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!! 

We do love our lazy Saturdays! We completed our first week without Daddy by barely leaving the living room. M and I got in some great cuddle time while Liz was watching TV or on the computer.

While Liz and I cleaned up in the living room and vacuumed M got into some mischief. Of course, he didn't view it as that. We don't usually have soda cans in the house so he must have thought these were new toys!

I love his new found interest in lining objects up and organizing. He experienced a bit of frustration a few times during this. He would try and pick them up and only put them in one box. They wouldn't all fit and he didn't think to put them in the other box. He would yell a bit then give up and make a new row. After awhile he lined them up the other direction (bottom left). Then he would take the last one on the right and moved it to the left. Except, every now and then, the cans would roll away. While he was working on this last one, after I finally stopped taking pictures, I cleaned up the cans behind him and put them in the pantry. When he noticed we had another fit to deal with :) I left him 4 cans to play with but they quickly got boring. Later, when Liz and I decided to actually drink a can he got so excited and tried to take it. Now, we can only drink from cups it seems. :)

TDY days 3-5 - Getting By

The last 3 days have been pretty uneventful. Tuesday M had his audiology appointment. To sum it up - He didn't cooperate. We knew he wouldn't so it wasn't much of a surprise. He is now being referred to Nashville's Children's Hospital (Vanderbilt) for a sedated hearing test. Hopefully it won't take long for this appointment to get made. We are anxious to know how well he hears. 


My daughter has been home sick for the past two days and will be tomorrow as well. She does not do well with spring pollen season here. Her allergies are awful. We've done a lot of laying around. 

Michael has been a lot cuddlier (real word right?) than usual. He has always been a big lovey Mama's boy but even more so now. We think he's clingy because he is missing Daddy. He's been Skyping with him every day. He really loves it. He watches Matt and responds to him. He discovered where the camera is and likes to get really close to it. I think Matt has gotten some good screen shots that I'll grab when he gets home. 


Food of the week - Mashed Potatoes! I can mix anything in them (meat, veggies, stuffing...) and he devours it! He gets on these little kicks from time to time. Keeps things interesting!

Survival Mode - TDY day 2

At 7am my alarm and Elizabeth's went off and woke M. Being tired from the night before I hit the snooze once before getting up. By the time I got to M (about 10 minutes later) he was already a bit of a wreck. He was better (since he got a great night's sleep) but crying already. The crying, however, had nothing to do with being sleepy and more to do with being wet and knocking his mattress off his bed again. I guess the diaper trick just wasn't enough but its only the second time in about 1.5 weeks that I've had to change the bedding. Much better than daily!

He was very helpful and removed the sheets before I got there. Less work for Mommy! Notice the wetness going up the back of his shirt? The whole right side of him was soaked. Even though that spot was very wet, the rest of him wasn't, which is an improvement. Normally its a head to toe type of soaking. 

After he left the room, still grumpy from his uncomfortable awakening and having to change into clothes immediately (he prefers to be lazy in pajamas) he walked into the living room, right into the nice surprise one of the cats left for us (don't worry, no pictures!) 

So today became about just getting through it with as little drama as possible! When his sister left for school he wanted to go out. 8am walk for 20 minutes, stop by the park for an hour and another walk home?? SURE! It was chilly but he wasn't complaining! That's what fleece-lined pants and jackets are for!

He wasn't thrilled with the park swings though. They are higher up than the ones at home so his feet couldn't touch the mulch to stop himself. After a couple pushes he wanted to be done and head back to the slides. 

When it was time to go back home he wasn't happy at all. But he was getting to the point where going up the steps seemed to be taking a lot of effort and he only wanted to go down the one slide that was still flooded with water from our weekend rain. He pouted the entire way home.

But it's such a cute pout!! 

After we came back home we got Daddy on Skype! Yay! When Matt was deployed last time the biggest reaction we got on skype or the phone was Michael giggling when he heard his Daddy. This time around he is a little more aware. At first, when he heard his voice, he just giggled and ran around. Then Daddy called "go go go" which is what he says when he is chasing Michael around. It triggered an immediate response and Michael ran the circle around our kitchen and living room. He'd stop by the couch and wait to hear the next "go" then run again. After awhile he joined me at the couch to listen to Matt some more. He was playing bashful, smiling but burying his face against me. He'd sneak at peek at Matt now and then and then hide again. Finally he really made some eye contact and started being silly with Daddy. He was copying the motions Matt was making with his mouth, clapping with my assistance while Daddy was. It was great. Then he tried to find Daddy. He kept looking behind the monitor. When the call was over he was a big grump, wanting more time with Daddy. 

To calm M, I attempted lunch. Meals are tricky on a good day but on a grumpy day they can be awful. So I just kept trying different things. Cheetos, mashed potatoes and cinnamon rolls with some grape Kool-Aid. If that's what it takes...go for it!

Happy boy now! 

There was no nap again today but he did calmly lay in his room for about an hour. It seemed to make him happier, rested. He sat back down at the table for afternoon snack and I gave him the rest of his uneaten Cheetos. Instead of eating them he turned them into a game! I was too thrilled with his deep concentration that I wasn't going to stop him. 

He lined them up, sorted them into piles or different bowls and stacked them. It wasn't until now, 2 hours and one outside playtime later, that is he actually eating them. 

When his sister got home from school we all went outside. She tried to get some homework done while laying on the grass and M and I played chase. After awhile he needed his sister to help with the game!

Daddy even called while we were outside and got to hear the giggles. 

Dinner went off without a hitch. Elizabeth had a lasagna meal she had picked out awhile ago and forgotten about. For Michael I gave him more mashed potatoes and chicken. Neither kid finished their plate so their leftovers were my dinner. Okay, maybe not the healthiest way to go about it but there was no rejection and no fits! He is now calmly running his nighttime laps around the kitchen/dining room and winding down for bed.

He took his meds and got ready for bed like a pro. Here's a picture of the overnight diaper and the plastic undies over them. He looks so thrilled to have them on huh? :) That's Daddy Bear on the dresser. We decided to use it for the bedtime routine since Daddy is working night shift and won't be able to call. So far, so good though. He is quiet in bed, hanging out with his favorite seahorse toy.

Tomorrow should be uneventful. He has school in the AM, a doctors appointment then we'll head to Liz's tennis. Hopefully Sunday was the only crazy day!