That darn pillow

Ok...so Brady has a pillow and 2 dogs that are "must haves" in his world. He needs them to sleep and when we leave the house. He carts the pillow around everywhere throughout the day. I decided to wash it the other day, I thought it would be done before naptime. It wasn't! SO with much fussing and fretting he did finally fall asleep. I felt like crap.

I decided to make him a cover for this pillow. My thinking was that then I could just wash the cover and he would always have the pillow this way. it would just be "naked" sometimes. So I sit down at naptime and sew him a pillow cover with some Lightening McQueen fabric I had. dude....Lightening McQueen! Brady loves him. The pillow gets dry and the cover gets made. When he gets up from nap he immediately gets up and starts looking for his pillow. I hand it to him in the new awesome cover. He takes the pillow out of the cover and hugs it like there is no tomorrow. I try putting the pillow in the cover again, thinking he just may not "get it", and he again immediately pulls it out and tosses it aside. Apparently he is not keen on the cover. oh well.

So last night before bed we have his pillow and a moose he likes but cannot find the two dogs. Cannot.find.them.anywhere.at.all. Looked down the stairs, in the drawers, in all the rooms and even in the closet. They are completely MIA. We go to look in the van and then it hits me. We had the windows open all day because it was so beautiful outside and one of our screens is pulled loose in the corner. I look to the right of the door right under window with said screen...and yep. There is a small pile of toys with two little stuffed dogs right there. Stinkers had been tossing toys out the window. No telling who actually did it.

Yesterday Brady's eye started getting goopy and nasty so this morning we marched into the doc office to get it checked. Sure enough...pink eye. So far he is doing ok with it. He even let me put the eye drops in. I hope that good run of luck continues. lol

We got home and sat down to do his flash cards. I took a couple of short videos. I did this partly to keep up with his progress and also because I want to show clearly to others what he sounds like. I like to think when I blog that someone might get something from what I write. Maybe just a laugh, maybe an idea and maybe someone struggling with something similar can find solace in not being "alone" with it. Our quest for help came from me reading a blog that I could relate to that has led to a kinship with another momma that has been invaluable to my sanity. Perhaps I can be that for someone else.

Anyhow...here are a couple of videos of our flash cards this morning. He is turning to Josey to show her the card and "tell" her what is on it. You will note that almost all of his "words" sound the same. Also note that he gets a little "woof" in after choosing the dog. You will also notice Josey hamming it up in the back. Lucey was beside me so she is mostly out of frame...not by her choice I assure you.





I am doing what L told me to with him. Offer the pictures up for him to choose. Then regardless of what he chooses push the correct one forward and then congratulate him. Positive reinforcement no matter what. I get that when a kid has words for things and is choosing not to use them you need to work at "making" the kid to use those words. Brady however has no real words at this point in time so he has to just do the best he can and we reward that.

Farts, Poots and nl-o

so first of all...this is about all the kids not just the B-man so I am trying to remember that. :)

Josey is ALL about body parts and functions these days and it is making me insane. literally, completely and totally insane. She is right now chasing her brother and sister down the hall calling herself "Naked the Clown". I shit you not.

She farts, and they are farts(trust me) and laughs. Literally laughs and then most times will sheepishly grin and say " 'scuse me". yeah...I am not sure it still counts if you laugh after you rip one off. She talks about poop. She scratches her butt. She belches like there is no tomorrow as well. Brady and Lucey think she is hi-larious. I think she is a 35 yo hairy man in a wife beater hidden in a precious little 5 yo body.

Lucey is all about the "toots" and "poots" too. Hers however is an obsession I will take since this can only lead to good potty places as she becomes more aware of herself. She tells me when she toots and poots(poop). and will wrinkle her little nose up at it.

So Brady worked with L yesterday. We got a little bucket with a lid and some flash cards to work with. We have him identify the item, mostly by choosing it right now, and then he gets to put it into the bucket through a little slot on the lid. this is awesome fun for him and for Lucey. Josey even gets into it as well.

He said a few things during his session too. She wrote them down for us....words he said or that she caught him trying to say while holding an appropriate picture up were:
duck-"du"
hi
please-"peas"
truck-"uh"
car-"ah"
spoon-"uh"
eat-"eeh"
mom
no
I listed the word and then the sound he makes when he tried to say it. I will make a list of words he uses here soon to add to this. She pointed out that we need to encourage the vocalisations regardless of how they sound. I am working on making sure I don't correct him but guide him and just continue to label the hell out of things. We are also working on the functions of things with these cards.

I was sitting with him and Lucey looking at books and Lucey pointed out "Mel-mo", Elmo, and B immediately looked and said "nl-o" which was his two syllable sound for Elmo. Seriously...I was thrilled. It truly is the little things.

Another goal we have, besides his speech, is that he will understand language and start following 2 step directions. Also showing understanding of concepts such as one, one more, all, big and little. Those types of things.

ok...going to go get dinner heated up. the natives are hungry and need to be fed.

the game plan

So we are going to wait to get Brady evaluated. The EI people will need to look at his progress come June so we will go ahead and schedule testing at the University for that time frame just in case we still need to have him looked at.

For the next month we have appts. scheduled once a week to work with him. Case worker and SLP trading weeks. Tomorrow is the case worker, L. I will be glad to see her and again get some more tips and ideas for working with him.

He was trying to say Elmo earlier. It was adorable. Lucey of course loves "melmo" herself and has been saying that forever so he was repeating her when she would say it. But he was pointing at him so I am gonna count it as a try. :)

I have also been sitting with him and doing some flash cards. Just simple pictures for now. Nothing too detailed because I don't want to complicate things for him. showing them to him, naming them and then trying to have him point them out to me when I have them grouped into threes. I am trying to mimic some of the stuff that I have seen the workers do when they are here.

Josey had gymnastics this morning. It is her second session and she really is doing well. I just love to watch her. The teacher told her today that she was doing so well maybe she could just teach the class for her. Josey could not have smiled any bigger. She came running over to tell me all about it. She was bursting she was so proud of herself.

After that we went to a new playgroup for Multiples. It was fun to have 4 sets of twins in one room with older siblings and one pregnant mom too. There was one set of older twins, L and B, another set of 2 yo and 10 week old babies. Oh so cute. loved them. Brady was all about sitting beside one of the little babies. She was smiling at Brady. it was so precious.

ok....everyone is in bed. it is quiet and I am hungry because I think I have yet to eat dinner so I am going to go find a snack and enjoy Dinner Impossible on Food Network.