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?