Tomorrow Izzak will be 12

One year ago tomorrow Izzak had his 11th birthday...

He had a good party in the house we had just gotten to move into got lots of great gifts. A boy can always use a new skateboard right, he got 2.




















Izzak had a great summer we went to the lake which is a favorite of ours. In the picture Izzak is holding his sisters hands to take them across to the center of the lake which is so shallow it only goes up to your ankles. It goes up to your waist to get there though and the kids think it is really cool to stand out in the center of the lake!

We enjoyed several trips to the park


Izzak really thrives in the summer. He has less to worry about without school and seems to focus a lot more on just being a normal kid. No one to remind him of his problems like when in school. His siblings and closest friends have grown up around him and have long ago learned how talk to him and make sure he understands what is going on long before he was ever diagnosed. During the summers he can just be a kid and be around people who except him disabilities and all. He did really well this summer.

Izzak though started 6th grade this year and in our school district it put him in middle school for the first time. I was really worried about it and did my best not to voice my fears around him. Talked him up about it so he would go into the year expecting good things.



Alot of my fears had to do with him being able to get around to multiple classrooms and lockers. We have worked around that and he is doing great remembering those and is allowed a key lock for his locker so he doesn't have to remember the combination. We tried the combo at first but found he couldn't ever remember it so the key was a better way to go.

My other concern was that in middle school they are bigger kids and are not always nice to each other, you know? I have noticed some of his issues becoming more obvious around kids his age and older and worried about that. It has been a problem he has dealt with more teasing this year then any year in school so far its hard to see. Also he has had a difficult year with fighting. Izzak has always been the type of kid who will take alot from others but he is a big boy and we knew could handle himself and have always known in the back of our heads that there would be a day he just didn't put up with it so much. This really has been the year. He got in his first real fight this year. The other boy had been on him for weeks. Izzak had tried to tell teachers what was going on (the other boy was hitting him, kicking him and teasing alot) the teachers and other faculty that he went to did nothing but tell him to ignore him but it just kept getting worse. Finally Izzak had enough and fought back and got in a big fight at school. His first ever referal and in school suspension. I was irritated that it had to get to that point. Also a few months later another boy tried to steal his bike and when he didn't let him have it the boy took a skateboard and broke his arm. I wrote a post about it here and a little more here.

The school seems to be trying harder though to work with him and his advisory teacher seems to be genuinly interested in helping him.



Also the burn he got just a couple of months ago to his leg. Its seems to have been a year of accidents for him. We are really hoping for a better year.

I've said before I really am looking forward to being able to pull him out of school for awhile to work with him one on one he really does so much better.