A sentence or two and an IEP

First let me start off by saying thank you to those that read this blog. I appreciate the time you all take to read my ramblings and see the progress that my little monkey has made over the years!!!(: Michael has his 4th grade IEP today. Usually, I'm a basketcase... Full of anxiety and nervous and easily offended when I have to sit back with Brad and hear all the professionals list what Michael CAN'T do. But today I have a good feeling about this!! The thing is.. We know Michael has so much potential. We've seen it. We know he wants to talk. We are going to continue to fight the fight and we know we will be successful in getting Michael the appropriate education!! Go Michael Go!!! So why am I so sure of myself??? Why do I feel so confident in my nonverbal, speech apraxia child, who has never spoken a sentence in his life or more than a handful of words in the 9 years he's been with me, how am I so confident in his abilities??? Because although Michael can't communicate with us like everyone else... He's making huge progress talking via his iPad. He isn't just pushing pictures and having those pictures say the word... He's creating sentences. Noun. Verb. Appropriate sentence structure!!! On Wednesday, I was busy with Cam, Michael was on the couch with CJ and we were just watching tv... Michael had his iPad in hand, and without any prompts, he spoke a sentence. I WANT COOKIE.... And then later I WANT CHOCOLATE MILK. Wow!!! Two sentences!!! And both were appropriate. You see, we had a cookie cake and I had told Michael he had to wait... And he kept pointing to the cake, but I made him wait. As soon as he spoke those words... I caved!!! I'm going to get that boy his cookie cake because he SPOKE a sentence. He created a real sentence!!! I'm so so proud of you!!! My little monkey is growing up and I'm so excited to hear what words he speaks next!!!