1/18 - Baths, Papa, & bowling

Here is a bath time collage from last week. Aiden struggled to even get in the tub last week and then once he was in, he really didn't want to get wet. You can see from the first two picture that he wasn't so excited about the shower. He finally let me run the water on his back. He started to calm down and enjoy it actually. He then wanted to play with the different settings on the shower head. It was interesting to watch him assess the different settings and see what he liked. I was surprised that he actually liked some of the "bullet" ones since they were high pressure. It took a bit of convincing, but he finally washed an arm and a leg with a washcloth. He actually gripped onto the washcloth pretty good to and put enough pressure on his skin to possibly get dirt off. That's an improvement.

And then there is Eli. He has no problem with the bath, or water, or soap, or bubbles. It's pretty refreshing. Come to think of it, maybe I should start bathing him second so I leave bath time in a good mood rather than stressed with fighting Aiden. Eli was playing with this little penguin in the bath tub. It has a rotor on it and can swim by itself. We were playing with it in the bath tub for the first time in a long time and he was having a great time. His great time got even better when he realized the rotor kicked back some water and when he put it in front of his private parts, it felt .... different. I was dying laughing because he started smiling and kept doing it. Oh boys!! 

I got out some animal flashcards the other day and asked the boys how many of the cards they could find actual animals to represent (not real ones of course). They had fun hunting around the house for various toys to try and find matches.

We have been having a challenging time trying to keep clothes on Eli. That boy just loves to be naked!!
It can be freezing outside, and pretty chilly inside and he'll still want to me a "naked boy." Brad re-did his prize chart last week to reward him more. The boys get stickers for their prize charts and every 4 or 5 stickers usually earns them a prize. That has worked great with Aiden. Eli has a hard time using the chart as a motivation tool because the gratification is not instant enough. He gets all upset when he doesn't get a prize and doesn't even care to put a sticker up even though he earned one. Brad re-did his prize chart so that he gets a prize every other time and that is working out better. It's at least motivated him enough to get himself dressed in the morning for the past week without too many tears shed. It kills me though that when Eli does get to pick a prize, he always picks candy. I've had the same candy in there (chewy gummy lifesavers) for a few months and he only gets one piece. There are unopened lego men, Chuggington trains, eraser puzzles, and other things Eli loves but he only has eyes for the candy. I'm debating taking the candy out as a choice but we'll see. Below is Eli sporting his "naked boy" self along with his goggles. He cracks me up.

We got to Skype with Nana the other day and the boys enjoyed that. Eli was trying to show her his puppies. They both showed her their legos and how they could build things and then knock them down.

Eli is actually getting strong enough fingers to push the legos all the way down and build himself little towers. He definitely loves building them up kinda high and then making sure almost every lego is off the base by the time he is done. Eli is a little more reserved with his lego knock-down. I actually think he doesn't like the mess it makes which doesn't surprise me. I think I've finally come up with a way to store/sort our legos (for now) and am thankful for Aiden's OCD to help me keep them organized! :)

Saturday was a beautiful day and we decided to head to a new park. We went to Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery. It was very pretty and there were lots of bike/walking paths to take. We will be going back and taking our bikes next time we go. Eli was being rather lazy and we had to take the stroller for him or we would get stuck carrying him the whole time. We took a few balls with us and played catch and fetch. Yes, I said fetch!! I did lots of the fetching since Eli is lazy.

On Saturday afternoon, we ended up staying home and playing in the backyard. Brad and I got out the frisbees, balls, and a nerf football. We had lots of fun. Brad and I got to play catch, Aiden practiced hitting the ball off the tee, and Eli was just roaming around. Pouncer sat at the window and watched us for a long time. I eventually got out bubbles and the boys both had fun playing with those and the automatic bubble maker. To top off an already fun backyard afternoon, I found our walkie-talkies. The boys have never seen or used them before but we got Papa some for Christmas for his farm and Aiden has been talking about walkie-talkies ever since. Brad and I got them a few years ago when we were driving from Maryland to Florida and we didn't want to have to use our cell phone to call when we had something quick we want to tell the other person (we were driving separate vehicles). Anyway, it took some practice for the boys but they eventually got the hang of it. It was hard for Aiden to push the button and hold it in order to talk but he eventually got it.

On Monday, we were blessed by Papa showing up. Papa and I went to get the boys early on Monday. They were just finishing up playing on the Big Green Bus. They were anxious to show Papa their skills and then come home and play with him. Here they are after just getting home. It took Eli only a matter of minutes to strip down to his undies! Aiden insisted on Papa having a lizard on his head for the picture. I think Eli is going to be swimmer just so he doesn't have to wear clothes and it's acceptable for him to wear his goggles all the time. :)

After seeing Eli sporting around his pool look in briefs and goggles, Aiden wanted to show Papa how he can swim "by himself." In his world, that means he wears this froggy vest and can still float.

As usual, Aiden had therapy on Tuesday. He struggled a bit in the beginning but Mrs. Rusty knows how to get him to do stuff. He helped her hang a swing up, get on the swing and ride, find crabs and put them on the rope, and then played did a few minutes of sensory work. He is trying so hard to make all of his muscles work together to be able to swing. He (much to my surprise) put a blind fold on for the first time and crawled around on a giant wobble board on his belly while he felt for crabs on the floor. He then got his fingers nice and strong by clipping the crabs to the rope. He ended the session by having to find little plastic rabbits in a bag of grits and then finding the hidden treasure in a pile of shaving cream. It was the end of the session and he was tired and started going downhill. He wouldn't touch the shaving cream so Mrs. Rusty modified the original goal to try and make it easier. It was aggravating for me to watch so I'm not even going to try and type the whole thing out so here is the readers digest version: he used the rabbits he just found in the grits to "help" look through the shaving cream; he found a treasure; he wouldn't wipe the treasure off with a towel so we took it to the sink; he wouldn't wash it off either. 

I've gotten the boys early from daycare this week so they can hang out with Papa. We went to Big Lots the other day and Christmas stuff was 75% off. I had just been up really late the night before looking on Pinterest and finding lots of ideas of stuff I wanted to do. I got out the tent that Nana gave Aiden a few years ago. We made Eli's bed into a fort with sheets and then .... bought them each a set of LED christmas lights to hand on their beds. They were so excited. We got home, put up the lights, and the boys then played for the next couple of hours. The boys can plug the lights in whenever they want but they always have to be unplugged after we say prayers at bedtime. 

Tuesday night our water heater pilot light went out on us so the boys ended up getting no bath because we had no hot/warm water. So, Wednesday night was bath night. Aiden didn't want to get a shower which is no surprise. I got him to cheer up some and he even had fun. I let him play with the shower head and changing the way the water comes out and then put the plug in the bathtub so that he could in the water. I was trying to let him enjoy the experience and let him play for about 15 minutes or so. I finally told him we had to clean him and then everything went downhill very fast. I tried all my tricks of empowering him ("Aiden, what kind of wash cloth do you want to use?" "I'll wash one arm and you can wash the other. Do you want me to do your right or left?") and nothing was working for getting him onboard for a bath. He wanted to earn a sticker so bad by cleaning himself but he just wouldn't actually do anything. So.... he cried for 5-10 minutes while I soaped him, washed his hair, and rinsed him off. Bath time took much longer than usual. I was trying to be patient and work with him but I think he was too tired because of having no nap and just couldn't emotionally handle it. The boys didn't get in to bed until about 8:00pm this night because Aiden's bath was so long and dramatic and I was completely wiped out.

On Thursday morning, Papa went with me to my brain MRI. I'm so thankful it was approved through the insurance company so fast and then I was able to get it pretty fast as well. I got the referral last Thursday afternoon and had the MRI the next Thursday morning!! It was a MRI with contrast so I was slightly nervous my body would freak out again with a foreign substance being injected into me so I was thankful my dad came with me. The tech said the radiologist would have the report done by today but I probably won't hear anything until Tuesday since Monday is a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr). I spent the whole time in the MRI in prayer. I don't want them to find a tumor on my pituitary gland but at the same time, I would like for the MRI to help the doctors figure out what is wrong. On Thursday afternoon, we picked up the boys from daycare and then went to base to meet Brad to go bowling. Eli has never been bowling and Aiden has only been bowling once. Brad and I haven't bowled in a year or two and my dad said he hadn't bowled in many, many years.

The boys had a blast. Aiden eagerly awaited his turn ... every time. Eli had a good time putting the ball up on the ramp and then slapping it down. In Eli fashion, he even head-butted the ball down the ramp a few times. He got lots of excited out of watching his ball go down and hit pins. The bottom right of the collage is one of the first times he bowled. After his ball hit 2 or 3 pins down, he raised his arms up and started jumping all over the place. It was too funny. He was a big cheerleader for all of us. Aiden was having a bit of a hard time. We used the ramp and bumpers for both of them but Aiden had a bad ball at the beginning and it just went off to the left quite a bit and snuck into the gutter right before the pins but after the bumper. I brought some legos with us which was good. The boys were a little impatient because they just wanted it to be their turn the whole time. My dad did awesome. He busted out of the gates with 2 strikes!! It was fun for all of us.

Here is the score board at the end of the first round. The man behind the counter entered in the names if you are wondering why Eli and Papa's names are spelled different.

I had to get a shot of the boys at the end. They had lots of fun and we will definitely be going back.

Brad and I actually went out on a date last night for the second time in just 7 months. We went to dinner and then walked around the dollar store for a bit. I needed to get some supplies for a project I am working on so we thought we would multi task. Brad has class today and we were both pretty tired so we were back home by 8:30pm. It was nice to get out without the boys though. It was a great visit with my dad and the boys really enjoyed seeing him. It has rained all week so I've come up with some new games that I'll post about soon. Have a good weekend.

1/9 - Sick again

Eli has been a bit emotional lately. OK. Maybe that is an understatement. He's has thrown himself to the ground more with uncontrollable crying in the past few weeks more than all of the times since his birth to age 3. Craziness. We think he's going through a growth spurt. He gets so grumpy so fast and always seems to be hungry. In fact, before he finished his dinner tonight, he asked if he could have a snack afterwards. Craziness.

I downloaded a free app on the iPad for Eli and he loves it. It's a Mr. Potatoe head app and he gets to dress up Mr and Mrs Potatoe head and then make them play around in different rooms. He likes to just turn on the app to hear the music and dance around too.

Aiden had a great week at therapy last week. Mrs. Rusty got him to play in water and use soap. I stayed back and just let them do their thing since water, soap, Aiden and mommy do not make a good combination. Aiden is getting so much stronger!!! His grasp has improved so so much as well as his strength. Now it just seems to be refining his strength and making him use his fingers versus his hand or arm and him being able to overcome his sensory issues. He does NOT like to use soap. He doesn't think making bubbles is fun and usually does not find it entertaining that his hands are even wet. Mrs. Rusty was able to help him overcome his resistance and they played in the water for a while making bubbles. When we got home at the end of the day, Aiden says, "you ready mom? OK. Here I go" and starts jumping and switching arms/legs (bottom right picture). This was something his therapist asked him to do over a month ago and he couldn't/wouldn't do it. However, because it was something he couldn't do, he just randomly starts practicing it every now and then and asks if it is right.

Brad was sick all of last week so I was with the boys quite often. Here is Aiden wearing my sweatshirt and Eli ... naked. This boy do not like clothes. In fact, we've had to physically hold him down and undress him and then dress him into regular clothes for the last 2 days. He refuses to change because he wants to wear his jammies all day. Once we finally get him out of his jammies, he just wants to stay naked.

We had a big bath night last week. The average person is going to think this is a little crazy but ... we are pretty excited about the steps Aiden has started to take in the bathtub. Bath time is a ... chore for us. Aiden dislikes water, is VERY sensitive to water temperature, and really hates soap. As you can imagine, all those things are required for a bath or shower. Aiden hasn't taken a bath in a long, long time. He usually takes a shower and a very short one at that. His therapist showed him how to wash himself last week using a paper towel that was balled up. His original goal was to soap himself. That didn't really happen but I think I didn't prepare Mrs. Rusty for what a good goal might be. Aiden let me run water over his back for a while. This is unusual. I then let him have control of the water sprayer and he chose to use a washcloth (versus poof). He got it all wet but then refused to pick it up. I laid it out and then asked him to put soap on it. I gave him a choice of soap and then he squirted some on the wash cloth. It took lots of patience and coaching, BUT he eventually picked the washcloth up and even rubbed his leg very lightly. He chose a leg to clean and then I cleaned the other one. He barely even touched the washcloth to his skin but I was just so excited he actually picked it up!!! Progress. Lots of progress.

On the flipside, Eli loves bathtime and usually protests when he has to come out. He doesn't like his hair washed but as long as we tell him what to expect and make sure it doesn't last long, he's okay. Eli only likes bath and is not a fan of the shower. On Saturday morning, I took the boys to Chuck-E-Cheese for the first time in Alabama. Brad was still sick and I didn't want any of us getting sick. I included this blurry picture because it's something so spectacular ... Aiden on a vibrating ride. He's tried this one other time before and wanted off immediately. This time though, you could see he was tentative by looking at his face, but I talked him through it and calmed down. It was a ride in which it is supposed to feel like they are wearing a jetpack and riding around the city. I was narrating and saying that it what daddy sees when he flies his helicopters. Eli had a blast and did it 2 more times (there are 3 different experiences - roller coaster, jetpack, and something else). Aiden did it 2 times!!!! I was shocked and so happy for him.

I pushed my luck and got a little too close to lunch time and that put Eli over the edge. He was hysterical and rolling around on the floor. He wanted more tickets but didn't quite understand he had to earn them. Aiden was so proud of himself because he earned 29 tickets. In fact, he was so proud and wanted to show daddy the number of tickets he got that he didn't want to get a prize that day because the woman was going to take his paper which showed how many tickets he won. 

Brad started feeling better later in the evening which was good because I was about tapped out of single-parenting since he had been sick for so many days. Here are Aiden and daddy playing Trouble. Aiden has fallen in love with this game.

We also have been playing with Legos more. Aiden built a big house the other day. It's great therapy for him to put everything together so I was happy with it. 

The boys went to daycare on Monday and it was a special day. The Big Green Bus has started coming to their daycare once a week. We have to pay extra for it but it's an old school bus that has been gutted and gymnastics equipment is inside. Yeah, it's a cool idea. They both wanted to do it so I figured let's give it a try for a month and see (the second child is just half price).

 

I peeked in on the session and took a few pictures. Eli was having a blast running on a mini-treadmill. It was too cute. Aiden found a bike and said, "look mom, this bike has no wheels as his little legs were spinning around." 

The couple that runs the bus are pretty energetic and were having fun with the kids. The man put Aiden up on a semi-circle and had him trying to balance. It was great.

The highlight of the session was to go on the zip line. Yeah, you read that correctly. They have a zipline in the bus and it goes from one corner to the opposite diagonal. They go all the way down and then they created a mat square for the kids to drop in to at the end. Aiden volunteered to go first; that would never have happened a few months ago.

Eli went to and really enjoyed it. They both wanted to go again.

Monday night we had dinner at Chick-fil-a because I didn't feel like cooking. They boys were playing with the photo booth app on the iPad. They were too funny watching themselves and taking pictures.

The mirror function was especially fun for the boys because they got to see 2 pictures of themselves at the same time.

Aiden ate his entire dinner without constant reminding. It was awesome. Normally he will eat his fruit and 2-3 fries but then we have to constantly remind him to eat his "muscle food." He normally is bartering with us about how many bites he has to take and he ate ALL of his nuggets without any fight or negotiations.

Even Brad and I decided to get in on the funny face pictures.

This week Aiden got to have a longer therapy session than normal. He did so many things with movement this week. I was very surprised. He normally would only do something 1, maybe 2 times and then say he is "all done." He was actually having fun and a lot of it was on unstable/uneven surfaces. I'm not sure where the Aiden is that I moved here with but I love the Aiden who is showing up now and can live life without so many constraints. Mrs. Rusty then did some water/sensory stuff with him. She had him squeezing sponges with water in them. I was shocked that he even picked up the sponge that was in water. He definitely contemplates if it is worth him participating in the activity but Mrs. Rusty has figured out what motivates him and uses that to her advantage. He was having so much fun on the obstacle course she made him that she said he could go back on it if he completed a certain number of repetitions with the sponge. He definitely thought about it for a bit but eventually thought that was a great prize.

Aiden stayed at home sick today :( I don't think he is sick as much as he's just so congested and can't figure out how to blow his nose. Oh yeah. A bath update: Aiden sprayed water on himself last night!! That's huge. He would have nothing to do with touching soap or washing himself but at least he was putting all his body parts in the stream of water. I'll take what I can get at this point. I made Aiden try the sinus wash tonight (it irrigates the nasal passages). He was not a big fan of it but I didn't know what else to do. I even tried playing games with him last night to teach him to blow his nose and he can't figure it out and then gets so frustrated with himself that he can't do it. I even had Eli doing my game (having a tissue paper race blowing with our mouth, and then trying to make it move with just using our nose - breathing out through the nose). I'm so looking forward to the day my boys can 1) wipe themselves - Eli still thinks this is very optional. In fact, I think he thinks skid marks make him fast like a race care, 2) blow their own nose and put the tissue in the garbage, and 3) take a bath/shower on their own. I can't imagine the freedom I may experience with those things. Until then, I continue to travel along the bumpy road of self-hygeine for them (and me).