It's been a while

It's been a while since my last post. Justin was covering the state wrestling tournament, which meant he had the computer with him in Denver. The boys did ok with daddy being gone. There were some frustrating moments with Carter getting into everything he wasn't suppose to and Tyler using his favorite word many many times. Overall we all did pretty well I think. Tyler's favorite word right now is "no". I ask him to do something and he tell me no. I am not quite sure how to handle this. Obviously I still make him do whatever it was that I asked of him. What I don't know is that should I punish him for saying no to me, or see it as him expressing his thoughts/feelings on the subject. I want him to respect our authority, but I also want him to be free thinker. Justin and I will have to ponder on this one.

So a couple updates: Carter got his stitches out on Thursday and while he did scream, it was nothing compared to putting them in. He will have a scar but I think it will be covered up by his hair for the most part. Tyler had an OT appointment again and his therapist is puzzled by a few things Tyler does. For example sometimes the brushing helps calm him down and other times it makes him riled up. I guess that isn't very common. She is giving us more things to try tho. Tyler is also talking a lot more at school which I am very happy to see. On Wednesday he was playing with a toy phone in the beginning of the morning. About ten minutes later he was onto something else and went up to another child asking him where the phone was. I was so happy to see this interaction!

Carter's vocab is also expanding like crazy. He is learning about 5 new words a day I think. Off the top of my head (because I know there is more) he says: quack, duck, uh oh, eat, cup, milk, bebe, baby, blanket(anket), Hana (our dog), book, beep beep, and many more.

Destruction

I called my mom this afternoon to see how their flight was and to tell them of Carter's unfortunate incident this afternoon. When I got off the phone I came down to this:

They decided to dump out all the bins:

And where the bins usually are I find thisAnd that phone conversation - five minutes tops.

My little destroyers.

In other news Tyler had his OT today (yes it was a very hectic, busy day!). She taught me a brushing technique that is supposed to help get his nervous system "in order" so that things that would usually affect his processing of senses won't bother him as much. We are suppose to do this at every diaper change, along with joint compressions. So far he doesnt seem to mind it at all. We should start seeing improvements right away. I am curious if this will help Tyler because today it seemed to rile him up more than anything.

The Next President?

The boys and I went shopping today and Carter was such a little flirt. He decied to try out one of his new words to everyone we saw - "hi". We passed two ladies a couple of times in the store and each time Carter would say hi to them and smile. One of the ladies said what a social butterfly - he could be the next president. I must say I agree that he is pretty cute! Other new words in Carter's vocab incude:

hi

bye

poopy

no (he also shakes his head no too!)

rice

After the store we went to the park to enjoy our nice weather before our next snow storm hits tonight. The boys love going to the park and it had been a while since we had gone. It was so fun to watch them. This was also a first for Carter as I let him do his own thing instead of keeping hin at arms length at all times. Carter followed Tyler everywhere - even up to the highest slide. Tyler would go down and then giggle in anticipation for Carter to follow him down. Of course if Tyler is giggling then Carter will be giggling too. We also did a couple sensory things at the park the OT suggested, none of which Tyler really liked, but he didn't make a huge fuss either. So far it has been a great day!

My Little Valentines

Justin stayed home from work with the the boys so that I could go into the nursery. When I came home, they had surprised me with this:

What wonderful little valentines I have.

On another note Tyler had his occupational therapist (OT) initial evaluation for sensory issues today. You may remember from this post that this was just a precautionary thing. So much for that thought. The therapist seems to think that he may have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). While this is not an official diagnosis, she thinks he has enough signs that we will be doing therapy once a week just to work on these issues. The biggest concerns are his high threshold of pain (which is something we always knew, just never thought of a problem) and that he is under sensitive, which means that he doesn't feel senses as much as others. For example when he bites, he does not sense how hard he is biting. We will also be working on how oral he is and trying to limit that somewhat. Justin and I now see things he did early on as signs for SPD that we never thought of before. For example, after he learned to crawl he quickly learned to start cruising. The only time he would crawl was to get to some place to cruise on. Also when he crawled he would crawl a lot on his hands and feet rather than his knees (we always assumed this was from watching the dog). The therapist said that he may not have liked the feel of the carpet or floor on his knees. So he would limit that feeling as much as possible - aka cruising early. I am very eager to learn more about this and how we can help Tyler thru this. The biggest problem with SPD is that it can be distracting and limit their learning ability. Also SPD kids can get to a point were they can't handle all the senses bothering them anymore so they can act out in means ways, or become frustrated very easily (we have seen this in Tyler). Because of this kids will either isolate themselves from others, or be isolated from others because of their behavior. Something we don't want for Tyler. His next appointment with the OT is next week.