My awesome, amazing, incredible Salamander!!!!

I am so proud of Salamander!!!! He is one absolutely amazing, awesome kiddo...

On March 30, I received a note from Salamander's art teacher informing me that one of Salamander's pieces had been selected for inclusion in the Annual K-12 Public School art festival. Now Salamander and Arts and Crafts did not combine for a long, long time. It has really only been since the last 10 months or so that he has discovered the enjoyment of drawing, coloring, and just in general 'mucking around' with paint, glue, beads, and other craft supplies.. A lot of his resistance to arts and crafts had to with his very poor fine motor skills (which have improved in leaps and bounds), his visual-motor deficits (improving too, slow but steady) and his visual processing issues (his brain literally hits 'overload' when exposed to colorful displays).

Here's the letter I got (I added Salamander's most recent school pic myself.. isn't he beautiful???)

Salamander kinda downplayed it all when I asked him about this. He told me: "Well, I made this pin [as in jewelry] and my art teacher really liked it." And that was all the detail I could get out of him.

Then the kick-off of the Art Festival was this past Monday. I hustled the boyos through dinner (as Potatey wanted to come too.. Potatey worships the ground his big brother is walking on, and the two of them have gotten so close over the past 2 weeks or so.. Salamander now actually wants to be with Potatey, is enjoying the big brother role, and Potatey is just lapping it all up), and then off we went.

The place itself was crowded, dark, smelly and LOUD. But Salamander was ready for the challenge. He took me and his little bro into the exhibit area, maneuvered through the crowd, patiently waited for me to find out where his art work was exhibited (and while I was asking around where we needed to go, Salamander tried to calm Potatey down, who was flipping out as all HE saw were knees, knees and more knees.. yup, that's how crowded it was), and then got so excited when we found his exhibit. I was blown away by what he had created, a photo is attached (which doesn't do it justice.. it is displayed on a deep red velvet background.. which work great for the exhibit itself, but not so good with my camera.. I will make better pics once the piece is sent home).

I was also blown away by how Salamander interacted with teachers, class mates, school mates, neighbors etc that he met at the Art Festival. He greeted everybody appropriately, then took interested parties to his exhibit area and was able to explain all about how he made this piece and what it all meant (sorry.. can't provide too many details there.. as I said, the place was loud and Potatey was in full meltdown mode by that time.. ). He really enjoyed 'being in the spot light', and more importantly, as some of the visitors to his exhibit had pieces of their own at the Festival, was able to reciprocate and visit his visitors' exhibits in return. It was just absolutely awesome to see him be 'out in the community' and be so accepted and so obviously LIKED by others.. (believe me, THAT hasn't always been that way.. not because he's not an absolutely awesome, lovable kiddo.. but because his, rather explosive and unpredictable, temperament can make social interactions, uhm, interesting.. LOL).

After about 25 minutes of being at the exhibit, Salamander was getting a bit restless and indicated that he needed to leave. And so we did...

As we were driving home, I observed Salamander from my rearview mirror. The happiness in his face, the pride radiating from his body language.. AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!

And then he asks me if we can go to an Art and Craft shop this weekend to get supplies as he wants to make 'more jewelry'. You betcha we will!!!!!