Monday, May 12, 2014

An App For Judah

To anyone I haven't returned texts/emails/phone calls to, I apologize. I seriously cannot keep up!

On top of trying to take care of, manage & keep my kids alive, I'm also making a bigger effort to bring educational activities into their lives! Which is totally fun, I love it! It's been indoor activities so far, we need to venture outdoors soon. Unfortunately, this educational work is also knocking out the time that I used to fill doing things that have to get done. Add to that a sick husband, poor guy is on & off.. his leg has really been hurting him the past couple of days. He was in bed by 9pm toinght!

Tonight I tucked Judah in & kissed him on the head.. he said, "Sweet dreams". Wow. That's brand new! I tell him that pretty often. I think he said "love you" following that. He's trying hard to say sentences & phrases. It kills us not to be able to understand him - we both want more than anything to talk to him! And to give him the freedom to talk to us & share his thoughts, opinion, knowledge, likes & dislikes with the world!

Tonight I searched for apps Judah could use. It was my first time surfing the Apple apps. We really need a good communication app - if anyone knows of one please share! (Erin- I haven't looked for the one you shared, but I will!!) The thing is, many of the apps I found speak sentences to you. Judah doesn't seem to always understand what we say - and the computer sentences would be brand new to him. I really want something that can give him the freedom to point at or touch what he feels, what he wants.. not in a very basic way (we can do that with PECS), but in a way that allows more detail & a more personal approach.. using pictures of places & people he knows in real life, something tailored to fit him. If we were able to share with him, at any given moment, what's coming next, it would be life-changing for him, for all of us. It would give him the option to be prepared emotionally, physically, etc. Giving him a much stronger chance of success - which in turn brings progress. If he had the option to communicate anything at any given moment - that too would be life-changing, that would be HUGE!!! Having communication at hand to be used in all kinds of ways would be so good for him. I want a way to give him much more access to the world, to communicate not just with us, but with others as well. The speech will continue to be worked on - but having the freedom to communicate so much more in other ways in the meantime would be beyond amazing.

Judah got very upset when I didn't make a turn during our usual Saturday morning trip to Portland. I had told him repeatedly where we were going beforehand. He was happy. But once I didn't turn where he wanted me to turn (which was away from the highway & actually the turn we make to go to speech.. ??) he was in tears. He was very upset, but also sad - "why aren't we going that way??" sadness. I have no idea where he was expecting me to take him. He couldn't tell me. But even if he could tell me, how would I explain why we couldn't go there in a way he would understand? I couldn't.

Also this weekend, I had to leave to go somewhere. Judah was a little upset that I was leaving, it wasn't too bad. When I got home Scott told me that Judah was really upset for a full 15 mins (just like at school last week). Scott said Judah was hyperventilating - they used a paper bag multiple times. This really, really scares me. This is a problem. Not just a physical problem but a very emotional & psychological challenge that we have to get through.

This afternoon Judah washed his trains in the bathroom sink. We had been outside & he had gotten them dirty in the rocks, so he decided to wash them. I caught him too late. These were trains he has been playing with for some time, that take batteries to run. Washing them broke them & I couldn't explain that to him. He kept taking me to the batteries, to the screwdriver, etc. This went on for half of the day. It was so hard! I couldn't make him understand. I felt so bad.

Judah's massage went well tonight. He was very cooperative. Scott helped at the end. Judah went right to sleep after that! I tried the beginning of the massage on Willow today. She started humming (this is a sign that the child is enjoying the massage). When she realized she was humming she said to me, "Stop it!" hahaaa. Willow made her gift for Gramma today. She absolutely wanted to be in control of her work. My other kids weren't like that at age 2! I can only imagine where it goes from here! She's definitely my child. Gramma's Mother's Day gifts are now complete! Hoping to give them to her tomorrow.

Sebastian really enjoyed the sight word/drive-in game I created! We played it for nearly an hour! He immediately wanted to play again after the first time. This kind of surprised me, because even though it's fun & allows him to add a lot of his own personal touches, it's also a bit frustrating because he has to read words that he doesn't know! With his usual book reading, he will look away or act out if he doesn't want to read. But this was different - he wanted to keep playing the game, so he kept reading until he got the word. If he was really struggling I would throw in a clue.

Pixie snapped at Bash tonight while the kids were playing on the kitchen floor. Sebastian didn't do anything - he was merely playing with Judah, about 2 1/2 feet from the dog. Pixie is pretty jerky with Bastian, she gets angry with him pretty easily, often when he is just close to her - she doesn't like that. Tonight she lurched at him and grabbed a bit of his skin right under his eye, pulling it out and letting it go. No scratches or wounds on Bash, he was just scared & crying. Scott started to get upset with Bastian & I immediately jumped in. I had seen that Sebastian had not done anything to provoke Pixie, he wasn't even looking at her! Not good. Scott & I both put Pixie in her crate - she didn't want to go (usually she does). She cried in her crate for quite a while.

We worked with beads tonight. Willow spilled the pony beads more than 3 times.. there were 1500 beads in our container. They were spilled onto carpet.. not wood where we could just sweep them up, but carpet. Many of the beads were clear, making them pretty much invisible once they hit the floor. So that took up a good part of the evening, haha.

Judah pooped once today. He was in underwear nearly the whole day & had no accidents! I took him to the potty every 2 hours probably? This would have given him ample time to have an accident.. he was drinking liquids too. He went on the potty every single time. Wonderful!!! He also dressed & undressed himself every time today. He woke up last night with his face covered in dry blood and the top of his shirt stained in blood. I cleaned him up. He was fine after that - ended up sleeping with me.

Willow walked around trying to brush Sebastian & Judah's hair today. She tried so many times on sweet Judah (who usually never fights back, but will instead get out of the way) that he turned around and bopped her on the head! I told him to apologize, he immediately gave her a great hug (he knows this routine), & she had a big smile!

Judah took 1 tsp fish oil, 2 vit d., 1/2 a bethanecol , Oxymag and docusate sodium (twice). He also took 1 tablespoon l-carnatine. No Miralax, pooped once. 

B-12 shot given.

 

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