July 26, 2010

Wow, as you can tell this month has been crazy and I just haven't found time to write in the blog. Tyler has a lot of summer activities this summer and it's been great, he's doing so well. He goes to Splash Camp Monday - Friday from 9:00 - 12:00. We were very lucky as we actually received our first grant for TYler, which paid for part of splash camp! It was our first grant and very exciting. Then he eats lunch in our car (my poor van is trashed) and then we take him to summer school from 12:30 - 3:15. Then we pick him up and take him to Annie's (his afterschool preschool with mostly typical kids). He only has summer school Monday - Wednesday though so the beginning of our weeks are crazy. Lots going on since there were layoffs at my work which added a lot to my plate as well as new financial software and a new staffing software that I sort of fell into leading the project, well it's been nuts. And Steve's work is always busier in teh summer so we are kind of just in warp speed it seems. I remember one week complaining to Steve that it was ridiculous that I coulnd't find time to get to the store to get some hair conditioner!

But as always, it's so worth it! Tyler is doing awesome at both Splash Camp and summer school. Summer school says that during circle time, Tyler is the star of the show and he always wants to make sure that the teachers are watching him. At splash camp they just keep commenting on how bright he is and how happy, etc. It was funny cause htey sent home a note one day asking if he knew how to spell hsi name because they wanted to work with him and we responded back, um yeah, our TY guy can spell all kinds of things. Oh if only he could talk and share all of his knowledge. I'm actually home with him this mroning as he's a bit under the weather. HE was playing the leapster and it had a dinosaur game in it. HE brought 3 actually dinosaur figurines with him. He'd push on the triceratops bones on the game and then hand me the triceratops dinosaur. He so wants you to know that he knows what's going on. Plus I'm really excited abou tthe possibility of Tyler having an interest in dinosaurs so that maybe the boys will have something in common to play with and it will promote more interaction between them.

Tyler is absolutely loving his ipad. THere is one app we have where he has to trace the outline of letters and numbers and words and he's really liking it and it's improving his fine motor skills. He also is learning to spell so many new words thanks to the ipad and in terms of our mobility, it allows us to get out and do more because we know that TYler loves his ipad and will be more content if he has to stay seated, etc. We took it shopping at Sam's the other day and Tyler was fantastic. THe IPAD has been a godsend really.

As for Ben, he seems to be doing much better at preschool now in terms of his social skills. He's still regressed in the whole potty training (has at least one to two accidents a day) and he's a bit more aggressive than he was before but I take that all as part of a learning curve and I am working hard with him on those things.

Both boys have really came leaps and bounds in terms of their swimming abilities. A couple of weekends ago , they both were jumping off the diving boards and swimming on their own in the deep end (with life jackets of course)> Tyler would happily drown if you let him, he has no fear what so ever of jumping in with no life jacket and just letting himself drown so we definetly keep his jacket on! It's amazing to see them swim around in the deep end of a pool, they look so grown up.

I had a dream the other day that Tyler could talk. And even though I have this type of dream often, this one was different. Usually Tyler just says one word or one sentence, this time he was speaking in whole sentences, as if he'd been talking his whole life. It was amazing. Felt so good, I was crying in the dream, I remember it all so vividly and then I woke up and felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. Earlier that day, I had picked up Ty and we had been in the car for about an hour, he was watching a movie. WHen we got Ben, Ben pointed out to me that he wanted to watch the movie but couldn't because the screen hadn't been pulled down. I felt really bad for Tyler. Poor guy had been listening but unable to watch his World Music Video because i didnt realize the screen was up and he didn't have a way to tell me. It's little things like this that make me crazy that he can't talk. Yesterday, Ty was not feeling well, I knew it as soon as I woke up, he just seemed off and then wasnt' eatin gwell. I had to work and Ty fell asleep on Steve's lap, not lik e him at all and then he slept for 3 hours in the middle of the day! And another 12 hours last night. He's definetly under the weather but I hate smoetimes that he can't tell me what's wrong, what hurts, how he's feeling, what's going on. It's always a crap shoot, he doesn't have a fever so to pin point the problem is tough. I just wish beyond wishes he could talk to me, you have no idea what it feels like to not have him be able to tell you the simplest things.

Speech has also been going amazing this summer. Carol says she doesn't know what we've done but to keep up the great work. Good news to us cause we are trying to limit his supplements. Oh, and we are down to only 1 shot, sigh, and are not wanting to find another DAN doctor right now so we are still working with Ty on the suckers. We have the B12 suckers now and i tried one the other dya and could definetly feel a difference. So we plan to give him a shot tonight and then start working on the suckers again. He just gets bored before it's gone and the whole goal is to let it seep in, not crush it and drink it so to speak so we need him to suck on those darn things til they are gone, so far he's not overl

y interested but he will tolerate them so we hope he gets better.