.
Graduation From Mitchell – with Mrs. Hana
Mrs. Hana
May 2017 – Feb 2018: ABA sessions with ABEST.
Feb 13, 2018 – Sept 2021: Started Speech therapy at Providence Hearing and Speech Center, Fountain Valley branch; every Monday for 30 minutes.
Apr 2018 – Now: ABA sessions with TasKids.
Supervisor: Huy Nguyen (4/2018-3/2019), Elizabeth (4/2019-now)
PC: Jody Nguyen (4/2018-now)
BT: Alex, Anthony, Brenda (5/2019-9/7/2019), Thomas (4/2018-now), Maria (9/5-now)
8/2021: Thomas became ABA supervisor, Mari is the BCBA, and BT is Marilou.
Aug 2018 – Apr 2020: Australian Swim School, once a week, 30 minutes per session.
Aug 2018 – Oct 2020: Abraham Lincoln Elementary school (Santa Ana) in Special Ed class.
Transition Kindergarten (2018-2019) : 8:00 AM – 1:00 PM. Room 54. Teachers: Mrs. Newman Heather, Ms. Birdie, Ms. Sandy. The class has about 7 children, all boys. Breakfast, Lunch is provided. The school is right by our house so we walk to school every morning. Then pick him up by car and take him to Children’s World Preschool so that I can go back to work.
Kindergarten 2019-2020: 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM. Room 54. Teachers: Mrs. Newman Heather, Ms. Birdie, Ms. Sandy. The class has about 7 children, all boys. Breakfast, Lunch is provided. The school is right by our house so we walk to school every morning. Then pick him up by car and take him to Children’s World Preschool so that I can go back to work. Starting 8/20/2019 Aunt Lily picks him up and then takes him home and babysit him until we get home. This arrangement is really great for William because he can sleep on his own bed until 4 PM or 5 PM. Aunt Lily loves him; she always brings something for him to eat after school (pizza, mac & Cheese, noodle soup) before let him go to bed.
Sept 2019 – Mar 2020: kindergarten, in person class
Mar 2020 – May 2020: kindergarten , online class due to Covid-19 pandemic. William did not get to have the Kindergarten Graduation, not even a picture! :(.
Jun 2020 – July 2020: Summer school, kindergarten, online class due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Sept 2020 – Oct 2020: 1st grade, online class due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Mrs. Newman said William is much more advance in math and reading than his classmates so she transferred him to Thomas Jefferson elementary school which has “moderate” level.
Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy
Nov 24, 2020: William is 7 years old. Because of Covid-19, no gathering is allowed inside so William did not have a birthday party.
Happy 7th Birthday!
Nov 2020 – Nov 2021: Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (Santa Ana) in Special Ed class
Mr. Castaneda, Ms. Crystal & Ms. Dora
Nov 2020 – May 2021: on line class due to Covid-19 pandemic; first grade.
It’s time for William’s IEP (Individualized Education Program); it has been 1 year since William moved to Mr. Castaneda class at Thomas Jefferson elementary school. I still remember how shocked I was when Mrs. Newman proposed that William should be transferred to this school because he was doing so good in class). How time flies! William is gonna turn 8 years old next month and is in 2nd grade.
With the Covid-19 pandemic is still going on, the IEP this time hosted by Mr. C was thru the zoom meeting just like last year (which was hosted by Mrs. Newman at Lincoln elementary school). This time we have Mr. Catenada (Special Ed teacher), Ms. Linday (OT), Ms. Karen (speech), Mrs. Karen (General Education 2nd grade), Mr. Eric Merrit (vice principal) andThomas (ABA supervisor from TasKids).
Yesterday Mr. C and Ms. Lindsay (Occupational Therapist) called to briefly tell me how William’s doing. Mr. C made my day by telling me that William is doing so good with math so he’s gonna send William to a general education class, 2nd grade with Ms. Maureen for 1 hour math session; and Ms. Crystal will go with William to support him. He also said William is good at reading too, but he wants him to try Math in normal class setting first to see how he’s doing there. It’s such a great news to me; and I’m so proud of William.
Ms. Lindsay (OT) said that William is making so much progress on holding the pencil, he prefers to write in upper case but she noticed that if she gave him the adapted paper with visual cues, he’d write correctly with lowercase letters. So she thinks William no longer needs OT every weeks any more; she proposed once a month for this coming year.
Ms. Karen (speech) said that William still has issue with the L letter, especially if it stands in the middle; he says it correctly if L is at the beginning of the words; so she’ll continue to work with him on that.
One other thing Mr. C mentioned that in the class he’d sit still for 30 minutes without standing up and wandering around the house like he did when we had online class. I was so surprised to hear that cuz William I know can never stay still for few minutes, unless he’s watching iPad.
The meeting concluded in half an hour later, then I drove William to school. We got the tardy yellow slip for being late with the “Excused” mark from the school office. It’s Costume Day at school but he refused to wear any costume; we brought some candies for him to share with his classmates.
William’s school Thomas Jefferson Elementary School organized the Trunk or Treat event at the school parking lot on Thursday from 5:30 PM-7:00 PM, so we took William there. He did not want to go.
It was small but nice to see everyone was having fun. William did not want to wear any costume, even a mask! And he did not even want to hold the candy bag and ask for candies, so I had to do that for him. One surprise is that we met his teacher Mr. C standing next to his decorated truck to give out candy and also saw his scarecrow on the fence. Have gave William some skittles.
The music was nice but William thought it was loud so he covered his ears when walking around. We did not stay long because William did not seem to enjoy it.
We ordered pizza on the way home. While waiting for the pizza in the car, William hung up the lights and glow in the dark sticks on any hooks he could find in the car, seems like he wants to decorate the car with lights, so I told him, how about next year we’ll decorate our car and give out candies? He did not response but I think he’d like that. Let’s see if we can do it next year! Sounds fun!
Wednesday, it’s cool in the morning but will be really later today. The weather is so weird: it was raining and cold on Monday and 3 days later it’s hot!
While waiting for Ms. Crystal and Ms. Dora, William could not stand still, he kept walking back and forth.
His eyes are still red because he always scratch his eyes. It’s been 2 weeks already! 🙁
Fall-O-Ween event was at Heritage Hill Historical Park in Lake Forest. A free event. The scavenger hunt requires 6 stamps, then you’ll get a small bag of goodies. William enjoyed this place very much, he walked around with us without running around. We took quite a few pictures because their decorations are very nice. On the way to dinner, I asked if he liked that event, he said yes. I said, “It’s nice that you got a bag of candies”.
– “Not much” – he replied. And he was right, there was only about 4 candies in the big brown paper bag. I explained to him that there’s lots of kids coming so we have to share the candies, 4 is good enough. He enjoyed eating the candies while looking out the car window: we were driving to a Japanese restaurant near there: the Ajisen Ramen at Diamond Jamboree shopping center in Irvine.
We ordered 2 special bowls, I asked for an empty small bowl so that I could share with William. It turned out he wanted to have a big bowl and let me use the small bowl! I told him he could have the big bowl only if he ate noodle with meat, he said “OK”. And he did, he actually liked the meat in this ramen bowl. It’s been more than a year since we’re back to this place. I remember that time he did not like this ramen as much as he did today: he has changed and knows how to enjoy good foods, which is a good thing.
After 3 months, we met with Ms. Elyse (the Nurse Practitioner) again using their online meeting tool. She asked how’s William is doing and if we have any questions or concerns.
Whenever he uses the Ipad, he’d push up the volume to maximum and most of the time place the ipad near his ear. So I asked if Ms. Elyse from Center of Autism can send him to test his hearing; the last time he took the test when he was 3 years old.
It’s our most favorite season of the year: Autumn; and the nearest location to our place is of course Bishop, which is around 6 hours driving. Actually this year we were planning to go to Cedar City, Utah but then we heard that it’s peaking at Bishop so we changed our plan in the last minute. It’s peaking at North Lake and South Lake, Rock Creek Lake but other areas at lower elevation is still green. Maybe in the next 2 weeks it’ll peak there.
William was so excited as usual about the trip, but he did not like Travelodge, “It’s a motel, not hotel!”.
– It’s a small city, there’s no resorts here. I said.
– Why? he asked.
– Because people come to this town for hiking and fishing , not to relax.
– Bishop is a bad city, it only has motels not hotels! – He kept saying that.
This time we had his Grandpa Thieu Bui (Tim’s Dad) to go with us. He wanted to see yellow leaves. We did not think that he’d have trouble breathing in high elevation area but he did. First afternoon we went to North Lake, he had trouble breathing ; and worse, he left his ventilator at the hotel so we gave him William’s ventilator (which we always carry with us along with EpiPen everywhere we go) and then we had to leave right away.
