After dinner, William got something dirty on his top and pants so I took them off for him. I was gonna give him a clean top and pants to put on but I forgot.
He later came to me and said, “Let’s go to sleep, I have no shirt and no pants!”.
That cracked me up!
All of sudden, while we were watching TV in the bed room, William said “I don’t want to turn 6!”.
“You can’t stay 5 forever”! – I said. “I want to stay 5!” – William replied.
And he’s been saying that for the last few days.
William’s birthday is in 3 weeks; not sure where did he get the idea about turning 6. He could not answer when I asked why he doesn’t want to turn 6.
“What do you want for your birthday?” – I asked. “Nothing” – he said.
But for sure I know he likes toys!
3 days after the Fall season began, the weather is starting to get cold in the morning. A fleece lined jacket can totally keep you warm. It’s time to bring out all the long sleeve uniform shirts for William.
Another week has passed; here’s a pic of William before heading to school. He still does not like to take pictures and to look directly at the camera. It’s hard to take a good picture of him.
It’s been 2 weeks since William is back to school. Teachers have been complaining a lot about his non-compliance and taking stuffs from his peers.
This morning when I just pushed his stroller out of the door, the feet holder broke so I told him we had to walk to school. He was ok with it.
While waiting for the teachers at school, he was so hyper, running around with a happy face. Love my little boy!
Now that William’s aunt Lily (Tim’s sister) is available to babysit him after school, we’ll stop sending him to the daycare, starting 8/20/2019. This for sure a great arrangement for both William and me. For me, I don’t have to use my lunch time to go pick up him at school and drop him off at the day care and then driving back to work. Every day I have to rush to do that in order to finish the whole driving loop within 1 hour; every minute counts. For William, after a long day at school, he can sleep on his own bed till whenever he likes; and he can eat something and have milk before going to bed; which means he will never be hungry when he’s ready for his nap.
When I pick him up at the school, I usually bring something like a cheese sandwich or hot dogs and let him eat that in the car for about 10 minutes before driving him to the day care. He’s a slow eater so in 10 minutes he can only finish a few bites so if he doesn’t eat much at school, he’d be so hungry while napping at the day care. This always bugs me because I can’t stand the fact that my boy is hungry from 1:00 PM until he gets home around 5:30 PM. Even though I pack some cookies/juice in his lunch bag but he rarely touches it. I keep reminding him to open the lunch bag after nap; and also asked the teachers to remind him that but not sure what’s going on. He’d not go get his lunch bag unless someone remind him to do so.
So the new arrangement is Mrs. Lily will pick William up at school at 2:00 PM, and then walk him home. She’ll stay with him until we get home around 5:30 PM. She babysat William few times before when William was younger; I know she loves him and she’s really good at feeding him.
I just hope that she’s always available to stay with us. I’d hate to send William back to the daycare (any day care).
When I dropped William off at the day care on Friday – the last day; I said good bye to Mr. Gary, Mrs. Rose Marie and Mrs. Angelina. I can’t believe it has been almost 4 years! I know Mr. Gary loves him; he let William to hang out in his office a lot; and William loves him too. He said if we ever need him/daycare, just give him a call. Saying goodbye is never easy, I had tears on my eyes.
I know for sure William will be happy to stay home with Aunt Lily; that’s all that matters the most! I’m trying my best as a mom to keep my baby healthy and happy. Love you son!
Wednesday, it’s day 3. Nothing new. I took some photos before pushing his stroller out. He doesn’t look straight to the camera as usual, doesn’t matter how many times I told him to look at the camera.
Summer break is over, time to go back to school. I prepared William mentally for the last 2 days that he would go back to school starting today.
Same school (Abraham Lincoln Elementary School), same classroom #54 and same teachers (Ms. Newman, Birdie and Sandy); except that William is now in the Kindergarten, and his class hour is from 8:00 AM – 2:00 PM (not 1:00 PM anymore)
Waking him up is hard as usual; and “I want to scratch my back!” is the first sentence that he said. He whined as usual, asked for few more times to scratch his back but eventually everything was done and we were ready to go to school. At first I wanted him to walk so I did not bring the stroller out but he said, “The school is far!”. He refused to walk so I had to bring out the stroller.
It was good to see everyone is back: Ms. Newman, Ms. Birdie and Ms. Sandy. (We did not see Ms. Newman and Ms. Sandy during the last month of the last school year, before summer!)
Recently when William is upset and cries, he put his fingers into his mouth!
Not sure where he learned this from but looking at this picture really saddens me. Would a normal kid act like this?
This morning after I put on his socks and went to the kitchen sink to wash my hands; when I came back and saw he already took off his socks! I raised my voice a bit, “Why did you take off your socks? Put them on!” – That was when he started to cry and put his fingers into his mouth. I bet the reason he took off his socks is because he was upset that I turned off the TV. He wanted to turn off the TV himself. He kept whining “I want to turn off TV” while I was carrying him from the bedroom to the door.
I told you, “Put on your socks or I’ll send you to grandma” and then I sat on the couch waiting for his actions. After a while, he sat down on the floor, kicked/pulled the entrance rug, and tried to put 1 sock on. “I need help!”- He said.
I ended up put the socks on for him because we were getting late. While I was doing that, he saw my new water bottle, he took it and played with it. Soon after, he’s so attached to the bottle that he stopped crying, and acted as nothing has just happened. We walked to the car, put on his seat belt, he ate the biscuits while I was diving him to the day care.
He’s easy to forget like that!
Arrived at the day care, I let him sit in the car to finish his biscuits before going in.
Every morning I have to deal with his whining, “I want to scratch my back!” so I have to scratch his itch before I can get him to go brush his teeth to get ready to the daycare. My days always start with struggles.
I hope one day when he grows up more, he’ll give me less headache.
Tuesday Morning.
After dropping William off at the day care; I decided to check out the pool and see the new coach Ken. (I did not know the school hired a new coach until I talked to Ms. Angela last week; all the time I thought it was still coach Daniel like last year).
There was only 3 students and the middle-age coach in the pool at the time. I was just standing there and watching because I did not want to interrupt but the coach said Hi first and the conversation started to roll. In fact, it was 30 minutes conversation!
He asked, “Which William was it?” I told him he’s 5 and short. “There’s 2 William, one with Autism and the other one does not.” – “The one with Autism”, I said.
Then the coach went on talking about his background working as a case manager at RCOC; he said he knows most of the case workers at the RCOC in Tustin. He also worked as a teacher, as the “Violence Restrainer” (He’d come to the house of the violent people and if there’s sign of violence, he’d restraint that person to protect the other members of the family. He said but if there’s Behavior therapist is there, by law he is not allowed to do anything, he has to let the BT does the work, even if the violent person attacks and hurts the BT, he cannot interfere. ); and he’s willing to work for RESPITE hours during days or nights. And that he does NOT believe in ABA; he does not believe in the method of “give a coin” for the “good behaviors”.
But there’s only 1 thing he said that really sticks on my mind: William is not a swimmer! My husband Tim keeps telling me to stop sending William to Australian Swim school with lots of different reasons: itchy eyes, skin, it’s been a year and his skill is not improved, etc. I felt sad that he does not support me on this decision.
My argument is simple: William loves water, he’d stay in the pool forever and never wants to get out. Even if he’s not a fast learner in the pool, or maybe he doesn’t learn anything, who cares? he has fun, that’s what matters! I know it costs money and time, but if money can buy my son some joy, then why not? Plus, swimming is 1 of the valuable skills that a parent can give their children.
William started at Australian Swim school since Aug 2018 so it’s been a year now and he still does not how to swim yet. It’s only 30 minutes sessions with other 2 or 3 kids (max 4 in a class); and it’s only once a week (Sunday at 9:30 AM). So during the session, he can only have about 3 or 4 times with the instructor: 1 time to do star fish, 1 time to do back float, 1 or 2 times with the noodle; then the last 3 minutes is Play time, where they can pick the toys from the basket and play. So the fact that he does not have much time to practice and lack of concentration (he has ADHD) contribute to the slow learning process, I believe. What If I sign him up for One-on-One class, would he learn faster?
I believe one day William will be able to swim, but not only that, he’ll be a great swimmer. That certainly answers the question “Will I stop sending William to swimming school?”!