An Iowa Pride: Sam

Sam sharing his tiger with the help of Mrs. Nicklaus

FOUR has been great to Samuel so far!!! : ) He had a great, great week at school and got to be the star of the week in his classroom--- the special seat cover, his poster on display and each day he could bring a treat/trinket and five items to share (not sure we had 25 different items worth sharing??)--- the whole bit! His teachers told me each day how much he loved being in front of the class- something he's oddly comfortable with there thankfully! I'm glad they take a full week to get to know each student a little better. Sam loved every minute of being the star!

This week also brought a few new big developments/milestones for our Sam. On Wednesday, his class was in the library listening to a story before checking out books. The librarian was reading a book called Wow! School! by Robert Neubecker. It's a simple picture book- the page on the left says WOW! and the page on the right says a word like Classroom!, Teacher!, Art!, etc. The illustrations are bright and busy. We have heard ohs and woahs and wows from Sam before but while she was reading aloud this day, they were hearing the most clear, on command WOWs! they had ever heard from him! He loved the book and said the word WOW! with her at the correct time throughout the story with great excitement! Thankfully they held the book aside (another example of their above and beyond kindess to him all throughout the building!) so Sam was able to check it out and bring it home for the week. We have read it many a times in the last three days and he couldn't be happier to point to the word WOW! and say it aloud clearly!

Wednesday brought another new and fairly huge speaking accomplishment for Sam. Ms. Jodi was trying to get him to make an mmm sound followed by an ahhh sound (so 'ma'). Putting the two together and doing it on command is not something we've heard from Sam before. He was stuck holding on to the mmmmmm and she was trying to get him to open into the ahh (illustrating by bursting her closed fingers open by her mouth). He wasn't totally cooperating and was more interested in the shaving cream she was holding. She said finally she looked at him and said 'Sam say ma and I'll give you some shaving cream"... and he did!!!!! On command!! Several times!! An MMMM sound followed by an AAHHH sound!!!!! MA!!! MA!! MA!!! Ms. Jodi (ps she's crying as she tells me the story as she loves him so and of course I'm bawling joyfully as I hear it!) then walked him over to his star of the week poster that had a picture of the four of us on it and she pointed to me. She got Sam to say MA several times while connecting it to my picture!!! He of course knows I'm Mom but it's a huge thing to hear the sounds come out of his sweet mouth and I'm so thankful she took the time to make the connection to my picture right then and there. After school that day while we were talking to Jodi at pick up, he did it a few more times so I could hear it in the flesh. Something I will never forget. Huge to get those sounds together... on purpose... several times. Huge. A huge baby step for Sam. The next day they were working on it again and he wasn't saying it. Jodi ran and grabbed the silly shaving cream. The crazy kid said it right away again!!! Odd, but you bet your rear this mom went out and bought a can of old school shaving cream yesterday!!! : )

Friday afternoon was another exciting first for Sam. Mrs. Nicklaus emailed me and said Sam had signed 'potty' to her during rest time after lunch- not something he had done before to her so she thought what the heck why not- and walked him into the restroom. He was dry AND sat right down and went potty!!!!!! This is so exciting because the know-how of anything pre hasn't been there for him at all yet. Pretty sure we got lucky that he was dry but we'll take it! No denying this was the first time he recognized the need to go, communicated it with us clearly and then did it. Huge.

Who knows what's to come but we are so thankful and happy to have had these big firsts for him!!! Patience is the name of the game. He is such a good kid. And he's in wonderful hands during the day at school--- they literally laugh, cry, dance and cheer with us and him. We couldn't be happier or any more thankful!!