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!