Merry Christmas 2010

It's been entirely too long since we've posted, but we wanted to share pictures from our past year. It's been a good year, Jack is in his final year in his special pre-k program that has been preparing him for public schools. Ella is in 2nd grade and she's reading like crazy and loving her friends at school. Scott is in his senior year of college finishing his degree in college and I'm still working engaging students in volunteerism. We're a grateful family for so many wonderful things this year. We are grateful for our family and friends.

Enjoy,

Angela, Scott, Ella and Jack

A few of Jack's favorite things

This is a vibrating snake and he really enjoys having the toy put on his head and he enjoys holding it. We found this on the www.Amazon.com site- you can search for toys for children with Special Needs Multi-sensory needs and you'll find a number of options

This ball is from the CVI store in Atlanta-

It has handles and an inflatable center- so it's handy when traveling. It comes in a larger size too. It's really light weight.
You can find this ball at www.visabilitystore.org They have a larger size so you can play with it outside- that I think would be fun for the summer!

This bean bag chair is a big favorite- Jack loves to fall into the chair.

A friend found this Cookie Monster- he talks to Jack and he loves this little guy.

The Bilibo was a recommendation from www.wonderbaby.org and Jack and Ella both love it. We've had several other children over to visit and they all love it! You can recline or spin- there are so many different ways to play with the Bilibo!

I've found a difficult task when raising a visually impaired child with other disabilities is finding toys that he will actually play with. We have so many toys that Jack just doesn't play with or just isn't engaged by- so this holiday season we had much better luck with the toys we selected for Jack. I continue to find that whatever we buy for Jack- he likes the toys more if we play with him- so tossing with the ball, and spinning him in the Bilibo and helping him fall into his bean bag chair- are all more fun if we're in the middle of it with him. We've seen great progress with Jack in the last few months in regards to his language development. His baby babbling is much better- he started babbling "dada dada" and he seems to say it when he's with Scott. And today while I fed him he babble "mama, mama" so I'm hopeful he means "ME"!!! Jack's lack of language has been the most difficult part of our journey. I find discovering new ways to play with him- whether with songs, books and new toys- it all helps us as continue to find ways to help encourage his language development.

So the journey continues....