This blog may turn into scattered notes & cute stories at some point. I want to document everything cool & factual stuff as well, but obviously the present throws many priorities at me as well. So, that said, all apologies if my writing starts to get messy (ier). From now on, I'm going to try to write and be done, without going back through the entry.
Today I volunteered in Judah's class. It wasn't as comfortable as it's been in the past. As the day progressed it got comfortable though. His O.T. was there today. I had never seen her in action. I don't know why people there get so nervous around me - am I intimidating???! It has to be solely because I am a student's parent. His O.T. was the second staff to tell me, or let me know in some way, that she was not her normal self because of my presence, my huge intimidating presence. ;) She was great though - so creative! Her utensils, plates & ideas were really fun. Although, at one point Rachael (his speech therapist) fed me smashed up Rice Chex soaked in juice from the mandarin oranges. You do what you gotta do. ;) After I took my bite Judah held the fork up to his mouth like he was going to take a bite himself. Unfortunately, everyone started cleaning up in a whirlwind exactly at that moment. I was the only one (out of 3 adults & 2 kids at a small table) who even saw him take this big step.
When we first sat down to do the O.T. food group, the O.T. lady got out her utensils/toys. Rachael handed Judah a large, heavy HAMMER to smash up his food. It wasn't a real hammer, but could have easily been used as one. It was likely just a very expensive O.T. tool/toy. But honestly, I had never seen a hammer that big in my life. About 2 seconds later it dawned on me what a horrible, awful, dangerous, deadly idea it was to hand Judah an O.T. sledgehammer. I immediately told Rachael that he had hit himself with a wrench yesterday - goodbye hammer.
His classroom was so busy. We moved quickly from station to station the entire time. The same boy was with Judah at every station. They didn't interact much, if any. There were 4 adults working, one teacher & 3 aides. Each one had a couple of kids at a separate station. His class has grown a lot! On top of that, the speech therapist & O. T. were present as well! I was trying not to get in the way of the fast paced stream of people. I was the only fish who didn't know which way to go. Judah held my hand & pulled me through.
I snuck out early to grab Sebastian. He avoided the playground until all of the big kids dispersed. Not long after, a group of kids his age (many from his class) came out to play. I heard his name yelled from all areas of the playground. I was proud of him, he didn't try to please everyone - he was confident, doing what he wanted & having fun.
Mom brought Willow home. She stayed while we did our usual Tuesday lunch routine, followed directly by speech therapy. She brought in bags of goodies - some filled with food & some filled with other stuff. I'm not even sure what's in the ones she left! Sebastian & Willow had gluten-free pizza for lunch - that was a treat Gramma, thank you!!
Judah did well at speech therapy.. saying, many, many words. He imitated words all day long. Many times he seems to imitate the sounds he hears, not the letters. It's as if he hears us talking in song, and he sings back the same tune. Repeating is learning, eventually his song will have clear lyrics, but until then we are really enjoying & excited by the new music!
Once home we snacked (thanks again Gramma!) & then played outside. Willow is using her new scooter a lot, she is very proud of it. She got ticked off at Judah when he decided it was finally his turn on the pink scooter. Often he will just step away if someone wants to take something from him. This time he was determined & did not let go. The kids watered plants, themselves & the sidewalk. Judah ran inside at one point. I closed the door thinking he had gone to play trains. He quickly wanted back out.. he had his trains in hand, laid down on the sidewalk and played with them in the mud/grass, acting out scenes from Thomas (yes I recognized the scenes, sigh). It was pretty cool though, seeing the tall pieces of grass as trees and the small puddle of water as a huge lake. I took some pictures, not of him, but of the trains in their new scenery. It will likely be my next Facebook cover.
Judah pooped today. Lately he has had no pain with that & it seems to come soon with no real waiting time. In class he gave me the "I need to potty look" twice. He wouldn't go to the bathroom though, I tried. It wasn't part of the routine - it wasn't what he was supposed to do - so he didn't do it. This reminds me of Sebastian, very closely following the rules while in public.
Daddy came home as I was holding Judah on the floor, trying to help him pull out of a melt down. Judah was upset that his phone time was up, very upset & extremely focused on continuing to watch Cars videos on my phone. Daddy tried to take him, no luck. It took quite a while. Once I was able to start playing with him, flying him around the room, he began to be okay. But that meltdown was 10 times longer than usual. Things just seem to be going downhill with some of his challenging moments lately. However, he didn't run into the street while outside or do anything dangerous (that I noticed).
Once Daddy got home it seemed as if a huge meteor crashed into our living room, radiating stress. Judah was melting quickly & hard, Sebastian was so loud you couldn't hear yourself speak. Sebastian also had a meltdown, over scrambled eggs. Willow danced around the house like a fairy, having fun with anything & everything. She seemed to have no sense of pain as she flew off of the couch head first (I gasped for air!). She landed in a pile of giggles. She hit her head on the TV stand more than once & acted as if she didn't even realize it. Loud, crazy.. I couldn't take it anymore. I went outside & cleaned the car out. Nobody understood what the hell I was doing. For me it's like a job that you aren't allowed to stop, you don't get paid for, you feel obligated to do well, sometimes you love it & sometimes it causes you hair loss, handfuls.
Willow crashed instantly, snoring.
Notes I took today-
Judah came up the hill from the garden. He looked scared. I asked him what was down there & he said, "Be!" I said, "A bee??" He started walking away & said, "Beee, beee.." and then kind of softly, "beware".
I told Judah that Sponge Bob was on while he was playing on my phone. He looked over to see what was happening on that episode for a minute and then casually says, "I know" as he went back to playing on my phone.
When we put together his photo book for school speech therapy during class today he said, "back" when he got to Pa Rock's picture, as if he wanted him to come back. He said Willow, Bash & Papa clearly. I've never heard him say Sebastian's name - hearing him say Bash was pretty amazing. He even attempted to say his own name, saying it in song. He did point at his photo, smiling at the snow & said, "Me!" He said, "mama" for Gramma & tried to say Granddad & Meemaw. Mommy & Daddy he said pretty well. Tonight in bed he yelled "Daddy!" numerous times as Sebastian had turned off all of the lights.
In class during snack the staff offers Judah one small piece of food at a time so he has to ask for more. Shelley gave him veggie straws and said, "one, two" as she handed them to him. Judah said, "three?" hahaa. He said "I want crackers" more times than I could count, although crackers was really hard to understand. He made the sentence on his PECS board, making it clear what he was saying. His "I want" is really good now. He worked hard for those veggie straws. When he is motivated he understands & speaks better than you ever knew he could.
While at the sensory table, Judah was filling his cup with flour. They change the contents of the table often, today was flour. He filled his cup many, many times. He wasn't even looking at me, then he suddenly looked up & quickly threw a cupful right at me! haha. Totally planned out, he had just been waiting for the right time to attack. Sebastian thought it was hilarious seeing me covered in flour. He loved the story. Shelley apologized a lot. She told me that when you come to their class you can expect to get messy. I said, "Shelley, when you come to my HOUSE you can expect to get messy. This is nothing new." haha.
Gramma had Willow for a bit today, she writes...
Willow was a little angel today. She repeated everything I said and more. I took her to visit Papa at his office and she loved it! Sat on his chair and got out all the markers and colored pictures for his walls. Everyone bragged on her Dora shoes and she was so proud. She also typed, after asking to "work on Papa puter" and got to see her typing come off the printer which was fascinating. The huge printer. Afterwards, we went to the bank where she got to ring the bell for "excellent customer service" and everyone laughed and called "thank you" to her. She beamed at me which was sweet. Then we did a run through Fred Meyers to try to assemble lunch. It was a spur of the moment idea or I'd have asked you. Hope it wasn't too hectic for you.
Judah took 7.5 ml L-carnatine, fish oil, 2000 i.u. vitamin d, three tablets 125 mg folinic acid with b-12, one probiotic, 1/2 a dose of Miralax (we ran out), one dose of Benefiber & Docusate Sodium once (couldn't get the second dose in).
These are just added notes from today that you won't be able to comprehend, most likely. I will come back later to re-write them...
Meltdowns, boredom looked at holly like he was thinking ugh this is so easy
My turn was hard. Wet diaper, good potty routine. Liked ot. Ot wants to know where other ot focus is. Stop go while running (we need to use our signs). Liked motor. Bored tracing coloring, at circle, liked paint, sensory table, I want easily at snack. Tolerated watching gluten, but still asked for crackers that they had a few times at the beginning of snack to see if it would work - they have moved those kids a bit further from him. Drank water.
Something on his mind? Does what he knows he is supposed to. Capture what he does in school quickly at home - easily washes hands, wash dry hands, throw away paper towels. All done after meals, throw away. Uses I want to ask . Drinking open cup, drinking water. My turn is hard!
Motivated will do. Lots of ignoring, say cars or Thomas and he will always look. Variety of activities is crucial - he liked ot, he liked speech, both offered variety and change from usual. Liked new sensory stuff. Somewhat interested in playdoh and paint, playdoh medium changes.. How often?? Ask Shelley! Paint usually there.
Does what he is supposed to - sits for Malinda for 50 mins! Rachael not long (10 mins max?), even tho he likes new activity. Ready to go to speech, supposed to, knew where we were going I had told him malinda and trains and other things they play, animals, he stopped and looked at me, I was at his level, showing he was listening looked to be understanding. he got in the van and was showing he was ready to go beforehand when he knew it was time, went to van. The added of excitement of Gramma being there was trumped by doing what he knew was supposed to happen
Dropped DVD player during therapy, he still stayed in there. Willow loud. Malinda says he sits through all of that (because he is supposed to of course!).
Today I volunteered in Judah's class. It wasn't as comfortable as it's been in the past. As the day progressed it got comfortable though. His O.T. was there today. I had never seen her in action. I don't know why people there get so nervous around me - am I intimidating???! It has to be solely because I am a student's parent. His O.T. was the second staff to tell me, or let me know in some way, that she was not her normal self because of my presence, my huge intimidating presence. ;) She was great though - so creative! Her utensils, plates & ideas were really fun. Although, at one point Rachael (his speech therapist) fed me smashed up Rice Chex soaked in juice from the mandarin oranges. You do what you gotta do. ;) After I took my bite Judah held the fork up to his mouth like he was going to take a bite himself. Unfortunately, everyone started cleaning up in a whirlwind exactly at that moment. I was the only one (out of 3 adults & 2 kids at a small table) who even saw him take this big step.
When we first sat down to do the O.T. food group, the O.T. lady got out her utensils/toys. Rachael handed Judah a large, heavy HAMMER to smash up his food. It wasn't a real hammer, but could have easily been used as one. It was likely just a very expensive O.T. tool/toy. But honestly, I had never seen a hammer that big in my life. About 2 seconds later it dawned on me what a horrible, awful, dangerous, deadly idea it was to hand Judah an O.T. sledgehammer. I immediately told Rachael that he had hit himself with a wrench yesterday - goodbye hammer.
His classroom was so busy. We moved quickly from station to station the entire time. The same boy was with Judah at every station. They didn't interact much, if any. There were 4 adults working, one teacher & 3 aides. Each one had a couple of kids at a separate station. His class has grown a lot! On top of that, the speech therapist & O. T. were present as well! I was trying not to get in the way of the fast paced stream of people. I was the only fish who didn't know which way to go. Judah held my hand & pulled me through.
I snuck out early to grab Sebastian. He avoided the playground until all of the big kids dispersed. Not long after, a group of kids his age (many from his class) came out to play. I heard his name yelled from all areas of the playground. I was proud of him, he didn't try to please everyone - he was confident, doing what he wanted & having fun.
Mom brought Willow home. She stayed while we did our usual Tuesday lunch routine, followed directly by speech therapy. She brought in bags of goodies - some filled with food & some filled with other stuff. I'm not even sure what's in the ones she left! Sebastian & Willow had gluten-free pizza for lunch - that was a treat Gramma, thank you!!
Judah did well at speech therapy.. saying, many, many words. He imitated words all day long. Many times he seems to imitate the sounds he hears, not the letters. It's as if he hears us talking in song, and he sings back the same tune. Repeating is learning, eventually his song will have clear lyrics, but until then we are really enjoying & excited by the new music!
Once home we snacked (thanks again Gramma!) & then played outside. Willow is using her new scooter a lot, she is very proud of it. She got ticked off at Judah when he decided it was finally his turn on the pink scooter. Often he will just step away if someone wants to take something from him. This time he was determined & did not let go. The kids watered plants, themselves & the sidewalk. Judah ran inside at one point. I closed the door thinking he had gone to play trains. He quickly wanted back out.. he had his trains in hand, laid down on the sidewalk and played with them in the mud/grass, acting out scenes from Thomas (yes I recognized the scenes, sigh). It was pretty cool though, seeing the tall pieces of grass as trees and the small puddle of water as a huge lake. I took some pictures, not of him, but of the trains in their new scenery. It will likely be my next Facebook cover.
Judah pooped today. Lately he has had no pain with that & it seems to come soon with no real waiting time. In class he gave me the "I need to potty look" twice. He wouldn't go to the bathroom though, I tried. It wasn't part of the routine - it wasn't what he was supposed to do - so he didn't do it. This reminds me of Sebastian, very closely following the rules while in public.
Daddy came home as I was holding Judah on the floor, trying to help him pull out of a melt down. Judah was upset that his phone time was up, very upset & extremely focused on continuing to watch Cars videos on my phone. Daddy tried to take him, no luck. It took quite a while. Once I was able to start playing with him, flying him around the room, he began to be okay. But that meltdown was 10 times longer than usual. Things just seem to be going downhill with some of his challenging moments lately. However, he didn't run into the street while outside or do anything dangerous (that I noticed).
Once Daddy got home it seemed as if a huge meteor crashed into our living room, radiating stress. Judah was melting quickly & hard, Sebastian was so loud you couldn't hear yourself speak. Sebastian also had a meltdown, over scrambled eggs. Willow danced around the house like a fairy, having fun with anything & everything. She seemed to have no sense of pain as she flew off of the couch head first (I gasped for air!). She landed in a pile of giggles. She hit her head on the TV stand more than once & acted as if she didn't even realize it. Loud, crazy.. I couldn't take it anymore. I went outside & cleaned the car out. Nobody understood what the hell I was doing. For me it's like a job that you aren't allowed to stop, you don't get paid for, you feel obligated to do well, sometimes you love it & sometimes it causes you hair loss, handfuls.
Willow crashed instantly, snoring.
Notes I took today-
Judah came up the hill from the garden. He looked scared. I asked him what was down there & he said, "Be!" I said, "A bee??" He started walking away & said, "Beee, beee.." and then kind of softly, "beware".
I told Judah that Sponge Bob was on while he was playing on my phone. He looked over to see what was happening on that episode for a minute and then casually says, "I know" as he went back to playing on my phone.
When we put together his photo book for school speech therapy during class today he said, "back" when he got to Pa Rock's picture, as if he wanted him to come back. He said Willow, Bash & Papa clearly. I've never heard him say Sebastian's name - hearing him say Bash was pretty amazing. He even attempted to say his own name, saying it in song. He did point at his photo, smiling at the snow & said, "Me!" He said, "mama" for Gramma & tried to say Granddad & Meemaw. Mommy & Daddy he said pretty well. Tonight in bed he yelled "Daddy!" numerous times as Sebastian had turned off all of the lights.
In class during snack the staff offers Judah one small piece of food at a time so he has to ask for more. Shelley gave him veggie straws and said, "one, two" as she handed them to him. Judah said, "three?" hahaa. He said "I want crackers" more times than I could count, although crackers was really hard to understand. He made the sentence on his PECS board, making it clear what he was saying. His "I want" is really good now. He worked hard for those veggie straws. When he is motivated he understands & speaks better than you ever knew he could.
While at the sensory table, Judah was filling his cup with flour. They change the contents of the table often, today was flour. He filled his cup many, many times. He wasn't even looking at me, then he suddenly looked up & quickly threw a cupful right at me! haha. Totally planned out, he had just been waiting for the right time to attack. Sebastian thought it was hilarious seeing me covered in flour. He loved the story. Shelley apologized a lot. She told me that when you come to their class you can expect to get messy. I said, "Shelley, when you come to my HOUSE you can expect to get messy. This is nothing new." haha.
Gramma had Willow for a bit today, she writes...
Willow was a little angel today. She repeated everything I said and more. I took her to visit Papa at his office and she loved it! Sat on his chair and got out all the markers and colored pictures for his walls. Everyone bragged on her Dora shoes and she was so proud. She also typed, after asking to "work on Papa puter" and got to see her typing come off the printer which was fascinating. The huge printer. Afterwards, we went to the bank where she got to ring the bell for "excellent customer service" and everyone laughed and called "thank you" to her. She beamed at me which was sweet. Then we did a run through Fred Meyers to try to assemble lunch. It was a spur of the moment idea or I'd have asked you. Hope it wasn't too hectic for you.
Judah took 7.5 ml L-carnatine, fish oil, 2000 i.u. vitamin d, three tablets 125 mg folinic acid with b-12, one probiotic, 1/2 a dose of Miralax (we ran out), one dose of Benefiber & Docusate Sodium once (couldn't get the second dose in).
These are just added notes from today that you won't be able to comprehend, most likely. I will come back later to re-write them...
Meltdowns, boredom looked at holly like he was thinking ugh this is so easy
My turn was hard. Wet diaper, good potty routine. Liked ot. Ot wants to know where other ot focus is. Stop go while running (we need to use our signs). Liked motor. Bored tracing coloring, at circle, liked paint, sensory table, I want easily at snack. Tolerated watching gluten, but still asked for crackers that they had a few times at the beginning of snack to see if it would work - they have moved those kids a bit further from him. Drank water.
Something on his mind? Does what he knows he is supposed to. Capture what he does in school quickly at home - easily washes hands, wash dry hands, throw away paper towels. All done after meals, throw away. Uses I want to ask . Drinking open cup, drinking water. My turn is hard!
Motivated will do. Lots of ignoring, say cars or Thomas and he will always look. Variety of activities is crucial - he liked ot, he liked speech, both offered variety and change from usual. Liked new sensory stuff. Somewhat interested in playdoh and paint, playdoh medium changes.. How often?? Ask Shelley! Paint usually there.
Does what he is supposed to - sits for Malinda for 50 mins! Rachael not long (10 mins max?), even tho he likes new activity. Ready to go to speech, supposed to, knew where we were going I had told him malinda and trains and other things they play, animals, he stopped and looked at me, I was at his level, showing he was listening looked to be understanding. he got in the van and was showing he was ready to go beforehand when he knew it was time, went to van. The added of excitement of Gramma being there was trumped by doing what he knew was supposed to happen
Dropped DVD player during therapy, he still stayed in there. Willow loud. Malinda says he sits through all of that (because he is supposed to of course!).
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