"Gnats are cute!"

So sayeth the boy child. However, the bug phobia is still in full force thanks to all the huge nasty flies buzzing around this summer. They seem much larger, louder and more brazen this year for some reason, but at least they don't bite. We're still seeing Dr. H once a week, and the boy child is still able to be outdoors without screaming and crying the entire time, but there is a lot of flinching and some yelling going on. He has good days and bad, with no discernible pattern whatsoever, so we're just hanging in there with it.

The boy was able to have a graduation of sorts this week, though. Several factors converged at once to bring at least a temporary end to his occupational therapy. He's progressed tremendously since he started with it two years ago, our coverage for it ran out this month, and his therapist is about to take a few months off to have a baby. So we had her do an evaluation to see where he's at, and she feels confident that he can take a fairly long break or perhaps a permanent one! He's really doing wonderfully with the motor stuff and the dyspraxia, thanks in large part to taekwondo, so we feel okay about stopping OT at least for a while. There's a slight chance the boy will qualify for occupational therapy through the school after they've officially evaluated him for AS, so we may be able to go that route if it turns out we've stopped it prematurely. It's a wait-and-see thing, but right now we're looking forward to having one less thing on our schedule this summer.

We're about to go on vacation for a week -- to the beach! So that should be interesting. I've bought water shoes for us all that will allow us to go into the water or walk along the beach without stepping on anything sharp, and I've told the boy child it's perfectly okay if he doesn't want to go into the water (I'm not crazy about ocean swimming, myself). We've bought pails and shovels and other sand toys for fun on the beach, and the kids have been "practicing" in the sandbox at the neighborhood park all week. They are very excited! We're also going to an aquarium (we LOVE aquariums. aquaria? aquariae?) and a science museum and will be touring an aircraft carrier while there, so we won't spend every single day at the beach, but it still promises to be great fun. I'll report back when we return!