Thursday, March 13, 2014

The Miracle of Mandarin!

Judah ate mandarin oranges & canned pears at school today! Apparently teacher Shelley put an orange on the end of one of his Veggie Sticks and he took a bite! Then he ate an orange she gave him with no Veggie Stick, then canned pears! They use PECS (picture communication) during lunch, she stopped when this happened and focused completely on the milestone happening in front of her, aka the miracle of miracles!

This evening I saw Judah rush out of the living room & down the hall. I didn't follow. He went to the bathroom completely on his own, came back with underwear & pants up! He totally knows how to do this. We just need to leave him alone. I didn't give him loud praise, but instead whispered in his ear how proud I was of him, and he smiled.

The next potty trip was completely on his own as well. However this one ended in a half naked little boy running from the bathroom. Once he got to the play room, he tore off his shirt to complete the nakedness. I found wet pants and underwear next to the toilet in the bathroom, the floor was a bit wet as well (either from Sebastian's bath shower or Judah's pee shower). So he didn't make that one, but still.. I'm confident he's got this.

I was in the kitchen while everyone was getting beds ready for sleep time. Judah came in to see me & I asked him if he wanted to go help get the beds ready. He said in a quick sentence (they are usually quick), "I don't want to" and then "don't want to" shaking his head no. He said "yummy!" this evening, that one is also new. There were some other sentences mixed in and a lot of repeating what his siblings & I said or what he heard or saw on TV. He answered some questions too, using one or 2 word answers. He directed me all the way from school to Wallace Road saying "that way!" and pointing in the direction he wanted me to go. He wanted fries from McDonald's & he was directing me correctly. He was trying to say McDonald's repeatedly. When we got to his classroom today he began knocking on the door (it's always locked). He ran around in a circle dragging his backpack (trying to be loud) then knocked again while saying, "teacher!! teacher!!" That was really cool.

If I think of more Judah verbiage I will come back & post.

Judah had a hard time understanding what to do when I asked him to bring me his plate from the table this afternoon & his bowl from the table this evening. He got very frustrated. I could see he wasn't understanding at all, so I showed him what I was asking him to do (both times). He has followed this instruction before, but it's rare & I don't ask him to often enough. It was kind of hard to see him completely not understand this request today (at 2 different times) when he has understood & done it in the past.

When we were outside I tried to snap a picture of the kids playing together. They all looked at me for quite a while saying "cheese!". Judah was trying so hard to look at the camera & smile. He has an unbelievably difficult time doing that. He turns his head to the side & does other things that he can't seem to control. He hid his face in Sebastian's shirt, turned his head (smiling in that direction), looked down, etc. I snapped a bunch of pictures - I think I was able to catch the millisecond of him making eye contact with the camera. Typically when he sees me with a camera he immediately looks away or walks away. But sometimes, like today, he wants his picture taken. What's strange is that when I have my picture taken with him he seems to have absolutely no problem looking at the camera & smiling. When he has the difficulty doing it I see huge anxiety, so huge he can't control his own actions. I can relate to that. That's why I see what I see there. However, Temple Grandin wrote that autistic people often feel it is more natural to look to the side instead of straight ahead, and to look at something else when a typical person would make eye contact. It just feels right, like the sensory stuff. I don't think that's what it is, but obviously I'm no expert.

Judah is wound up right now as Daddy is trying to get him to bed. When I laid with the kids tonight he was jumping all over the bed, on me, on Sebastian & even on sleeping Willow. At one point he punched me in the eye. Not sure where that huge spasm of energy flew in from, but I think most kids get that burst of excitement around bedtime. Willow always acts hyper at night when she is exhausted, the second I lay down with her she is out. She was like that tonight. She even slept through Judah jumping on her tonight, multiple times.

Then we had the dangerous stuff that happened today. Judah opened the oven while I was cooking fries for him at 450 degrees. I caught him quickly. We have to get an oven lock. Willow fell into the road, landing on her face. I try so hard to keep them away from the road when we play. She was very upset, cut her lip open, her nose and hands were black from the road. They were both completely fine after these very short but scary incidents. Judah wasn't phased at all, which scares me a lot. Learning to be safe & to avoid danger is part of his IFSP plan. There is no way of knowing the knowledge that he has or what he will do. It has to be better safe than sorry 100% of the time with him. Then, like tonight, he seemed to have lost knowledge he had owned before - not understanding a request to bring me something from the table. Will certain knowledge disappear? Has he inherited my unbelievably bad memory? There's no way to know.

Sebastian & I worked on the Papa project for about 45 mins tonight. We will be doing that every night. He really looks forward to doing it - he asked me all day long when we would start.

Willow is devious. She does whatever she can to get my attention & make me crazy. It takes forever to get her inside the house sometimes. At school today, she wouldn't follow us to the car. Instead she went into a huge gated area (that required me walking all the way back to the starting point of our journey). And of course Sebastian thinks all of this is hysterical. They are best friends. So that doesn't help any. He eggs her on & teaches her how to do other things she shouldn't be doing. She can stand on Judah's balance board and eat a snack, she is really good at that thing. Today I saw her going down the driveway on her scooter, paddling with her foot, riding that thing like she has ridden it for months. She is suddenly a little girl. Meemaw & Granddad, you are going to be floored by how much these kids have grown & changed!

Sebastian's neighborhood pals haven't been coming around at all lately, makes me sad for him. We need to get some play dates going with his school buddies. Steering him in that direction is probably a good plan anyway.

The kids tried to bathe together tonight after getting soaked with the garden hose & splashing in the mud this afternoon. They can all fit in the tub comfortably, but the oldest boy is very loud & sort of wild in the tub with them. Willow was out quickly, sitting on the potty the entire time, Judah was out not long after, trying to play in the water from the outside of the tub. They all took 2 baths today. Sebastian went outside and sprayed himself down with the hose not long after the first bath. Judah requested a bath this evening after his accident in the bathroom. And of course Willow had to have a bath because Judah was having a bath!

The TV was off for most of the day. Sebastian had a big meltdown over having to wear school clothes to school because that meant he had to change into play clothes when he got home. So TV time was taken away. Play clothes have holes & stains. I recently realized that this idea (which most people probably do) was a very good & needed plan. Willow & Judah need their clothes separated out as well - lately they have all been getting incredibly dirty outside. Today was gorgeous again.

I'm still having a hard time keeping Judah off my phone. I know the things that cause big meltdowns, that's one of them. They are working on taking turns in his class this month. That's another meltdown the size of Texas. He had quite a few when I was there on Tuesday.

We need to have dinner pre-made during the week, another idea that a lot of people probably do & that I'm just now realizing is very much needed.

I saw a list someone had posted online. It was a Montessori list of things your kid should be able to do at certain ages. What a reality check that was!! I always knew we weren't having them do enough, but this lady's standards were huge. When Sebastian is 12 he can cook complete meals & do the grocery shopping! Who knew!! See below...

The B-12 shot is coming up shortly. I need to go do some meditating.. haha.

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, 2 doses of Miralax, one dose of Docusate Sodium (couldn't get the second dose in). He pooped once - no pain, came quickly, in diaper.

 

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