Proud Padres

First piece of writing that he produced for school! Complete with incredible rendering of La Vaca Sofia

Will has made amazing progress since we held our "Vision 2020" meeting on the terrace right after the new year began. Goals included raising his hand to share once a day in school (he's been doing it!), washing his hair at night (he's been doing it!), keeping a positive attitude (he's been doing it!), completing his homework and reading in Spanish more (he's been doing it!) and improving his table manners (he has not been doing it!)

Yes, that's a D&D shirt.

As I write this, my guy is sitting with a tear streaked face eating an enormous compensatory taco salad for lunch: he found out today that he will stay in his Lengua (Spanish Language Arts) class rather than go to his Spanish class (where he learns Spanish with his fellow Aussies & Americans). He held in tears on our walk home but let the floodgates down when he got here because the Spanish class is "the only place where {he} feels normal" and makes connections with other kids.  Feels like a gut punch to witness, but I'm used to it by now.  I've learned to listen and love on him in these moments. (Because what this really means is that he is quickly advancing and acquiring language and basically kicking butt in school!!! Obvi I would never dare tell him this while he's sobbing his brains out)  After some snuggles, hellllla validation, allowing him to accuse me of having fun "doing retirement things" while he's in school (it's completely true), and watching a YouTub video of a trombone player blasting the theme song to the Avengers, he wiped his tears and dug into his huge salad (salsa and bits of ground beef all over his lap and clothes within minutes)

This picture helps me remember that he's such an incredible little person and to be patient with his development....he planted this tiny tree in the hills behind our cave on a field trip before Christmas break. He reported the day was a disaster: his regular teacher Juan Antonio wasn't there and he encountered some bullying from a couple jerks in his class. He repeated the same complaints "I want to go home! You said this was going to be an amazing experience and it's terrible!" And then, not two weeks later, we were on a hike in the area with the McDermotts and he was bursting with excitement to show us his little tree. No mention of the jerks.  No mention of wanting to go home. Just proud of the rock on which he had painted his name and the tree.