Cuddlebug

Mr N is the cuddliest kid I've ever known. I love it. Does it get any better than having a cuddle bug crawl into bed with you in the morning? Nope!

Mr N is pretty much obsessed with counting lately, little by little he is learning his numbers. So far he says "two", "seven", and "eight". But he will point to objects and count "two, two, two, two, twooooo". He recently discovered the Ants Counting app on his iPad. It certainly is increasing his ability to recognize numbers.

Today during therapy Mr N grabbed the toy phone and handed it to me, so I talked for a few minutes to "Grandma" then said "it's for you". Mr N immediately grabbed it and said "hello? what you doing?". Pure awesomeness. We will have to call Grandma later so he can talk to her for real.

We ran to the hardware store yesterday for brackets to hang the guest bathroom mirror and noticed they still had a few Melissa & Doug toys on sale, they had one puzzle that we don't have yet, so we picked it up for use during therapy. Ok, I confess I love Melissa & Doug stuff, it's so durable, so well made, so stinking cute and it was $5. Mr N quickly mastered the puzzle today and moved on to other puzzles, played basketball with balls and a tote, then a repeat of basketball with the toy food and a tote. I'm pretty sure his super power is throwing; I'll be honest, I haven't been around a lot of 2.5 year olds, but his athletic abilities are impressive to me, as well as his hand and eye coordination. Basketball, baseball and kicking seem to be his favorites; he will use a plastic bowling pin as a bat and the bowling ball to play baseball.

I was doing some reading recently on an autism board and someone posed the question, have you or your spouse been evaluated for autism since receiving your child's diagnosis. A surprising number of people had either been officially diagnosed with a spectrum disorder or had done some online questionnaires and feel they fit on the spectrum. My initial thoughts were that they were trying to determine if it was genetic, or place the blame on one parent. I say place the blame, because it seems there is some blaming when a child is diagnosed, like it somehow makes one parent feel better if it's not their "fault" that their child has autism. Personally, I don't think either of us is to "blame", it's just something that happened and there is nothing we can do to change it now, so why focus on the how? I think for prevention issues, it'd be great if research was done to determine if outside elements were contributing to autism.

I discussed the topic with Daddy to see what he thought of it all, his perspective is so insightful, so positive, so perfectly what I need. He said "I would be happy to find out that I have autism, it would reassure me that Mr N could live a very productive, successful and happy life". What an amazing way to look at it. I hadn't thought of it that way at all, but he is absolutely correct. It would most certainly relieve some of the stress and worry to find out that one of us is on the spectrum.

Our guests from out of state arrived last night and were so kind to bring me flowers. Here is a picture, so you can enjoy them as much as me (just imagine them smelling absolutely divine).

Getting Dressed

Lately Mr N does not enjoy putting his clothes on, not every day but several times a week we have to fight getting dressed. Today is one of those days. I'm not sure what causes him to be so upset with the clothes, we've been waiting to get him dressed after Katy gets here so we can work towards him letting others dress him. I'm wondering if it is just too much change after she arrives. I'll keep track the next couple of days and report back. We ended up taking his clothes back off since they were really bothering him.

Yesterday in therapy Mr N did amazing, it was the first day that he really spent a lot of one on one time with Katy. He is making tremendous progress and he really likes Katy, it helps that she is very relaxed and really works well with him. He did a great job working on puzzles, giving great eye contact, stacking blocks and used the cardboard nesting blocks to play basketball.

After therapy Mr N took his nap while I worked on painting the guest house and getting it ready for company that is arriving today. The painting was short lived, Mr N woke up in a very crabby mood. Daddy had mentioned on Saturday that when Mr N woke up cranky that he took him for a drive and he calmed right down. I figured I'd give it a go, the doors and top are still off the Jeep so it makes for quite the enjoyable drive. Sure enough he calmed down as soon as I buckled him in, and was happy for the whole drive.

The kids were not any more cooperative with allowing me to paint after the drive, so I gave it a break for a couple of hours. The kids played outside, which means digging up the empty flower garden and flinging dirt all over each other and the patio. I hosed them off and banished them to the house for a while.

Today Mr N has done quite well with therapy despite the initial getting dressed dilemma. He's done some painting, blocks and puzzles. E got out the ABCs puzzle and as she'd pick up a piece he'd say "right there" and point to where it went. It was pretty impressive, he knew immediately where each piece went and pointed it out. Mr N also did the hide and seek board which I've mentioned before, today we mixed up the pieces behind each door and Mr N corrected each one. It's amazing just to watch him and see his little brain work so quickly, knowing where each object goes.

Before we went outside we tried putting clothes on Mr N again, he put them on with no problem. When we came back inside the kids had lunch, then dumped out their piggy banks and put the coins back. E discovered how to climb in the big purple bucket and put the other one on top, Mr N gave it a try and really seemed to enjoy it. It makes me really want to get or make him an enclosed swing. How hard could it be? Hopefully it won't turn into a curtain fiasco.

Busy, busy, busy

I meant to update my blog yesterday after therapy, but we spent the last bit of therapy at the park then headed home and I started painting the guest house. Therapy went really well yesterday, Mr N is really bonding well with Katy and eagerly invites her to play with him. I know most of my posts include reference to Mr N's speech or vocabulary, but it's hard not to keep track of every little word he says when his last evaluation placed him about 12 months verbally and receptively. I am eagerly awaiting speech therapy to begin, he is making such remarkable progress now, I can only imagine how well he'll be talking with more help.

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Mr N seems to be really moving forward with potty training, but he does not like wearing underwear, he wants a diaper or to be naked. He has been going pee on the potty several times a day and telling us as soon as he pees in his diaper. So we are making forward progress.

I'll keep this brief since I'm unable to make paragraph breaks on a mobile device. I'll go back later and edit, I just wanted to update about our field trip to the park on Friday. I am so lucky to be Mr N's mommy.

My Big Boy

Potty training? But I'm not ready! I've always felt child led potty training is the most effective and easiest method. You can call it laziness, I'm fine with that. My point is Mr N has started peeing on the potty on a daily basis without any prompting. He pats his diaper when he wants to sit on the potty, then runs for the bathroom. I'm not sure that he really needed to pee all 8 times he went today, but he certainly enjoys receiving praise for peeing on the potty. 

Today was our big grocery shopping day, so while we were in town we got Mr N some big boy panties, now just to convince him that he needs to wear them rather than running around naked. Grocery getting was pretty uneventful, Mr N did great today. It was a beautiful day so I didn't bother putting the windows back in the Jeep, on our way into town E kept asking me to take the top off, so before we journeyed back home I took off the top. There is something so relaxing and wonderful about wind blowing through your hair in perfect weather. 

Mr N napped on our way into town and I wore him all through Walmart, then at Costco he walked beside me most of the time or maybe I should say ran. He was quite riled up and ready to play so we did Costco quite quickly.

Therapy went pretty well today, Mr N was in a much better disposition and interacted well with Katy. He climbed up on the table to turn on the CD player because he wanted to dance with her, such a precious boy. I love him. He also did some painting. 

After painting he did some fruit cutting (wooden fruit/wooden knife), hide and seek, then some outside time. 

While Mr N and E were busy playing with Katy I scheduled well child checks and sent a message to Mr N's pediatrician requesting a referral to get his rest of the testing done. I was going to procrastinate and avoid the issue because I'm a bit scared. But last night I decided, somewhat naively, that I would just google these things and reassure myself that his tests will all come back negative. After that shock of information I decided I'd rather know for sure one way or another, the sooner the better. 

I've been a bit of an emotional wreck today just thinking about the prospect of Mr N having yet another diagnosis that I'm not prepared to handle. I just assumed we were ruling out stuff, that there was one in a million chance that he'd get more diagnosis, that there was little chance that he'd actually have anything in addition to autism. I know they say knowledge is power, but right now it feels like knowledge is crippling. I just want the tests to be done, to have some answers.

Every time my beautiful baby is being silly, making me laugh, giving me hugs, and just being a boy I get a little teary. He's so amazing, I've never met such a joyful, little boy who was so quick with a smile, who is so amazingly beautiful and sweet. To know him is to love him. 

I am making it my goal to not think about the testing until the appointments are scheduled, I will not continue to wallow and blubber (well maybe a little bit, but I'll do it privately). Another diagnosis does not change who my beautiful love bug is, it only adds another layer to him.

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. 

Gulliver's Travels

Minus Gulliver, it mostly involved Mommy, Daddy, Sissy and Baby. :D

I'm sure many have been wondering why my blog has not been updated in a while. Well I'm here to tell you.

Daddy had business meetings in SoCal last week so we took the opportunity to accompany him, for several reasons. First, the kids really miss Daddy when he's away, the less they are away from him, the better it is for them and me. Second, his hotel was a mile from the beach. Third, free hotel.

Monday morning the 27th we loaded up both vehicles and departed for SoCal. Along the way I discovered Red Bulls & Rockstar energy drinks, I have been missing out. For whatever reason, I was sure they would taste like poo and was never brave enough to try one. Then I saw that pretty pink can. Oh yes that one right there.....

And here you thought you'd see some amazing pictures from our trip, not so, grasshopper. I mostly took pictures of drinks and feet. 

The trip down was pretty uneventful, we stopped for lunch along the way. An interesting little tidbit we found out is that since my phone is set as priority one on the blue tooth in both vehicles, if I'm too close to Daddy while following him my phone will take over his blue tooth so I can have a conversation with myself for him to listen in on. Good times.

Upon arriving at the hotel Daddy went straight to work and didn't get back to our room until well after the kids were asleep. While Daddy was busy doing his work stuff the kids and I went to the nearest grocery store for some necessities (milk, yogurt, red bull, bread, cereal, etc). Then we headed down to the pool and splash pad for some good fun. The kids loved it, Mr N has no fear and has figured out how to hold his breath and go underwater. It scares Mommy every time since he does it without warning and does not come back up on his own. Relaxing would not describe our time spent at the pool.

Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early and hit the beach, but not before hitting the lobby for some coffee. 

The beach was beautiful and amazing, as you would expect. We built sand castles and played in the water until we were all tuckered out. We headed back to the hotel for showers, naps, and some TV. The kids do not really understand what TV is since we haven't had it for quite a long time, they did not grasp the concept of commercials or that I couldn't just make Dora be on for hours at a time. 

Tuesday evening Daddy had a break from work and joined us for dinner, then watched the sunset on the beach. 

As it started to get dark we headed back to our car.....

Wednesday we checked out the mall and got to know the area a little better. After Daddy got back to the room that night at 10:30 I joined my friend (whom Daddy works with) for drinks in the bar. It was nice getting a little grown up time, I'm sure Daddy didn't mind getting a little sleep. 

We decided the beach was much more fun than shopping so Thursday we hit the beach again. 

After a long, exhausting day at the beach we headed back to the hotel and watched the sunset from there.

Thursday night my cousin came to visit and we took the kids out for ice cream. We had planned to spend all day Friday with my cousin then head to her place for the night before heading back home on Saturday. But after sending Daddy on his way to Utah on Friday morning E decided she just wanted to go home. So we had more ice cream with my cousin then journeyed back home.

While the trip down was uneventful and took about 7 hours with stops, the way back didn't go quite so smooth. There was a ton of traffic and the trip took a little over 9 hours. The highlights from our return trip....

~ the GPS had me drive through an orchard

~ the GPS routed me down what I can only guess is a very scenic route if it is during the day and you can see

~ the "cutoff" it sent me down was an unmarked very narrow, windy road

~ E announced that she needed to pee while we were a thousand miles from nowhere and then couldn't pee alongside the road, upon donning a diaper she said "look how cute I am", five miles later she insisted "get this diaper off of me, I'll wait until we get home"

~ after many windy miles up and down the mountains E announced "I'm gonna puke" I hurriedly pulled off and started to take her out when she calmly said "I'm not gonna puke right now, I just feel like it"

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were pretty uneventful, we relaxed, played outside, did some laundry, ran some errands and eagerly awaited Daddy's return. He made it home last night quite tired but excited to see us. 

Mr N certainly missed his Daddy while he was gone the four days, he called him a few times and chatted him up. E only called once to say "come home now" when she was tired of him being gone. They both enjoyed having some time with him last night before bed. 

We recently got "The Adventures of Milo & Otis" since E loves cats so much. At first, it seemed that Mr N wasn't that interested in the movie, but in the last few days it is the only movie he wants to watch. E has an imaginary cat named Milo (since we refused to take Elephant back to the pet store and buy Milo) that goes everywhere with us. Buckling a cat into a carseat with E is not quite as easy as one might think, although imaginary, it is easy to pinch his legs in the buckles. Today Milo's wife Joyce joined our family, so far she fits in well, I barely notice her.

PS. I was serious about the pictures being of feet and drinks.

Baby

Mr N is now recognizing pictures of himself, he points and says "baby". We still refer to him as baby and I do not intend to stop anytime soon, he is my baby, he will always be my baby. 

Along with saying baby he is stringing more words together, his speech is soaring, as is my heart. What an amazing little boy I have. I'm so blessed to have such a precious child in my life. I love his hugs and kisses and even when he tries to lick my tongue. 

Today was our first day back to therapy after our trip to SoCal. He did pretty good with his new therapist, Katy. This first week will be about bonding and getting to know each other, he really seems to like her. For the most part he just led the way today picking out toys and activities, the rest of us just joined in with him. He was in the mood to dance this morning, he kept grabbing Katy's hand to invite her to dance with him. Adorable.

Mr N played with his train set, stacking blocks and did some ball play with Katy. But the thing that surprised me the most was a puzzle that I purchased a few months ago for the kids. I've never seen Mr N play with it, only E. Today he got it out to do with Katy, while I watched. I was super impressed, behind each door is an magnetic piece. He put them one at a time into the right door. Below is a picture of the puzzle, it's amazing to me that he can put things in by category, rather by shape or exact match. For example, the oven door has a turkey that goes in; the cookie jar gets cookies, dog house gets a dog. Color me impressed. 

Katy got Mr N to say at least one new word, she even commented on how much he was vocalizing today. I am so proud of my little man, he is just doing amazing. 

Towards the end of the therapy Mr N dozed off for a nap, he had a late nap yesterday which resulted in a late night last night and then an early morning this morning. Hopefully we're back on schedule for an afternoon nap. Although, if he falls asleep during the last 20 minutes of therapy I'm not going to complain, that will give Katy a chance to do some paperwork.