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Jakob talks about graduating from school and what that means to him. And then I try to figure out what he's laughing so hard about. This is one of the tough parts of dealing with unreliable speech...the disconnect when he can't fully communicate what's going on his brain and I have no clue and none of my questions get me any closer.

With school ending, major decisions need to be made. So what's next...would he like to work in the culinary arts, landscaping or tech his summer?

Working hard on getting him to use more precise language. And what's amusing here is what I spent a lot of time convincing him he was wrong about...well, he was right. And how we plan on handling next year when the Special Olympics Regional Track Meet and Pigabilities are on the same day...

It's the day after prom and he has a few things to say about that. Plus we have new baby lambs on the farm and we're very excited about track practice!

The baby lambs are coming and he's got one thing on his mind.

He's not feeling well and it's a stressful time, for both of us.

Jakob is wanting to know when he's going to get snot again. Impossible questions are a regular thing at our house. This is my best attempt to calm his fear and worry.

When Jakob is having a challenging day, it's extra hard for him to answer questions. So on those days, even though I know that he has an answer for my questions, all his mouth can muster is "I don't know". But we get through it. And he sure brightens up when we talk about his big crush...

We record these podcasts when Jakob says we do. He'll just out of nowhere say "podcast room" and I know he has something to say. I think he had to work through some impulse before he got to what he really wanted to talk about. That happens. A lot. One of the moms from his hip hop group said they probably won't make it to caroling and he talked about it for a week. A lot. He starts the conversation with that and then we move on. I'm always fascinated by what he latches onto and often impossible to predict.

Just a quick check-in as he gets more and more excited about his holiday plans!

Jakob loves to dance and he really loves to sing. Luckily we have a lot of outlets for him to perform. And it's pretty obvious where he gets all his skills...

Jakob worked his first ever craft fair selling his cards and it was a huge success on multiple levels. Not only were people so kind to us, but Jakob showed some kindness to a couple young guys that reminded him of himself. So sweet.