More Vacations...

Chris and I don't know what to do with ourselves...

Cooper left town with Nana yesterday for his own little vacation to San Diego. All reports are that he is doing great- they went to the zoo today, and he was having quite the time bossing Nana and PopPop around. (Is he even going to want to come home??)

It's such a funny time right now, with a new baby coming soon, and Cooper moving so quickly into preschool. The school where I teach houses the preschool where our little group will go. He got his backpack right before he left for points south, and has been wearing it all around the house the last few days, making sure, of course that everyone noticed it. "Back...pack..."

I met with the specialists in the school district Wednesday for the "qualification" meeting. This basically says that he's delayed enough to qualify for special education preschool. Hmmmm...how does a mom think about that? On one hand, I want him not to need it, so I point out how far he's come, how much he can do, and how well he adapts. On the other hand, he does need specialized instruction, or at least extra support to continue to do as well as he's doing so far. So, do I want his scores to be low, or high???

I feel like the impact of speech delays is just becoming clear to me. Cooper's just now beginnning to put two words together- "Go cat!", or "Oooooh baby!", or his favorite, "No, that (dat)!" It's not that he's not coming along swimmingly, but it's just hard for him. It takes his little brain so much work to get the words out sounding right. I can see how, as he gets older, his delays will continue to have an increased impact on his relationships with his peers, and I'm sad for that possibility. Even in our community that is so supportive and loving, it's just different- it takes more work for kids to communicate with Coop, and to understand what he's trying to say. Blah.

So, I'm thankful for all the things that are going well, and the amazing community that we get to be a part of, and looking for the best in all of us.

I don't want to go!!!

Walking

One of the best things about being down here is all the walking Cooper's been able to do. We walk the malecon every day on our way to and from the beach, and pass the central plaza where the basketball court is set up. Cooper always hopes the kids from the nearby school will be doing their marching drills, or, that at least there will be a basketball game to watch. But, his favorite place to walk is on the beach... Here are some of the kids we met in Ixtapa- they sat down and played with Cooper while their respective families ate. One of the little girls had a dead fish that she had gotten from some nearby fishermen to feed to the pelicans. In typical three year old way, she decided she couldn't let it go, and carried it with her.

New beach, different day

<
Our beach of choice-Playa La Ropa. There's our transport vehicle in the background. This has become our morning routine: breakfast on the boat, watch the birds and the fish around the boat, lather up w/sunscreen and take the dinghy to shore for beach time. Cooper makes friends everyday- particulary the grandparent crowd who are missing their grandchildren.

I told Cooper it wasn't polite to laugh at my big belly, but clearly we still have some manners work!

Helping Papa carry water.

Ice Cream

This holding the cup and scooping with the other hand is a skill we've been working on, fairly unsuccessfully, for a couple of months. But, here we are, our first night in Mexico, having our first ice cream, and by god he's got it down! Apparently I wasn't using the right medium.


I love ice cream!

Warmth...

Ahhh.....we got up this morning and took the dinghy in to the beach in Zijuatenejo. Cooper made it three steps onto shore before parking his sweet self in the sand, and digging for a good 30 minutes. Needless to say, his parents were pleased too. It is just (sorry all you northwesterners) SO wonderful to be warm.

Pepsi Ad

Okay, I'm sure this is on every blog out there within the signing community, but I've got to put it up in case you missed it. It's always great to see a bit of acknowledgement of anything outside of the mainstream on big TV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffrq6cUoE5A