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another week of summer...

As I watch Jack playing outside with his trains, cars, the hose and baby pool I can't help but smile.  He is having such a great time and even though this mood probably won't last forever, these are the moments that make everything (school, therapy, ect) we do worth it.

We have had a pretty good week overall.  Jack has been going to ESY in the mornings.   Justin's mom arrived for her visit Sunday morning and it has been nice having an extra person around the house during the day.  Since she has been here to help I haven't had to drag Peyton with us everywhere we go, and she has really enjoyed spending some quality time with her grandma.  It has also given me the opportunity to do a few more "me and Jack" activities.  Jack and I went to a swim play date on Monday and he had such a great time.  I am also planning a trip to a trampoline park on Friday, since he doesn't have ESY on Friday's.  He likes the bouncy houses most of the time, but since these will be trampolines I am interested to see how he reacts. 

We are planning on going to a water park Saturday morning, called Hawaiian Falls.  The past few summers they have hosted a special needs day.  The park opens two hours early and they have discounted admission for children and adults with special needs and thier family.  This will be our first time taking Jack to a water park, but since he loves pools and water I have a pretty good feeling he will have a good time.  Since Peyon is still a little young for this activites Jeanette has offered to stay home while we take Jack.

Justin's mom is here with us until Sunday.  We have enjoyed having her here and hope she will try and come back again soon.  I hope everyone is having a great week and to all the father's out there I hope you had a wonderful Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to Justin, my dad Calvin, and Justin's Dad Glenn!

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Well Visits...

Today I took both kids to see the Dr. for their well check ups, Peyton's 15 month and Jack for his 4 year.  Both kids did really well and we didn't have to many tears prior to the end when they had to get their vaccinations.  Jack weighed in at 39 pounds and was 3'4" tall, and Peyton weighed 22lbs 1.5 oz and was 29.75 in. tall.  I now realize why its getting harder to carry them both at the same time...together they are around 60 pounds.  Good motivation and reason to keep working out, they are only going to get heavier ;-)

Happy today is Friday!, hooray we made it through another week. The second week of summer vacation has had it challenges but I we have had a pretty fun week.  We went swimming on Monday, had two play dates here at the house, and Jack went to his usual OT appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday. I am really hoping to get out of the house this afternoon, but it might have to be to an indoor locations because I have been outside playing with Jack and it is HUMID, yuck!

This weekend will should be fun.  We are looking forward to celebrating Father's Day with Justin, even though we don't have any specific plans at the moment.  We are also looking forward to Justin's mom coming for a visit.  She will be arriving Sunday morning and staying with us for the week.  It will be nice to have an extra set of hands around the house and I am looking forward to doing some me and Jack activities while Peyton spends some QT time with her Grandma.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Friday and great weekend and Happy Father's Day to all the amazing dad's out there!

Listening Therapy

Hello Wednesday!  This week has been a little better then last week but I am still looking forward to next week when ESY begins.  Jack will have an abbreviated day but I think he will benefit from getting some structured classroom time.  The kids and I have had a very relaxing morning which include Jack's new favorite breakfast scrambled eggs and we even took a trip to target to buy more eggs :-) 

Today marks day 3 of doing Listening Therapy with Jack.  This is a therapy we will (work up to doing) everyday for 30 minutes- broken up into two 15 minute sessions.  This week we have been working on him getting use to the head phones and learning that mommy is the only one allowed to put them on and take them off.  So far he has been doing very well with that rule.  My goal for the first few weeks is to get him comfortable with the idea and not to push him to hard and do my best to keep him from becoming frustrated and upset.  I showed him the new pecs card that says "all done" and he has used that a few times to tell me he wants to be done.  I will then tell him ok and do a verbal and finger count down from 5 and then remove the head phones and say "all done" then we end with a high five.  I have been trying to do a couple sessions with him while Peyton takes her nap so we don't have any distractions, and yesterday we got very close to hitting that 15 minute mark.  Fifteen minutes may sound like a short amout of time, but when you are trying to keep a toddler destracted and prevent him from ripping off his headphones it can feel like a lifetime. While he listens we have been play with cars, stack books, do puzzles, any type of play that keeps his interested and I also use lots of edible reinforcers.  The past few day's that has been rice cakes :-)  This is a very new experience for him and he was never a child that enjoyed wearing hats or having anything on his head so seeing him wear the head phones for long periods of time is a check in the victory column.  This therapy was recommended to use by his Occupational Therapist.  We purchased the head phones and mp3 player and Our Children's House Baylor is loaning us the music which will get changed up every 2 weeks. 

Here is a web site I found that explains Listening Therapy and its benefits in more detail.
http://www.advancedbrain.com/the-listening-program/the-listening-program.html

I hope everyone is having a nice week and here are a few pictures of Jack during his Listening Therapy session we had today.

Never Give Up | National Autism Association - 2012

Summer Week 2

Last week was Jack's first week off school and things started out a little rough, but we got to start out this week with a fun pool play date at his friend Allen's house.  I was a little nervous taking both kids to the pool but with a little help from my friend Jennifer (who's house we were at) and her parents we were able to have a really fun morning swimming.  A while back we went to a birthday party for one of Jack's classmates Hudson and I learned about a great floatation device called puddle jumpers.  So yesterday when I when out to do a little shopping (by myself, thank you so much Justin) I was able to buy him one to wear and be safe while he is in the water.  I also got two new bathing suits and Peyton a cute little baby raft to use which she absolutely loved using to float around the pool!

Jack had a blast at his birthday party last week and the weather turned out to be really nice.  It was a little humid but the rain stopped and the kids were able to play outside and I think everyone had a really nice time.  Here is one of the pictures I have up online of our "not so little anymore" little man after his party:

Hope everyone has a great week!



One year ago...

So I started writing this yesterday, but of course things got crazy and I was unable to finish...One year ago (yesterday) Jack got his official diagnosis of ASD, Autism Spectrum Disorder.  It has been a very educational year full of lots of activity including getting Jack set up with new therapist, since ECI services stopped when he turned 3, and completing his first year of school.  Jack has made some great progress over this past year and looking back I find it hard to believe its been a whole year.  The work he has been doing with his Occupational Therapist, Shannon, has helped him so much.  She has been addressing a lot of his sensory needs which has helped him gain some much needed developmental skills, such as learning how to dress, he's working on buttoning buttons, and learning to use scissor (to name a few).  He has stop mouthing every single toy/object he comes across and his tendency to eat non-food items has decreased greatly.  He has made some progress with his receptive language skills, but in regards to his communication skills we still rely heavily on the PEC system we started a few months back.  We are always encouraging and looking for ways to increase his verbal requesting by being quick to reinforce any thing he does happen to verbally requests.  Jack still has problems when it comes to his social skills.  He doesn't interact with his peers the way a Nero-typical child would at the age of 4, but is a skill he will have to learn over time.  We are always looking for ways to help him learn how to socialize by placing him in more social situations. 

Jack's last day of school was last week, and he is off for two weeks before his ESY programs starts.  The change in his daily routine has been harder on him then I expected.  He has been exhibiting more behaviors and having more frustration tantrums then he usually does when he was in school.  I have been trying my best to keep him on some sort of a schedule here at home, but with all the different variable that come with being at home things just can't be as structured as school...especially when you have a 14 month old added into the mix.  Today has been rainy and when you have a boy who lives to play outside it can be hard keeping him cooped up in the house.  I was able to take them out to McDonald's this morning to play, but he wasn't really in the mood to use the equipment. He did enjoy running around all the tables in the play area, and since 7:30 am isn't prime play area time at McDonald's we didn't encounter any problems.  Luckily, now the rain is light and there isn't any lightning or thunder so he is happily playing having a snack and playing with his trains on our covered patio (thank god for that). 

I am cleaning the house and getting ready for the very small party we are having to celebrate Jack's 4th birthday.  This of course was suppose to take place last Thursday but due to illness was postponed till this evening.  We will be ordering pizza (which is his favorite food), but with the rain there won't be any outdoor water activities, except the rain ;-) of course.

Hope everyone is having a great day and if you live in the Dallas area I hope you are enjoying the rain and the cooler temperatures!