Buzz Cuts, Dentists and Finally Therapy Again!

Well, I've got a lot to report. Even though Spokane is supposedly not the ideal place for a boy with autistic disorder to be, things continue to be working out swimmingly. And I do mean that literally. Because, you see, Ben, Katherine and Caroline have been taking swimming lessons for the past week, and will so again next week. They're given by the lifeguards at the base pool, and Ben LOVES it! Now granted, he isn't following the directions the teacher is giving him, but, bless his heart, he's plugging away anyhow, and enjoying every minute of his time in the pool. I casually asked the lifeguard if they had any adaptive classes for special needs kids, and he said that accomadations for special needs were already part of the curriculum and to go ahead and sign him up, he'd have an aide helping. Cool, huh? Ben and Caroline are in the same beginner preschool class, and Katherine is in a Beginner elementary age class. So that's going well. On another topic, Ben finally got in to see his new speech therapist, and I love the practice! Now it's a crowded one, albeit, and Ben can't be seen individually for a while, but he's going to be seen privately by the OT this afternoon, and will start a small group therapy next Friday with two other kids. But hey, it's a lot better than nothing. The Speech therapist was very positive, knows about Verbal Behavior and ABA, but actually does Floortime in her practice, and seems to see a lot of autistic kids. So I'm psyched. They also do Theraputic Listening in their practice, so I might get Ben started on that too. It's basically filtered music that the kid listens to that stimulates different parts of the brain to help it work more efficiently. My thinking is, it can't hurt anything!
I also got Ben into see his new dentist, as I suspected (e gads) he had another cavity. Good news-he didn't - some of the sealant on one of his molars fell out and resulting hole got stained, which looked remarkably like a cavity but thank goodness wasn't one. The dentist assured me that Ben's teeth actually looked good. For now. We're going to try to get Ben used to the dentist office little by little so that eventually he might tolerate an actual teeth cleaning. He's going in October when the girls have their checkups just to have a chance to get used to the whole idea of the dentists a little more. I love the dental practice, all pediatric dentists who are used to "special" kids.
As for the buzz cut, Ben got one. I was going to post a picture of him, but I have to actually take one first. He's so cute! We finally just did it, he usually gets one every summer. It becomes him. Well, that's all for now, I think I've caught up on everything. My, this sure was a long post!