[saddened yet proud] Today was Tucker's last day at his special school (www.kindering.org) to improve his communication skills and transition therapy. *sniff* I'm sad that our time there was so short, but I'm so heartened and happy to see how much Tucker has progressed since beginning in February. I would highly, highly recommend this wonderful place to anyone looking for special services for their child under 3. Talented staff like Taryn, Chandra, Ann, Sara, Beth Ann and Jill await you there to help turn challenges turn into progress. J Kudos to you six for all of your support and dedication!

Today couldn't have been a better day to celebrate kiddos transitioning from Kindering into their school districts. The weather was sunny and warm enough to leisurely bask in. The end of year festivities included a little graduation ceremony - no, there weren't any caps and gowns (!), but there was a speech by the center's director and a former parent of Kindering whose son has autism. (It was relieving to listen to another parent whose experience was so very close to ours.) Fun little diplomas were awarded as well as a thin necklace vial of bubble solution and wand. After the ceremony, Kindering hosted a family fun event for all their kiddos, parents and families replete with big bubble making, make-a-bear, arts and crafts, an air-bouncy-thingy, too many other activities to mention and lots of snacks for the kids (… and uh, me too).

A couple of recent cute stories about Tucker:

• Yesterday, Alex attended Tucker's Kindering class (his last one), and the staff and our nanny say that he absolutely went wild having big brother there. Alex's presence put the cherry on top of Tucker's entire Kindering experience. To put this story into context, the Kindering staff schedule different activities over a 90-minute class period. One of these activities is circle time with stories and songs, and over time the kids pick up the routine and will sometimes lead the routine. When the teacher's see this, they will usually sing a little quieter for the leader to 'take it away.' For the first time, Tucker led not only one song, but 3 songs! (Editorial note: he used his gravelly 'Wolfman' Jack voice which our entire family loves.)
• A few days ago, he tried helping Cleo walk by helping her stand up by her hands with him walking backwards to help her to take a few steps forward! Aww, what a good big brother. (Of course, Cleo lost her balance and crashed and burned causing [we think] Quinn to scream and cry bloody murder.)
• We found an absolutely splendid low-level, twin loft bed for Tucker off Craig's List about a week and a half ago with ladder and slide attachments. He loved it! The new game he and the twins have is Quinn and Cleo come into his room to go under his bed and bounce on his old toddler mattress while sitting on their bottoms. If we pull the mattress out just a little, Tucker will hold on to the edge of the upper bed frame and jump up and down on the exposed portion of the mattress to bounce the girls even more.

I thought I'd wrap up today's blog with a draft entry that I wrote back in December which I never finished. It still isn't finished, but there's enough there to ruminate over… heck, I can't figure out what I meant by 'Einstein snobbery' … wait, I just figured it out: I believe Tucker was becoming very finicky about which Baby Einstein movies he wanted to watch.

Little Tucker is no longer seeming so little – he's growing up so quickly. I thought I'd take a moment to jot down some of my favorite Tucker-ims during his first couple of years so that I don't forget them.

'Deedoo'

'he-en'

'igcky'

bottom wiggle

Christmas tree tipping

super baby

tongue mimickry

gravelly 'baa'

Einstein snobbery

number fiend

…

[elated] Cleo started taking her first few steps with our nanny yesterday. This is so exciting!

[Fatigued] Somehow during one of the times I decided to add my email address on to one of these petitions requesting President Bush to get his head out of a hole, I became enrolled in the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's email list. Some of the stuff they send is good (to the left, yes, like me), but some of it is god-awful worthless. Take for example the following:

Source: http://www.dccc.org/action_center/petitions/jail_free_card

While I 100% agree that accountability is necessary here and I completely think it's a travesty that Libby's sentence was commuted (who doesn't it?), what the heck is up with the above? Is the DCCC now the Democratic Congressional Cartoon Committee? Seems to me, there could be a better course of action regarding how to wrestle Bush's cronyism out of office than to be sarcastic and witty with a cheesy e-card.

A message to the DCCC - instead of continuing to slam every congressman that's not a donkey, let's see some mail about which Republicans are willing to get some bi-partisan action goin'!.

[deafened] Quinn and Cleo came down with colds last night among the booms of Independence Day. A cold. In the summer. Ugh!

They did not sleep well at all! ... which of course means that neither did Lisa and I. The poor things are sniffily, snortly and generally cranky because of it. Cleo does this number where it sounds like she's coughin' up something juicy, then swallows it before she's caught spittin' like a camel. As for Quinn, she has this high pitched wail which will drive any sane person to his/her knees. What's worse is that there is no immediate way of calming or pacifying her. So before you know it, every dog in the neighborhood is here howling away amidst the shattered glass of our storm windows, blown out from her superhuman cry. Man, how long will this ability of hers continue?

Tucker was diagnosed with autism yesterday. I'm kinda bummed and also a little relieved about it. It feels like Lisa and I have been waiting for awhile to get this figured out, and the waiting has felt interminable. The good news is we intervened early by having Tucker start Kindering back in February, and he has really responded well to their therapy. He has really started communicating more in the past month, loves to sing, shows a wide range of emotion, can follow directions and really wants to please mom and dad. He shows all good signs of catching up with his peers (with continued, intensive and consistent therapy) to have a typical kid's life. The not-so-good news is that this month is the final one for Tucker attending Kindering as he will be three years-old in September. Three is the age when Kindering's services end, and the school district's services begin. So next, I've got to begin organizing the next round of therapies.

Happy 4th!