Matthew graduated from Kindergarten!

I can't believe this school year is already over! Matthew has grown so much this year, academically he has just soared, socially he has grown leaps and bounds, and emotionally he is just growing up. We went to his Kindergarten graduation today. It was so cute. Since there are only four of them it was a very short ceremony but still absolutely adorable. Thought I would share. So proud of our little Matthew!

Oh Andrew!

I don't even know what to update about Andrew. He is making some progress, but he is just ALWAYS into things. He is so independent (exact opposite of Matthew). I didn't get a picture of him dumping out the shampoo and conditioner and mouthwash down the toilet, but he is into do that now too (some may think or say, "Oh my kid did that too when they were little", I will say to you there is a difference and the big difference I have noticed with Andrew and other kids who might do this stuff is you can actually talk to the child and they can somewhat understand what they are doing and will eventually stop or give up on it, but Andrew is obsessively persistent, it's part of who he is). My brother-in-law says that Andrew only has one speed....FAST. He is too smart for his own good. We are getting pretty inventive in how to keep him out of stuff. He did decide though to be potty trained so that has been wonderful. After 10 1/2 years of diapers I am done (except at night, but I don't count that b/c Andrew takes it off of himself in the morning when he wakes up and puts his own underwear on)! 

I think we will just continue to keep on seeing progress, but I know that it will never be completely "normal". But I have come to wonder...What is normal? Well I think normal is what your life is. And my normal is having the kids that I have and all that comes with them, the wonderful, the difficult, the frustrating, and the good.

Hope you get a good laugh at these pictures of Andrew and his mischief.

Seeing progress

This past year Matthew has been in Kindergarten. He has improved SO much over this past year. I'm sure a lot of it comes along with just getting older, but I am just so thrilled with how things are going with him. He still has his frustrating moments and his meltdowns, but we are learning how to deal with them and how to help him get over them easier. He is just adored by all who he interacts with. He is starting to interact more with people and seems to have a little bit more confidence with communicating (even though he still can't be understood by anyone). What I have really been super excited about this year is how good he is at reading! He has just picked up on it so much. It's amazing. Since he is at a signing school they don't teach phonics the "regular" way, instead they teach it through what they call "visual phonics", he can sound out some words, but most of his words that he can read are from memorizing (which was the only way I could learn to read). He is also a great speller. His fine motor skills aren't the greatest and so writing has really been his biggest struggle this year. Yesterday his teacher sent home some photocopies of his handwriting at the beginning of the year, the middle, and the end. You can definitely see he has improved. His teacher has been so patient and loving to him this year. We are so blessed to have had her as Matthew's teacher this year. He will miss her. 

So I guess this is just a post of celebrating a successful Kindergarten year! We had some rough patches, but I really feel like we have gotten to know Matthew so much more this year. He is a blessing in our lives.