Saturday, August 12, 2006

Thank you!

Nick and his friend Denver playing with bubbles.
I just wanted to post and say a special thank you to Nana for donating! Any amount is greatly appreciated!!

Friday, August 11, 2006

Pieces of the puzzle

I took Nick to his last day of therapy today. They have a three week break before the end of summer, and he starts up again in Sept. We got to meet with his OT,Liz,and she worked with Nick a little bit. Nick was wary of this "stranger" and did not like her interrupting such fun activities such as spinning wheels on a truck! Here is the list of therapies that Nick is recieving at Birth to Three:

2 hours of Speech
2 hours of OT
4.5 hours of Play group
3 hours of Special Instruction
___________________
Total: 11.5 hours per week at the center

We are also working on getting him 2 hours of Private Speech, and 2 hours of Private OT a week.

We did not do too much today. I was very sad that this was my last time of taking Nick to class for a while. The kids are all so very sweet, and one of them called me "ma-ma"! I found it funny that my own kid does not call me "ma-ma" and here I had another kid calling me that! After we got done with class, I drove back home for a while and then had to get Michael a new Sharps container for his needles. I took the filled one back to the hospital(where I was told I could dump it in our own trash). I was also informed that I could use a Coke container from now on and just throw it out with the regular trash. I am all about making my life a little easier! Once I got home, I did the usual of starting dinner,and seeing what Nick was up to. He grabbed a puzzle from his drawer,so I sat on the floor with him and helped him do it. Only he does not need much help. At least not with the shape puzzle. He can put that one together in no time flat. He LOVES shapes. He LOVES puzzles. I mean, he LOVES them! At the center they had to cover up all the puzzles because thats all he wanted to do. I got some pictures today of him doing his puzzle.







He knows where all the pieces go, and I even asked him "Where's the oval?" and then he picked it up and put it in the right spot!! I went through all the shapes with him and when I said "Circle" Nick repeated "Dircle". He never looked at me, just at the puzzle. He gets into his repetitive actions though after about two pieces-and then you have to hold down the other pieces to prevent him from taking them in and out constantly. You have to keep him focused. When he gets focused though,watch out, he can do things fairly quickly. His new fave toys are anything that is squishy in his hands. He loves the feel of them, and that extra sensory input just seems to awaken him. He is more verbal, and will babble tons while holding these items, and he just seems to be more "here" overall. Nick is like a 30lb puzzle, you have to find the right pieces to make it complete.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

A little bit of everything!

Nick working with Tam













This post might just be a little crazy and all over the place, so bear with me. The photo to the left is from today's session. On Tuesdays and Thursdays Nick works with Tam in a one-on-one social/play skills session. She concentrates on getting Nick to make eye-contact, to imitate, and to play with toys properly. The group session he has also works on these skills, but they work on them in a group setting with 4-5 other toddlers so Nick gets used to having to share and take turns. When he first started with Tam (back in March!) just getting him to sit in a chair was a big step. Now, he goes in the room and readily sits in the chair! He also would get very upset when she took a toy away that he wanted and tried to get him to "work" to get it back. Now, she has him matching items like bowls, and imitating her before he gets rewarded with his fave toy. He has also made huge progress with giving the toy back to her when she requests. He does this now with no fuss at all!! The smallest steps he makes are duly noted...like using utensils correctly(instead of twirling) or even smelling a raisin(last week he just threw it on the floor,this week he at least brought it to his face)...these are all big steps forward for him. Today I also met with his Speech therapist to discuss our goals for him as far as that goes. He still does not gesture to show us what he wants or bring anything to us--so that is one goal we set. We also talked about his eating. He only eats foods with certain textures(mashed, or soft like noodles, or crackers). She will help us to get him to develop his muscles in his mouth more,and that could maybe lead to trying more foods. Since he is doing so well with the hour long sessions,they want to increase it by 30 minutes on Tues and Thurs. We are wanting to get his Speech and OT to be in conjuction with his other sessions so we dont have to travel so much. It could mean half of his days are spent in therapy,but I think it would be best this way. With all this going on with Nick, it is easy for Michael to get "lost" in the shuffle. Yesterday him and I just took a day to spend together. We went to see a couple of movies, and just had some nice "mommy and me" time. It was nice to get to re-connect with him, as I dont want him to feel like he is forgotten or unloved. He is a huge part of this family and he was our first born, so he will always be special.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

Milestones

I am excited to say that we have reached a couple of milestones today!! Michael came to me while I was preparing dinner in the kitchen and said that one of his teeth hurt(it hurt like it was loose) he said. So I had him open his mouth, and sure enough, we have our first loose tooth! It is not exactly hanging by a thread yet, but it is slightly loose. Needless to say we are all very excited! We were not sure when Michael was going to start loosing his teeth, his Dr said it could be a while at the last check up. So we are pleased that this is a milestone that is getting closer and closer. Out of all of his friends, he is the only one who has not lost a tooth yet. He asked me "What do we do with a lost tooth mommy?" and I explained that we put it under our pillow at night and the toothfairy will give you money for it...provided said toothfairy is not broke. Another equally exciting milestone belonged to Nicholas today. I was sitting on the kitchen floor playing with him and he put his hands on my cheeks and said "Ga-Ga". We are not sure if he was trying to say "Ma-Ma" yet, but I dont care....he is trying to say SOMETHING, and he looked me square in the eye when he said it. I am elated that he is making such wonderful attempts to speak. He is also trying to copy what we say at least once a day now. Today he came up to me and said "Go". I asked him "Go where?", and he repeated "Go ere?" We also got the call that we have been waiting for this afternoon...all the paperwork was completed and Nicholas is ready to start Speech and OT therapy!! They want to sit in on two of our sessions this week so that they can get a feel for what we have already been doing with him. Tam has started using the PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) with Nicholas and he seems to be getting it. She is going to give us the materials and the knowledge to do the same with him at home. I have already been taught on how to do this during our last session, but Mike will need to learn. We probably wont get those until a couple of weeks from now. Just thought I would inform everyone on the good news!!!! I am so happy my baby is talking!!!

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Will he live to see 8??!!!

Michael has been a real pain today! It all started last night when we found him hiding in our bedroom watching tv at 10pm!! Then, he ALWAYS gets up at the crack of dawn no matter what time he went to bed, and was just downright incorrigible this afternoon. He was good this morning when we were at a picnic, but since coming home we have had to yell at him a number of times to "get down""stop that""give that back to Nick!". He hit dh in the head today when he jumped up on the sofa (how many times have I told him NOT to do that???!!), and tonight just took the cake..I told him dinner was ready and he just said "ok, in a minute". Well, minutes ticked by and soon it was time for bed. He had not said a thing about eating until he put his PJ's on and all of a sudden he said "But I am hungry...I did not eat"...heh heh heh...well, "TOO BAD!!" Neither of them took a nap, so by 7pm my patience had been well worn through, so it was BEDTIME!! Nick is going through a phase where he ONLY eats about 5 foods; and has been living on Pop-tarts and Pediasure. UGH!

Summer time picnic


Picturesque Mt. Rainier on a beautiful August day


Today was Mike's annual Guard Picnic. It was held out at American Lake on Ft. Lewis. They had all kinds of stuff for the kids to do out there. One of the guys brought his boat and had some spare life preservers, so Mike and Michael took a ride on it. I stayed with Nicholas at the playground. He was having fun going down the slides. They also had a jump castle-which we went in. Myself,Michael and Nicholas all went in there. Nick does not have the greatest motor coordination,so I went in there to make sure he did not get hurt. He loved watching the other kids jump. We got there around 11am and stayed there until 1:30. By 1:30 Nick had just had it with the socializing. He was starting to get upset quite a bit,so we headed home. I took some pics of the boys while we were there. We took the boys down by the lake and Michael loved it as always,but Nick was terrified of the waves,or the sounds they made-cant figure out which one it is just yet. He screamed while he was in the water,but he also screamed while he was out of the water-he loves the water;just not the noise.

Friday night I held a small party for Discovery Toys. A couple months ago I bought Nick's giant peg board from one of the parties I went to,so this time I decided to host one. This time I bought Nick one of those sensory balls that squeek, and I got a kiddie cookbook for Michael. This week, I need to get both Michael and Nicholas enrolled in the Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP). Through this program I will not be able to move to any base that does not have the facilities for my boys to get the care they need. It basically limits my assignments to just a few big bases. Also, this program will make it possible for Nick to be enrolled in the ECHO program-which will enable him to start recieving ABA therapy through the University of Washingtons Autism program. Don't forget that we are also doing the WALK NOW for autism research at the end of Sept. If you would like to donate just click on Nick's WALK NOW link to the right of this blog. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I cannot tell you how much Nick has progressed with therapy. He is making more eye contact, learning how to play with toys, and so much more. Without these programs there is no telling where he would be. Before therapy, he was not pointing,not signing, and we had no clue on how to get him "out" of his own world. His therapists are literally angels. We have learned so much from them and incorporate what we learn at home. Nick has made huge progress. He now says a few words like "hi,baby, and goalie" regularly. I cannot say how important these programs are for kids like Nick. There is also a bill that has just been passed, and it is about to go to the Senate. It is for funding of autism programs. You can read about it here:
http://www.combatautism.org