What about Will?

What Will is up to lately:

GOOOOOOAL!

It suddenly occurred to me earlier this week that when we moved here temporarily for Ellie's birth & subsequent medical treatment, that I pulled Will out of all of his activities.

He has done gymnastics and swimming lessons at home... not to mention play time with friends, Bible study and Sunday school.

He was supposed to start preschool this fall.

We're paying tuition but he is obviously not attending.

It's not like he is a seventh grader so it's no big deal - he doesn't know any different. But, it did make me kind of sad when I saw on friends' blogs that their little kids were headed to preschool.

I'll get my first day of school backpack picture... it just might be in November!

In the meantime, I'm kind of grateful for the excuse to not quite grow him up yet.

Anyway, I suddenly realized that maybe I could find an activity here for Will - something consistent every week that would give him interaction with other children yet I could be present for (unlike a Mother's Day Out program - I just don't have the emotional energy to go in and educate the teachers/director/students about Will's limb differences right now. If I'm present for an activity, I can address issues and answer questions as they arise. If he goes without me, I need to teach prosthetics, terms, and answer questions at the beginning. I'm just not up to that right now.

Plus, Will needs Mommy time.)

So, I googled and found a great soccer and baseball skills building program for Will - soccertots! Even better, there are no Saturday morning games! It's just a once a week activity!

It's a weekly class (one class per sport) with other three year olds and a coach and they are prorating the cost for us since we've missed most of the session.

Will was so excited yesterday as we headed to Target to buy "soccer clothes." He informed me that he needed a shirt with numbers on it because that is what "real soccer players wear, Mommy." How he knows that, I have no idea.

Also, I couldn't locate one at Target.

Thankfully, he was fine with the red and blue athletic shirts I found.

He was so excited today & so cute!

And, you know my concerns about not telling the coach about Will's limb differences? It worked out great! I got a little lost at the massive Jewish Community Center (where his class is held for our area of town) so we ended up getting there just after class started. There was no time for explanations or length introductions. Will just jumped right in to the warmup & the coach was great! The only modification he made was at the end when he gave stamps for rewards. I guess he normally puts the stamps on kids' legs. Today, he did one stamp per arm & one on the belly button. Perfect.

Will loved Coach T! I think it was good for him to get some play time with a man too since Daddy is only here for part of the week.

Ellie had good intentions of cheering for her big brother but she just couldn't muster the energy on her full tummy.

This was Will's favorite game: "Get the Gorilla."

They threw soft balls at the coach who dramatically fell down when he was hit. Then he went after the kids.

Great fun!

They did some drills & I realized Will was quite the perfectionist.

He really focused on doing exactly what Coach T said.

It was good practice for following directions.

practicing dribbling

Though the other kids have been in class for awhile, Will did great & really kept up with them!

He loved his first soccer practice & is looking forward to baseball on Friday.

The kids did ask Will about both his prosthetics and his hand differences. I admit that I was so proud of myself for hanging back and letting Will answer the kids' questions. Normally, if it is older kids asking the questions (or staring or whispering or pointing), I jump in & answer them as Will is not on their level. However, as everyone was three today, I decided to just let Will deal with it - he is on their level and can hold his own.

In the car, he told me that they asked where his fingers were. I asked him how he responded and he said,

" I said God-y made them."

I have no idea why he is calling God "God-y"

Silly three year old.

I asked him if he had a preference for how Mommy answered people's questions but he couldn't come up with anything today.

I'm so proud of my Will - he handles his differences with such grace and humor.

My mom found a "Mommy & Me" (or in Will's case, "Lovie & Me") program during one of Ellie's weekly therapy sessions at the hospital. It takes place outdoors at the Arboretum and involves free face painting, music and dancing classes for kids under age 5 and arts and crafts. Will had a blast becoming a dragon & doing artwork.

I hardly recognized him!

Will's preschool director from back home has so kindly sent us the curriculum schedule so we can follow along. My mom is helping motivate me to do some of the activities with Will to give him structure. He already knows the month's color, number, letter, and shape so we are trying to expand on the skills. The best thing is that the ideas for crafts and stories are already developed for us!

Today, while I was in a meeting with an occupational therapist for an intake for Ellie's neck therapy (yes, we are adding weekly therapy #4 to our lives! AHHHHHH), my mom helped Will write a "sticker story." (This was Lovie's creative idea - not part of the preschool program but Will loved it!)

It is so cute!

First, they did the stickers and then they developed a story about them.

Here is a seed craft they did at the Arboretum.

Our preschool schedule. I'm kind of enjoying the flexibility of "homeschool" (I use the term extremely loosely & I do recognize that I'm not creating my own curriculum here!) It's kind of nice to do a craft when we have time, a game another day, etc instead of cramming everything into one little block of time.

Meanwhile, Ellie does activities like this:

Sometimes I can not keep the girl awake so I just swaddle her and let her sleep!

So far, she's good about putting up with her big brother's antics. :)

Will posing for a picture to send his classmates back home so they can get to know him.

We're writing them a letter tomorrow all about Will.

We've done some playdough time

and had lots of fun painting with Daddy's shaving cream.

(Sorry, R, you weren't here to protect your toiletries! We didn't use much!)

He keeps us busy but he's so fun!

And it feels so "normal" to add some structured activities to our day. One can only play pretend safari or pretend "Toy Story" for so long.

:)