It is beautiful in Queens this morning! The air is nice and crisp, and I needed a blanket last night, love it. This weekend was really nice. We were going to go to a park fair with JC’s daughter, granddaughter and mom on Saturday, but they cancelled it so we ended up going to Luna Park in Coney Island. They really cleaned up Coney Island compared to how it was when I was growing up, but I kind of missed the real Coney. Anyway, the kids had a blast, Dylan LOVED the train and boat ride. The boat ride operator even gave him a free ride when it was over. Yesterday we chilled in the house all morning and then left the house to do laundry and food shopping in the afternoon. Dylan didn’t take a nap all day, so for the first time in forever he fell asleep at 7:30 on the way home, and slept through the night. JC and I took advantage, and watched Big Brother (our favorite show, don’t judge LOL) and the movie What to Expect When You’re Expecting (we bought a great bootleg copy).

Dylan is becoming more communicative with me in his own way. He can’t verbalize requests, but now he pulls me in the direction of something he wants and then points towards it. I like it, because it feels good that he can show me what he wants. He is truly blossoming thanks to the therapies. He loves my attention now, and he actually looks for me to be involved in his play. Previously, I would try to be, but it felt like he didn’t want that. Now, he doesn’t like it if I’m focused on something else other than him LOL. I love it. I feel like I can open the door to his world. Another thing is his memory is astounding. I can label a whole bunch of things in a book that he’s never seen before, one time, and when I say the name of each item, he will point to them all correctly. It’s fascinating to see how much he knows, since he can’t really speak. He still says “Ellie” and “Mama”, can now say “That” and can say “Moo” (not perfectly, but in his own way) when we say “The cow says:”. Little by little, he’s getting there!

My sister told me for my birthday in November, she is going to give me an interesting gift. She said not fun, but she thinks it will be useful. She said she is going to pay for me to take the teacher’s assistant exam in February, and she will also buy me the book to study for it. I never thought of becoming a teacher’s assistant, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. It would give me something else to fall back on, and I would love to get out of doing typical office work. I’m getting excited to take the test, but now I feel a lot of pressure to pass since it was a gift! LOL Anyway, she is a teacher, so maybe she can suggest avenues to get my foot in the door at the Board of Ed. Maybe I can assist in a special needs class, I would like that.

So, I packed an apple, an orange, some carrot sticks, and a pepper turkey and provolone with mustard on a whole grain sandwich thin for work. Drinking water and herbal tea all day, and looking forward to my fast walk at lunch time. I’m getting back into that healthy frame of mind, and it feels amazing. Things are starting to feel good again for me. JC’s mom has calmed down a lot after JC talked to her. Dylan is doing great. JC and I are in a good place. Things are looking up.