The first week of speech

Last week went by super fast! We had 4 therapies (OT, speech and 2 speech sessions at the new office!)--I think it tuckered Bug out!

OT went ok, I talked with Lauren about transitioning to private therapy and our options for that. I am waiting to hear back from the OT we'd like--and getting a little frustrated because I'm having a tough time getting a hold of them. Unfortunately, there aren't a ton of options for OT, so I'm hoping we can get this set up soon!

Speech with Laura (our new therapist) is going really well! Bug has transitioned quickly and yesterday went back without me! Really good. I had to laugh because on Friday, Laura tried a technique called "sabotage" where she wouldn't give in to Bug (give him toys he wanted, etc) unless he at least made an attempt at asking for them. When she told me about it, she said "He is..." I said "Stubborn?" "Persistent" Yep. I know. He's been persistent from the get-go. :)

Yesterday Bug matched some items for Laura and did volunteer a few words. She's starting to present him with structure (like not roaming all over the room, sitting at a table until he finishes a task, etc). It's definitely going to take some time, but he does seem responsive to her.

One thing I found, that I'm rather surprised about, is that I get kind of frustrated when I can hear Bug not respond to her when I know he can. Like, if it's something he says at home no problem. So maybe it's a good thing I'm not in there with him ;)

Another change we've had is all of the sudden, Bug has started putting consonants on the ends of his words!  Sit and hat and cake and the like. It's great to hear. Kerry said today that kids should by the age of 3 so it's good to see he's in a good place with that! Plus it really helps in understanding him!

We got some snow last week, and I was FINALLY able to convince Bug to put on boots (rainboots, because Virginia snow is not real snow) so we could go outside:

He had a blast running through the snow and eating the "mooncakes" I made for him. <3

Here's hoping we continue to see good progress. Hard to believe next week is our last week of Early Intervention therapies. Guess we'll have to do a big recap, eh?

Whack-a-doo Week

Last week ran away from us. Bug got sick on Tuesday so I had to cancel his speech therapy and his speech evaluation. Luckily, we were able to reschedule the eval for Friday--and even luckier was Bug being almost completely back to normal by then too! It was such a relief to not have to take him to the doctor.

The eval went pretty well. I felt like Bug behaved pretty "normal" for him so they could get a pretty accurate assessment done. It was amazing to see how quickly he adjusted to being in the therapy room. When we did the EI assessment, they did it at home because I thought there was no way he'd tolerate being in a foreign environment. Anyway, the evaluator noted Bug has "asynchronous development"--basically that some of his speech skills are far more developed than others. She also noted red flags for autism (which wasn't a surprise) and gave me some good referrals for occupational therapists. I feel good about the office, they seem pretty similar to our philosophy about kids. It's kind of hard to explain what I mean, I guess the language they use to talk about kids and the issues we're having and how to deal with them...seems "right" to me. Bug was exhausted afterwards, he ended up napping on the couch:

He's been napping a lot lately, which is weird, but kind of nice :)

Starting this week (tomorrow, actually!) we are going to do speech 2x per week. While we had been receiving therapy in home, we will be going to the office for our sessions now. Ideally, I will wait outside the room while Bug is with the therapist. The evaluator explained that Bug relies on me to fill in words for him, translate, or provide communication, whereas they want him to struggle a little and do it on his own. It should be interesting!

Because I'm going to have to Wiggle with us too, I've been making "busy bags" to bring along. Hopefully having "special" activities to do will keep everyone happy. I'm a little nervous, although I'm excited about having a bit of time to focus just on Wiggle while Bug is off with the therapist. I will get pictures of the bags I've done. A lot of them have sensory components, which I think will be good for Bug to use too.

Bug also used a marker on the dry-erase part of his easel last week. He really really liked it, but since then hasn't wanted to color again. Still, every little experience is great for him, so I'm really happy!

On a super cool (but weird) note: Bug has been a little bit more flexible about trying new foods. On Thursday we got Buffalo Wild Wings and Bug tasted my bbq wings and some potato wedges. This weekend he ate oatmeal too, which he hadn't had since I was pregnant with Wiggle. It's really good to see him be a little bit more bold about tasting things and I really really hope we can increase his variety of foods.

Today we took advantage of the nice weather and got out to the park. Bug did a really great job listening to me. He also did lots of swinging (including in some swings he didn't like the last time we were there) and went down slides on his own and even climbed up on rocks. Super fun!

Tomorrow we have OT and are reviewing Bug's Early Intervention goals. We also have our first speech session at the new therapists. Then we have speech with Kerry on Wednesday and on Thursday we're back to the new therapist again! Busy week! Hopefully Bug will take to it ok, he can get kind of exhausted by the therapies I think.  Will update again at the end of the week!

Bug's New Year!

Well Bug started out his year on the right foot yesterday! We had TWO new skills pop up and I'm thrilled!

1) Bug got tickled by Wiggle and Daddy, and Bug tickled back! HUGE. No, HUGE. I was so happy to see a positive interaction between the boys! We still have a ton of pushing, whining, and general distress when Wiggle even gets near Bug, so a positive interaction where everyone is laughing and happy is a really good thing. Also, this is good cooperative play. We can build on this, they can tickle back and forth, take turns, gang up on Daddy, etc. I'm hoping that we can lay a good foundation of silliness between the boys and that will help foster friendship as well as social skills for both of them.

Then, almost right after the tickle episode,
2) BUG KICKED A BALL! Several times. Do you know how looooonnnnngggggg we've wanted him to do this?! I could do a happy dance right now! He wouldn't kick it to Daddy, but he kicked it, went after it, kicked it again. Yay Bug!!!!!

I'm still seeing a good, slow but steady increase in Bug's social awareness and comfort in social situations. He is definitely more aware of others and wants to be around others. Not all the time (which is totally fine) but sometimes. Today we went to the park, and while he normally would run straight to the swings, he opted to go over to the playground first, where other kids were. He wasn't too sure how to deal with others, but just that he deviated from his normal routine is just. so. stinkin. great!

Verbally, Bug's making good solid progress. His words have become just SO much clearer, with consonants at the end, multiple syllables and decent usage. From here, we'd like to see him start combining them into phrases (more than just the rote ones he knows now) and sentences. Our therapist said that by around 3, you'd like kids to be pretty conversational.

Bug turns 3 in one month. We have 4 more speech sessions and 2 OTs before he ages out of Early Intervention. This is kind of nerve-wracking for us. We are going to pursue private therapy, so our speech therapist suggested that we start our search now, so we can find out about waitlists or what evaluations need to be done. Hopefully we won't have to have a big lapse in therapy. Adam and I would really appreciate you keeping us in your prayers as we make decisions about therapy for Bug.  Our hope is to find therapists who Bug can really connect to so we can really maximize our time with them! :)