School's DONE!! Hip Hip Hooray!!

The boys could NOT be happier!!!

10th grade and 7th grade?!? That doesn't even REMOTELY seem possible!!! Y'all do realize this means Ashton will graduate in THREE years?!!?!?!? YIKES!!! I'm not ready for that!

These pictures were taken at the beginning of the year:

(seriously - they are ALL smiles the first day!)

These pictures were taken today, at the end of the year:

(but NEITHER of them were happy & smiling the last day - What's up with that?!?! LOL!)

~ HIGHLIGHTS OF THE YEAR ~

1. Holden's TOP highlight was probably finishing his VERY FIRST 1/2 marathon in under 2 hours with a time of 1:50:06!!!

2. Ashton's TOP highlights were probably when he got to see Marc (in person) after periods of time of not getting to see him. At least, judging by his expressions and happines/flappiness, that's what I think. 

3. FIRST (and subsequent) report cards of the year were ALL As and Bs for both boys - HIP HIP Hooray!

4. The feeling of validation after the first 9 week periods that moving Ashton to high school was INDEED the best decision for him!

5. Ashton's connections he's made with friends at school. One of his friends at school is a 19yo young lady by the name of Megan. He ADORES her!! Lots of hugs and high 5s!!

6. That Ashton participated in every. single. CBI trip - WITH NO ISSUES!!!!

7. Holden successfully joined both the middle school wrestling AND track teams and even started as a 6th grader in the FIRST track meet of the season!

8. Holden successfully dropped his 1-mile times from 7:09 (last spring) down to 6:25 this year. His coaches want him to drop it down to 5:30 before the start of next track season - good thing he likes to run! there's work to do!

9. Ashton completed his 2nd 1-mile race and is getting ready to run his 3rd 1-mile on Saturday!

10. Holden has successfully completed 9 races (race # 10 is this weekend, an 8K) all with his "I run 4" buddy, Calder. Calder is a 5month old ADORABLE baby boy with Spina Bifida. While Holden hasn't actually ran WITH Calder, we hope we can make that a reality at some point in the future :) (*hint hint Danya & Zach). This has helped Holden to push himself and think of others while having a blast!

11. Ashton's vocabulary has picked up so much that I actually find myself saying, "PLEASE! Be. Quiet!" WOW! Non-verbal to telling him to hush?? Never imagined that day would come!

12. Holden received an iPhone for his birthday - FIRST cellphone! YAY!

13. Ashton received an award for being the "Most Considerate" in his class - again, a teenager WITH Autism no less getting that award... pretty remarkable if you ask me!

14. There has been a complete and total turn-around in Ashton's behavior this year. With the exceptions of one or two times, he's been easy to manage and reason with. Again, his comprehension levels have really picked up and it makes it easier to both communicate WITH him and helping him understand the world around him.

15. the most exciting highlight for me?! That my "babies" have done SO well this year! Receiving awards, accolades and press coverage is always amazing!! I am SO proud of my boys!!

MOM LOVES YOU BOTH VERY MUCH! Now, let's have an amazing summer this year!!!

Gone and now......

 

Gone are the days of tiny little newborn fingers and toes. 

Gone are the days of smelling the sweet baby smell that all babies seem to have. Best. Smell. Ever. It needs to be bottled and millions of dollars need to be made.

Gone are the whispy tendrils of soft brown hair that adorned their sweet little heads when they were born. Holden would quickly lose his while Ashton's just thinned out. Holden's hair would turn curly and wavy around the ends when it got longer and he got older, while Ashton just had a ton of hair, period. Even his standard short with a little bit of hair haircut shows how thick his hair really is.

Gone are the days of just sitting with a baby in my lap, snuggling them to sleep, and watching their sweet little faces scrunch up as they dreamed about whatever little babies dream of.

Gone are the days of the babies learning how to eat real food, drink out of a real cup and learn all of the other amazing milestones that we take for granted (smiling, cooing, sitting, crawling, standing, pulling up, and lastly, WALKING!).

Gone are the days of gorgeous blue eyes for Ashton, though they were replaced with the most entracing green color of eyes. Holden's eyes quickly went from that normal newborn "slate grey"color to the luscious chocolate brown that they have remained since he was 4months old.

Gone is the worries of whether Holden too, would be autistic like his brother, though later, there would be other worries when we received a dual diagnosis of ADHD and Anxiety.

Gone are the days of wondering whether Ashton would ever be able to interact with the world as we know it. Square peg, meet round hole. Fortunately, in the last 15months he's really come into his own and found a niche that he loves being a part of. Piece by piece, he's learning to be an amazing contributor to society. People love him wherever he goes and he's just a joy to have around. I can't foretell what his future holds, but if the last year is any indication, his life will be enriching, peaceful, loving, funny and fulfilling all rolled into one.

Gone are the days that the boys let me pick out their clothes for school. I got to have input into their first day of school clothes, but by and large, they pick their own clothes every morning. 

Gone are the days that they painstakingly let me take oodles and oodles of pictures for me to share. I had to strong-arm them to get the few good ones I got on their first day of school. The only reason why I got them? I bribed them with donuts!

Now I am the mom of a 9th grade high school freshman; a high schooler?!?

Now I am also the mom of a 6th grade middle school student; middle school?!?

Now I no longer have any children that will again grace the halls of a primary or intermediate school.

Now the battle begins to start figuring out what sort of plans we need to start putting in place for Ashton, for his post high school transition. Did you know you need to start worrying about that, so soon into their high school careers?! I didn't! YIKES!

Now the real work begins in teaching Holden organizational skills that will hopefully carry him through middle school and on into high school. It's been a tough first week of school, but I have faith that he'll manage. He's getting from class to class and to lunch, PE and his electives just fine. It's making sure everything comes home that needs to. I'm tempted to make a list for him to keep in his locker, but not sure if that'll go over well with him or not.

Now the worries begin about round two of preteen hormones, attitudes and behaviors. We've been very lucky with Ashton and now, at 14.5years old, he's really sailing through puberty quite well. A few, minor issues but nothing like I was expecting. If anyone is going to cause us major problems, I think it will be Holden. He's so determined and headstrong stubborn, that we are already starting to butt heads and he's only 11.5years old. A lot of his attitude I think is coming from his impulsivity due to ADHD, but I have to believe that some of it is just normal, preteen stuff. Granted, if I remember correctly, this was the age Ashton started giving us more issues, so long as we get through the next couple of years with our sanity intact, we should be good to go. The key is really keeping Holden busy (check!), keeping him well-rested (check!) and keeping him involved with active things (check!). 

The boys had an incredible first week of school and I couldn't be more proud. Ashton is walking independently from first bell to second bell and leads his teacher to his third and fourth bells. He's doing his lunch independently (go figure! if there's anything this boy knows how to do, is to make sure he's fed and EAT!). So proud that the transition to high school has went far better than I had imagined it would. Middle school is going well for Holden, if we can just get him to remember to bring everything home that he needs to bring home. It's a huge transition from elementary school to middle school so we'll see how well things fall into place this second week of school before I start panicking. He's got his first test in his math class tomorrow and he feel pretty confident. We'll see.

So, gone are my babies and in their place now are these two young men who are incredibly handsome, funny, smart and the lights of my life.

School preparation is underway

WOW

4 more days and I will officially be able to call myself the mom of a high schooler and a middle schooler. That freaks me out! I'm not ready!

Ashton's going to HIGH SCHOOL?! 9th grade, here he comes!

Holden's going to MIDDLE SCHOOL?! 6th grade, here he comes!

I am so incredibly proud of both of my boys. As nervous as I am for both of them to begin these new chapters of their lives (middle school and high school are big deals, no matter what anyone says!), I know that they will each meet the new, higher expectations and challenges set forth for them. Moving up to a new school is always a source of nerves and anxiety for both boys. They seem to be taking it in stride though. Ashton surprised us yesterday when we went to the high school to meet his teacher/case manager and he walked us all the way around the school and directly to her classroom without us telling him how to get there! We've only been to the school a couple of times and only walked by her classroom once the day before, so I was pretty amazed. The boy has an internal compass like no other, that's for sure! He seemed pretty happy and content in her classroom, other than putting his head down on the desk a lot. I explained to her that he doesn't like bright lights and she assured me that all of the overhead lights would be off on Tuesday except one. She's a very "out of the box" thinker and after meeting with her yesterday and such, I think Ashton will have an amazing year. We'll see how he does with his electives; adaptive art and adaptive business consumers technology class. 

Holden seemed to grasp the concept of moving from one classroom to another for his schedule at the middle school. We met all of his teachers and the subs for 2 of the teachers (who are, or will be, on maternity leave soon) and he said they all seem nice. :) I think the first week will be a little confusing but once he gets the hang of things, he'll do just fine. I'm more concerned about his lack of organizational skills (he comes by that honest, I am NOT a very organized person) and how he'll manage to keep everything straight in his locker, etc. I know middle school is a time of huge transition and hormones, etc kicking. I just hope he keeps his head on straight and pulls through the first few weeks with flying colors. His schedule is a bit more relaxed this fall than in previous years as he's not playing fall soccer. He is still running with the New Energy group out in Suffolk, but as we've told him, school comes first. If he's not done with homework, he's not going to practice. That simple. He has to make a concerted effort to make sure he's accomplishing everything in a timely manner. We've set the stage for that in that he comes home from school and immediately starts his homework. I'll be in touch with his teachers after the first week to see if they've noticed any issues, and I'm hoping Holden relieves all fears I have by just being awesome without little follow up on my part. Part of middle school is teaching these kids to be responsible for themselves, etc but we know how that goes. :)

Can't wait to see how the first day and week of school goes! Onwards and upwards!