A video of Cooper

Here is a little video of Cooper. If you listen carefully you can hear him count to 20 as he walks in circles around the ball!

Cooper had a bit of a rough day today. Apparently he was very whiny at school, even the bus driver told me he was crying when he got on the bus. He pulled it together and worked really well with his ABA therapist, but then his private (and not free) speech therapist came over and he fell apart! It is so frustrating when he does that! Today it was because he went and looked in her basket of toys and of course found one with numbers all over it. It was an older Leapfrog toy that had all the numbers up to 20 on it and he was in love aka obsessed. His therapist will not be bringing that one over again, he refused to do anything else! Unfortunately, they don't make it anymore but I have a bid in on a used one on Ebay.....wish me luck :) The good thing is that the speech therapist gave our ABA therapist lots of ideas and tips which I know she is going to implement, she even took notes!

Quinn came home from school and peed on the potty like a champ. I don't know what happened but two hours later he was a totally different child, refusing to sit on the potty and managing to get his hand in the toilet twice!! Yuck! Oh the joys of potty training...not :( Besides that he was a pretty good boy tonight. Grandma Berta brought over one of her good silver forks for him to use at dinner. She says only the best for her grandson, but in reality it is sharper than my forks and made it a little easier for him to spear his nuggets. It also lead to a conversation about the classic TV sitcom Silver Spoons, cause that is just how my husband thinks. I was surprised to hear that Ricky Schroder was gay, but it turns out my husband was just thinking of the guy from Doogie Howser. Yup folks, this is what you talk about at dinner when you have been married for 7 years, lol! FYI, According to Wikipedia, Ricky Schroder has been married since 1992 and has 4 children. He is also a member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and a member of the Republican Party, so it is unlikely that he is gay. At least not openly, and you know what I am talking about if you watch Big Love :)

Tomorrow, if school isn't canceled or delayed, Quinn is going on a field trip to the fire station followed by lunch at Burger King. His trips almost always involve some kind of fast food, lucky kid!

A program we are considering for Cooper.

The boys finally got back to horseback riding today! They were both pretty happy to be there, but Quinn's excitement was tempered by his hitting his mouth on a table right before riding. Poor baby, he was bleeding and everything but he got over it as soon as he saw it was time to get on the horse. It was very muddy at the stables, yuck! I can't wait for better riding weather.

Quinn's aide said he had a very good day and even initiated some affectionate cuddling with her! He has been doing a little better with that at home too lately.

Cooper had a good day. He was in a fantastic mood all day long. Unfortunately, he was not in the mood to cooperate with his ABA therapist, but that is how it is some days when you work with three year olds. He smiled and laughed through his whole session but didn't manage to get a whole lot done besides finishing off a whole pound of grapes! Even tonight right up until bedtime he was smiley and giggly and full of energy. It was weird, but nice at the same time.

Yesterday Cooper finally got to go back to school! I thought he might have a rough time adjusting back, but he was fine and the teacher said he was really happy. Of course he didn't get to go today because we had more testing at Kennedy Krieger. He enjoys it though and today he was really good and had a good time. We should be done for a little while now at least. He did a great job during his afternoon therapy too and was in a great mood all day...until around 6 o'clock. That was when he lost it, it is usually when he does. He still needs a nap but there is no time to have one so he falls apart. Poor baby, poor mommy!

Quinn's IEP was yesterday. It went very well and the school agreed to add an hour of one on one discrete trial training (similar to ABA therapy) everyday. They are going to train his personal aide to do it, which is wonderful because she is a very smart and capable person (plus she loves Quinn). The school psychologist feels that Quinn likely has ADHD, which I agree with. We are going to see the doctor on 3/11 to find out about starting medication for him. I will do anything that helps even a little bit at this point. Even though Quinn hasn't made a lot of advances in his communication, it was clear from his IEP meeting that he has actually reached many goals in other areas. This last six months have been the best yet for him educationally and I am so glad I decided to move him to the special school.

We are now working on putting Quinn on the potty at home. Not really trying to train him yet, just getting him used to it. He has been peeing in the potty an average of one time a day! Today he went twice!!! He is such a good boy!!!

Today Cooper finally got out of the house! We got the car loose and went to Loyola for speech. He was so excited to be there! We were waiting in the waiting room and a therapist that wasn't his came out. He was looking up at her expectantly hoping she would bring him back. When she saw him she said "Hi Sweetie", and Cooper said right back to her "Hi....Sweetie!" I know he was just repeating what she said but it was so cute that he called a girl sweetie :) Anyway, he had a great session and also did great during ABA therapy this morning. He is such a good boy, and super smart too!!

Quinn seemed to have a good day at school. He was very happy when he got off the bus. They must have had a belated Valentines party today because he had a bag full of cards and treats. Cooper and I both really enjoyed the treats :) I put him on the potty three times again today and he did pee once. I love how proud of himself he is when he pees on the potty! You can really see the pride in his face. His OT and PT both called today to discuss his progress. His OT said that he is truly amazing when it comes to fine motor skills. She said he can do anything as long as it is to get to something he really wants....tell me about it! She also said this whole shaking things and throwing them on the floor just to make a loud noise is a developmental phase, I hope she is right and that this phase is over soon, oy! Both therapists felt that he has made a lot of great improvements since the beginning of the year, which is really nice to hear. I wish his speech teacher could have said the same thing :( Oh well, such is life....

I'm Back

Well, I was doing so well at keeping up with my blog, then the kids got sick, we had Snowmaggedon, and our internet access went out for a whole week. Oh well, I am going to try again!

Quinn is finally back at school even though it is two hours delayed everyday. Actually I kind of like that I don't have to wake up so early to get him on the bus, but it is unfortunate because Cooper doesn't have school when there is a delay. Quinn seems really happy to be back. I had a long discussion with the school psychologist the other day who among other things stressed that we have to do the same kind of self help skills at home as he does at school. So apparently he eats all by himself at school, even with a fork! The last two days he has eaten all his chicken nuggets with a fork all by himself (I have to lightly hold his other hand so he doesn't just use it to put the food in his mouth), he is also feeding himself his cereal with a spoon (he is actually better at it than I am!). Yesterday we tried the potty and he peed every time I put him on for a total of three times from 4 PM until bedtime! Today I put him on the potty at the exact same times and he didn't pee once :( Oy! We will keep trying, even though he did manage to get his foot in the toilet today, gross!

Cooper is happy that his therapist is coming again. He is doing very well with her and enjoys it immensely. I know he misses school but there is nothing that can be done about that, we will just keep our fingers crossed for Monday. Tonight at dinner he actually showed an interest in eating his ABC spaghettios with a spoon! It was so cute because he isn't very good at getting them on the spoon. Finally he gave up trying to scoop and just picked up the noodles with his fingers, put them on the spoon, and then put the spoon in his mouth....baby steps I guess. I wonder if seeing Quinn feed himself inspired him? Cooper's new favorite toy is our AquaDoodle mat. We have had it forever but nobody was ready to use it, then Cooper discovered it has numbers and letters along the sides and he was in love. It is good for him to practice scribbling and I don't have to worry about him using markers because it is just water.

I say "I love you" to Cooper about a million times a day and he of course never says it back. But since he has been repeating everything I have been telling him "Cooper, say I love you." Today I told him I loved him and he said "Love you" back without any prompting! What a good boy :)

Go Away!

Another day at home for me and the boys. This afternoon I took Quinn upstairs to change a dirty diaper and Cooper decided to come up too. Cooper ran to his room and started playing, his room is one of his favorite places. That is where his blankies live after all :) Quinn also happens to love Cooper's room, probably because he doesn't get to go in it too often. So after I changed Quinn's diaper he took off down the hallway to check out Cooper's room. Surprisingly, Cooper was happy to have him there. Quinn actually brought one of his books with him, but dropped it when he found something more interesting to play with in Cooper's room. Cooper picked it up and ran back to Quinn's room to put it back, so cute!!! So both my boys were playing happily in Cooper's room and I figured I would join them. Nope! Cooper would not let me in the room! Every time I tried to go in there he would push me back out the door and laugh. I guess he wanted to be alone with his brother :) It was very cute and Cooper got lots of practice saying important terms like "no" and "go away".

Quinn's nose was a bit better today. He certainly had lots of energy to get into lots of trouble today. He even managed to escape from the playroom while Cooper's ABA therapist was here. I hope he is all better by this weekend so we can all be healthy while we are snowed in together.

Snot

Quinn has a raging sinus infection. When I went into his room this morning to get him I couldn't even see his mouth because there was so much dried up snot! It was horrible, so I had no choice but to go get the warm washcloth and desperately try to get that crap off of his poor face. He hates that! He fought me hard and unfortunately a bit of skin came off with the snot :( I had to go back and rinse the washcloth before I could finish and when I came back into his room he had completely covered himself with his blanket, I think he was trying to hide from me!!! Oy! Anyway I went to the drugstore today to get him some antibiotics and while I was waiting I saw these wipes made specially for babies called "Boogie Wipes", they claim to help dissolve "boogies" so I bought them.....we will see.

Cooper had a slightly better day today and really hung in there with his ABA therapist. I was considering sending him to school tomorrow, but I highly doubt there will actually be school tomorrow. Today was Cooper's IEP, sigh. I sincerely hope then when my mother in law finally retires and no longer works for the school district she can start coming with me and being on my side with these things. Even when it is easy it is still pretty darn stressful!!!

So apparently Cooper becomes a completely different child when he goes to school. It was pretty unanimous that Cooper has a really hard time focusing. Excuse me??? Cooper is the most focused three year old in the world most of the time! Also, he is not showing off his new "Hi/Bye" skills at school at all...sigh. And when I tried to tell all the people in the room all the things he can do at home they just kind of looked at me like "Poor Mrs. Banta, she can't accept that her child is severely delayed." Uggg! But they did add the goal of Cooper answering "Yes/No" questions and typical peers will be brought into his classroom twice a week for 15 minutes at a time. This is fine since they said he threw a fit when they tried to take him over to the typical classroom. I did not appreciate the typical classrooms teacher's obvious distaste for this arrangement but that is not my problem. Cooper's teacher promised that while the typical kids are there one of the aides will be with Cooper to help encourage social interaction so I was happy with that too. I wish Cooper could just loosen up and be himself at school, but maybe that will get a little better with time. I hope!!!