Festivals, counters and new SLP

Last Saturday we went to a local festival and the only thing they had for kids were giant inflatables.  I thought Megan would enjoy them but we didn't even get a chance to check them out because she was completely freaked out by the noise of the generators.  I gave her ticket away to the first person I saw getting in line to buy one.  

She did well with picking her own strawberries -or at least she liked getting to eat them.  I made her stand and get the berries but she preferred it when Will was holding her upside down leaning over to get them. 

She enjoyed the mini-state fair festival we went to the next day.  She stood at the table full of corn kernels and played for several minutes.  She loved getting to wash her hands at all of the stations because they had kid height sinks.  She enjoyed her pony ride but wanted Will to let go of her - I am sure she feels like a pro on a horse and she didn't need daddy's help staying on.  

Megan is still walking when she wants to and not walking when she doesn't.  She is however, playing in out kitchen a ton.  She pulls up at the table and or counters and will walk all around the room trying to reach stuff.  I try to keep stuff I don't want her to have out of her reach (though I fail sometimes) and I put things that are enticing where she can get them.  

This morning Megan had her first session with her new SLP (speech language pathologist).  It was time for a change for her and our wallet.  The new place takes our insurance and will give us a discount once her sessions run out.  It is also 18 minutes from home instead of 45.  So, her session this morning was just a get to know you session but I can already tell this is going to be so much better.  The therapist's personality is a much better fit and her style is too.  Megan was so engrossed in what was going on that she didn't take her glasses off until 2 minutes before the session was up; normally that is the first thing she does to a new person.  

The jig is up!

The most challenging part about parenting Megan is always questioning whether she comprehends what we are telling her to do.  Well, the jig is up.  We (Will and I both) have felt for a very long time that she understands everything we say.  It has always seemed that way to us.  I question it when no matter how many times you correct her she doesn't stop a behavior; I typically fell like an ogre after butting heads with her and always go to the "what if she doesn't understand me, what if I am wrong" guilt trip.

I am not saying I won't find myself on that guilt trip again, BUT I now have some pretty concrete evidence that she is understanding and she is just choosing to ignore or fight, etc unless she is properly motivated (like everything else).

Yesterday afternoon she managed to get completely undressed when she woke up from her nap.  I went up to put her clothes back on her so that she wouldn't take her diaper off and she was so happy and loving that I didn't want to put her back down for the rest of her nap time so I got her up.  I sat her beside me on the couch and put the iPad in her lap.  I told her that if she took her glasses off I would take it away from her; she gets really excited and pulls her glasses down when she is playing with it.

So, she played for a good 10 minutes before she touched her glasses.  When she pulled them down, I grabbed the iPad, locked the screen to get the music to stop and put it on the other side of me.  She started complaining and I said "mommy said if you didn't have your glasses on you couldn't have it".  She immediately started looking around at the floor in front of her and looking on the couch for her glasses.  I touched them to show her where they were and she yanked them off her head and put them back on correctly and then said "mor" to get the iPad back.  I told her that was a good job and gave it back to her.  And then I thought....what the heck!   She clearly understood what was necessary to get it back.  About 10 minutes later she pulled her glasses down again (she reached up to take them off a few times before then and stopped herself).  I didn't say a word, but reached over to take the iPad and she immediately put the glasses back on and said "mor" before I could even get it away from her.

Her goose is cooked. She was motivated to do what I said, even motivated to do it the second time without instruction, so she obeyed.  Motivated!  If only there was a way to motivate her to obey every time, or at least some of the time with other things like not throwing toys/food, or not grabbing Sam's hair, etc.  We can't tackle everything at once, that wouldn't be fair; but we are going to start standing our ground one behavior at a time because I know she understands.

Life

In one of Megan's bibles there is the story of baby Isaac.  She loves the picture of baby Isaac.  She will now open the bible and flip through the pages until she finds it; and if she goes too far she knows it and will let go of the pages and start again.  When she finds him she slaps her hand down on the page, points to him with her other hand and smiles.

Last weekend we took the kids to pullen park.  It is in Raleigh, so a little bit of a drive, but it has 3 kid friendly rides.  We want to start exposing Megan to age appropriate stuff and boy did she love it.  She played on the swings, see-saw and the sand box while we waited for the rides to open.  First was the train - it is a little train that goes all the way around the park.  She sat beside me on the bench and had so much fun. She was kicking her little legs and clapping and smiling.  Sam was sitting beside Will and crying for the first half.  Next up was the boats attached to a pole in the center that go around in a circle.  Once again Megan had a blast - she was playing with the wheel and the flag and trying to get Sam to play with his wheel.  Sam asked to get out every time they passed us, but he wasn't crying.  Finally, after a snack break, it was time for the carousel.  We put both kids on a horse that went up and down.  This was definitely the fasting moving carousel I have ever seen.  Megan was so very happy and after I talked Sam down he was tolerating the ride.

I took the kids up to see Will last week just before lunch.  This is the first time we have been since Megan has been taking more than just 1-2 steps.  She held onto our hand and walked all over the place saying hi to people.

She loves to stand up at Sam's tray when he has food.  The other morning Will was feeding Sam lunch and Megan went over to them and was taking cheerios from his tray and feeding him; though she would occasionally tease him by putting it up to his mouth and then putting it into her own.

She has found her "b" sound again.  She started making it again this week.  The first time was on Wednesday morning.  She was eating breakfast and heard Sam and said "bababababa".  Will said it sounded an awful lot like bubba.  Then in speech later that same morning she said it for ball.

I got to watch the coolest thing yesterday when I picked Megan up from school.  She was climbing the stairs and sliding all by herself.  She would hold onto the hand rails, walk up the stairs, get down and make her way to the slide and then slide.  I wish I could have recorded it - it was a wonderful moment.  We will definitely find our way to the school so she can repeat this while I have my camera ready.

Whistle blowing

Megan's speech therapist recommended that we teach her to blow so that she can master the "h" sound, and others.  I have been working with her for a couple of weeks just showing her how to blow.  Yesterday the bag of whistles I ordered from a therapy site arrived.  The bag contains multiple levels of whistle - meaning very easy to blow all the way to one that you really gotta blow hard to get it to work.

I worked my way through the bag and found the 3 easiest whistles.  She tried yesterday but didn't manage to do any actual blowing.  This evening though she blew one of the whistles hard enough twice to get a sound.

Food swiping, communicating, blocks and annual neurology appointment

On the rare occasion that Megan finishes her lunch before Sam I clean her up and walk her into the living room right past Sam's chair.  She has mastered the art of walking and swiping food from his tray.  She never misses a step, slows down or anything.  She just keeps going for a few steps, then sits down and eats her prize.  The other day she swiped Sam's last bite of food.  Sam started saying and then screaming "have it" while pointing at her and looking at me.  (I taught Sam to say have it as a way to ask for something.)  I couldn't help but laugh - there was no having it back for Sam.  She was chewing and swallowing.  I tried to convince Sam of this but he was sure she could spit it out for him.

Yesterday she worked really hard at school, walking a lot.  When we got home I made the kids lunch and put it on the corner of the table, while I rounded them up.  Right after I put the food on the table something distracted me for a few seconds and then I heard "num num yum" very plainly I knew what was happening.  Megan had pulled up on the table, grabbed two pieces of her sandwich (I cut it in 4 pieces) and had already shoved one entire piece in her mouth and was chowing down.  She was so happy with herself and she was seriously enjoying her food.

Megan is making great progress with communicating.  They are using a placemat at school with pictures that represent "more", "finished", "drink" and "eat".  She has been pointing to the more picture to get more snack and/or saying the word more.  She has also been telling them when she is finished or wants a drink.  One of her teachers made us a duplicate placemat and we started using it at home a couple of days ago.  She is telling us more and finished (sometimes) but she is so pleased with herself when she gets what she asked for that I imagine she will flourish with additional picture boards.

While we were waiting for the doctor to come in the room on Wednesday I was playing with Megan.  They had very small blocks and Megan stacked 5 of them.  She consistently stacked 4 blocks but got 5 twice.  Yesterday she was playing with our, much larger blocks at home and was stacking 3 consistently.

Megan's neurologist asked us to make her an appointment once a year after her last appointment (the one with the MRI).  Megan saw her on Wednesday of this week.  I believe the words she used were "thrilled, amazed and wonderful" among others.  She was completely thrilled with Megan's progress this past year.  She said it was like looking at a different child because Megan had progressed so very much.  She said that she was prepared with a list of things to instruct us to do to help Megan but that there was absolutely nothing we weren't already doing.  At one point she sounded almost giddy with Megan.  She wants to see her back in another year just to check her progress, and I am sure she will be just as astonished at our little miss at that appointment.