Shoe Sponsorship

All shoe companies, listen up. I'm offering you the rare opportunity to work with a 1-of-a-kind partnership for your brand. This kid is one in a million (actually more rare than that!). He has a smile that lights up a room, he loves shoes and he's mighty convincing. I can't tell you the amount of times I heard someone say, "I'm not doing that," only to be doing that minutes later. Oh, and he'll never speak a negative word about your product. 

Yes, Teddy would be the perfect candidate for a sponsorship with a shoe company. Heck, he's content to live within his means, so he would really be OK with no actual cash transactions, just new shoes as often as he needs them. (Let's be real, he would take the cash and buy a bus. Or a train. But probably a bus.)

This kid is burning through shoes. As his SMOs (braces to support his ankles and help him walk properly) grow larger, the struggle to find shoes that fit them only gets more challenging. It takes a men's size 7 to fit his braces currently, and even then we can only find a handful of special shoes that will fit over his braces. While we could try going to larger sizes, then we create the clown shoe issue where he'll be tripping (more) because his shoes are so big compared to his feet and body. 

We used Billy shoes for a while, and they were fantastic at first. But lately they've just fallen apart within weeks. Literally, the last 2 pairs did not even last a month without serious amounts of shoe goop. I'm not certain if the additional weight and force of Teddy's movements is the issue or if they changed something within their quality, but it's not worth buying $50 shoes each month. This was so disappointing because they did work so well for a few years and look so darn stylish.

So we tried a new brand My Friendly's at the end of October. They seemed more durable, still fit over the SMOs and looked nice as well. But they're no longer wearable because the zipper pull literally pulled apart today with no hope of fixing it. And these parents don't want to invest $90+ in shoes every 3 months. I mean, I don't think it's unreasonable for a shoe to last a child close to a year ... or at least a school year.

Aside from the zipper, note the wear on the shoe. 

So, I clearly think sponsorship is the best route to go. As an added bonus, we can provide feedback on durability and quality of the product. But, as we've discovered, not all shoe brands fit SMOs. While you might view that as a limiting factor in this sponsorship pursuit, I only see it as an opportunity to help them become more inclusive and open up a brand new market that will be loyal customers for life if they have a quality project that fits over braces. 

Win. Win. Win.

Now, hit me up if you have any connections to shoe companies please. 

Winter is Here

Despite having snow for Halloween (thanks, Mother Nature!), we had no snow for most of November and December. In fact, we had unseasonably warm temperatures in December, balmy (for Wisconsin) 40s and may even warmer. 

But we're paying for it now that January is here. We had two snowstorms last week, with one actually counting as a blizzard due to the volume of snow and wind combined. The kids were home from school Tuesday, and we got a few inches of snow that day, but it wasn't as bad as forecast. So held out hope we'd have school on Friday, but those hopes were dashed when my run ended at 6 a.m. to see the texts that school was cancelled. Friday definitely was a snow day as that was our blizzard day that continued into the night. 

Fortunately I had a friend offer to take AJ to her house for a sleepover when she headed home from the office, so he got to have plenty of fun with a friend playing video games and Dungeons and Dragons. As I was chatting with Dave when he finished up work late in the afternoon, I suggested we invite the neighbors over for breakfast Saturday morning since we'd all be snowed in.

A few text messages later, and we had at least a few takers, so we thawed some meats and left extra cinnamon breads for the bakery unfrozen. The next morning neighbors showed up around 8 a.m. to enjoy sausage and bacon (of course cooked outside on the grill and griddle ... we grill year-round here), cinnamon bread, sourdough, hot cocoa, tequila sunrises and adult breakfast smoothies (aka the leftover pitcher of margaritas from Christmas with the neighbors). 

Not the whole crew, but quite a few. Teddy made himself comfy.

Teddy was so excited when the first neighbors arrived, happy to play with their 2 girls. His excitement only grew as we had 13 friends join the fun. He spent time in the basement playing with the kids, and dragged a few adults down to the basement to play as well.

It was such a nice, spontaneous gathering to make the most of the snowstorm and fact that no one was dashing off anywhere bright and early. It wasn't fancy, but it sure was fun!

 

IEP

It's been more than a month since Teddy's IEP, and I'm finally getting to recap it. His IEP is his individualized education plan, designed to support his needs, which requires meeting with his entire team at least once a year.

This IEP came at a perfect time, as it was shortly after his most recent bite from a fellow classmate, so we focused primarily on his safety at school as well as his integration with his 5th grade peers. 

It was a full house for this IEP, with more people than any other time, even though we were a person short because Dave stayed home with a sick Teddy. (In an ideal world, Teddy would be a part of his IEP meetings to have his voice heard, but that's less than conducive. Trust me. I've tried it.) Given the issues we've been having, the principal joined the meeting, along with a student teacher there for the experience. Then it was the usual crew: his intentional teacher, his 5th grade teacher, adapted PE, OT, PT, speech, nurse, assistive technology and the special education team member. Let's just say I asked for introductions to refresh my memory as I only see nursing and assistive technology once a year, and it's a lot to keep track of. 

I was pleasantly surprised with how the IEP started, as the team proposed a schedule that goes from about 20-40 minutes a day of inclusion to about 2.5 hours of integration. There was only one other opportunity for integration that I raised (thanks to my conversations with his 4th grade teacher, who happens to know him extremely well, about what might work). Instead of only morning meeting and music class, Teddy's new schedule includes breakfast, morning meeting, snack, social studies/science, lunch, recess, music, art and the occasional gym class. 

All smiles for the first lunch in the lunchroom with 5th grade!

Whew, that's almost exhausting to type, much less to be the paraprofessional supporting Teddy in all this integration. I know it's work to help Teddy integrate, and it won't be perfect. It won't work every day and every situation as planned. But the more time he spends with his 5th grade peers, the more he will model their appropriate social behaviors. He proved this last year by learning to raise his hand at appropriate times because everyone else was. The more time he spends in his intentional classroom with behaviors that aren't appropriate, the more likely he is to mimic those behaviors. Additionally, and most importantly to us, he doesn't get hurt in the 5th grade classroom whereas he's targeted in his classroom. (To be fair, he's targeted because he has no personal space bubble and doesn't feel others do either.) 

It's been an adjustment to spend that much time transitioning, but it's been neat to see how excited Teddy was to spend more time in 5th grade. I'm not sure if gym has happened yet, but that was a neat bonus that his adapted PE teacher wanted to try without being aware of the rest of the integration discussion. This is particularly cool because it was initiated because Teddy has made so much progress in his skills (both physical and social) that his teacher feels like he could be successful in certain lessons. 

Needless to say, we appreciate all the work his team puts in to make Teddy successful. It takes a village to support Teddy.  We showed our appreciation by bringing them lunch for the first day back at school - subs, chips and brownies, homemade, of course. And how many people did we feed? A village of 17.

Plus a brownie his team gave Teddy because he asked so clearly and nicely.