King of the Class

 The other week we got this picture from Teddy's teacher.

Look at that smile!

Teddy was crowned king of music class ... for his dancing!

Joy and Love

I often talk about Teddy and his joy for life. He truly has a zest for life and a joy that is unparalleled. I have never met anyone who lives with as much joy as Teddy. 

It's not every moment of every day, but there are moments in darn near every day. Some days we're so preoccupied with life or focused on the to-do list of the day to live in the moment with Teddy. Today was a day where I was able to embrace the moments of joy with Teddy, and it was truly a blessing.

He jumped for joy and bounced like a bunny to check out the lawn mowers at Lowes. We chilled (literally it was rather cool this morning, so he was cleaning frost off the seats with his behind) for 20 minutes checking out various lawn mowers, each equally fun for him!

He buckled himself into the first one. 

Later in the day he bounced into the house grinning while holding and hugging me. I don't know the reason, but it was pure joy.

After his bath this evening, he gave me full-body hugs, wrapping himself around me to get squeezes. I left his bedroom saying how lucky I was to be his mom and experience this joy and love.

Adaptive Motor Skills Class

We're fortunate to live in a community with a university that has strong nursing, social work and education programs. We've gotten a number of our caregivers, particularly through the nursing program, though we've benefited from all those programs for our childcare providers.

We've also benefited from the education program because there is an adaptive physical education class that serves as instructors for an adaptive swim class and new this year is an adaptive motor skills class that partners college students with kids like Teddy for 1.5 hours of phy ed fun. The college students work on lesson plans, adapting lessons and learning a wide range of skills, abilities and personalities. And the participants simply get to enjoy the physical activities.

Given that Teddy loves gym and being on the go, it was a no-brainer to sign him up for the class. He really enjoyed it fall semester, so he's participating again this spring. It's also nice that it's long enough that we can sneak back to eat dinner as a family in peace, or get some alone time with AJ, etc. since we don't have to be present for the class.

It's a great resource to have in our community, and I'm grateful for those who run the program and volunteer, like one of Teddy's paraprofessional staff. In fact, the night this picture was taken, she informed me Teddy felt she was bored at work and needed him to dump out all the book bins ... repeatedly ... for her to have a bit more work to do. 

At least he's cute ...

Clearly, he loves this!