Once the holidays are finally over and the groundhog makes his (or her) predictions, I typically just gracefully fall into Spring. Especially years like this one when Easter is “early” and is in March, I tend to lose track of time and then BOOM- summer is here. Summer break for the kids begins the last week of May this year! They went back a week earlier than they normally do, so they are finished right in time for Roslynn’s birthday. Naturally, we are squeezing as many events and activities (2 birthday parties, a baby shower, a dance recital, a concert, etc.) as humanly possible into the next 6 weeks. I am tired, y’all! Working about 20-25 hours a week, attending at least 2 appointments or meetings per week for Greyson and transporting him to and from the center on Wednesdays and Fridays is starting to catch up with me. Despite the lots of driving and time spent at my computer, I am trying to stay optimistic and hope that Greyson’s new admission into the State’s Intellectual Disability Waiver program will help open up some much needed assistance to us. Greyson continues to make pretty decent progress at the center and at home, to an extent. We are still receiving reports that school is not going so well, but at this point, we just want him to finish out the school year and we can look at alternatives for next year while he is on summer break.

Easter was a fun time with family this year. The kids dyed eggs with their cousins the day before, and Greyson even stayed the entire time and watched some of the eggs and the colors that were coming out. He really likes vinegar and the smell of it, so we had to make sure he wasn’t trying to drink it, but he did great! He did a great job with the cousin egg hunt and was so great playing with the toys he got in his Easter basket from Pop-pop. Holidays have been a struggle in the past with keeping Greyson in attendance for an entire event, but he has stayed for Halloween,Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter so far over the past 6 months!

Now that Greyson is able to tolerate family events a bit better, we have been taking him to the local park and to the store occasionally. We also have been including him in more events going on in the community. This past week, Greyson was in the 2nd grade concert at school! It was a jungle themed concert entitled “Jungle Beatz” and Greyson did such a great job! He had his favorite classroom aide with him and was able to sit on the choral risers for the entire performance, playing the rhythm sticks throughout. He was a natural performer, just like Mom and Dad, and had his own cheering section in the audience made up of Derek, myself, Roslynn, Grammy, Aunt Beyba, Aunt Sarah, Herby and his two behavior aides.

With only 34 1/2 days left in the school year, trying to navigate the summer schedule has been interesting. I’ll be playing Mom Taxi Driver again this summer, driving Roslynn to and from summer camp, Greyson to and from the center, working part-time in the office (and at home), all while trying to maintain my sanity. If this past week is anything like whats to come (the eclipse, the NJ earthquake, etc), I think it’ll be a super fun Summer of 2024.