Choo Choo

Mr N tried to nap away therapy today, but Mommy wasn't going to let that happen. So after letting him take a short nap I woke him up and he was quite cranky, but his therapist immediately grabbed some fun toys and got him interested. His crankies soon faded away as he clambered down to play with puzzles and nesting blocks.

During therapy we did some painting with vegetables, you dip the veggie into paint and make a print on a piece of paper. We used onions, peppers, squash, and apples. They turned out super cute.

After a while of painting veggies with a paint brush, Mr N decided to touch the paint with his fingers. I was so excited, he's never like to finger paint and doesn't like touching the paint. A few minutes later he had both hands fully into the paint so I got him another piece of paper and he covered it in paint. His therapist suggested doing hand prints since his hands were already covered. Mr N's are on the left, E's are on the right.

We spent the last thirty or so minutes at the park, the kids love the park and his therapist was able to really get Mr N to engage in various games on the playground. She'd hide behind the curly slide and do tickles, or go down the slide with the kids, which they thought was awesome and talked me into joining in on the fun.

There were some kids at the skate park with their skate board so we headed down there so the kiddos could watch. Mr N was in awe, a couple of minutes of observation and he was on a ramp running up one side then back down and up the other side. This child blows me away with how incredibly smart he is, just watching the bigger kids for a few minutes and he totally gets what they are doing. His imitation skills are soaring!

The therapist left the park when therapy was over, but we stayed and played for another thirty minutes. Daddy drove by on his way home so we flagged him down, I sent the kids home with him while I ran to the store for some stuff for our trip to Susie's.

Tomorrow is our six year anniversary, I can't believe how quickly time passes. Seems like just yesterday we shared true loves kiss and found our happy ever after.

After bath time tonight we gave the kids their gifts for our anniversary. We kept it pretty low key since they've gotten a lot of toys lately and we're going to have a little party when their cousins are here next month. Each of the kids got a train set, Mr N's has zoo animals, E's has farm animals and Mr N got a magnet hinged door hide & seek toy, E's second toy is a wooden block farm set. Daddy immediately set up Mr N's train set and showed him how to push the train and say "choo choo", it wasn't two minutes later before Mr N is happily pushing his train round and round the tracks saying "choo choo". I love these moments. I set up E's block farm, because it pretty much rocks the house! There is a barn, silo and chicken coop complete with a white fence and cows, horses, sheep, pigs, trees and a tractor. No farm is complete without a tractor. I'll admit I probably liked the farm more than the kids did, I think they fail to appreciate it's awesomeness.

I'm pretty sure Daddy is just as excited about Mr N's "wuv u" as I am, I just heard him saying "I love you" over and over again. So I joined in to help him out, after a few minutes of  Daddy, E and Mommy saying "I love you" Mr N piped up with an "a wuv u". Swoon.

Daddy is watching Tarzan with the kids, trying to perfect his swinging through the jungle technique. When Tarzan put his hand up against his mom's hand, Mr N did the same to Daddy. Squeeeeeeeeeeee! That's adorableness at it's finest. He did it a few more times, so I had to join in on the love fest. How happy this little family makes me, I'm so lucky to have such an amazing husband who is an equally amazing father to our beautiful children. My heart is full of happy tonight.

Tears

Last night we went to the movie in the park and watched Mr Popper's Penguins. Before the show started the two kids in front of us got up to run around and play, E and Mr N joined them. At first Mr N just stood meekly beside his sister awaiting fun and games. The other two kids and E started running around but Mr N didn't follow, he didn't join in the fun, he seemed unsure what to do. Looking out seeing Mr N standing alone and the other three children playing caused my heart to ache. I fought back tears and encouraged Mr N to join in, since the kids were chasing each other, I said "go get sissy, go get her". After a bit of encouragement he joined in and really seemed to like the little girl (who was probably 6 y/o). When the movie was about to begin and the kids went back to their parents, Mr N followed the little girl.

Watching the above incident made me realize that my little guy just needs direction and reassurance. His autism prevents him from doing things naturally, but after he is encouraged and sees what to do he seems to quite enjoy interacting with other children.

This morning we arrived late to meeting, this is becoming a trend and I'm not really liking it; the back 4 rows were all full so we sat in the back room. Both kids did great the first 30 minutes, there was another family sitting back there with a little boy that is probably around three years old. He borrowed some books, but they left early so we didn't to talk to them after meeting. E had to use the restroom a little into the Watchtower study and when we came back the door was shut and there were two kiddos with their mom. The little girl visits pretty often, she just turned two. She sat with us the rest of the meeting, all three kids were pretty quiet but quite restless. Mr N looked at his book most of the time, then he started seeking sensory input. He licked the velcro on the blanket I made him, he walked back and forth in front of the book shelf and touched the books as he walked back and forth. He was just so overwhelmed by all of the stuff going on with the two kids that were in there. Not that the kids were bad or that distracting but the little boy kept playing with a puppet and moving around a lot, checking on his sister and E, then going back to his mom. The little girl kept getting new things out of my bag, notebooks, crayons, markers, lotion, etc. Just normal kid stuff but it really overwhelms my little guy. Once the lotion was out, he relaxed a little, he enjoys putting some on his hands and rubbing them together then rubbing some on his cheeks. The scent helps calm him, he apparently needs some sensory input in the form of smell.

Watching Mr N struggle to maintain appropriate behavior is so hard, I try not to get so emotional over him, but just watching him looking so overwhelmed causes me so much pain. I wish I could absorb his hurt and frustration. After meeting someone commented on how it looked like it was an easy meeting for me. While I didn't have to make any trips out to the car, Mr N really struggled today. Don't get me wrong, not going out to the car was very nice and it is progress, but I could barely pay attention due to constantly redirecting and keeping the kids quiet.

It will get better, it will take time, it will require patience and determination; as well as love, hugs, and tears. Mr N has made remarkable progress and I'm so proud of him, I just wish I could make him all better. I want his life to be easy, not for every day to be hard work.

On our way home from meeting there were a couple of cars pulled off, one with a flat tire. I saw what I thought was three girls, so I stopped and offered to help. It turned out to be two girls and a guy with long hair, none of whom knew how to change a tire, but at least they had a jack out that didn't work. I tried to change the tire with my jack, but it was too short since I drove the Jetta today. So I ran home to grab my husband and the floor jack then went back to finish the job. They were pretty grateful to not be stranded on the highway a few hours away from home all day. It felt good to do something nice for someone. On our way home from changing the tire we talked about how hard it is to be nice these days because it's become so dangerous. I typically don't stop but it was girls and they had two cars full of stuff unloaded on the highway from their camping trip. There would be no quick get away if it was a trap.

Time to go get the bathroom floor tiled, we got the floor leveled yesterday, today is tiling day! It'll be nice to make some big progress on it.

Resources

My sister in law sent me a link to a site that has valuable information on Autism technology. I'm just now getting to take a closer look at it and have discovered there are far more apps that Mr N could benefit from than just the ones he has already. I'm installing two receptive identification apps as I type. While these apps won't replace all of the other work we are doing with Mr N, there are times that he could be playing with his iPad and really learning. 

He really enjoys a couple of apps that he has to match letters to make words. Here is a screen shot of one of them.

 I think it helps teach him how to match objects, I hope it'll help him learn to spell. The apps he uses for that are eSightWords and First Words Sampler. E likes them, too. There are additional games on the sight words app, it is a little more advanced. 

There are a lot of flashcard apps that can be helpful to anyone with small children, even those without autism. Not that I'm encouraging hours of time spent on a device, but there are times when they can be helpful (flying, road trips, dr's office, or while shopping). 

My whole reason for this post is because my SIL is such an amazing person. She calls to let me know she found something that might be helpful in working with Mr N, she sends links to great resources, she provides me with options to call and talk to other people she knows with children with Autism. She truly is a gem, it's so touching to know she thinks about her nephew and wants to help. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I love you!

Sleepyhead

Mr N fell asleep at about noon and slept until four o'clock yesterday. Needless to say, there wasn't much therapy time. But he was still super cute, so I'm sure he scored some points for that. Looks should figure into the equation somehow.

We've switched our therapy from five days a week for three hours, to four days a week. Last week we left to go camping on Friday so today is our first day with no plans, no where to go, nothing to do. It feels great. I should probably run some errands, but for now the thought of chilling all day sounds much better. 

Last night the kids were playing roughly with each other, but having a great time until E got a bloody nose. Oddly enough she didn't freak out at all, she just came and showed us the blood all over her face and arms, and the blood all over the comforter. We got the bleeding stopped and put an end to beat-your-sibling. 

As I was sitting here working on my blog Mr N brought over a big stuffed dog that needed a kiss. He likes having me kiss his stuffed animals, then he kisses them. It's super sweet, until he gets carried away and has me make out with a dog for 10 minutes, then it gets awkward.

                                            ~~~Several hour time lapse~~~

Today we returned the pool we bought earlier this week, the bottom ring wouldn't hold air, so far the new one is working fine. We went to three stores and Mr N did fine, they were each pretty quick trips. Safeway has "car carts" so that goes pretty smoothly since Mr N gets to drive around the store 

E fell asleep on our way home from running errands, so Mr N and I put away our purchases and set up the new pool. He loves filling the pool with the hose. He has been drinking out of his new sippy cups at least a little bit each day, we are praise, praise, praising his every drink. Hopefully this is the beginning of a beautiful new relationship with a sippy cup, and the end of bottles.

I must say I could spend an entire day just cuddling with these kids, they are so soft and cuddly, so sweet and kissable. Mr N was demolishing the block farm that I put together for E yesterday.

After I got it put back together for E, I cuddled with Mr N on the big bears. E decided that it looked like fun and joined in the cuddlefest. I thought I'd try to get Mr N to say "I love you" again, to verify he can say it and that it wasn't just a fluke last weekend. I said "I love you, E"; E said "I love you, too". I said "I love you, Mr N", he said nothing. I said "I love you, E"; E said "I love you, too." I said "I love you, Mr N", he said "wuv utu". Score! My heart soared. My little man is saying I love you. I tried one more time, he said it once again. It is like music to my ears, I'm looking forward to the day when he says it unprompted. That will be glorioius. With all of his progress, I can only hope that an unprompted "wuv u" is just around the corner.

Tomorrow we are going to try something new and exciting. They have movies at the park every Saturday night all summer long, so we are going to take the kids tomorrow night. This will be our first time to the movies with kids, they show G and PG movies, I'm hoping since it's outside that Mr N will do fine and enjoy it.....or fall asleep and let Daddy & I cuddle, a girl can wish can't she? 

My weekend goal is to tile the bathroom floor, take a nice long hike, get a little Mommy unwinding time and get Mr N to say "wuv u" for Daddy.

                    *******BREAKING NEWS********

Daddy just got home from work and I said "I love you", Daddy said "I love you, too", then Mr N said "I wuv you".

Summer time

Mr N greeted his therapist with "hi tee (teacher)" as she was knocking on the door. He was in very good spirits despite having no nap and having ran to town for curtain rods. While we were in town we got Mr N some sippy cups, he drank out of one of them yesterday but we haven't taken away the bottle yet. Maybe a gradual switching over will be better? I'm going to continue offering milk in a cup and see how that goes.

Shopping is always a little overwhelming for Mr N, even when it's just getting a few things, I think the size of the store effects him. He does pretty well in our little market, but Walmart, Costco, Lowes are meltdown material. We went to Walmart first, got the kids a new pool and a few other things, Mr N was pretty close to meltdown mode by the time we got back to the car. I debated just leaving curtain rod buying to Daddy, but, quite honestly, worried about what he'd pick out. I put Mr N in the ergo and E in the "car cart" and quickly headed for the curtain rod department. Much to my surprise I found curtain rods that match one that I bought nine years ago, that I absolutely love. That made picking them out quite easy, I bought 3 to match the one I already had and we headed home.

The curtains block out significantly more heat than I expected, I figured they'd help keep out some of the heat, but they made a huge difference. The house stayed considerably cooler than before.

I had one of the curtain rods hung by the time Mr N's therapist arrived. I finished up the other two as she started therapy. They did some puzzles, playing with nesting blocks, and cars. Once the curtains were hung E and I headed outside to remove some distraction from therapy. I could hear Mr N happily playing with his therapist, they were strengthening his gross motor skills by kicking and throwing a ball back and forth. Then came the screaming....I ran inside and found his therapist holding Mr N with tears streaming down his face. There was an apparent miskick and Mr N took one to the shin, time to get him some shin guards.

A part of therapy is immediately rewarding his good behavior, this is to reinforce his progress. Finding a good motivator has proved quite the challenge since Mr N isn't a huge fan of any food to the point that he's willing to work for it. Thankfully his therapist is patient and tries new things all the time, lately he's been responding to fruit loops. He's really figured out how it works, yesterday as he'd complete a task he'd reach for the therapist's pocket for his reward. Such a smart little boy we have.

We all headed outside so E could play in the pool while Mommy comforted Mr N, he ended up falling asleep for a bit, but this enabled the therapist to get some of her paperwork done. Once Mr N woke up from his nap he got right back to working hard in therapy.

The therapist and I discussed how amazing it is that Mr N can put together a new puzzle perfectly so quickly. Even more difficult puzzles that match just shapes, not pictures.

Since Mr N copies E so much, his therapist decided to utilize her some during therapy to motivate Mr N to follow requests. She had E start picking up stuffed animals and putting them back in the bin, Mr N soon joined in. Unfortunately, he imitates EVERYTHING sissy does, even inappropriate play. E does well with positive reinforcement and working for rewards, so we've been giving her rewards to motivate her to help instead of hinder therapy.

After therapy we played outside for a while and relaxed a bit before meeting. At 7:05 when I should have been pulling out of the driveway, I was gathering up our things to walk out the door and look outside to see Daddy chasing Mr N around the yard trying to finish dressing him. We got to meeting right as it was starting, we find our seats and sit down, as we sit Mr N grabs his hiney and sure enough had pooped. Back out to the car we go as I realize I forgot to bring diapers and wipes. sigh. I found one stray diaper and 2 wipes left in a package. Back in we went for a few more minutes before Mr N was getting too loud. After a few minutes of being in the car Mr N was ready to go back in, but that only lasted another 10 or so minutes before we all headed back out to the car. We spent the rest of the meeting in the car until the kids decided that having a screaming contest would be a great idea. We ended up leaving about 10 minutes before meeting was over to make the screaming end. My poor aching head. Evening meetings tend to be less successful than morning meetings.

This morning we started off with breakfast, filling the pool, watering the garden and playing in tents. We're going to do some playing outside before therapy, who doesn't feel better with some sunshine?

Sensory

Mr N is in desperate need of a sensory evaluation to determine his sensory needs. I feel like it is taking forever, I'm not even sure what is taking so long. I'm going to throw caution into the wind and just call a OT to schedule an evaluation. Proper protocol is taking too long and we need answers. I called today but the office was already closed.

He has been very sensory seeking lately, about every 15 minutes during therapy he stops what he's doing to get some sensory input. Sometimes it's velcro, sometimes it's head compression, sometimes it's throwing or kicking, rolling around on the floor, etc. There has got to be a better way for him to get this input without disrupting therapy.

Therapy went pretty well today, aside from all the sensory seeking disruptions and E interfering. His therapist was using a puppet and saying "I'm gonna get your hand, foot, knee, etc" and Mr N would move that body part to avoid being licked by the dog puppet. That's when she realized just how many body parts he knows, he is such a smart little guy.

His therapist mentioned today that she's never heard Mr N say "milk" even though he frequently says it for us, I'd say about 80 percent of the time he'll say milk when he requests it. Sometimes he will say "bottle" though. Speaking of bottles....Daddy and Mommy have decided it's once again time to switch to a sippy cup. The plan is to let him pick out a couple of cups when we go to town and not take a bottle with us, then get rid of all of his bottles so even when he wants one, there are none for him to see and request. This is what we did when he was probably around 18 months and it lasted a few weeks then we gave in and gave him the bottle back. He does know how to use a sippy cup and will use one occasionally, we just need to force him out of the bottle.

Big news....I finished all of the curtains for the living room. I did not enjoy it, I hate pinterest for saying it was such a great idea, I'm holding a grudge against all companies that sell curtains that are not cute enough for my house, I'm cranky with myself for thinking it would be a good idea to make curtains for so many windows in our house, especially when a majority of them have to be lined since they are on the south side. But hey, I finished them. Now the entry way, the playroom, and the living room curtains are all done. I'm having all the other windows in the house removed permanently, it's the simplest solution.

Copy Cat

If you watch children in most any situation they will imitate each other, at the park one child will crawl up the slide and then all the other kids try it. I remember the first time E saw another kid climb up the slide, she was enthralled. She hadn't seen it before and hadn't thought of doing it herself. At first I wouldn't let her do it, I was afraid she'd hurt herself, then her pediatrician said that it strengthens muscles and builds coordination.

Mr N has imitated E's playing and climbs up the slide, too. I still worry that one of them will get hurt, but I let them be, he so badly wants to do the things his sissy does. It's equally as cute when E wants to do what Mr N does, this morning E was eating her cereal with milk and Mr N wanted his without milk. E stopped eating hers because she wanted to eat it like Mr N, without milk. 

E was so excited when Mr N put Dog in a line with Cat, Black and White, and Black; they are E's favorite stuffed animals and doesn't like Mr N to play with them generally, but since he was placing Dog with the others, she was happy.

Positive reinforcement has been such a great tool in working with both kids, E even tells Mr N when he's doing something good. 

During therapy yesterday Mr N was kinda being a pill, he didn't want to cooperate, he wouldn't stay focused, he just wanted to play with his sister. But he still did some great things when he was on task, he did stomp feet, jump, and touch ears and even got intro mastery on them. He really does so much better when he's interested in what he's doing. 

We made "slime" out of cornstarch and water and a touch of food coloring. Mr N was not impressed, he touched it and then bowed out. Mommy and the therapist, on the other hand, quite enjoyed playing with it. E thought it was quite fun, too. 

I worked on curtains during most of therapy (well really most of the day) and got another panel done. Hopefully I can get another panel done today, they certainly take a lot longer than I expected. 

Speaking of working on things for the house, I've grown tired of the house projects. I typically enjoy working to make a house our home, but with therapy then trying to relax and enjoy our weekends the house is just too much. I can't wait to have a functioning kitchen, some storage, bedrooms and bathrooms done. Just to be able to live day to day life without walking around and digging through boxes. I think we underestimated how much time Daddy would be away with his long commute, how much fun we'd want to have in the area we live, and how difficult DIY projects are when you have two toddlers. Our next house will not be a project house.

Butterfly Stomper

Thursday during therapy Mr N did exceptionally well, he sat and listened while his therapist read a book for about a half an hour. This is the longest he's stayed engaged during story time, he's never shown much interest in reading and books. His therapist read several stories to him and did sound effects and gestures to keep him interested. He loves that, especially if the story involves buzzing bees.

Mr N has been very interested in his set of five monster trucks lately, on Thursday he wanted them all up on the entertainment center. He showed off his coordination by carrying all five of them, even if one fell he didn't get frustrated, he'd just rearrange the ones in his arms and grab the fallen truck.

While staying on task wasn't his best quality on Thursday he did do well when he was engaged. We're hoping next week he'll do better.

Now onto the weekend...

Daddy worked from home Friday morning, then we headed out for a weekend camping trip. We had initially intended to camp on the island on Cherry Lake, but it's a long trip by paddling from the boat launch. It was quite windy when we got on the lake so we picked a camping spot not too far out. Our boat is quite small, so Daddy had to go back and get a second load. While Daddy was getting load number two, the kids and I were playing on the beach on our campsite.

We started by throwing rocks, then wading into the lake and just chilling by the lake. Daddy bought them new camping chairs so they were pretty content to just sitting in their new chairs.

The kids were playing in the water, I started saying "I love you", E said "I love you, too", then Mr N surprised me with "I love you, too". I couldn't believe my ears! I tried again. "I love you", E said "I love you, too" once again Mr N said "I love you, too". His sounded much more like "a wuv utu" but it's the closest he's come to saying I love you. That is how happy moms are made.

Daddy arrived back at camp and had ran into a park ranger who told him we couldn't camp where we'd set up so we moved our camp across the way to here.

Camp sites have to be set up at least 100 ft in elevation above the high water line. So we set up our camp up in the trees a bit. This beach is where we spent most of the weekend, playing on the beach. The kids threw sticks, rocks, and pine cones. Mr N is saying "rock" more and more all the time, his favorite thing is having one of us throw in a bunch of rocks at once. E has decided that swimming is her favorite thing to do.

Saturday morning we woke up early, Mommy made bacon and eggs, the eggs didn't like being cooked and kept jumping in the fire, so there they stayed. Thankfully no one complained and we added a skillet to our list of things to add to camping supplies. Daddy had left early fishing, so I loaded the kids into the boat and rowed around looking for him. We found him fishing at the falls up the shore. We picked him up and took him back for breakfast. After the bacon was gone Daddy decided we should cook up his trout that he'd caught the night before, trying Mommy's new recipe. He declared it a winner and we set out for the island to enjoy more fishing, exploring and some swimming.

The trip island was about a 40 minutes by rowing against the wind. It seemed the wind would pick up and blow against us every time we got in the boat, after hours of calm water. Daddy set out fishing on the shady side of the island while the kids and I swam on the beach. After a few hours of exhausting ourselves we checked out the camping spot on the top of the island to figure out if it is somewhere we'd like to camp in the future. There isn't much flat land up on top, so we'd have to use our little tent if we did camp there, we'd also need to pack much lighter, because making multiple trips to haul our stuff that far out would be far too much work. We headed back to camp for some lunch, then spent the rest of the day playing on the beach by our camp.

After an evening trip on the lake we packed it in for the night, took pan baths and settled into bed. Two nights of sleeping on the hard ground, since we didn't have room for the air mattresses, made us realize we need sleeping mats for when our air mattresses can't come with us.

This morning laying in bed, no one really wanting to venture out to the mosquito swarms; Daddy asked E what her favorite part of camping was, she readily said "swimming", then he asked about everyone else. Mr N and Mommy also have swimming as their favorite camping experience, Daddy's favorite part about camping is throwing rocks, according to E.

We packed up late this morning and started the journey back to the boat launch. The weekend of practicing sure made the return trip much easier than the departing trip. It still took two trips, but we deemed it much worth it.

My bad mommy moment of the weekend came Saturday morning, I was building a fire, getting breakfast ready, getting kids dressed, hair fixed, teeth brushed, etc, the usual tedious morning things that must happen to have a good start to the day. The kids kept asking for things at the exact wrong time and during one of Mr N's endless chattering sessions I said "stop talking". I immediately stopped myself, apologized to him and with tears in my eyes said "never stop talking, Mommy didn't mean it, very good talking". It was at that moment that I realized how much more he's been talking lately, not just labeling things and requesting things, but babbling and chattering quite often, too.

On our drive home with two content kids, two exhausted but happy adults, and a Jeep full of our weekend necessities we made plans for another camping trip. We happily discussed how well Mr N is doing and how much he enjoys camping and being outdoors. While children with Autism typically do not handle change well, Mr N has always been pretty easy going and doesn't mind spur of the moment off roading, day trips, or camping trips.

All weekend we would see butterflies on the beach and even a couple at our campsite. Mr N was quite intrigued, at first I thought he was trying to catch the pretty little blue butterflies, then realized he was trying to smash them. He was successful in smashing one, then changed his technique to stomping them. I'm not sure that he was able to eliminate any with stomping, but he sure did have fun butterfly stomping. He even said "fly" a few times as he happily chased them.

Lions and tigers and bears...

So many blog worthy things pop into my head then disappear when I finally get to the computer. I've decided to take the time to do it before I forget again.

Lately when Mr N eats animal crackers he makes them roar and walk around. Sometimes the animal crackers do more roaring and talking than getting eaten. 

Sunday while the kids were playing outside Mr N was throwing rocks and said rock completely unprompted, completely on his own. Saying a new word without any prompting is so wonderful to see. He is remembering what we've said and saying it on his own in his own time. What an amazing little guy, he really is so smart. He makes me so proud. 

The kids do a lot of playing in the pool lately. Mr N has figured out that he can use the handle on the bubble want to blow into the pool and it makes bubbles. Genius. I love when he figures out something on his own with no prompting, no imitating, just my little man exploring and growing and learning.

Mr N didn't do great in therapy yesterday, he seems to go through phases when he has several good days, then several not so good days. I don't want to say bad days because he still does great at the things he does, he just doesn't always stay focused. He fell asleep during therapy yesterday which ate up a lot of time. 

His therapist brought this puzzle on Monday and he struggled with it a bit, which is understandable. The numbers are one color, the number of items that corresponds with the number are a different color. It really is a more advanced puzzle than what he has done before. By yesterday he was putting the puzzle together with no problem, he seemed to tackle the tricky ones first (1 & 7) then move onto the rest of the puzzle. It's amazing watching him make such progress in such short time, while it seems such a small thing he is doing problem solving skills, he's self correcting, and he's matching shapes not colors. 

Yesterday his therapist brought a new magnet puzzle that E just loved, but Mr N wasn't a big fan. Under each puzzle piece there is nothing, just a blank spot. The puzzle pieces are just random shapes, they aren't the shapes of the bugs on the puzzle pieces. Hopefully today he'll give it another chance and master it. 

One of Mr N's favorite things to do during therapy is balloon play, his therapist blows up a balloon and says "1, 2, 3" then waits for Mr N to say "go". She lets go of the balloon and we watch it fly around the room, then Mr N runs to retrieve it and return it to his therapist. 

As Mr N nears three years old we begin the transition process to the educational system. Early Start only provides services until he's three, then the school district provides the services he needs. Honestly, the entire thing is so confusing and overwhelming; at the same time we're trying to get speech and occupational therapy lined up to have his needs evaluated. Nothing is ever easy. In order to get the additional therapy services we need a prescription by his pediatrician. She is the one who gave the referral for the initial autism diagnosis, then the psychologist did the evaluation and did the diagnosing. In the psychologist report she recommended speech and occupational therapy, since she did the evaluation, I'm not sure why that isn't sufficient to get evaluations done. So frustrating. I don't know why these evaluations weren't done in February, seems like wasted time. 

Sometimes I wonder how parents of children with autism get through it all, the process to even get services is so complicated. I can't even begin to imagine how families with two working parents manage, they must spend all of the sick leave and vacation time doing evaluations, meeting with whomever to get their child the services they need. Autism is not new, it's not uncommon, how do they not have a better system in place to ensure these children receive the services they need? 

I read Mr N's diagnosis report again in my search for the psychologist recommendations on speech and OT. When we first got the report I could only read a couple of pages at a time, tears flowing the entire time. It's still heartbreaking to read the report, it's so clinical, it's so factual. But this time while reading it I could compare what he was doing in February with what he is doing now only four months later. He really has made tremendous progress, it's reassuring to see him taking these strides forward. 

"Good Boy"

Mr N says "good boy" quite frequently, looking for praise and reassurance. It's so sweet, so precious, so cute, unfortunately at times I do have to tell him "no" when he asks "good boy" as to not encourage the behavior. But when he is being a good boy I readily assure him that he is a good boy.

Today was our monthly grocery shopping day, so we got up early and headed for the valley. Mr N was pretty cranky when he first woke up and all through his shower, but once he was dressed and back in bed with sissy he calmed down. He took a 30 minute nap on our way to town. While in the first store he ate some goldfish crackers and as we checked out he ate a banana. Both kids did pretty good but they slow me down quite a bit, so I dropped the kids off with Daddy at work before I hit Costco. After I finished up my shopping I grabbed the kids and headed home for therapy. There was an accident on OPG so we had to take NPG which takes longer and makes me sick. But we did stop for a couple of minutes and watched them drag the carnage up the mountain onto the highway. We were late getting home so Mr N's therapist was already here, thankfully she was relaxing on the patio reading.

Mr N fell asleep on the way home and was cranky when he awoke from his nap when we got home. I popped in a movie that came in the mail and that calmed him down long enough for me to unload the need-to-stay-cold groceries, with his therapist's assistance.

During therapy Mr N ate four mini muffins, he ate some granola after therapy and is eating another mini muffin.

Since Mr N didn't get a great nap today, just two short ones, he wasn't in the best spirits for therapy after the early wake up and rough sleep last night. He did listen to her read a book for a few minutes, then did some art work, neither of the kids were as excited about art today as his therapist and I. But our art projects rock!

Mr N spent some time torturing Elephant, I'd feel bad but Elephant walks through flitting his tail to get Mr N's attention so that he'll pull it. Elephant has ample opportunity and hiding spots to avoid all torture, yet insists on getting tortured during therapy nearly every day.

This evening I decided to see how many words Mr N has, since we're hoping he can begin speech therapy soon, they'll want to know. I started writing them on the sidewalk and was happy to see the long list. After I took the picture I thought of six more, but didn't add them. He now has 62 words that he uses pretty regularly. He had 14 when he had his first speech evaluation.

While Mr N was spending some one on one time with his therapist, I spent some time with my E. We read books and I painted her toenails.

Now I have to update from the last three days that I missed.

~~~~~~**Sunday**~~~~~~

We went to meeting and Mr N struggled when we first got there, we ended up going back out to the car before meeting even started. He wanted buckled into his carseat and there he sat for 30 minutes, completely content. Then he was ready to go inside, so there we went. He did great sitting and being quiet until the last 3-5 minutes then we had to head back outside. After meeting was over he went right up to a little girl that visits pretty often (her grandparents are in our congregation) and gave her a hug, then proceeded to play with her until she grew tired. During their laps around the hall he stopped a couple of times and gave a little girl that was 8-9 yeas old a hug, that he's never met before. He said hi to several people, including our neighbors who are very good at engaging him. They are very sweet people, and I appreciate their interest in my little man.

After meeting Mr N took a nap and I held his sweaty body until three o'clock, then we headed outside to play in the kiddie pool. I worked on my grocery list and Daddy played princess games with E, I think he secretly loves it. We spent the rest of the day watching the kids play happily in the water, in their swimming clothes, then in their underoos, then naked, then back in their underoos, then finally it was bath & bed time.


~~~~~~***Saturday***~~~~~~

We were determined to make some progress on the downstairs bathroom, so I left Daddy to it. I had borrowed a CD from Mr N's therapist and we listened to it while the kids and I sang and danced. I'm pretty sure that sentence has the word "and" in it far too many times. sigh.

After lunch E and I headed outside to play in the pool, Daddy and Mr N ran to the hardware store for stuff. When they got back Daddy so kindly kept the kids distracted for a while so that I could read my book in peace. I still LOVE the book "Overcoming Autism", it's so educational, informative, and encouraging. Every time I read it I feel like I have so much more that I can do to help Mr N. I love that it not only gives practical suggestions, but it explains why we do the things we do. It doesn't just say "don't let kids engage in awkward stims" it explains that these stims are typically life long and that if your child is stimming during a job interview would it prevent them from getting a job; I hadn't thought of that. I'd always thought if it's not hurting anyone, then I don't mind. It also explained that we can teach children that there are appropriate and inappropriate places to engage in stimming behavior. While normal functioning people pick their nose in private, they don't typically do it at work, school, etc; it's not socially acceptable. I could go on and on, but really I'm just so grateful to have been given such a great book by such a great friend. Thank you again, Andrea.

Around 1:30 we decided that we should go scout out a new camping spot for next time. We got the kids ready, packed drinks, snacks, ergos,  and fishing gear, just in case. We headed towards Cherry Lake since it always seems less occupied. We figured it was Saturday afternoon, this is when it will be the most crowded, we wanted to see how bad it could get. We first stopped along the river that flows below the dam and found a great place to camp and decided we'd camp there if we didn't find anything better. We headed up along the west side of the lake almost clear to the North end, but there is no lake access at all.

The kids were ready to get out and play so we headed to the dam and let the kids play while Daddy did some fishing. Along came a forest ranger, so I stopped him and started grilling him for information on where to camp. He gave us several suggestions 1. head toward some rivers that are out a ways 2. get a canoe and row to the island on Cherry Lake and camp 3. hike into Lake Eleanor and camp. We thought Lake Eleanor would give us the most seclusion since he said it was only 1/4 - 1/3 of a mile hike from the parking area.

With the night still young we decided to check out Lake Eleanor, how long would it take to hike such a short distance? Leaving our water and snacks in the car we head down the short path. About a half mile down the trail there is a sign "Lake Eleanor 1.2 miles" and an arrow pointing the way. We weren't going to give up, we headed on down the trail, hoping we wouldn't be disappointed. After scouting out the area we found the most amazing area, complete with a sandy shallow area where the kids could play. As it started to get dark we headed back up the trail. Only I'm not so sure we realized how much the trail really was "UP". Along the 1.7 mile trek back we got bombarded by mosquitoes, or should I say that I got bombarded by mosquitoes. Apparently they were not interested in Daddy or the kiddos.

We arrived back to refreshing drinks and snacks to energize us from our 3.5 mile hike and decided that we'll attempt camping at Lake Eleanor after we have a few more camping adventures under our belt since we don't really want to have to make multiple trips with our gear.

Ultimately we decided on option 2. get a canoe and row to the island on Cherry Lake. Only canoes get pricey so we settled on an inflatable fishing boat. Our next camping trip should be an adventure!

~~~~~~***Friday***~~~~~~

Anyone still reading? Mr N took a four hour nap that took up almost all of his therapy time. He had a rough wake up about two hours into his nap that required Mommy to hold him for the rest of his nap. When he eventually woke up from his nap he was in amazing spirits. He jumped right down to play with the new toys that his therapist had brought. He did great playing with nesting blocks, puzzles, etc. I was so proud of my little man.

I don't know how I got blessed with such an amazing family, but I'm not complaining. My dear, sweet husband and beautiful children fill my life with joy.

Surprise

Today Mr N's therapist and her supervisor were both here, while playing with Mr N the supervisor got Mr N to say "surprise" several times. Afterwards she was looking through his charts and pointed out that he is getting into two syllable words, until the last few words they were all one syllable words.

Mr N really took to the supervisor, just looking at her, saying hi and bye, waving, and playing with her. He typically doesn't warm up to people so quickly. She really loves kids and it shows.

Big things are happening for my little guy. Just seeing his daily progress motivates me that much more to work with him. Today we spent a lot of time playing with his string and bead set, he is getting very good at stringing the beads. E and I were trying to feed the dinosaurs some cookies, but Mr N butted in and corrected our playing. Dinosaurs roar at each other and bite each other's faces, it's the rules.  Little boys and little girls certainly play differently.

This morning my mom video called us on Skype, we haven't done it for a while and E has refused to talk to her on the phone for months. E chatted up a storm and Mr N was just as thrilled to see Grandma. He even tried to say Grandma a few times. It was so sweet seeing Mr N excited to see Grandma. I might have teared up just a tad while watching the kids, but it's ok I'm pretty sure Grandma did, too. I called her later and she booked a trip out to see the kids. Grandma and E have a very special relationship.

The kids had been begging all morning to go for a walk in the wagon, but they hadn't had breakfast, weren't dressed, Mommy hadn't had her coffee (they should know better by now) so we had to wait a while. After we were fed, caffeine'd up, and dressed we set out for a walk sans wagon. There is a reason I avoid the wagon, the kids weigh almost 65 pounds together, the wagon weighs a couple of pounds and we live in the mountains. Ever try to pull half your body weight up a mountain? Ever try to keep it from running you down going down a steep hill? Hopefully you're on my side now.

So we set out with E in the Ergo and Mr N walking until we got to the first steepish hill, then I carried Mr N until we got to the top of the hill. Then he walked again until the next hill. We walked about a half a mile before E was ready to go home, so we switched out the kids and Mr N got in the Ergo and E walked back home. On our way home Mr N fell asleep and then proceeded to nap for almost 2 hours. I love when he takes a morning nap, it makes it so much easier for him to focus during therapy. Along our walk we sang songs and did the actions to them. We saw a dog on a run line and Mr N said "dog". I'm so happy he's identifying things out in natural settings and not just in books.

Yesterday Mr N said "teacher" when E started asking when Mr N's therapist was coming (they call her "teacher"). Then when she arrived he ran to the door and said "who's that?". I love that he's putting two words together more and more each day. During therapy they made coffee filter flowers that they painted and put a pipe cleaner stem onto. E then helped me put them in a jar and put them on display in the living room. It's pretty adorable. I love my kids.

Last night as we were going to bed I sang "Slippery Fish" and while I was singing Mr N said "gulp, gulp, gulp" when I did. AMAZING! He's imitating E more and more, too. She makes a silly noise and he'll copy her.

The other day my precious little E was looking at a book with Mr N and saying "touch the banana, touch the grapes, touch the apple" then we he touched the correct picture she'd say "good job". She's such an amazing big sister, he is truly blessed to have her as his sister. He will learn so much from him, and her from him.

Well the love of my life just pulled into the drive so I'll end here. He was so sweet to get the windows tinted in the car so that it'll be better for my road trip in a few weeks with the kids. I love that man!

Captain Awesome

We were outside playing when Mr N's therapist pulled into the driveway today and he immediately wanted to go inside to wait for her so he could greet her at the door. That's cuteness right there. When she was taking longer than he was willing to wait he went outside to greet her. E was equally as excited for her arrival so they stood at the doorway while she gathered her things. Again their patience grew thin and Mr N grabbed E's hand and led her to the car to greet his therapist. Mr N said "hi" over and over until he got right up to her, he was very happy that she was here.

My amazing little man did great things again today. He lets the therapist set limits, sometimes with good response, sometimes he throws a tantrum. But she set limits 3 times today and he only threw a tantrum once.

While doing some outside play he again asked his therapist to pick him up. It's so strange seeing someone else hold him, it's so out of character for him. It's so heartwarming to see this little guy as he grows socially.

We talked a bit about how there are good days and bad days, today he did some great things but he didn't talk much today. He only said a few things while she was here, he did ask for milk twice, but didn't say words that he'll typically say for her. I'm learning not to get super stressed over these things, tomorrow is a new day and maybe he'll talk more. In the meantime, I'll work on stuff they did today to reinforce what she's doing.

Singing & Dancing

"I am here and you are here and we are all together,
I am here and you are here and we're gonna have some fun.
I'm going to clap my hands....."

Such a fun song that the kids love so much. Mr N's therapist has been doing this song with him and so last night I sang it for the kids and Mr N immediately started dancing around. E loves the song, too and does the actions pretty well.

Last night as we were relaxing Daddy asked what sounds Mr N worked on that day so that he could work with Mr N. I love that he wants to be involved so much and that even after a long day at work he's not too busy or too tired to work with Mr N. Daddy did coyote howls with the kids, which is just precious. Mr N's "uh oooooo" is adorable.

Towards the end of therapy Mr N curled up on the big bears and took a nap. I'm pretty sure there is nothing cuter.

I must go play and dance with the kids. I will try to update today after therapy.

Camping

We took the kids on their first camping adventure this weekend. Actually, it's the first time we've been camping together.

Friday morning I was packing clothes, food, toiletries, etc. and Mr N was just losing it. He would freak out when I left the room, when I went downstairs, when I was more than 3 inches away from him. I finally realized he thought someone was leaving and it wouldn't be all of us together since that tends to be how things work. So I just picked him up and held him then told him that we were all going camping together. After that, he was fine. The rest of the packing went without whining or clinging. I forget that he understands so much, even though he can't express himself, he really does know what we are saying.

During therapy he touched head and said "head" a few times, I was stoked! My little man finally showed off his talent for his therapist! I get a little giddy when he does great things. He did something else during therapy that is very near and dear to my heart, his therapist was doing animal sounds with him and they did coyote howls and he did it several times. My dad used to do coyote howls with us, we'd do them in the car all together. I'm sure it was super annoying and loud but it was just something our dad did with us.

Friday after therapy I took the kids to set up camp while Daddy was on the commute home, I got the tent set up and beds arranged then headed back to pick up Daddy. Once we got Daddy out to camp with us we started a fire and roasted wieners, burgers, and marshmallows. I do not remember s'mores being so awesome, it's probably been 15 years since I've had one. I have been missing out.

Saturday morning Daddy woke up and took off fishing while the kids and I slept in. He came back to camp with his first catch and built a fire to cook his fish for breakfast. As I was getting up I noticed a lot more campers moved in overnight and there would be no bathing in the river. I took the best bath in a bowl I could, washing my pits, nether regions, and my hair. We got dressed and realized we'd packed far too few blankets, can not live without pillows and should probably have fishing license and ID with us. While Daddy did some more fishing, I ran home with the kids, wishing I'd brought my shower stuff back home and showered there. Sigh. We played in the river, had some lunch and enjoyed the rest of the day at camp. Mr N did great with camping, I was a bit worried about the sleeping in a tent for the first time, but he's a natural.

While we were playing in the river there were a couple of prospectors panning for gold. It was fun to watch and learn how much work goes into one tiny little fleck of gold. Mr N was super friendly and said "hi" to them several times. The wife asked how old he was, then commented on his lack of talking. I explained that he had autism, and how he's really making great progress and huge strides in speech, social skills and behavior. The husband commented that Mr N had talked to him. They both said Mr N was super cute and how they enjoyed watching him throw rocks in the river. The husband eagerly found bigger rocks for Mr N to throw. It was so neat seeing Mr N interact with complete strangers, saying hi, bye, accepting rocks, throwing rocks, making eye contact with them, etc. These are all new things for him, we've been seeing it with his therapist who has spent 3 hours a day with him for the last couple of months, we've seen some new interacting with friends whom he's been around a few times a week for 6+ months. Seeing him interact with a complete stranger is astounding.

We wrapped up the evening with bowl baths for everyone and went to bed quite early. We were exhausted and ready for some sleep. Being clean when climbing into bed is much more refreshing.

This morning Daddy headed out for some more fishing while the kids slept. I stayed in bed cuddled beneath the covers thinking about all the things we'll do differently next time we go camping. I took another bath in a bowl to the best of my ability without flashing the neighbors. Daddy and Mr N ran to the nearest gas station for some overpriced milk to get us through the day. After breakfast and getting dressed we headed up the road a bit for some more fishing away from all the people. Daddy caught two fish while the kids threw rocks in the river downstream. On our way back to camp for lunch we stopped by another camping area where we hadn't seen anyone. We found a decent place to fish and a place for the kids to play, so we headed back to camp for some lunch then back to our new spot to fish and play. Daddy caught one more fish, Mr N took a little nap, while E and I played with rocks in the river. Rocks are the bomb diggity, at least both kids think that is the case.

Hot, sweaty, stinky, and maybe a scoche cranky we headed to camp to pack up and head home. On our way back Mr N showed off his coyote howling talent for Daddy. We all howled and I took a mental picture of the moment to save in my heart forever. As we packed up we realized that my over packing was not working in our favor. We did get it all crammed in and started making lists of things not to bring next time. Extra chairs, tents, air mattresses, buckets, food, coolers, etc. No one even ate the potato salad I made.

My genius moment of the weekend was freezing gallons of water to put in the cooler to keep our food cold all weekend. This worked out brilliantly. I'm probably the last person to think of this, but I'll pretend I invented it.

One of my favorite things is when I hear Daddy working with Mr N on talking while I'm busy doing other stuff. He got Mr N to say "ka" the other day, it's so reassuring to know I'm not alone, we are a team. I'm not the only one down at the river playing and still working on learning skills, Daddy is right in there with me. Mr N's animal sounds have to be among my favorite things, he pants like a dog and, after much work on my part, he ruffs like a dog. LOVE IT! He meows and moos, next up I think I'll work on clucking like a chicken, because it'll be just darling.

We spent a good part of the weekend putting on sunscreen, OFF, and anti-itch cream. Mr N is the sweetest little boy ever, just ask the mosquitoes.

In conclusion, we will camp again but with modifications; thus, it was not a complete waste.

Did I mention that s'mores are pretty awesome? If you haven't had one in a while, I'd recommend it. Oh and whipped cream vodka in Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi for the win.