Samuel (!)

One interesting little tidbit about Samuel is that he has somehow gotten into the habit of putting an exclamation point after his name whenever he writes it. So he's not just Samuel. But Samuel! (of course, he does this with his actual given first name, though, not "Samuel.")

He does it at home when he reaches up to the dry erase board on the fridge and writes his name all over it. I've seen it written in the front covers of some of our books. He's written it in my planner and other random places.

He also does it at school. Every time, at the top of the page, where it says "Name ________" he writes Samuel!
I mentioned it to his teacher at parent-teacher conference awhile back, and she said she hadn't noticed it. So I started taking particular notice and . . . every paper that came home, every time, it was Samuel!
Then this last week at his annual IEP meeting (more on that later), she showed his writing sample in their daily journals and it was there, as well.
Samuel! Samuel! Samuel!

I'm not sure if it's that he just gets yelled at a lot at home (haha, I really and truly hope that's not the case), or if he just thinks his name deserves the extra emphasis of an exclamation point because he is important and special! Or if he just likes writing them. I don't know.

But, over the last few weeks, he really has done something spectacular. He has stopped wetting the bed wearing pull-ups at night. He is now 100%, completely and totally, pull-up free!! We bought him one of those big 18-wheeler Matchbox-type tractor trailer trucks that hold a bunch of toy cars inside them as a reward.

And, I must tell you, in a household where buying pull-ups, dealing with leaking pull-ups, wiping stinky bottoms every morning, and washing stinky pajamas has been the norm for more years than I care to count, to eliminate one more kid from the pull-up routine is HUGE (Elisabeth still to go).

And so, he is definitely deserving of an exclamation point this time! (or even two!!)
Yay for Samuel!
(And we'll just keep working on eliminating those extraneous exclamation points for other times)
;)