Surprises

This morning I got a huge surprise when I was getting the boys ready for school. I was helping Adam get dressed, and Caleb, as usual, was delaying the process by wanting to play hide-and-seek: "You count and I'll hide, mom," as he flops down in his bed and pulls the covers over his head. I dutifully started to count, "One..." admittedly in a bit of a monotone as this is a very common game, when all of a sudden Adam's eyes lit up. "Two, three, four, five. Yeah!" He was clearly counting with me, and seemed quite proud of himself when he got to five, clapping and smiling. It was amazing, and very humbling, as I had no idea he could do that. We have been counting all afternoon too, and he really seems to enjoy it.

If you heard any of the words on their own you wouldn't know what he was saying, but his inflection, and the fact that he stayed with my timing too, showed that he knew what we were saying. Needless to say this gives me a lot of hope. It makes me think of his summer school teacher in Durham, Ms Jen, who very emphatically said to me that Adam is capable of learning a lot, and should not be underestimated. How right she was to say that.

This of course comes on the same day that we got a letter home from school saying that Adam would be moved up to Primary 3 after the summer. That's a jump from Primary 1 to Primary 3 for those who aren't up to speed, i.e. going from first to third grade. This is apparently a city council policy that children should be grouped according to their age category. This is also entirely ridiculous and will be fought by me every step of the way. There was a reason I held Adam back, besides the fact that we went to the states for a year. He was not ready, and still is quite developmentally delayed. They are already having "trouble" with him in his current year, so I don't see how moving him two years up will help matters. I'm not sure how to go about it, but believe me, if the boxing gloves have to get dusted off (they never seem to acquire much dust anyway!) they will.

Following on from yesterday's tests, there is nothing new to add. Bit of dried blood in his ear canals still, but otherwise you wouldn't know he had anything done yesterday at all. I still find his hearing a puzzle, but we've learned enough in nearly seven years not to take the doctors too seriously, and to take seriously instead that Adam is thriving (counting even!)

One more little surprise, albeit a few days old: Adam has his first adult tooth coming through!! It's a bit of a snaggle tooth already, poking up from behind all of his four bottom middle teeth that are ground down to the gum and still very firmly rooted in place. I tried to get him registered with a dentist, but the one I called specialises in cosmetic dentistry. Maybe something to think about for the future, but obviously not the right call just now. Will have to wait, hopefully not a year, for an NHS dentist instead.

That's all for now...time to read and enjoy the evening sunshine (for another 2 hours!) (and it's quarter past 9pm!)