May 2013

Besides our trip to Goblin Valley, May was a pretty quiet month for our family. One day while I was shopping for our kitchen remodel at Lowe's, I got a call from Ethan's school. It turned out that he had tripped and fallen pretty hard while playing basketball at school. His knee got scraped up pretty badly and I went to get him at school. He was calmly sitting in the nurse's office until he saw me, and then he started to cry. I know that feeling so well. I can remember always feeling so relieved and grateful when my mom showed up in my hour of need. She still does that and it brings all your emotions to the surface. I got Ethan home and cleaned him up, gave him some ibuprofen and he relaxed at home for the rest of the afternoon.

Our family goes to the library almost every Tuesday. I use all five of our library cards to put things on hold, and I don't pay much attention to what card I put items on hold. In this case, when we went to the library Bradon found that I had "A Red Herring Without Mustard" (a murder mystery) on hold in his name.  He was so excited that it was in his name, and he kept saying that he couldn't wait to get home to read it. When we got home, he carried the book around with him all day and would give me updates on his progress: "I'm on Chapter 8! Now I'm on Chapter 16!" The next day was preschool, and he decided that he wanted to take this book to show and tell. I wrote a note to his preschool teachers to explain his book selection so that they wouldn't think that I read murder mysteries to my four year old. It was sweet, and kind of funny too.
Earlier in the month I was called in for jury duty. As lucky would have it, I was selected for the jury and I missed Bradon's last IEP at Columbia Preschool. Fortunately, Brian was able to go instead of me and he got to hear about Bradon's progress in preschool. We are so grateful for this preschool, his teacher, and the aides that have worked with him for the past two years. When Bradon started there, he could only say a few words. Today he speaks in full sentences. He still can be a bit difficult to understand at times, but he's come so far. We're so grateful for the help that Jordan School District has given him, and we especially love his teacher, Ms. Denise who has loved him through these past two years. During Bradon's IEP, Brian mentioned to Bradon's teachers that he thought that Bradon knew how to read. They kind of laughed and told Brian that a lot of kids memorize books that are read to them. Brian, however, told them that he felt confident that Bradon could read and he told them that Bradon would bring them a book the next day for him to read to them. Well, he read the book and then Ms. Denise tested him on several other books in their library. She was quickly able to conclude that Bradon can read. She wrote us a note saying "Bradon can read! I tested him on several different books and he was able to read all of them."
I am grateful that Heavenly Father blessed Bradon with this special gift. His speech difficulties have made some things challenging for him, and this ability has been a nice boost to his self-esteem and has brought him a lot of joy as he can read to himself. I wish I could say that I taught him how to read, but I didn't. Bradon taught himself. I think that his love of all things on the iPad certainly helped as well. He's a pretty smart little guy.