11/10/08

Since Ben was away this weekend, Steve and I were able to spend a lot of time working with Tyler. It's the first time that he and I have both been alone with Tyler, so we really took advantage of the time which allowed me to really show Steve how to interact with Tyler on many levels and how to help support him through transitions and changes.

Tyler was very chatty this weekend. We got him to approximate bye bye and wave to daycare as we were leaving on Friday. He also said bye bye no two different occasions on Saturday as well as "bubb" for bubbles. YEAH! He was really into his B's and P's this weekend so we tried to take advantage of that by playing with items or objects that started with B's and P's. I had bought the boys slinky's on Friday and so we tried to play with Tyler with them on Friday night. Luckily one of the slinky's I bought the boys recently was purple so it went right along with Tyler's "P" sound! Tyler really enjoyed the slinky's. In fact, it only took two times of me pushing the slinky down the stairs for Tyler to catch on to what he was supposed to do and immitate me. We were impressed with how long he was interseted in the slinky's becuase they don't really have an exciting cause and effect reactino like lights or music or sounds or anything, just our reaction and he did great.

Tyler also did very well with signing this weekend. Tyler and I play row row your boat in the bathtub where he acts like the boat and I slide him back and forth. I started singing row your boat with the "polar bear" option since we are trying to work on the bear sign and he then signed for lion so I changed the song per his request to sing the lion version instead, I was very excited! Also during bathtime, I sang wheels on the bus and when it was time for the doors to go open and shut (which I sign on for him) he signed open all on his own without prompting, pauses, or anything :) We used to use the "on" sound for him to requeset to turn the water on in the tub, now we are taking it a bit further and having him sign water while he makes the on sound so it's more of a water on request. He seems to be doing this very well with a bit of help, no resistance though which is great.

Dad and Tyler really enjoyed the jungle java. I stayed home to clean the house so I didn't get to see everything but Steve said there were at least 25 kids in there and Tyler didn't get overstimulated or anything and was really having a great time. We also found out the hotdogs they carry, Tyler can eat, yeah! So we are thinkign seriously that this may be a good place for the boys to have their next birthday party.

We expanded Tyler's diet to include mustard and he seemed to really like it. We are trying to cut out the ketchup due to the sugar in ketchup and he can have some types of mustard so we thought that would be a good alternative. We are also looking for new things for him to try so we can build upon his limited preferred food items