when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

So I've been busy and tired and cranky and whatnot. It's been a while since I've let everyone know how the boys are doing.

In short -- all is well.

Dylan attends pre-school for special needs kids, hosted by Austin Independent School District. His class is small. There's Dylan, and then there's another little boy. And there is the teacher, Miss Lynn, and the teacher assistant, Miss Carolyn.

But Dylan doesn't spend three hours a day couped up with two teachers and one other kid. There is a pre-school for non-special needs kids. They have music time together, and I think they attack the playground as a united front.

Today, I picked up Dylan from school. He didn't want to go straight home. He wanted to see Gully the Cat, who hangs around the principal's office.

We walked through the doors into the main hall, and there were five little boys. They all turned and said "Hi Dylan!"

They were so excited to see him! These are his friends from the regular pre-school.

Gully the Cat was busy, so instead Dylan checked out the fish, the rabbit and the chinchilla. Very animal-friendly school.

Joshua also is doing well. We had a conference with his teacher, who seems to like Josh and appreciate his talents and sense of humor.

Josh continues to have problems with authority figures, mostly me. But it's genetic. All we can do is hope to teach him the practical side of listening to others and following directions. There's little chance he'll do either for the pure joy of being a follower.

Josh has a lot of friends. It's nice to walk through school and hear him chatting up the other kids.

Oh, and he's started playing with the girls down the street. One is a year older than him. The other is two or three years older. (The two girls were previously friends who've allowed Josh to join their clique.)

What's cool about it, is they play outside a lot. And Josh hasn't been big on the great outdoors. He doesn't enjoy our crappy backyard. But he loves the neighbors' backyards.

It's weird letting him go down the street by himself. We're just not used to it.

So there it is, for the most part -- two happy, healthy boys.

Oh, forgot to mention: Dylan's now receiving a small amount of physical and occupation therapy at school. We had to have a special meeting (called an ARD) with the teacher, the principal, the speech therapist, the occupational therapist, the physical therapist, and a kindergarten teacher.

It's all bureaucratic procedural crap, but whatever. If it means more services -- yay!

Anyway, Dylan's teacher, Miss Lynne, was reading through the report, talking about Dylan's strengths. That's when the speech therapist pipes in:

"Dylan is doing so well, he might qualify to leave the program by Christmas!"

She didn't say it quite like that. She beat around the bush in a rather awkward and uncomfortable way. But that's what she meant.

Afterward, I asked Miss Lynne "What was that about?"

She said not to worry. She's found that many speech therapists get wrapped up in the bureacratic procedural crap and lose sight of the picture. Not only that, but the speech therapist has little say in such a decision.

Stupid speech therapist.

Dylan's still seeing his private speech therapist, Tammy. I told her about the incident. Her reaction: "Are we talking about the same boy?"

Yes, Dylan's doing very well. But it's not like he's working on his PhD in chemical engineering. He's just getting ready for kindergarten, and he still has a ways to go.