Just five days later, I am simply THRILLED with Alex's progress with both the new curriculum and with cursive! Cursive seems to have clicked with him! I am trying to make it as fun as possible with little sing-songy ways to present the letters. For instance, Alex's cursive "i" looked like an inverted "v" because he was spreading the letter out. I told him to "start with a tail, go up to the line, trace it back down, and end with a tail" all in a silly voice. It...was...magic! He has a tendency to want to rush through things, but I told him that writing was a time to be slow and careful. He takes such pride in his writing now!

Thursday was his genetics appointment. It went well, and I liked the doctors who examined him. The good news is that they could not pinpoint any genetic disorders upon the intial consultation. However, he does need an "echo" for a heart murmur they picked up, physical therapy for his hyper-flexibility issues, and he needs to see a pedi opthamologist. They are running tests on his bloodwork--specifically a microarray to test for chromosome issues. I was fairly freaked out by all this on Thursday, but I am much more calm now. Whatever happens with this, he is still our sweet, wonderful Alex.

Alex yelled at his therapist this week. I want this therapy to teach Alex how to tell us what he is feeling. He can express his emotions, but he can't really put a name to them if someone were to ask him what is wrong. (I really want Alex to be able to tell us what he is feeling and if something is bothering him--specifically. Right now, he only uses the terms angry and nervous interchangeably and inappropriately.) I think the therapist thinks we are trying to get Alex to express emotions. (Mental note, bring that up that little clarification next time!) Well, Alex handled all the wheedling very well until the guy asked him to draw a picture. He did it--very unhappily. Then Alex put the pencil behind his back and was sort of rubbing his back with it. The therapist looked shocked and almost grossed out, and he asked "Are you erasing your back?" Alex shouted-loudly--"I'M NOT DOING ANYTHING WITH MY BACK!" I was completely shocked that Alex shouted like that, and the therapist looks up at me so truimphantly like--"See! See! We got him to express emotion!"

I wish I was quick on my feet in situations like this, because right now this is so funny to me! The poor guy pulled me aside and said, "I think we are really making a connection." I just nodded dumbly, and now I'm thinking, "Dude, you are in the enemy camp now. You made the boy draw and then you made him yell at you."
=o)