SpiritHorse therapeutic provides free, private equine-assisted healthcare in our award winning programs to over 450 children with disabilities each week at our facilities just north of Dallas, Texas. One hundred-sixty of these children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
We provide healthcare rather than the customary recreation the therapeutic riding industry is known for. We have developed eleven specific methods for intervention with autism and an instructor who is our autism specialist. These methods are based upon the elements of Alternative Behavior Analysis the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based method (DIRFloortime) and the knowledge that specific physical activity can create neurological changes. We have a distinct advantage in crossing the first hurdle of DIR/Floortime which is finding something with which to engage the child. Children love ponies. We have been very successful in developing experience sharing with the rider, their parent, the pony, and their instructor.
One beautiful day this spring Nathan (a five year old boy with autism who has learned to speak since coming to SpiritHorse) was riding Fudge along the trail with his instructor Nikki leading and his mom walking alongside. He reached out and took his Mom's hand and said: "I love you mommy". We believe that he did this because the experience was so wonderful that he just had to share it. When his Mom regained control she tearfully said: "That is the first time he ever told me he loves me". These things happen often at SpiritHorse.
Using these methods we have developed, we have heard thirty-one children with autism speak their first word on one of our ponies.
We have discovered that our riders with autism prefer to turn left rather than right. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that this is because the right hemisphere of the brain develops first and when the left hemisphere starts to develop, its development is delayed with the onset of autism, and of course the less developed left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Incidentally, language comes from the left hemisphere and this developmental delay of the left hemisphere is the reason that many children with autism have delayed language.
We performed a pilot study with five riders with autism doing a sitting trot in a twenty foot circle a total of 60 counter-clockwise and 60 clockwise revolutions. We recorded only two incidences of unbalance in the counter-clockwise direction and a total of twenty-eight incidences of unbalance in the clockwise direction. We also noticed a significant number of negative non-verbal reactions in the clockwise direction. After twelve weekly lessons, all of these children were balanced in both directions with no negative non-verbal responses. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that we are building synapses (circuits that make the brain function) in the left hemisphere through the work in the clockwise direction, and thereby reversing autism to some degree.
We also performed a study of five of our children who do not have a diagnosis of autism and they were equally balanced in both directions at the outset.
Additionally, we conducted a pilot study by having five children with a diagnosis of autism weave in and out of a line of traffic cones. We found that these children missed five times more right turns than left. The left hemisphere, most affected by autism, did not respond well on the right turns. Very interestingly, we noticed a two to three second delay in the movement of the right arm when turning right, enough delay that a cone was often missed.
After twelve weekly lessons, these children missed very few turns and neither direction was predominate. Very interestingly, the delay in the movement of the right hand for right turns disappeared. Our medical advisory board believes that we are reversing under-connectivity with this exercise.
Following the lead of Temple Grandin who invented the "squeeze machine", we use ridingsafety vests strapped very tightly to help our riders with autism who have difficulty in regulating. These vests are very different from the weighted vests often used for children with autism. The weighted vests place pressure on the shoulders, while these vests are adjusted to place pressure on the trunk, more like Temple Grandin's machine. For those with this symptom the results are often dramatic.
The impact of our methods for children with autism has been under study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for over one year. Dr. Janet Kern, assistant professor of their Department of Psychiatry commented: "The preliminary results are excellent".
SpiritHorse has just reached an agreement with the University of North Texas Biofeedback/Rehab Department to perform EEGs and brain mapping on our riders with autism before and after each lesson. Through these tests they can objectively measure many brain functions, including under-connectivity. They will also measure rhythm, which a recent study showed its development to be an intervention with autism. We develop rhythm to a maximum degree in our riding program.
With these measurements we hope to further refine and develop additional methods for intervention with autism. We also have plans to provide free training to therapeutic riding instructors from around the world to develop autism specialists that will change programs at other centers from recreation to healthcare.
SpiritHorse was awarded the coveted Dallas Ft Worth Alliance for Healthcare Excellence Servant Leadership Award for 2006 for: "High quality, affordable healthcare in the North Texas Area". The award was won by Baylor Hospital Systems in 2005 and Parkland Hospital in 2004. We are very proud to have been recognized by North Texas health professionals for our work with children with autism.
Charles I. Fletcher Founder/President SpiritHorse Therapeutic
I have had such tremendous luck with rding therapy. My son (Prader-Willi Syndrome) has been up on a horse since he was 1 year old. At three, he can ride in jump position for 20 minutes (which says a lot about his strength and balance!). He now receives hippotherapy twice a week.
SpiritHorse Therapeutic provides free, private equine-assisted healthcare in our award winning programs to over 450 children with disabilities each week at our facilities just north of Dallas, Texas. One hundred-sixty of these children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. We provide healthcare rather than the customary recreation the therapeutic riding industry is known for. We have developed eleven specific methods for intervention with autism and an instructor who is our autism specialist. These methods are based upon the elements of Alternative Behavior Analysis (ABA), the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based method (DIR/Floortime) and the knowledge that specific physical activity can create neurological changes. We have a distinct advantage in crossing the first hurdle of DIR/Floortime which is finding something with which to engage the child. Children love ponies. We have been very successful in developing experience sharing with the rider, their parent, the pony, and their instructor. One beautiful day this spring Nathan (a five year old boy with autism who has learned to speak since coming to SpiritHorse) was riding Fudge along the trail with his instructor Nikki leading and his mom walking alongside. He reached out and took his Mom's hand and said: "I love you mommy". We believe that he did this because the experience was so wonderful that he just had to share it. When his Mom regained control she tearfully said: "That is the first time he ever told me he loves me". These things happen often at SpiritHorse.Using these methods we have developed, we have heard thirty-one children with autism speak their first word on one of our ponies. We have discovered that our riders with autism prefer to turn left rather than right. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that this is because the right hemisphere of the brain develops first and when the left hemisphere starts to develop, its development is delayed with the onset of autism, and of course the less developed left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Incidentally, language comes from the left hemisphere and this developmental delay of the left hemisphere is the reason that many children with autism have delayed language.We performed a pilot study with five riders with autism doing a sitting trot in a twenty foot circle a total of 60 counter-clockwise and 60 clockwise revolutions. We recorded only two incidences of unbalance in the counter-clockwise direction and a total of twenty-eight incidences of unbalance in the clockwise direction. We also noticed a significant number of negative non-verbal reactions in the clockwise direction. After twelve weekly lessons, all of these children were balanced in both directions with no negative non-verbal responses. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion the we are building synapses (circuits that make the brain function) in the left hemisphere through the work in the clockwise direction, and thereby reversing autism. We also performed a study of five of our children who do not have a diagnosis of autism and they were equally balanced in both directions at the outset.Additionally, we conducted a pilot study by having five children with a diagnosis of autism weave in and out of a line of traffic cones. We found that these children missed five times more right turns than left. The left hemisphere, the side most affected by autism, did not respond well on the right turns. Very interestingly, we noticed a two to three second delay in the movement of the right arm when turning right, enough delay that a cone was often missed. After twelve weekly lessons, these children missed very few turns and neither direction was predominate. Very interestingly, the delay in the movement of the right hand for right turns disappeared. Our medical advisory board believes that we are reversing under-connectivity with this exercise.Following the lead of Temple Grandin Ph.D. an individual who has been dagnosed with Asperger's and who invented the "squeeze machine", we use ridingsafety vests adjusted very tightly to help our riders with autism who have difficulty in regulating. These vests are very different from the weighted vests often used for children with autism. The weighted vests place pressure on the shoulders, while these vests are adjusted to place pressure on the trunk, more like Dr. Grandin's machine. For those with this symptom of autism the results are often dramatic.The impact of our methods for children with autism has been under study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for over one year. Dr. Janet Kern, assistant professor of their Department of Psychiatry commented recently: "The preliminary results are excellent". SpiritHorse has just reached an agreement with the University of North Texas Biofeedback/Rehab Department to perform EEGs and brain mapping on our riders with autism before and after each lesson. Through these tests they can objectively measure many brain functions, including under-connectivity. They will also measure rhythm using the Interactive Metronome. A recent study showed the development of rhythm to be an intervention with autism. We develop rhythm to a maximum degree in our riding program. With these measurements we hope to further refine our methods and develop additional methods for intervention with autism. We also have plans to provide free training to therapeutic riding instructors from around the world to develop autism specialists that will change programs at other centers from recreation to healthcare.SpiritHorse was awarded the coveted Dallas/Ft Worth Alliance for Healthcare Excellence "Servant Leadership Award" for 2006 for: "Thje highest quality, affordable healthcare in the North Texas area". The award was won by Baylor Hospital Systems in 2005 and Parkland Hospital in 2004. We are very proud to have been recognized by North Texas health professionals for our work with children with autism. Charles I. FletcherFounder/PresidentSpiritHorse Therapeutic
It was a rough day today for Thomas. He went along with everything we wanted to do, but transitions were tough for him.
This morning, we took the kids over to their aunt and uncle’s house to see the new baby. We prepared Thomas for this pretty much since the baby was born last week, knowing that he was somewhat ambivalent about the whole new baby thing. (It only took us a few minutes to realize that saying, “The new baby will be here soon!” was taken very literally by Thomas who believed that the baby would be here at our house soon. We changed it to, “The new baby will be born soon.” Thomas was okay with that.) Thomas was not very interested in the baby. He did pat her head very gently saying, “We have to be quiet and gentle with the baby.” He also sang “Jingle Bells” for her, and she opened her beautiful brown eyes for a moment to listen. Other than that, he was very interested in all of the baby stuff, like the swing and the pack-n-play. Hayley was much more interested and counted the baby’s fingers and pointed to her nose and patted her bottom. It was sweet. We tried to get some pictures and videos of the new cousins meeting for the first time, but Thomas was not very cooperative.
In order to make Thomas more agreeable about seeing the baby, we decided to take the kids to The Rat for lunch. Even that transition was hard for Thomas. Usually, you can spring Chuck E. Cheese’s on Thomas any time 24/7 and he’ll go for it with enthusiasm. Today, we actually had a hard time getting Thomas out of the car once we got to the restaurant. He was pretty good while we were there, but we could just tell that he was off. We cut it a little short and he protested when we left, but by then we were expecting it.
We spent the rest of the day at home and Thomas was pretty quiet. He was spinning a lot of toys and preferred to play on his own, pushing me away when I tried to engage him. He was still very verbal – asking a lot of questions and responding when I called his name – but he just seemed tired and quiet.
Tomorrow, Jonathan and I have two parties to attend in the afternoon and evening, so my mother-in-law will be staying over here with Thomas and Hayley. We’ve tried to prepare Thomas for it verbally, but I may end up drawing pictures for him. Thomas was really upset two weeks ago when Jonathan wanted to go watch the Bears game with his brother. I drew a little picture sequence showing Jonathan getting in the car, watching the game with his brother, and then coming home. Thomas seemed better about it after that. Sometimes, when he’s accepted the fact that Jonathan or I am going to leave for a while, he’ll actually push us out the door. He says, “Okay, go watch the Bears game. Bye-bye!” I’m hoping he’ll push us out the door tomorrow night. I can’t figure out why Thomas is so accepting of changes or different schedules at some times rather than other times. We go through the same methods every time: talking to him, getting verbal responses and drawing pictures, but he’s much more able to go with the flow sometimes. Thomas has no problem with environmental changes, like new furniture or a new bedspread. Different pictures on the wall don’t bother him and he was pretty comfortable with the Christmas tree. We plan to get new flooring in most of the house early next year (pretty much right after the Christmas decorations are put away – I’m afraid that after the beating our carpet has taken over the years, it’s going to start fighting back soon) and we’ll prepare him for it, but it probably won’t bother him. Actually, it will bother Jonathan and me more than it will bother Thomas; his voice is going to echo a lot better on the laminate than it does on the carpet…we’ll have to get area rugs! Transitions and different schedules are much harder for Thomas than any other kind of change.
On Tuesday there will be a sing-along at school to which families are invited. We’re all supposed to sit in the gym and sing together. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve responded that I’m going to come with Hayley (and a video camera). I’m a little worried because if Thomas sees me at school when I’m not supposed to be there, he might have a hard time with it. I’m really hoping we have a good time and the kids are good (I’m actually hoping that it rains or snows so much on Tuesday that Jonathan won’t be able to work and will come with me to school).
We have a busy week coming up with lots of cooking and cleaning. I hope I can write again on Wednesday or so, but we’ll see. Either way, I think I’m going to be drawing a lot of pictures for Thomas.
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SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding
Sep 17, 2007 by AnonymousSpiritHorse therapeutic provides free, private equine-assisted healthcare in our award winning programs to over 450 children with disabilities each week at our facilities just north of Dallas, Texas. One hundred-sixty of these children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
We provide healthcare rather than the customary recreation the therapeutic riding industry is known for. We have developed eleven specific methods for intervention with autism and an instructor who is our autism specialist. These methods are based upon the elements of Alternative Behavior Analysis the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based method (DIR Floortime) and the knowledge that specific physical activity can create neurological changes. We have a distinct advantage in crossing the first hurdle of DIR/Floortime which is finding something with which to engage the child. Children love ponies. We have been very successful in developing experience sharing with the rider, their parent, the pony, and their instructor.
One beautiful day this spring Nathan (a five year old boy with autism who has learned to speak since coming to SpiritHorse) was riding Fudge along the trail with his instructor Nikki leading and his mom walking alongside. He reached out and took his Mom's hand and said: "I love you mommy". We believe that he did this because the experience was so wonderful that he just had to share it. When his Mom regained control she tearfully said: "That is the first time he ever told me he loves me". These things happen often at SpiritHorse.
Using these methods we have developed, we have heard thirty-one children with autism speak their first word on one of our ponies.
We have discovered that our riders with autism prefer to turn left rather than right. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that this is because the right hemisphere of the brain develops first and when the left hemisphere starts to develop, its development is delayed with the onset of autism, and of course the less developed left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Incidentally, language comes from the left hemisphere and this developmental delay of the left hemisphere is the reason that many children with autism have delayed language.
We performed a pilot study with five riders with autism doing a sitting trot in a twenty foot circle a total of 60 counter-clockwise and 60 clockwise revolutions. We recorded only two incidences of unbalance in the counter-clockwise direction and a total of twenty-eight incidences of unbalance in the clockwise direction. We also noticed a significant number of negative non-verbal reactions in the clockwise direction. After twelve weekly lessons, all of these children were balanced in both directions with no negative non-verbal responses. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that we are building synapses (circuits that make the brain function) in the left hemisphere through the work in the clockwise direction, and thereby reversing autism to some degree.
We also performed a study of five of our children who do not have a diagnosis of autism and they were equally balanced in both directions at the outset.
Additionally, we conducted a pilot study by having five children with a diagnosis of autism weave in and out of a line of traffic cones. We found that these children missed five times more right turns than left. The left hemisphere, most affected by autism, did not respond well on the right turns. Very interestingly, we noticed a two to three second delay in the movement of the right arm when turning right, enough delay that a cone was often missed.
After twelve weekly lessons, these children missed very few turns and neither direction was predominate. Very interestingly, the delay in the movement of the right hand for right turns disappeared. Our medical advisory board believes that we are reversing under-connectivity with this exercise.
Following the lead of Temple Grandin who invented the "squeeze machine", we use riding safety vests strapped very tightly to help our riders with autism who have difficulty in regulating. These vests are very different from the weighted vests often used for children with autism. The weighted vests place pressure on the shoulders, while these vests are adjusted to place pressure on the trunk, more like Temple Grandin's machine. For those with this symptom the results are often dramatic.
The impact of our methods for children with autism has been under study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for over one year. Dr. Janet Kern, assistant professor of their Department of Psychiatry commented: "The preliminary results are excellent".
SpiritHorse has just reached an agreement with the University of North Texas Biofeedback/Rehab Department to perform EEGs and brain mapping on our riders with autism before and after each lesson. Through these tests they can objectively measure many brain functions, including under-connectivity. They will also measure rhythm, which a recent study showed its development to be an intervention with autism. We develop rhythm to a maximum degree in our riding program.
With these measurements we hope to further refine and develop additional methods for intervention with autism. We also have plans to provide free training to therapeutic riding instructors from around the world to develop autism specialists that will change programs at other centers from recreation to healthcare.
SpiritHorse was awarded the coveted Dallas Ft Worth Alliance for Healthcare Excellence Servant Leadership Award for 2006 for: "High quality, affordable healthcare in the North Texas Area". The award was won by Baylor Hospital Systems in 2005 and Parkland Hospital in 2004. We are very proud to have been recognized by North Texas health professionals for our work with children with autism.
Charles I. Fletcher
Founder/President
SpiritHorse Therapeutic
Riding Therapy
Aug 20, 2007 by AnonymousI have had such tremendous luck with rding therapy. My son (Prader-Willi Syndrome) has been up on a horse since he was 1 year old. At three, he can ride in jump position for 20 minutes (which says a lot about his strength and balance!). He now receives hippotherapy twice a week.
There are many places where you can get riding therapy. I think it is worth calling your local stables and seeing if they can make recommendations. To see an example of a hippotherapy riding center, look at the Web site for the SpiritHorse Therapeutic Riding Center (www.spirithorsetherapy.com).
SpiritHorse Therapeutic provides free, private equine-assisted healthcare in our award winning programs to over 450 children with disabilities each week at our facilities just north of Dallas, Texas. One hundred-sixty of these children have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. We provide healthcare rather than the customary recreation the therapeutic riding industry is known for. We have developed eleven specific methods for intervention with autism and an instructor who is our autism specialist. These methods are based upon the elements of Alternative Behavior Analysis (ABA), the Developmental, Individual Differences, Relationship-Based method (DIR/Floortime) and the knowledge that specific physical activity can create neurological changes. We have a distinct advantage in crossing the first hurdle of DIR/Floortime which is finding something with which to engage the child. Children love ponies. We have been very successful in developing experience sharing with the rider, their parent, the pony, and their instructor. One beautiful day this spring Nathan (a five year old boy with autism who has learned to speak since coming to SpiritHorse) was riding Fudge along the trail with his instructor Nikki leading and his mom walking alongside. He reached out and took his Mom's hand and said: "I love you mommy". We believe that he did this because the experience was so wonderful that he just had to share it. When his Mom regained control she tearfully said: "That is the first time he ever told me he loves me". These things happen often at SpiritHorse.Using these methods we have developed, we have heard thirty-one children with autism speak their first word on one of our ponies. We have discovered that our riders with autism prefer to turn left rather than right. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion that this is because the right hemisphere of the brain develops first and when the left hemisphere starts to develop, its development is delayed with the onset of autism, and of course the less developed left hemisphere controls the right side of the body. Incidentally, language comes from the left hemisphere and this developmental delay of the left hemisphere is the reason that many children with autism have delayed language.We performed a pilot study with five riders with autism doing a sitting trot in a twenty foot circle a total of 60 counter-clockwise and 60 clockwise revolutions. We recorded only two incidences of unbalance in the counter-clockwise direction and a total of twenty-eight incidences of unbalance in the clockwise direction. We also noticed a significant number of negative non-verbal reactions in the clockwise direction. After twelve weekly lessons, all of these children were balanced in both directions with no negative non-verbal responses. Our medical advisory board is of the opinion the we are building synapses (circuits that make the brain function) in the left hemisphere through the work in the clockwise direction, and thereby reversing autism. We also performed a study of five of our children who do not have a diagnosis of autism and they were equally balanced in both directions at the outset.Additionally, we conducted a pilot study by having five children with a diagnosis of autism weave in and out of a line of traffic cones. We found that these children missed five times more right turns than left. The left hemisphere, the side most affected by autism, did not respond well on the right turns. Very interestingly, we noticed a two to three second delay in the movement of the right arm when turning right, enough delay that a cone was often missed. After twelve weekly lessons, these children missed very few turns and neither direction was predominate. Very interestingly, the delay in the movement of the right hand for right turns disappeared. Our medical advisory board believes that we are reversing under-connectivity with this exercise.Following the lead of Temple Grandin Ph.D. an individual who has been dagnosed with Asperger's and who invented the "squeeze machine", we use riding safety vests adjusted very tightly to help our riders with autism who have difficulty in regulating. These vests are very different from the weighted vests often used for children with autism. The weighted vests place pressure on the shoulders, while these vests are adjusted to place pressure on the trunk, more like Dr. Grandin's machine. For those with this symptom of autism the results are often dramatic.The impact of our methods for children with autism has been under study by the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School for over one year. Dr. Janet Kern, assistant professor of their Department of Psychiatry commented recently: "The preliminary results are excellent". SpiritHorse has just reached an agreement with the University of North Texas Biofeedback/Rehab Department to perform EEGs and brain mapping on our riders with autism before and after each lesson. Through these tests they can objectively measure many brain functions, including under-connectivity. They will also measure rhythm using the Interactive Metronome. A recent study showed the development of rhythm to be an intervention with autism. We develop rhythm to a maximum degree in our riding program. With these measurements we hope to further refine our methods and develop additional methods for intervention with autism. We also have plans to provide free training to therapeutic riding instructors from around the world to develop autism specialists that will change programs at other centers from recreation to healthcare.SpiritHorse was awarded the coveted Dallas/Ft Worth Alliance for Healthcare Excellence "Servant Leadership Award" for 2006 for: "Thje highest quality, affordable healthcare in the North Texas area". The award was won by Baylor Hospital Systems in 2005 and Parkland Hospital in 2004. We are very proud to have been recognized by North Texas health professionals for our work with children with autism. Charles I. FletcherFounder/PresidentSpiritHorse Therapeutic
More pictures are called for
Dec 16, 2006 by AnonymousIt was a rough day today for Thomas. He went along with everything we wanted to do, but transitions were tough for him.
This morning, we took the kids over to their aunt and uncle’s house to see the new baby. We prepared Thomas for this pretty much since the baby was born last week, knowing that he was somewhat ambivalent about the whole new baby thing. (It only took us a few minutes to realize that saying, “The new baby will be here soon!” was taken very literally by Thomas who believed that the baby would be here at our house soon. We changed it to, “The new baby will be born soon.” Thomas was okay with that.) Thomas was not very interested in the baby. He did pat her head very gently saying, “We have to be quiet and gentle with the baby.” He also sang “Jingle Bells” for her, and she opened her beautiful brown eyes for a moment to listen. Other than that, he was very interested in all of the baby stuff, like the swing and the pack-n-play. Hayley was much more interested and counted the baby’s fingers and pointed to her nose and patted her bottom. It was sweet. We tried to get some pictures and videos of the new cousins meeting for the first time, but Thomas was not very cooperative.
In order to make Thomas more agreeable about seeing the baby, we decided to take the kids to The Rat for lunch. Even that transition was hard for Thomas. Usually, you can spring Chuck E. Cheese’s on Thomas any time 24/7 and he’ll go for it with enthusiasm. Today, we actually had a hard time getting Thomas out of the car once we got to the restaurant. He was pretty good while we were there, but we could just tell that he was off. We cut it a little short and he protested when we left, but by then we were expecting it.
We spent the rest of the day at home and Thomas was pretty quiet. He was spinning a lot of toys and preferred to play on his own, pushing me away when I tried to engage him. He was still very verbal – asking a lot of questions and responding when I called his name – but he just seemed tired and quiet.
Tomorrow, Jonathan and I have two parties to attend in the afternoon and evening, so my mother-in-law will be staying over here with Thomas and Hayley. We’ve tried to prepare Thomas for it verbally, but I may end up drawing pictures for him. Thomas was really upset two weeks ago when Jonathan wanted to go watch the Bears game with his brother. I drew a little picture sequence showing Jonathan getting in the car, watching the game with his brother, and then coming home. Thomas seemed better about it after that. Sometimes, when he’s accepted the fact that Jonathan or I am going to leave for a while, he’ll actually push us out the door. He says, “Okay, go watch the Bears game. Bye-bye!” I’m hoping he’ll push us out the door tomorrow night. I can’t figure out why Thomas is so accepting of changes or different schedules at some times rather than other times. We go through the same methods every time: talking to him, getting verbal responses and drawing pictures, but he’s much more able to go with the flow sometimes. Thomas has no problem with environmental changes, like new furniture or a new bedspread. Different pictures on the wall don’t bother him and he was pretty comfortable with the Christmas tree. We plan to get new flooring in most of the house early next year (pretty much right after the Christmas decorations are put away – I’m afraid that after the beating our carpet has taken over the years, it’s going to start fighting back soon) and we’ll prepare him for it, but it probably won’t bother him. Actually, it will bother Jonathan and me more than it will bother Thomas; his voice is going to echo a lot better on the laminate than it does on the carpet…we’ll have to get area rugs! Transitions and different schedules are much harder for Thomas than any other kind of change.
On Tuesday there will be a sing-along at school to which families are invited. We’re all supposed to sit in the gym and sing together. We’ll see how that goes. I’ve responded that I’m going to come with Hayley (and a video camera). I’m a little worried because if Thomas sees me at school when I’m not supposed to be there, he might have a hard time with it. I’m really hoping we have a good time and the kids are good (I’m actually hoping that it rains or snows so much on Tuesday that Jonathan won’t be able to work and will come with me to school).
We have a busy week coming up with lots of cooking and cleaning. I hope I can write again on Wednesday or so, but we’ll see. Either way, I think I’m going to be drawing a lot of pictures for Thomas.
And I stink at drawing.