Conner at 4 1/2

So Conner is 4.5. That happened a few weeks ago. It is so crazy to think that he will be 5 in less than 6 months. It is really amazing how much he has been through, overcome, and accomplished. I'm sure the big 5th birthday will be a big time of reflection for us. 

The last 6 months have been pretty big for Conner. I have teared up a few times thinking about how great this year has been for him. We have had to make so many decisions and with every decision, I think it will get easier, but it really gets harder and harder. I'm hopeful that this year we have been making the right decisions for Conner to help him to accomplish as much as possible. It seems so strange that life should be so serious in preschool, but it really is. I feel like the more we do now, maybe some day, we won't have to do quite so much.

The details are that Conner is now up to about 34-35 lbs, depending on the scale and his clothes. That means he is up between 1-2 lbs since his 4th birthday. Not sure where this puts him on any charts, but he's pretty good in that department. His height is good too. No worries there. He eats and eats. Some days, I have no idea how it's possible that my little man can eat as much as he does. They provide him a fantastic lunch when he goes to school on MWF's so on those days, sometimes he doesn't eat a ton of dinner, but overall, he does great. He no longer really likes macaroni and cheese or hot dogs but will eat them occasionally. Noodles aren't his favorite any more either, although he will eat them. He likes a lot of fruits, vegetables and cheese. Sometimes, I feel so strange feeding him what he wants for dinner but we do our best to get a balanced diet in him. The only foods he really does not like are chick peas and olives. No big deal!

He still loves anything to do with cars, trucks (fire trucks, dump trucks, etc.), trains, tractors, anything really that moves, he likes! He loves running around, playing outside, and horses. Conner loves being a big brother and he is pretty awesome at it. He loves playing with friends and he especially loves time with his older cousins and any other older kid that will give him attention! He loves music and has become especially interested in classical music. He likes singing in the car (and I love it too...hearing him sing his version of Honky Tonk, Badonkadonk is great! He is also a huge fan of Freeze Frame and We Got the Beat!).

Conner continues to be followed by a slew of doctors. The only ones that we see every 3 months now are the GI and Pulmonologist. That's mostly because they both prescribe medications. Conner made it through RSV and did okay with it. He ended up on 3 weeks of antibiotics because he just couldn't kick the sinus mess, but he did okay with some extra breathing treatments and inhaler. He will probably need reflux meds forever. He still has days when he spits up. Everything else is pretty much every 6 months to year and hopefully we can some day get rid of some more of them.

Conner is doing great at school. In fact, we just had his second parent teacher conference of the year. I am continually grateful to his teachers and his advocate (shadow) for providing Conner with such an amazing school experience. His teachers are so wonderful and I feel like they really care about him. His shadow is beyond perfect for Conner. As his teacher told us, they were made for each other. We were so unsure about school in August and now looking back, I know this was the perfect decision for us. Conner still has some goals to reach. Many of his difficulties at school have to do with his fine motor skills. This is his biggest area of weakness and a big part of schooling so we really worry about it. Fine motor skills affect writing, eating, crafts, dressing and undressing, etc. So lots of stuff that he needs to be able to do for school. He also has a very short attention span. At this point, it's hard to say whether that is just a maturity/developmental thing that will catch up, or because if things are too hard, Conner won't do them, or the worst case scenario would be that he has trouble actually learning. It is very possible that Conner has some learning disabilities and we will continue to be on top of this stuff to make sure he gets all the help he needs for school.

We still don't know exactly what we are doing for school next year. We do know that Conner will not be attending public school kindergarten yet. We are pretty certain he will be at the same school as this year and either repeat the 4 year pre-k class or do their kindergarten class (followed by a year at the public school kindergarten). It's so early to know where Conner will be by September. Noone can predict how much further Conner will get. He is picking stuff up, I'm just not sure if it's enough and we don't want him to feel overwhelmed in kindergarten. We will probably register him for kindergarten to secure him a spot and then if we feel he isn't ready, we will move him back to the 4 year old class. Right now, we are in a lottery for camp also (same place as school and same camp as last year). We have him signed up for 1 session in the 4's and 1 session in the big camp with the kindergarteners. Hopefully he will get selected for both and he will get to go to camp all summer. We are hoping that he will get to keep his most amazing advocate with him all summer too and we are pushing for her next year too. I can't imagine school without her. I feel like they have built a great relationship and I would love to continue it.

Conner has been on a good long break from therapy. He has been on a break from Physical Therapy since September of last year. We went for a recheck in January and we are going to go back again in a few months. There will probably be a few things to work on in the next 3-6 months, but right now, things are as good as they can be. Conner needs some time to grow and get a little stronger and hopefully we won't need PT for a long while. He's been on a break from Speech and Occupational Therapy since November when we ran out of sessions (insurance) for the year. We felt like speech was okay because he has been in a speech preschool and he gets speech at the public school. We actually went for a re-evaluation and he did amazing...so well that it was iffy whether our insurance would even cover it any more. They ended up approving 24 sessions, but we are still on a waiting list. Our schedule is pretty hectic so it could take a while to get in. It is pretty incredible that our little guy who didn't start talking until 3 1/2 is now talking up a storm. He is called a chatterbox at school and getting in trouble with some of the other kids (the teacher thinks this is a good thing...I would prefer if he was an angel all day!).

Occupational Therapy is an area that Conner really needs. He was on a waiting list for a while and we finally started up 2 weeks ago. So far, the therapist is just doing some evaluations and checking out where he is, but already she has given me some great tips and we are going to try to get some ideas that they can work on with him at school. We don't really know this therapist yet, but hoping that she works out for Conner.

Conner is still a super busy little guy but it actually works for him. I find on the days that he isn't busy, his behavior is a little iffy. So MWF he goes to school all day. T/Th is speech preschool for 1/2 day. Tuesday he does OT and Thursday he does speech at the public school. That's just the serious stuff. We have been trying to make time for more fun stuff too.

This year, we started getting Conner involved at the Friendship Circle. But when your child is involved there, then it's just natural that we got involved too. Friendship Circle is such an amazing place and it has been such a great complement to all the other things we are doing with Conner. We just started a Sunday program that is 2 hours. Conner gets dropped off and picked up. He loved it last week and hopefully it will be a great activity for him. On Mondays, he has a Friend @Home. His friend happens to be a 14 year old boy who is a freshman in high school. Conner absolutely adores him and is so excited about his friend coming over that he sprints out of school on Mondays. On Tuesdays, we do another activity there. This one is just an hour, but Conner has two amazing volunteers that play with him and he loves it. The people there are so great and they treat Conner so well. He absolutely loves it. It is a place that brings out the absolute best in him and he is so confident when he walks through those doors.

Nothing is ever easy but with school and Friendship Circle, I feel like this has been a great year and Conner is making huge progress. My hope is that the progress continues and that Conner finishes out this school year just as great as he started it.

Happy 4.5 to our little super hero!

this is the best picture I could get with his 4.5 cupcake!