How they get around at SPED Pre-K now! Love it!!

Michael SHOWED what he wanted!

We've had a couple mellow weeks, soaking up the sun and relaxing. We ♥ summer! Today something great happened! I got a call from M's teacher this morning. M had been wanting to go out onto the playground when it wasn't playground time. He banged and cried at the door, which is normal. He dragged his teacher to the door, also pretty normal. He got frustrated because no one was taking him out. Then he calmed down, walked to the place cards they use (cards with words and pictures indicating things like snack time, circle time, bus time) and he brought her the one with the playground on it. She was so excited and took him out right away. I'm going to have to come up with one for at home, with things like stroller ride, car, playground, food, etc. This is also really making me lean towards the iPad even more for communication.

Our stroller is here!

We got our new stroller today! A Baby Jogger Summit. Check out the pictures here. And even though my mom thinks he looks squished (Love you Mom!) he isn't. We took him to Babies R Us tonight to grab the extra pieces for it and he was able to turn sideways, curl his legs up and relax. We'll be sure to take a lot of pictures for everyone to see. Oh wait...when do we NOT take a lot of pictures? :) Thanks everyone!! We are so excited to have this for Michael (and the rest of us). 

TDY is almost done!

TDY is almost done and we're getting excited! Michael played his Daddy Bear a dozen or more times today. He is missing Daddy but has been fairly agreeable this week. 


On Sunday he was a big goof in the kitchen. 

Figured out the child lock to the snack pantry.

Taking only the blue dishes out of the dishwasher

On Monday we went into the hospital to see Dr H, our developmental pediatrician. He is being diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS). For M, that means he has many autistic traits but doesn't meet all the major criteria. But, for insurance purposes, school purposes, he will be considered Autistic. As he grows and develops they will determine whether to call him 'classically autistic' or remove the label altogether. 

He was fascinated by this chair. He also held one of the toy dinosaurs in the room. Most of the time was spent curled up on the floor, legs tucked into his shirt with a bag of chips in front of him. Well...that, and crying. He's not a fan of doctor's offices.

On Tuesday he had school. He was Mr. Lovey with his teacher. When I picked him up he noticed me from the end of the hall and tugged on his teacher to walk faster. Finally, he let go and raced to me. I got a lot of kisses while talking to his teachers and walking out. 

He seems to have really figured out sunglasses, which is great! Hopefully, he'll figure out summer hats soon! He hates them!

Later in the night we went to his sister's tennis lesson. He isn't too agreeable at these :) I got creative and filled the front tray of his stroller with water. Then I pushed him as far away from everyone as I could and still be able to watch Liz. This entertained him for about 30 minutes. Then he threw tennis balls for me. I was thrilled that he was interacting so well. He was teasing me! Sometimes he'd throw one ball, sometimes both, sometimes at me, sometimes in opposite directions and laugh each time. 

Today, Wednesday, we lived outside. M overheats and each summer it takes a long time to get him accustomed to the heat again. I filled his little pool and kept moving the patio table and umbrella to provide as much shade as possible. We are very lucky to have a big tree that shades half our yard. We have no toys over in the sunny half so he is less likely to hang out over there. 

We were outside for 4 hours! 

He was pretty creative with the pool. One of his favorite things was putting mud into it. He would put a handful in then move the water around to watch it disappear. When the water got too muddy we had to dump and add more. He also liked soaking the patio. He would put a hand in the pool and then try and run the handful over to a dry spot. When he thought he had sufficiently soaked an area he would move to another side. After a minute or two he'd turn and see that the first side had dried already. Ohhhhh he got mad! He thought it was fun to soak me too. He liked to drip water on my toes and laugh. 

He is also still getting great enjoyment out of the play structure my father brought down to us in Feb. 2011. The same structure Liz had growing up and my sister's two girls. :) Today he played in the tunnel. He is normally on the slides or the big platform and just goes halfway through the tunnel then backs out again. Today he was determined to figure out how to get through it!

M was in bed at about 630 tonight. He was done. Liz was in bed at 630 as well, to read a book. That left it a little lonely out here. Most of this TDY I've had M stay out in the living room with me until he was mostly asleep. Yes, I used my son to keep me company. :) But I just love his snuggles so much I don't like putting him down!!