McKay at 3 years old

This picture describes McKay perfectly right now. His favorite place to be is on the couch, with his silky blue blanket, in his PJ's with a cookie in his hand watching the Bubble Guppies. For him, this is his happy place!
Three is a big age for McKay because it is a big deal in the special needs world. At three they leave the early intervention program and transition into the school district. They actually receive all of their therapy and teaching through the school district preschool. McKay will not be entering the school setting quite yet though. His health is still somewhat fragile and he still gets sick very easily. So his doctor's thought it would be best to wait a little while to go to school. So he will attend preschool in the fall at the school. Until then he will still be able to receive services through the school district by doing home hospital. They bring a teacher and his therapists to the home. We are just finishing getting it all set up, so we will see how it will go. I know it will be a rough transition for McKay, so I hope it goes well. I am very happy I don't have to send him to school yet, it is going to be a cry fest when I actually have to put him on the bus to send him to school. I don't even like to think about it yet!
McKay has done a lot of great things this year! His biggest accomplishment of the year has to be walking! I am so over the moon that he has gained this skill. He gets better and better each day with his walking. He decided about Christmas time that walking was better than crawling and now walks about 90 % of the time. He is still pretty unstable, his gait is not the best and he is pretty slow. But he is working so hard.
He has also made a lot of strides with his language, he has a lot more sounds that he has ever had and he has about 5 words, 2 of which he can use in the right context. We have lost all of his signs except go, pronounced "doe" by McKay.
McKay still is a very sweet lovable toddler (yikes toddler!), he has recently been diagnosed with anxiety and it shows up just about any time we leave the house. He LOVES being home in the house, that is where he is most comfortable. He was also diagnosed in November as being Autistic. It will not change a lot of things for McKay. It is hard becasue you can't help him like you would a typical Autistic child becasue of his syndrome.
He loves to say "bye" to everyone, but usually only on his terms. A lot of times he will say it to people as soon as we see them so that they will leave.
One of McKay's loves still is balls, it is the only toy he really will play with at all. It is great that we at least have something. We can get some great therapy going as long as there are balls involved. He is ridiculously good at throwing, it figures that our special needs son has the best arm. He also is left handed.
He still is beyond obsessed with Bubble Guppies. It is his favorite thing ever and I am so grateful to have something for him. We are even more grateful that Nick Jr. has kept Bubble Guppies going and is still coming out with new episodes!
I just noticed that on his birthday post for last year I posted I hoped he would be off of baby food by this time this year. No such luck. He has been approved to receive feeding therapy through Primary Children's Rehab center to help with his feeding issues. He will be having outside Occupation Therapy twice a month to work on all of his sensory issues and his eating. He will also be receiving speech therapy twice a month as well.

His favorite things to do:
-Still watch Bubble Guppies
-Watch Bubble Guppies in strange places, his faves are under the table, in the laundry basket, and inside of the ottoman.
-Play with Grandma and Grandpa's coasters
-Play 1, 2, 3 "doe" with Daddy
-Eat cookies

His AWESOME achieving milestones:
Standing on his own!
Walking on his own!
Squatting down from standing position on his own!

His SUPER COOL language:
He can say "no", "doe" (for go), "bye", "datt" (usually for cookie), "mama", "ba" (for ball), "dada"

McKay's stats:
Weight: 38.4 lbs 95th percentile (working on that, he is currently considered obese, so we see a nutritionist and he is calorie restrained. It is a major work in progress)
Height: 38.5 inches 76th percentile (he has always been short so this is a big jump!)

We are so happy and blessed to have McKay in our lives. He truly is a blessing. I can't believe the progress he has made this year. He continues to work so hard and learn to do new things on his time.