Puhleeeeaaaaazzzeeee

The cuteness is killing me.

this morning, I asked Dominic what he wanted for Breakfast.  he asked for Sausage and Mush.  (Mush is oatmeal, for the uninitiated out there).  Once i had the oatmeal in the microwave he started asking for cereal.  The conversation went sort of like this

D:  Ceral, Ceral
Mom:  No, you're getting Mush
D:  (goes to the cereal cabinet and opens it), "Ceral, Want Ceral"
Mom:  You can have some Mush
D:  (raps on the box he wants with his finger) "Puhleeeeaaaaazzzeeee"
Mom:  Okay then,  a side of dry cereal coming up.

And he ate a bowl of oatmeal, a large breakfast sausage patty and a handful of dry rice chex.


The Puhleeeeaaaaazzzeeee thing gets me every time.

Now that is some serious progress.

If ya'll recall, at the IEP meeting we had 20 school days ago, we made the decision for D11 to stop tracking single word utterances and only track 3 word and up sentences.  They use a 2.5 hour window each day for the data gathering.

While we were at Alpine, they were taking the same data over a 3 hour window.

I was looking around at the links bringing people to my blog today, and found this one from Jan 2012, so 13 months or so ago.  Dominic averaged 9 3+ word spontaneous/unprompted sentences per 3 hour window that month

In the last 20 school days, Dominic has averaged 195   3+ word spontaneous/unprompted sentences per 2.5 hour window.

That is definite forward progress.   I looked briefly, but didn't have handy the numbers from last June - and then I remembered that because of the major fire in Colorado Springs, we didn't have an Alpine parent meeting that month.

Dentist

Dominic's last visit to the Dentist was horrible.  It was Meltdown sensory central, with a side of biting.  Mostly because it was only a few days after it took  4 adults to hold him still enough for stitches.   So, we were really hoping for a good visit today.

They were running behind... but... we chose not to go sit in the empty room and wait, because he was doing this

And this

And he didn't bite the dentist.  He cooperated.  Not super happily, but there were no tears or biting. 

Super Win. :)

We do have to get some work done (which we knew about 6 months ago, but because our insurance wouldn't pay for OR sedation, we didn't have $4K lying around for a  surgery center, and the dentist wouldn't do it without full sedation - we waited and watched - and now the dentist has an anesthesiology group come to his office for only $800.  Way better than $4K since our insurance STILL won't cover it) and Ill call them to start the scheduling process in a day or two.  He's got to get 2 fillings and have 3 extractions since his jaw is just too crowded.  Neither the dentist or I want to deal with orthodontia. 

Go Read This.

If you are pregnant, might be pregnant ever, know someone who is or might be pregnant, or have a small child, you should read this.

Immediately. 
And read the references / backup studies.


While we didn't have the same "perfect storm" with Dominic, we can sure click a bunch of those off our list too.  Horrifies me.

Zoo Trip! (yes more pictures)

I seem to be on a roll with pictures this week.  We took our belated Zoo birthday trip this weekend and the weather was FABULOUS.  Dominic did great with staying near me, listening, using his words and following directions

Just like Mommy

When Dominic sleeps, you could run a freight train past his head.  I had to take a shot of the cuteness below...  figured I'd only get one since the flash would wake him.  Nope.  Didn't budge. Either time.

A fun Day at School

I love when I get to hear about Dominic's day, because he cannot tell us about it at all.  We have a communication binder, but its hard to cover a whole day in one sentence.  So Friday, a very cute little booklet came home, clearly made by Dominic's para.  The cover says "A fun day at school, 2013"

And inside were these pictures.  Don't tell me he's missing upper body strength now, OT. :) (granted its been years, but they were VERY concerned about upper body strength for a long time).   Totally made my week.

Spidey Sense

Turns out that Dominic’s most-played with birthday toy is a spiderman on a motorcycle sent by his aunt and uncle (I know, who knew that spidey had wheels!!). 

It came from the Amazon yesterday.  He was really excited to have another present, and more air bags to jump on, but when he saw what it was he had to have it out of the box right away.  Its one of those motorcycles that when you pull it back and let go, its takes off forward.  He thought that it was the best thing ever.

He played with it all over the place, but the funniest to me was when he wound it up and had it drive off the edge of the stairs. Repeatedly. While laughing maniacally.

Then he slept w/it last night.

Birthday morning pictures

Bed Head.

Popping the Amazon bubble packs. 

Hippo from Grandmother and Grandad. (already tucked into his bed for tonight)

tiny Madagascar 3 critters (and a Lightening McQueen)

Weekend roundup

~~~
Thursday night, Dominic twisted his ankle horsing around (I know, who would've thunk it).  Not bad enough for any swelling or bruising, but he still wanted an ACE bandage on it Thursday night, Friday and Saturday.  He limped around home for us, particularly when we were watching.  I sent a note in to school Friday letting them know and exempting him from PE if he wanted  - but for them to just follow his lead.  This is the note that I got back from them Friday after school:

"Dominic walked at a slower pace but was fine all day.  He did join his class in PE.  He told me, "I tripped", "I fine", "its okay"and "kiss it better"  :) "

But, as result of the twisted ankle and the fact that 42 is a little chilly for the very outside zoo - we didn't get to the zoo yesterday.  Its snowing today, so we didn't go today either.  Saturday is currently supposed to be warm, so we will pencil it in and cross our fingers.

~~~

We went out for a special birthday lunch today since he's at school tomorrow, and then took him to Target to let him pick out 1 toy.  He was so cute. I told him in the parking lot that he could get 1 Toy.  He said "One, TWO!".  He picked out a 4 pack of race cars.  Of course he would go for the 1 toy with 4 in it.   He did really really well leaving the other one there that interested him, and has been happily playing with them since we got home.

~~~

I've worked out with his teacher and his SPED coordinator to bring cupcakes in to school for his class tomorrow afternoon. (I'm taking a half day vacation for the occasion).  So this afternoon I made GFCF cupcakes, chocolate coconut flavor.  I let him lick the beater.  He licked it and came back in the kitchen while i was scooping cupcake batter - and attempted to dunk it in to get another lick.  he was very sad when i blocked the re-dunk.

~~~

Dominic ate Beets!!!  He used to refuse them.  He also ate sauteed Chard  / Beet Green mixture.

its coming....

This came home from school Friday

And, just for fun, here he is making leashes out of theraputty for his cars.

Updates

We’re just finishing up parasite protocol #6.  The chiropractor remarked to me Tuesday that it was so cool to see Dominic’s personality starting to emerge and take form. 

 We’re still using the Get Smart nootropic I mentioned a few posts back.  I think we’re seeing some cognitive gains, but I’m not positive. If we are, they are subtle.  We did decide to go ahead and order a second bottle.  He is having a little easier time writing his name.

We got a neurotypical kind of interaction out of him this morning… 

As background, he is almost never without small fidget type toys in his hands. Generally animals or squinkies.  For school, before he gets on the bus, we have him put them in his backpack for safe keeping.   This morning, he did NOT want to put his 3 little plastic pigs and 2 mice finger puppets in his bag.  After going back and forth a few times about it, with us firmly telling him he needed to put them away, he let out a “Pleeeeaaaassssseeee” which was adorable but we still said no. And there was pouting.  But no tears, just pouting.

Similarly last night as he was going to bed, he was carrying a huge armload of toys with him to sleep with (all tiny little things), and  he stopped to cuddle with Daddy who was watching the TV in our bedroom.  Several times I suggested that he take his toys and put them to bed first, and he shushed me.  We had a hard time keeping our faces straight.

One of the things we got him for Christmas was a container of neon pink theraputty to help build his hand strength and thus improve his fine motor (specifically handwriting).  While as I mentioned above, that is improving, he’s taken to using the theraputty for other things.  Most usually, he’s found rolling it into long strings, wrapping it around his toys necks and calling it a Leash or flattening it out and calling it a Hat.   Fortunately, it seems to stick only to itself so our carpets are safe.

One of the things we’ve started doing this last month is using the Bountiful Baskets food coop for a large portion of our fresh produce 2x a month.  This means that we eat what they give us, and that’s causing us to stretch our palates (and me, my recipe repertoire) .  Of all things, Dominic really like cooked cabbage.  Both in the Savoy and plain old head of green cabbage varieties.  Go Figure.  WE’ll see how he feels about sauteed chard and beet greens tonight.   Variety is good.

His 8^th birthday is Monday.  Its amazing how time has flown.  We’ve renewed our Zoo membership for the first time in a few years as part of his birthday gift and will be going (weather permitting) to visit the zoo Saturday afternoon.  I’ve worked out with his teacher to bring cupcakes (gfcf of course) to his classroom on Monday as well which will be fun.    The Ringling Brothers circus comes to Colorado Springs every summer and I’m thinking we might actually be able to take Dominic this year. We’ll see, I guess.