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).
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