Since my last post so much has happened and Judah has made some great strides as well as faced some new challenges.
At the end of June Judah began his first year of Bee Healthy Jr. Boot Camp, a 1 day a week camp at our local Community Center that promotes and teaches children about fitness, nutrition and healthy habits. I thought it would be a great way for him to have fun and meet and interact with new kids over the summer... Yeah, I was wrong! In spite of the fact that many of his "friends" from school and other friends were there I had to leave him being help by a camp leader in a hysterical meltdown. Once they got the activities going he would eventually, and sometimes reluctantly, participate. It was just a struggle to get there. We are planning on trying again next summer and hopefully it will go much better. I think the only redeeming factor for him was that he got a t-shirt, drawstring backpack and dvd of pictures out of the deal! haha
He also took swimming lessons again this summer and did so great. He did inform me before they began that the only way he was going was if "Steph or Sam" (his teachers from the past 2 years) were going to be his teacher and he was NOT getting in the pool if they weren't there. Thankfully they both were! :) He was like a little fish zipping around the pool and looked forward to going down the water slide any chance he could get. By the end they even had him diving for rings and swimming short distances under the water! Needless to say, I was very proud of him and we spent as much time as we could this summer at the pool.
July was also packed full of other activities too. The biggest of which was his first trip to Holiday World. Judah has asked to go to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari for over a year and announces how much he wants to go every time he sees a commercial; so when my dad's family decided to go together this summer we thought it would be a great opportunity to take the kids. Well, the excitement faded in the blink of an eye when we got inside the gate and Judah realized there were other people there :( For the first hour or so that we were there he refused to ride anything and just wanted to hang on us not saying a word completely withdrawn. I immediately feared the worst and thought we were going to have to leave or fight this all day; but after we literally forced him to ride the kids' bumper boats (and explained to the worker on duty about his situation) he did great and joined right in on the fun. He especially loved the water park and Holidog roller coaster. In the end, we had a great day and he wants to go back again next summer. I was so proud of him for conquering his fears and anxiety and moving on with the day. 
He has also made some great strides in areas that come very naturally to other kids, but have been a struggle for him. Two of the biggest accomplishments for the summer were learning to catch a ball thrown to him with just having it tossed in his outstretched arms and peddling his tricycle. It took many, many hours of work; but he was determined to learn and he did! He is so proud of himself that he can play catch with daddy now and catch the ball almost every time and can ride his tricycle around the garage :) We also got him a dry erase workbook to work on tracing and handwriting and he has greatly improved. He loves showing off his finished pages and "teaching" Hannah how to do them too :)Towards the end of July we were finally able to get the ball rolling with the School Corporation and began the testing and assessment process to see if Judah will receive and IEP (Individual Education Plan) before beginning Kindergarten next year. We began with an assessment and test with the school corp.'s psychologist, which he did great on academically as usual. He then referred us over to the speech therapist to evaluate what, if any, services they could provide to improve his communication. We weren't able to meet with her until a couple weeks ago, but it went great and she was very impressed with Judah. He aced the test and she even had to go further in the testing than she ever has with someone his age because he tests out on about a 6 1/2-7 year old level!! In the end she agreed that he is very intelligent, but does need to some work on his non verbal and social communication (such as empathy towards those he is talk to and reading and communicating body and facial language). Once the entire assessment is completed and his evaluation is done we will begin meeting with her once a week to begin therapy for these areas. Thankfully, Judah really liked her and I think he will do great even if I'm not in the room with him. Our next step is having the school corp.'s behavioral specialist observe him during Pre-K and see what he views as areas where Judah will need special assistance or is limited in some way. This is supposed to take place on August 12th, so please be praying that all goes well! I was very encouraged today talking to the behavioral specialist and explaining my concerns that Judah is very comfortable at his preschool so I worry that his "ticks" won't show during the observation time and he won't appear to have any issues different from the average 4 year old. He reassured me that it happens all the time and he would keep that in mind while doing his observation.
On the topic of school... Judah began his 3rd year at Kiddie Garden Preschool at the end of August and is adjusting well to being in a new classroom and having new teachers (one of which is a family friend who he already knew). The first day started out pretty rough and he had to be carried to class by the preschool director in tears and having a meltdown :( I was so afraid that it was going to be a month(s) long battle to get him to go; but by the end of the first week he was doing great. Today he got to take a snack to share with the class and was so excited to share his cupcakes with everyone. He is also very excited about Show and Tell tomorrow!! So far he has come home with a good report and is even already making great improvements in his handwriting, which is a huge weakness for him.
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