Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Language Rolling In With No Brakes!


 Judah is not just talking more but he is ENUNCIATING! He said "happy" perfectly when we were listening to a wubbzy song with lyrics "be happy be happy be happy.." He said "pretty" this afternoon with no "t" sound when I laid out a dress on the floor. Later he said that word with the crispest, sharpest "t" sound you could imagine. I feel like I am watching a miracle. Progress is suddenly rolling in, with no brakes!
 
Kelly (case manager) came by this morning. She brought a lady that she is training to work with kids. We answered questions for nearly 2 hours, providing Disability with plenty of info & extra info that will hopefully grant us more assistance. The assistance would come through the "K plan", a new plan that we qualified for. Right now our only assistance is from Disability. They give us pull-ups for Judah. This just started today. We'll take it!! Kelly gave us ideas of what they K plan could possibly offer us, such as - iPad (she thinks this one may not happen), a kid-proof case for my computer & programs for him to use, private aide for Judah (in-home), someone to come in and help us write up a behavioral plan, weighted vest or blanket (whatever ends up working for him), locks for the doors that would be at top of door or possibly keypad with code.. I can't remember what else but it sounded too good to be true!! Kelly always makes me hopeful with the K plan information. The questions we answered beget a lot of information about how much assistance Judah needs. I believe there was only one in which we did not find the answer "full assistance" to be appropriate. There were always lots of answer options, but the one that described our personal situation was full assistance, over and over. The more she read the more I began to see how different our lives are from most, how our world seems to revolve around Judah's needs and just how much we do in a day. Scott squandered a guess about how many hours a day we are focused on Judah exclusively. Two hours. ??? Scott needs to spend some week days here, on his own. Two hours could be a trip to the park. The questions were depressing, but the hope of assistance lifted me out of that doom pretty quickly.
 
Gramma volunteered at Sebastian's school today. Sebastian got to get up in front of the class to do the alphabet with the class, pointing to one letter at a time. He loves those days. He thought up until recently that he rarely got picked & that's how it would be. He's been picked twice?? in the past two weeks I believe. The first time he was picked he told me about it and his face just lit up! He was so happy, and proud. There was a sub teaching class today - happens a lot.
 
I had to put away Judah's micro cars that he just got. He was asking me for them soon after, which he did by trying to say the names of the cars. He has been putting them (and many other things) in his mouth lately. This is a new behavior and obviously requires a lot more visual monitoring than usual. Putting little things up makes me feel better but you could never put all of them up, kids find everything and ways to get to everything.
 
Bash & Willow went with Gramma & Papa after I got back from the dentist today. I laid back in that dentist chair today & nearly fell asleep a few times. At one point the lady cleaning my teeth asked me to open my mouth & I just stuck my head out & clenched my teeth! Then she politely says. "Yeah, I think you are going to need to open your mouth." haha. After the cleaning she told me the day, date and time of my next appointment - very clearly. I looked at her and said, "What day (of the week) is that?" She looked at me with curiosity and repeated what she had just said. All is well with the ole teeth.
 
Judah & I did a clothing activity today. His speech therapist at school, Rachel, is working on identifying clothing items with him in his therapy time (20 mins a month). Scott came up with an activity that was very similar to Rachel's (although he didn't know that). I printed up a page of clothing item drawings I found online. Then I found each article of clothing on the page (intentionally using as many of Judah's clothes as I could) and laid them out on a blanket on the floor. I tried a few different methods to teach him and/or get him to tell me what the clothing items were called. He had been constipated all day long at this point, which obviously made this activity even more difficult. He jumped off the couch (he had laying there for over half an hour not feeling well) into the clothes over & over, frequently stopping to tell me something. He named the items that he has known for some time. With others he didn't seem to know what he was supposed to do. He must have named the items he already knew out of habit. When I laid the skirt down on top of him (where one would wear it) and told him it was "Judah's skirt", THEN he was suddenly interested. He wanted to wear everything & was really listening as I repeated slowly & clearly what each item was over & over. He repeated nearly all or most of them. He learned some new ones today for sure. Don't you dare take credit for that 20 minute a month Rachel!!
 
Judah's teacher sent a link to the WESD policies to Scott after he emailed her last night! I am super curious to check it out.
 
Judah had a gigantic poop, his pull-up couldn't hold it all. I let Pixie inside and she RAN into the playroom, even after I had mentioned the word "treat"! I thought Judah was in there still pooping, but apparently he was done. I walked into the playroom to find some poop on the floor. I didn't understand how Pixie had done this and why she was standing there beside me and why she didn't even flinch when I said, "NO". Then I realized it was Judah's poop. There were poop spots all around the train table that led directly to him. I picked him up as if he was a 2by4 and carried him to the bathroom. He wanted to take a bath after I cleaned him up. He had a big, soapy bath.. a long one. I even washed his hair (it had fish oil in it from the previous night, ew!!). During his bath I cleaned up poop. Everywhere I looked it seemed to reappear. The shower curtain is in the dryer right now.
 
Judah was excited about getting to blow out the candle. Believe me we needed a Yankee candle going - we really needed more like TEN!!

Judah has finally taken an interest in Pixie & was trying to say her name today! Most of the time he calls her "dog". Scott said Judah also said "cocoa puffs" (commercial playing).
 
Scott and I now have a dry erase board on the fridge with Judah's meds written down on it so we can keep track of what he has been given throughout the day. I'm also going to start a BM chart so we can easily keep track of his bowel movements and will know when we need to start being proactive. These are home tools we need. It's not just extra stuff to make myself feel more organized, these are things that feel very necessary now. They are just for in-home.

Judah - huge poop after hurting for over half the day. Took miralax, benefiber, probiotic, vit d 2000, l-carnitine .2 mg in applesauce, took reflux med in orange juice (avoided the painful episode of one parent holding him while other parent attempts repeatedly to give med). Verbal progress- imitating words, even words with multiple syllables, beginning to enunciate - made "t" and "p" sound perfectly today. Responding very well. Language is definitely coming.

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