Nick clapped!!!!!

This is an old photo of him clapping at around 15mos. It was the last photo I have of him doing this, and I know he has not clapped in at least a year. It was one of the skills that he lost before being diagnosed. Today, at Michaels' game he clapped and said "YEAH!" I was so shocked that I just stood there looking at him. He was watching the game,shouting "yeah" and "Michael!" After saying his "peace" he went back to his happy shoe-less self,but for that moment,he was cheering on his big brother with the other parents and siblings. He spent most of the game like this though:

No shoes,no socks and absolutely loving it! I did put them back on at one point(just so you all know) but within seconds they came off again and then I just thought what is the point?? He merely tolerates shoes/socks out of necessity. He has gotten better about keeping them on in public places,but we still have times where we see him plop down in an aisle and begin taking them off.

Pre-school is going well. (Hmmmm,wonder if they have the same shoe episodes that we have?) I cleaned off Michaels very first backpack(a Dr Seuss one that is red,blue,and yellow) that he used for daycare(it is a tiny one!) and wrote Nicholas Weger on the outside. His name is right next to Michaels' faded out one. Michael was glad to hand down his old backpack to his little brother and just smiled at Nick. Thursday was the first day that he took the bus. Mike said he cried while he was getting on in the morning-he told me he felt very bad about doing this and even shed a little tear himself as he put Nick on the bus. He got very worried when 11am came and there was no sign of the bus to drop Nick off at home. We made a frantic call to the school to find out what time we should expect Nick as it was now almost 11:30. I pictured him crying,and being terrified and not being able to say anything. I was on the phone with the transportation people and they were trying to find out where his bus was. I can only imagine what I sounded like to these people! They told me "She is on Birch St. now, you might want to go outside" We went outside,and sure enough,his bus was right down the street. She pulled up and opened her doors and there,in the front seat, was Nick. He was just sitting there enjoying himself,completely unaware of our plight! Friday went much better for all of us!

Michael is doing better in soccer. Since Mike also took on an older team of kids, he has been practicing with them as well. He has even scored on them and stole the ball from them a few times-and they are at least a foot taller than him! He told me he gets bored playing with his age group and likes to play with the big kids. Which should not come as a shock to me since he has been that way since he was like 3 years old. He has always liked hanging out with the bigger kids. The big kids run the full field(8 and younger run half the field)and Michael does a good job of keeping up with them. His skill has improved drastically from last year and I have to admit,he is one of the best on his team with regards to controlling the ball. His main problem is that he is not aggressive,and we are trying to work on that. In other news,he has another loose tooth!