6/19/08

Unfortunately Steve hasn 't had time to get to the video yet so nothing new to show you, it will be worth the wait though to hear him say I love you! Anyway, that day we shot that video, Tyler was beside himself. It was strange because although he has good days and bad days, this day in paticular he was fine up until the time the video began and his disposition changed so quickly. I wondered that day if somehow he had somehow got a hold of something that wasn't GFCF or maybe he was getting sick. In the video, you hear me say how his eyes are runny and he doesn't look well. Carrie thought maybe he was exhibiting/understanding human behavior and just acting like a typical 2 year old and becoming testy. We realized last night that he had indeed ate something that wasn't GFCF. I was at our local deli yesterday and buying some lunch meat (which carries a brand that is acceptable for Tyler) and when I started reading the ingredients/labels I realized that the salami was not GFCF but that Steve had bought it a few weeks back and since Tyler loves salami we had given it to him for a snack a few times. We narrowed down the dates and realized what had happend. A good tip for us to always always always read labels before trying anything new regardless of whether or not it's included on a GFCF list! Sorry little buddy.

As for any progress we've made recently, we are trying to teach Tyler patience. the boys often fight when it's time to wash hands, Ben doesn't want to wash his hands so we struggle to get himt o do it and Tyler never wants to stop or wait his turn if Ben is washing his hands. We followed Carrie's advice and pulled over a chair for Ty ler to sit in while he waited patiently for his brother. Luckily Steve and I were both home because it took both of us to accomplish this. I worked with Ben on washing his hands and Steve worked with Tyler on sitting in the chair and waiting patiently. We gave LOTS OF PRAISE to both boys for washing hands and waiting patiently.

We are going to continue to work on this type of thing with Tyler because getting him to hold still for longer than a few seconds w/o having something to occupy him is nearly impossible. For example, we were no a walk last night and some neighbors and kids came over to see Clifford, we stopped to talk to them. Most kids, including Ben, woudl be interested in the new people and kids but Tyler however just wants to keep walking his route and doesn't understand why we are stopping and gets fussy when we do, so it's literally a work in progress trying to keep him entertained and happy, i.e. lifting up and down into the hair, praising for holding still, etc. We really can't ever carry on a conversation with anyone outside because Tyler doesn't stop moving so we are constantly chasing him. We had neighbors invite us into their backyard a few weeks ago and same situation. other parents were sitting at the patio table chatting and watching their kids play with the sandbox and in the house and I was chasing Tyler around the yard while Steve was talking to one of the parents. So we are going to slowly and repeatedly expose Tyler to outdoor situations where he has to stay in one area, Carrie is going to help me work on this. we'll put in supports i.e. favorite toys at first and then slowly fade out those supports. In general, this is how we'll approach everything we do with Tyler.

Today was our first day at the playground/playgroup. I had invited Carrie along so we could count this as one of our "community vists" as required by the study and she could help show me ways to work with Tyler in this community location. She's going to help me build an agenda for the playground which will switch between preferred and non-preferred activities. He loved tic-tac-toe but wasn' t so fond of the sand box so we'll build an itinerary based on what we observed today.

Tyler did try to pull one over on me the other day. We require him to throw away his diaper after diaper change, there is a receptacle near our diaper changing area. He walks over and puts it in normally. however, during diaper change on Tuesday (during video session) he was frustrated at me (can't remember why) so when it came time to throw away his diaper, he went over to the bin and threw the diaper behind the bin instead of in the bin. I was pretty sure he had done it on purpose so when he turned around I said... YOU TURKEY, I nkow you did that on purpose and he had the biggest smile on his face. I knew I had caught him and what was better.. I was happy he not only thought to do that but also then laughed when I called him out. He's really come so far.. this social exchange may have never happend 6 months ago. we could barely get him to look at us 6 months ago!