Conferences

We had Nate's conference today and his teacher says he is doing good. He needs a little help with spelling and writing but he's getting his work done and trying hard. His teacher has him sitting in a group with two other boys who have similar personalities, so they are working well together. This teacher seems to have a lot of patience with Nate. He is willing to make the few changes to make it easier for Nate to get through the day without too much trouble. Most people figure out on their own that as long as he is kept busy and knows what to expect he does really well. If he has a job of some sort and feels like he is helping he is much happier. Shaun knows this and has made him the official cone kid at skate practice. He is in charge of setting up all the drill cones and making sure they are put away after practice. The other kids have to ask him first if they can help, so now Nate is called Nat-han the cone man. The only problem though is that sometimes he will be in the middle of a drill and he will notice one get kicked out of place, he so wants to fix it but can't. It's good for him to learn he can wait and that it's okay that things don't always have to be in a perfect line. The second the drill is over though he makes a bee-line right to the misplaced cone and fixes it, it's funny to watch him having his OCD moment, some things never change!

Thanksgiving, A Trip To Seattle etc

Nate had a fun but long holiday weekend. He got to eat and play at Grandma Cindy's. Then he got to see his "girlfriend" K, a girl he knows through skating. They are the same age and they have fun running around chasing each other through the house. The marathon wasn't as fun for Nate, he ended up taking off and getting lost in the crowd. He panicked but had been told that if we got seperated to follow the crowd to the end where they have a booth. He did exactly that and we met up with him there. It was beyond scary for mom and dad but he's smart and actually did what he was supposed to when it mattered. He still tried to take off several more times throughout the day so we have to constantly tell him to stay with us and physically hold his hand or he gets excited and just goes.

He loved the dinosaurs and the space center at the Science Center, it was definitly a hit. He really liked finding out how much he would weigh on each planet. There were so many things he wanted to do but just not enough time. He got to see the majority of the center so he was happy either way.

We got home and went to practice. He and Ericka both crashed today. Nate was goofing off and ran into the wall. I know it hurt but we all got a good laugh at his expense. Sometimes he does things that just leave us scratching our heads, he got up and was fine. He came home and like Ericka fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

We have his conference this week so we will find out how he is doing. They are going to do some hearing tests, he has been getting frustrated lately because he is constantly asking people to repeat what they say. We have to practically scream his name. He has failed two other hearing tests before but they always said it was borderline and not something to worry about. I guess they think it's easier to tell us he needs medication rather than finding out other possibilities as to why he may not listen, wish us luck!

FIRST SOCCER GAME

The pic on the left is of him kicking the ball back into play from the sideline. Then his team and his two coaches. They play their games at the Fairchild AFB Youth Center.
Nathan had his first indoor soccer game this last Saturday. They don't keep score but there were some good goals made by both teams. Nate made one goal and he was really happy. All the kids were bunched up on one side of the field and Nate kicked it through some legs, it rolled across to his team's goal. The look on his face was priceless. There are only 5 kids on his team and only three play at one time. This team has three 7 year olds and two 8 yr olds. You can see in the team picture the size difference. Nate has shot up a lot the last couple of months. He is all legs and his clumsiness has increased but he was out there trying his best. He tripped several times while running, poor kid. They did some exercises before the game and he was the only boy who hadn't learned how to skip yet. It didn't seem to bother him and the other kids didn't seem to notice so that's good. He had fun and did well so it was a great game for him. He says he is going to play outdoor soccer this spring, as well as skate. He hates being bored so maybe having these two things to focus on will keep him out of trouble.