Leaps & Bounds

Rachael, the school speech therapist, was excited to see me today! Here are the notes she wrote in Judah's communication book:

Judah initiated (gave the PECS strip - these are picture cards) and said, "I want juice", while pointing to the pictures of "I want" and "juice" all by himself! (She said there was no prompting, he just did it on his own!) We all cheered with joy! (She threw her arms up & screamed after she told me this news, so I can only imagine, haha)We went over Judah's book today and he imitated all clothing item names (hat, scarf, pants socks, etc.). He also imitated a 2-word phrase: "Bye hat" "Bye boots, etc. for all clothing items. Go over the book with him at home and help him find the items in his room to make it more engaging. You can also talk about where the clothing items go ("hat" on "head") - this will help address the goal of learning body parts. I put this picture next to his name on the book to address the goal of responding to his name. How is that going at home? I'm hearing a lot of imitation of single words and some 2 word combinations. Keep modeling at home! :)

Rachael also let me know that he touched his undesired food this month (apple slices) and even mushed them up! THAT is also huge. I can get him to touch the undesired food (either by making it a game or hand-over-hand if he allows it), but to be so fearless as to squish it up in his hand is a really big deal, really big.

Who would have guessed that 20 minutes a month speech therapist Rachael would be giving me the best news I've heard in 4 years??! We definitely had a moment of excitement bonding today. Don't laugh Mom. ;)

I am freaking amazed today. Words, words everywhere!! To get a clear picture on this, it's not just words he already knows becoming clearer (which is DEFINITELY happening - he said Thomas with 2 syllables instead of 1, a crisp "T" & a well enunciated "M" earlier). Most of the words I hear from him now are good imitations of new words (anything & everything) & spontaneous, appropriate words he says with no cue - he said some things today that I didn't even know he knew! We were looking at a row of something, I forget what, and instead of counting he started saying the alphabet! He said, "a, b, c" as he pointed to each one. We watched a bedtime story on my phone. It was about a boy who loved chocolate. He heard the word chocolate one time and nearly said it clearly. Like that. That is what I'm talking about.

To give you an even MORE clear picture.. The entry before Rachael's in the communication book (exactly one week ago today), Shelley wrote that he is becoming more independent and she is hearing spontaneous words. She writes that she is pretty sure she heard an approximation for dinosaur, but isn't hearing any phrases.. She heard "oh no" (has been saying this for a year probably), "juice" (has been saying for a long time too), and truck sounds. He responded to his name 2 out of 3 times when she had a truck in her hand and one out of 5 times when she did not. (Judah responds every time I say his name now) That's how big this is.

Apparently we just need to start testing the waters & see how far this kid can go. I got out the wooden alphabet board this afternoon for the kids to use. With this board, you put each wood letter into the spot with the same letter shape. When you do that the board tells you what that letter is "for". "A is for apple" would be one. Willow began taking them out of the bag when she realized that was much more do-able than trying to match them on the board. She couldn't get any in the board. Judah really took his time on the first two. I showed him where the first one went when it looked like he was about to give up. He looked at his 3rd letter, skimmed the board until he found it and stuck it in. Suddenly he was going probably the same speed most kids his age would, if not faster. I'm completely serious. I'm emailing Shelley tonight to see if they have this board at school (I've never seen it there). The other day he DID get some pieces in the Thomas puzzle, the first one came fairly quickly. He may have just been too distracted by the toy he really wanted that was in the closet.

Sebastian's job in the game was to come up with a word for each letter as Judah put them in. Guess what "K" was for? Karla!!! :) hahaha

Tonight Willow was sitting in the little Cars chair that we bought from someone earlier today. I was sitting in the computer chair a couple feet from her. The boys were playing with the basketball hoop that we had purchased along with the chair. Willow leaned over and whispered, "Mommy.." I put my head down and she cupped her hand over my ear & whispered, "Bye" then leaned back & laughed!


 

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.

Departure & Arrival

Today's schedule:
Departure from home - 8:45 am. Drop the boys at school, take Willow to story time at the library, pick up the boys, lunch, directly to speech therapy, back home for 20 minutes, directly to meeting with Donna to talk about Judah's IFSP & back home again arriving at 6:15 pm.

Donna filled us with information on disability law, her personal history & gave us ideas on what to expect as our outcome. She also offered advice and in a polite way let us know that we may be seen as obnoxious for requesting what he needs, she thinks it's 10 times more than what they are going to end up giving us. And obviously we don't want to piss off the party. She also said that the IFSP changes will not go into effect until it is signed. It's not signed until it's done. I hope the next meeting is the final meeting. She told us to have them clarify everything we weren't clear on, to follow up on everything discussed via email & to decide what we really need (3 things) and what we can live with. She's been living the IEP/IFSP for many, many years. Her son is also in the system, but not the same education district. So we've gone from 1 professional telling us to fight for what Judah needs, no matter how ridiculous our "team" thinks it is, to another professional telling us that realistically we are only gonna get a smidgen of what Judah needs & that we're going to spend a fortune on private therapy & that our marriage could fall apart (happens a lot). Now we just have to decide our road. Seems easy enough, right? uggggggggghghgh!!!!!!!

We talked for quite a while with Donna & then I told Scott I needed to put more money in my meter. He was surprised that I had parked at a meter. I told him there were no spots without meters. He said he had found one! He walked outside to find a $40 parking ticket on our car. Our life sucks.

I tried to drive home tonight in the dark after our meeting with Donna. I made it a few blocks & then parked. I don't feel safe at all driving at night. Going to meet with the Dr. who did my eye surgery very soon.

I learned today that our van beeps when we back up & get too close to something behind us. I won't say how I learned this, but I am extremely thankful for it. Our life is chaotic enough.

Willow was very serious through library story time. We never go anymore. This was probably her 2nd time experiencing story time, and it was crowded! She looked around, studying the room, the librarian reading the book and the kids & parents. When the music came on & the kids were jumping to a part of the song, I lifted her up & down. She lit up with smiles, throwing her hands in the air! Greta told me she noticed it from across the room! Willow thought the jumping was fantastic!! I've never been able to do anything to break that frown & silence when we are out in public, especially not in this huge way. Now I know the secret. :) She waved bye to Greta & continued her silence until we were at the exit door. Then her speech came back.

Judah - Miralax twice, .2 mL L-Carnitine, reflux med, vitamin D 2000 IUD, fish oil 1/2 tsp & 1 probiotic. I walked up to him after arriving home & commented on his new Fillmore car. He responded with a really good imitation of Fillmore from cars (the hippy car), by saying "Heyyy Maaan".  ??! Definitely talking more & more responsive. Eye contact this evening was really good. He said many new words today - all or most through imitation. He was across the room, focused on his little cars & looking away from me when I said, "Bye Judah!" just one time. He turned around, waved and said, "Bye!!" He's had wet diapers all day, and obviously no underwear time today. It will take so much longer to potty-train him than it did Sebastian. We need probably 2 weeks of only underwear time before it MAY happen. Haven't seen him hit others in quite a while! He still hits himself when upset, on average probably a few times a day. After school a regular aide took him to wait at the bus instead of by the classroom or on the sidewalk outside of the classroom like usual. I asked the aide why he was there & she basically said because she had to take another kid there (so why not throw off Judah's routine, put him near a bus making him think they are sending him on a bus somewhere, etc.). Sebastian & Willow had been playing on the playground prior to this. We walked over to Judah's classroom to find him 5 minutes before class was supposed to end. Sebastian caught up with Shelley who told him where Judah was (already at the bus!). Judah was very upset, as I had predicted. I had scurried over there & yelled his name as soon as I could see him. The aide said he was upset because a string of Kindergarten students had just strolled by. Every kid in that classroom is probably panic-stricken when their routine is interrupted. They've seen him panic when they bring him out early & he has to wait 2 minutes for me to get there. There was no need to do that to him today, completely unnecessary & mean.

Last Day with Pa Rock

Tomorrow we are meeting with a lady offering to advocate for Judah at the next meeting. We've never met her before, so we'll be attempting to catch her up on over a year of history with WESD. I mention WESD so much. I wonder if my blog shows up when someone Googles WESD, haha.

Tonight Scott and I are preparing for the meeting with our advocate.

Today was our last day with Pa Rock. Tomorrow he heads back to the sunshine, miles & miles away. He grew really attached to the kids while he was here, he even grew attached to the dog! Pixie is usually misunderstood by most people, with her abounding energy & dramatic reactions to small things. She has a fierce growl, very sweet, loving & protective dog, but her growl sometimes matches that of a vicious attack dog. Pa Rock seemed to really like her.

Sebastian & I saw our first movie together today, courtesy of Pa Rock. We went to the Cinebarre to see Frozen. Before the movie we ran into Gita, a girl Sebastian went to preschool with. After the movie we ran into Mr. Nowickus, Sebastian's music teacher. With that name & Sebastian's stories I had imagined an odd looking older man with a dramatic flair for life, wearing a suit coat and bow tie. Curly white hair & thick rimmed black glasses always came to mind as well. But Mr. Nowickus turned out to be a guy, probably in his early to mid-thirties. To me he looked like a single guy with a fun, fulfilling job during the week who hits the bar most weekends (where he smokes casually), meeting people that believe his job is a story he uses to sound cool, but he still has many friends. He was really friendly, he immediately waved at Sebastian & came up to talk to us. Both Gita & Mr. Nowickus had also gone to see Frozen.

While we were gone Willow finally started talking to Pa Rock & Pixie stayed in her crate the entire time, by choice. Willow & Pa Rock really connected today.

We all played outside after Sebastian & I returned home. The kids pulled out a bunch of their different ride-on toys. Judah made a dirt road in the rocks & slid down on his bottom a bunch of times. Willow followed suit, but sliding down on just the rocks. This didn't look fun at all. Pa Rock pushed Willow around on one of Sebastian's first bikes (pretty small). From there she went on to persuade him to push her around on many other vehicles of choice. Sebastian, Judah & I played football in the yard. Judah was excited, but every time I told him I was going to throw it to him he turned around and ran in the other direction, haha!

Pa Rock & Scott went grocery shopping tonight. When they came home we took pictures. Judah was very playful, climbing all over Pa Rock. Pa Rock seemed to enjoy it.. until Sebastian (twice Judah's size) wanted to do the same, haha. We all had a very nice time with Pa Rock, it was quite perfect.


Judah- pull-ups all day, took vit d, probiotic, fish oil & 200-250 mg of L-carnitine (likely way too much, I confused dosage with fish oil and we stopped when I realized). Said "Pee-pee" very clearly this evening in bed, pointing in the correct direction. I asked him if he needed to go potty & he nodded his head yes - but he wouldn't sit on the potty. He said jacket very clearly today. Responding to his name quite a bit. Sat at the counter & put a thick puzzle with 6 big pieces together. Then he pointed at each piece, counting them. He did all of this completely on his own, no one else was even paying attention to what he was doing except Pa Rock who noticed it from across the room. Every time I asked him to get undressed today he immediately took off his shirt. Putting on pants very well, completely independent. He tried riding his Thomas trike after I pointed to it & told him to try it, was willing to let me put his feet on the pedals, pushed for a couple seconds a few times, but always went back to pushing with his feet on the ground. He rode for quite a while - longer than usual. Very faint train noise this evening - he picked up on it. He also noticed a tiny train on Willow's helmet, came up & studied it. No dry diapers today but was not taken to potty frequently enough - busy day.

Pancakes, Pa Rock & Pretty Music in Portland

This morning consisted of pancakes, Pa Rock & pretty music in Portland. Sebastian requested pancakes & Daddy granted that wish. Willow ate hers at warp speed! Shortly after, Pa Rock, Judah & I drove to Portland for Judah's music therapy. It's been a few weeks since I sat in on one of Judah's sessions. Scott has gone the last two times & he didn't have therapy last weekend due to his tummy pains. I was remembering his first sessions with Angie & how I would get so excited when he would say a new word during his session, sometimes even two! But two was rare. Fast forward & I can't even count how many words I heard him say this morning, not all clearly, but we knew what he was saying. Huge progress, huge. And animal sounds! Now I know where he has captured so many animal sounds! They practice those there every week. Angie said his last session was a lot better, she was really wowed by him suddenly saying letters when they did the "Jazzy ABC's" on her I-pad. But today was unique because Pa Rock got to experience it as well. It's a pretty cool environment to be in.

Onward home & then to the Discovery Center with everyone. The kids had fun, they took their time a bit more than usual (thank goodness), which left them less than 20 minutes for playground play before closing time. This was awesome because it was chilly outside!! Sebastian finally started going down the tube slides, only because Scott braved them with him. Sebastian is always terrified of losing me in the play structure (this happened once). This is the first thing he thinks of when I mention the Discovery Center. Today I recommended a bright orange hat so I could always see him. He thought that was a great plan. Judah took a HUGE slam to the forehead when he was running in circles in the train room with the other kids. Part of the circle included ducking down to run through the area underneath the plastic bubble where they can stick their head up and see the train. He didn't duck on the way out & he was running fast. I heard the sound & instantly knew what had happened. Sebastian came running to me, "Mom, Judah got hurt really bad!!!" I ran to see him, dropped to the floor & held him. Scared me to death. He cried hard, but not for long. I couldn't feel a bump & didn't see a mark. Unbelievable. Before I knew it he was watching the train again, but was no longer running in circles, just standing on a makeshift stool to see the train go by.

Judah was saying, "Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm!" at dinner tonight. I don't know where he picked that one up. When we were winding our way out of the play structure at the Discovery Center, he spotted Pa Rock on the ground & said, "Look! Rock!!" Judah made sure everyone was together the entire time we were inside. He panics if someone is too far behind, yelling, "Wait!! Wait!!" and holding his hand out as if he is trying to reach them, haha. He was completely attached to Pa Rock again today. I asked him if he wanted to say goodbye to Pa Rock this evening and he gave me a "no". He had much time to reconsider, but he didn't! Pa Rock seemed amused.

Judah had vit D, probiotic, fish oil and reflux med. No time for potty training today. Very good mood, energetic, interactive & very verbal.

I'm also noticing that Judah periodically recognizes numbers & letters. I know this through him saying them - when this happens he is always correct. It rarely happens - but how friggin' cool!!

Sebastian's First Star Wars

Just a quick post tonight as I need to catch up on some other posts.

Pa Rock arrived around 12:30pm in a really cute, very small blue car. The kids battled for his attention. Pixie barked, growled, became affectionate, then barked anytime Pa Rock stood up. Judah somersaulted, flew & bounced everywhere.. hit Pa Rock many times & at one point somersaulted over Willow. Willow stared at Pa Rock in awe with her huge brown eyes, then stepped away to physically battle her brothers. They kids kept themselves in Pa Rock's view at all times. Sebastian showed him random items, even showed him a pic of Karla & threw out a lot of interesting conversation. The kids played air hockey in the boys' room while Pa Rock, Pixie & I watched. I never knew just how physically resilient my kids were until I watched them playing air hockey this afternoon. Maybe they were just toughing it out for Pa Rock's sake? Anyway, they maintained play together for probably longer than I have ever seen.

We also played bowling, because Sebastian remembered that Pa Rock used to be a really good bowler! Funny the things kids place in their memory. When Pa Rock asked about our truck Sebastian quickly jumped in and said, "Yeah, we had to take the insurance off of it." ??? Later I asked him how he knew that & through much conversation I finally pieced together that the insurance being taken off was the reason he couldn't ride in the truck any longer, thus making it extremely important in his mind. Sebastian also handed Pa Rock a tiny black & white photo shortly after he arrived. He & I had found this photo in the truck yesterday while we were cleaning it out. Honestly I had completely forgotten about it, but Sebastian had found it to be very interesting, and it was. Pa Rock didn't recognize it at first, after studying it for a while he came to the conclusion that it was a photo of some property Granddad (his dad) had owned near the river in Noel. It was then that I recognized Granddad's writing on the photo.

Dinner was Baja Fresh. I had forgotten how good their food is! And lots of gluten free options! Going out to eat is always a risk, there's never any way to predict the level of crazy or stress that is about to go down. Willow was so tired (no nap today) that she hardly spoke a word, but she definitely communicated through action! She dumped a handful or two of rice on the floor, and at one point when I was looking in the other direction she nearly threw her entire plate at me!! Scott grabbed her just in time. I expected to turn around and find her asleep, not about to fling a full plate of quesadillas & rice at me! She poured her carton of milk out on herself. The only reason I noticed the milk was because Judah had brought it to my attention. He had pointed to the puddle underneath Willow's highchair & said, "Oh noooo, water!" Judah got some throwing out of his system as well. He threw chips, crushing them into tiny pieces on the floor with his foot. He threw napkins. He threw a fistful of plastic silverware at the window. Pa Rock practically became Judah's security blanket not long after his arrival. Judah went into a panic anytime Pa Rock stood up and walked away. He chased him everywhere in Baja Fresh. Of course he ran through the restaurant on his own many times as well. He also said "hi" to half the restaurant, went up to one lady, petted her leg a few times & smiled. Thankfully she was not phased at all and smiled back. Judah would have escaped the restaurant had he been strong enough to push the door open.

We took Pa Rock back to his hotel, came home & put 2 of the kids to bed. Sebastian's "surprise" for helping out so much yesterday was about to happen! This one was HUGE (Daddy's idea). Sebastian is constantly asking if he is old enough to watch certain movies & typically our answer is "no". Tonight Scott let him know that he was old enough to watch Star Wars! Oh my gosh Sebastian was so excited! And added bonus, he got to stay up late, even later than his bro & sis! He actually ended up going to bed around 8:45 but he thought it was much, much later. :)

We just rented the movie Prisoners. Pa Rock said it was really good.

Judah updates- underwear most of the day (kept dry), but when he had diaper on was rarely dry except for waking up this morning. ?? He took vit d, fish oil, probiotic and his reflux med. We need to get red dye to put in fish oil. I think that will help him since it tastes good, it just looks yucky. He said "potty" first thing this morning when I asked him if he needed to go. And he was completely cooperative. He also said Pa Rock when I told him Pa Rock was coming today. He seemed to understand. He attempted to repeat MUCH of what I said today, especially if it had something to do with one of his favorites, or if I phrased it in a certain way. Tonight he was such a handful to get to bed, screaming & uncooperative & genuinely sad crying. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, it wasn't like him. When we finally got him in bed I told him that Pa Rock would be here tomorrow. Then he stopped. He was suddenly quiet. So I told him again & kissed him goodnight.

Still No Coffee

This morning I jokingly ask Scott, "Scott, you got the coffee going?", as if either of us does this every morning. He looked at me quizzically and said, "No". I walk away and Sebastian yells, "Scott DOES have the coffee going!! It was a surprise for you!!! I let people know surprises!!!"hahaha. He kills me.

This morning Judah ran to Pixie's cage and said, "dog!" Sometimes Judah's speech progress is pretty strong in the early mornings. He wanted to let the dog out (this never happens), so I helped him, hand over hand. He said, "barking" & "rain" appropriately this morning as well. I asked him if he was hungry & he headed towards the kitchen. He pretended to bite Sebastian and I asked him if he had a bite of Sebastian. He responded with, "Mmmm!!"

I cleaned out Sebastian's room today. He was very unusually relaxed about me throwing away the entire mountain of recycle he grows in the space between the foot of his bed & the wall.

I was able to get in an hour of one-on-one time with Judah during Scott's lunch. Scott worked from home today. We did a puzzle and he got the first two pieces put together - and I was trying! He was able to get a few pieces, but was not completely engaged, was pretty distracted. He helped with the final pieces and was very proud of the finished product. He didn't want to put it back in the box, so we left it out, sitting within our view. We got out one toy at a time & put each one away before we got out the next (except the puzzle). He picked the 2nd toy, which was Sebastian's electronic change sorting machine. He never gets to play with it but always wants to! We've been working on counting to eleven. I counted to eleven, counting one number with each coin I handed him. I asked him to repeat the number before he got the coin. Most of the time he didn't, but he started to near the end. At least he was hearing me count - that's helpful. We lined the coins up, counting as well. I also tried teaching him the name of each coin. I picked Mr. Potato Head next. Sebastian has a gigantic Mr. Potato Head filled with standard sized Mr. Potato heads & a few baby Potato Heads (a gift from Pa Rock). Judah knew exactly where all of the body parts went, had to practice pushing them in and was very creative in putting them together. With that we practiced body parts, colors and fine motor (pushing small pieces). He also had to make many choices - answering questions. I would love to have daily one-on-one time with him & be prepared with activities.

We started back up with the underwear today - Judah stayed dry all day!!!

Sebastian made his own lunch today, peanut butter & jelly, when he decided I was too busy to get it done quickly enough. He did a great job!

Pa Rock is here tomorrow afternoon!