Welcome to our new spot

Junior's regular personal blog will continue as usual but we needed a private blog to share some of our latest joy(hopefully it will only need to remain private temporarily).
As you know Junior tested an ipad and did wonderfully with it but the district still refuses to consider getting him one. Thanks to an unexpected blessing we were able to go to the Apple store on Wednesday afternoon.
So now without further ado Junior and his IPAD.
And Abby showing him a favorite music video
I have been learning how to use the communication program and set up boards and such for Junior. I can not say enough how I love this program. It outdoes boardmaker by leaps and bounds and is super easy to program. Once I learned how to use it, it took me less then 5 minutes to program this little intro for Junior. Just to get him used to the new symbols and how everything works. He was so excited when I showed it to him and then we went through it and I told him "Junior, thats you, you are talking". His face was priceless and I just wish I had, had the camera going at that point. He kept trying to holler and talk at the same time as the ipad.
Here is a short video that Abigail took for us. Can't see his face so I need to work on a way to get some good video of him using the ipad and a good way to rig it for when I have no extra hands.
He looks at the symbol using his eye gaze and then I press it for him.


I must say my highlight of the day was when we called my mom and I told her that Junior wanted to talk to her. I had made a quick board for him(seriously this program allows you to whip up a full board in less then 5 minutes) so he could talk to grandma on the phone. The sound is very loud so she could hear the voice.
I held up his board for him and told him to go ahead and "talk" to grandma. He looked at the symbol for "Hi,Grandma" then "How are you" a few seconds later he looked at "how is Papa doing". I was pushing the button as he looked at each symbol and it was one of those moments I will never forget. He went on to look at the symbol which said "is Rinny being good"(that is their dog) followed by "what is Andrew doing"(my little brother). He was even able to ask if they liked their new house. I had done a quick board so he could tell his teacher and my mom about what he had done earlier in the day. We had gone to my sisters house to wash my car. So with the push of a button I pulled up the carwash board and he proceeded to tell grandma & papa how "it was hot, I got wet, I splashed Abigail". It was too funny, he told them he splashed Abigail about 3 times.
At the end I told him it was time to say goodbye so he looked at the "I love you Grandma" symbol and then "bye, bye".

We are so excited and can't wait to see what else Junior has to "say" in the coming weeks.