Stimming

Stimming is a part of autism that we've grown to accept. This doesn't mean it's easy watching our child do it. Today was just one of those days where the stimming was very obvious and quite frequent. Some stimming we do not try to alter, but if Mr N is doing something that is not socially acceptable (chewing on tampons) we redirect to give him the same sensory input with something more socially acceptable (chewing on velcro, tooth brush, etc). We also redirect him if his stimming is dangerous to himself or others. During therapy today he was throwing his monster trucks. As you can see, these are made of hard plastic and could possibly injure himself, his sister or his therapist. We redirected him to a bin of stuffed animals, much more appropriate for throwing.

Mr N had a relatively rough day, he didn't want to engage with his therapist, he wasn't even interested when she started playing ball with E. He wanted held while I did some head compression and used some lotion to calm him. He finally interacted once we did some outside play time. He "painted" the house (using water and paint brushes) and kicked the ball. 

Since morning therapy runs until 1:00 we will be doing lunch while the therapist is here. Today we were a little ill-prepared so Katy and the coordinator had a snack with the kids and I ate later. But Mr N did an awesome job with lunch, I served the kids sandwiches, grapes, string cheese and crackers. Usually he will only eat crackers, occasionally he'll have some cheese and/or grapes. He ate at least 4 big bites of his sandwich. What a glorious day! That is all he has eaten today, but what an amazing thing to see him trying new things!! It truly is the small things in life that bring us the most joy. 

During the last 30 minutes of therapy Mr N laid down for his nap. I really think this new schedule will be so much more productive. 

While Mr N was napping I took E out to the garden to water and pick tomatoes. Then E played some addition and counting games on the computer while Mommy called Grandma. 

We started back in with E's "school work" today. She isn't old enough for Kindergarten yet, so we are just using the tools we can find to do Pre-K stuff until she can be enrolled in K. She wanted to draw a picture of herself like her cousin did yesterday at school, but E is a bit of a perfectionist and she started two different drawings without finishing. She did, however, complete two pages in her workbook and did some coloring. I'm really hoping that once Mr N is more comfortable with Katy that I can do school time with E while they are doing therapy, but for now we will work on it in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we shall attempt a grocery run, I'm already dreading it. But I'm hoping that Mr N will nap on our way to town and possibly while shopping at one store.