Ethan and I are setting off early tomorrow morning for a week-long visit with my family in New Mexico. We’ll be traveling by air, which Ethan loves. However, traveling with Ethan always presents unique challenges. Hopefully Greg and I have prepared him well enough to handle the changes in routine and any glitches which may arise throughout the trip. With all of the progress he has made in the past 6 months, I have a feeling that this will be our smoothest trip yet.

Ethan and I are both looking forward to spending hours upon hours in my parents’ pool and at least a little bit of time on some of the horses. Sounds pretty great, right? Add to that some of my favorite meals home-cooked by Mom . . . I’m psyched! I may not want to come home. 

Wish us luck on the airplanes and handling the airports! Ethan’s bag is packed full of new and interesting activity books, games and toys. I even picked up a copy of Kate Di Camillo‘s The Tale of Despereaux to read aloud. We should be set.

New Mexico or bust . . .

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting Marilyn Scott-Waters–The Toymaker–and hearing her speak at a workshop hosted by the North Texas SCBWI. Marilyn is a lot of fun to be around and has accomplished a great deal in her career in the Children’s Book market. Her website is amazing and certainly worth a peek. Marilyn’s presentation was perfect for our group; she covered a great deal of information, sharing on topics of interest to everyone in our group.

Big THANKS and best wishes to Marilyn!

A couple of months ago, Ethan’s wonderful social skills group therapist recommended we consider putting Ethan in Tae Kwon Do with a particular Master she had seen work wonders with other High Functioning Autistic/Asperger’s Syndrome boys in the area. We looked into Master Ahn of Ahn’s Tae Kwon Do in Plano and Ethan took three 30-minute introductory lessons with him to see if it would be a good fit (for Ethan AND Master Ahn) before we signed up. That was about three weeks ago.

After 10 full classes culminating yesterday, Ethan has fulfilled his requirement to earn his white belt. Master Ahn called Ethan to the front of the class and ceremonially placed the white belt on Ethan as the other children watched and clapped; Ethan’s face glowed with accomplishment!

I’m so proud that Ethan is showing determination and dedication for Tae Kwon Do. I’m also thankful that Tammy recommended Master Ahn and that Master Ahn is working so well with Ethan. Focus and respect, two things we work on diligently all of the time, have been consistently improving over the past few weeks. Can’t beat that.

Congratulations to my little white-belted guy.

Amazing. To go from being literally frightened of the water while clinging the nearest grown up last fall to swimming like a champ and refusing to get out of the pool is how far Ethan has come over the past 9 months. His wonderful swimming teacher, Mr. Brendan at Emler Swim School in Plano, nominated Ethan for swimming of the month. And he got it!

 Ethan’s photo with Mr. Brendan plus a write up from me and one from Mr. Brendan will be displayed at the swim school for a month.

My little guy is swimmer of the month! Yay for Ethan. I’m so proud of our little fish.