I've been trying to figure out a few more activities throughout the week for Mr N that will help him adapt socially. Yesterday I took E to the library to check out some chapter books and while we were there I found out they have story time on Thursdays. So I'm going to add that to our weekly schedule and see how Mr N does. He does good with story time at therapy when they do puppets and interact with the kiddos, which they do at story time at the library. So I'm super excited to see how he does. I'm planning on starting the week after Halloween since the next two weeks are Halloween stories.
While my goal at the library was to introduce E to chapter books, we failed miserably. Miss E thinks that books needs colored pictures, finding books with pencil sketches wasn't good enough. While I understand it must be frustrating to still be intrigued by colored pictures, her reading level is to where she needs to be in chapter books. So we left with one chapter book that I'll read to her, an advanced book that she can read and two easy readers that she wanted to read to Mr N.
Mr N has began saying "yes sir" the last few days, pretty much anytime he's willing to comply with what he's instructed. I've been trying to correct him when he's speaking to me, so he'll say "yes ma'am" to me and "yes sir" to Daddy. We will get there, it took a bit for E to figure it out, too.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
"I don't wanna"
Mr N has been showing a streak of stubbornness. He doesn't want to stop what he's doing to go somewhere. This morning he didn't want to stop playing with the dinosaurs to get dressed, then he didn't want to brush his teeth, when it was time to go to therapy he didn't want to stop playing with his iPad. Forcing him dressed has never been an easy task, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult the older (and larger) he gets. Thankfully the fight to get dressed isn't a daily or even a weekly battle, but when the battle is fought I struggle to win.
Eating has always been an issue for Mr N, but weight has not. He has always had a healthy weight and height, sticking to his growth curve. He tipped the scales to 39.6 recently which made me understand why the struggling to get him dressed has becoming more of a challenge. His eating seems to have improved over the recent months, maybe not the variety but he will eat apples, strawberries, and bananas pretty consistently every day. He still loves his french toast bread, fruit loops, ramen noodles and fruit snacks, which is basically the range of his diet. Occasionally he will eat pizza and chicken nuggets but only when the mood strikes him or if he is really hungry.
Mr N has a well child check coming up in a few weeks, I'm anxious to see how he deals with that. Having a new pediatrician in a new office could go either way, a meltdown or no big deal. I'm hoping it goes well but expecting meltdown city. He also has a dentist appointment in coming weeks that gives me the same cause for concern. I'm fervently hoping that his recent behavior towards school, therapy, friends and other social activities will carry on into the doctors offices.
Eating has always been an issue for Mr N, but weight has not. He has always had a healthy weight and height, sticking to his growth curve. He tipped the scales to 39.6 recently which made me understand why the struggling to get him dressed has becoming more of a challenge. His eating seems to have improved over the recent months, maybe not the variety but he will eat apples, strawberries, and bananas pretty consistently every day. He still loves his french toast bread, fruit loops, ramen noodles and fruit snacks, which is basically the range of his diet. Occasionally he will eat pizza and chicken nuggets but only when the mood strikes him or if he is really hungry.
Mr N has a well child check coming up in a few weeks, I'm anxious to see how he deals with that. Having a new pediatrician in a new office could go either way, a meltdown or no big deal. I'm hoping it goes well but expecting meltdown city. He also has a dentist appointment in coming weeks that gives me the same cause for concern. I'm fervently hoping that his recent behavior towards school, therapy, friends and other social activities will carry on into the doctors offices.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Social Butterfly
Nearly a month has passed since my last post, I thought I'd have thoughts to share daily. Having Mr N go to therapy outside the home does have drawbacks, since I'm unable to observe and document his progress during therapy.
Mr N started off having therapy in a playgroup once a week for an hour, after a couple of weeks they added an hour a week of him joining the preschool for their activities. The first week at the preschool it took much persuading to coax him inside from the playground. On week two they started him out inside with the other kids and he did great. His therapist said he seemed a little overwhelmed a few times with the larger group of kids but he didn't have any meltdowns.
His speech is still improving, his speech therapist said he will repeat just about anything they ask him to say. His new favorite word is "fire" possibly because E brought home a bunch of fire related stuff last week as it was Fire Prevention Week, she had fire fighters visit the school and hand out goodie bags then they made fire truck treats out of crackers. The way Mr N says "fire" is super cute, he many times is referring to his fire truck but just says fire. For example, he'll yell "fire, fire" pointing upstairs to his room because he was playing with his fire trucks. As you might imagine, we are trying to get him to say "fire truck" when applicable. Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive over the mountains, on our drive home we were behind a snow plow that had flashing lights; Mr N kept saying fire while E insisted that it was a tractor. After many explanations to both kids that it was, in fact, a snow plow and not a tractor or fire truck, they both said okay then continued saying "tractor" and "fire".
Yesterday, after meeting we were visiting with friends when we noticed that Mr N was approaching everyone saying "hi" making the rounds several times, then returning to his friends for a few minutes. It was amazing to see him being so social, he shared his fire truck with one of his friends and hugged one of my friends without reservation. Daddy and I laughed with amazement at how far he has come socially. I thought this budding new personality trait may just be a fluke, yet today we were at the grocery store and Mr N proceeded to greet everyone whose path we crossed, showing his dinosaurs, talking to them and introducing me.
My heart is full of happy.
Mr N started off having therapy in a playgroup once a week for an hour, after a couple of weeks they added an hour a week of him joining the preschool for their activities. The first week at the preschool it took much persuading to coax him inside from the playground. On week two they started him out inside with the other kids and he did great. His therapist said he seemed a little overwhelmed a few times with the larger group of kids but he didn't have any meltdowns.
His speech is still improving, his speech therapist said he will repeat just about anything they ask him to say. His new favorite word is "fire" possibly because E brought home a bunch of fire related stuff last week as it was Fire Prevention Week, she had fire fighters visit the school and hand out goodie bags then they made fire truck treats out of crackers. The way Mr N says "fire" is super cute, he many times is referring to his fire truck but just says fire. For example, he'll yell "fire, fire" pointing upstairs to his room because he was playing with his fire trucks. As you might imagine, we are trying to get him to say "fire truck" when applicable. Yesterday afternoon we went for a drive over the mountains, on our drive home we were behind a snow plow that had flashing lights; Mr N kept saying fire while E insisted that it was a tractor. After many explanations to both kids that it was, in fact, a snow plow and not a tractor or fire truck, they both said okay then continued saying "tractor" and "fire".
Yesterday, after meeting we were visiting with friends when we noticed that Mr N was approaching everyone saying "hi" making the rounds several times, then returning to his friends for a few minutes. It was amazing to see him being so social, he shared his fire truck with one of his friends and hugged one of my friends without reservation. Daddy and I laughed with amazement at how far he has come socially. I thought this budding new personality trait may just be a fluke, yet today we were at the grocery store and Mr N proceeded to greet everyone whose path we crossed, showing his dinosaurs, talking to them and introducing me.
My heart is full of happy.
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