Megan had a cold for 13 days in December - the last week of school and the week of Christmas. She didn't feel like herself again until the Monday after Christmas. She handled being sick really well and was even up for playing by herself for small amounts of time each day - which is not something she is normally up for doing.
We saw a loss of most of her new skills during the time when she was sick - not much eye contact, not much verbalizing, etc. But with each day that she has felt better everything has returned and she has made progress each day.
She is very attentive right now - paying attention to what people around her are doing. She is verbalizing really well and using new approximations for words we hadn't heard before. She is repeating the words she had been saying previously on request. She is compliant with requests again meaning she will do what we ask her "get that book and take it to daddy; go find "x"; etc".
The eye contact that we had lost again is back as well. She is doing really well again.
Megan enjoyed Christmas this year. She comprehended the gifts and was able to happily open them. She did well with facetiming with her grandparents so they could watch her open her gifts - each time she wanted to go grab the iPad we just handed her another gift and she was good to go.
Megan went gluten-free 12/30/14. This time around we were prepared for the withdrawal/detox symptoms and they showed up right on time on night 2. She has had the same symptoms every time we have tried to go gluten free and we stopped thinking she was reacting to something in the new bread. It only took 4 tries for us realize that it was detox/withdrawal symptoms.
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Thursday, December 11, 2014
A GREAT problem to have....
I am overwhelmed by Megan's progress with her speech. Using the techniques we are learning Megan is chatting away non-stop. The GREAT problem that we have is that before we are able to respond to something she has said she says something else. I am running myself crazy trying to keep up with her.
Yesterday after school I explained to Sam what we were doing and he joined in and had so much fun. Megan was talking non-stop and getting him to do all kinds of stuff - mainly turning on various Christmas toys for her.
I have a call into the program to find out how to handle her excited talking, talking, talking but in the mean time mama will continue to do the best I can.
This morning during breakfast I didn't even say anything to her about talking or telling Sam to turn on the snowman and the first thing she did was point to it and say "on" and so it began. She ate her oatmeal and Sam turned on the snowman every time she said "on".
It is awesome that she has made the connection that she talks and we do something (basis of new program regardless of whether we understand what she is saying we respond to show her that her voice is important).
Yesterday after school I explained to Sam what we were doing and he joined in and had so much fun. Megan was talking non-stop and getting him to do all kinds of stuff - mainly turning on various Christmas toys for her.
I have a call into the program to find out how to handle her excited talking, talking, talking but in the mean time mama will continue to do the best I can.
This morning during breakfast I didn't even say anything to her about talking or telling Sam to turn on the snowman and the first thing she did was point to it and say "on" and so it began. She ate her oatmeal and Sam turned on the snowman every time she said "on".
It is awesome that she has made the connection that she talks and we do something (basis of new program regardless of whether we understand what she is saying we respond to show her that her voice is important).
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
on, on, on, on, on, ON!
Megan has been able to say "on" for several months now, and she has said it on occasion when she feels like it. We have been able to entice her to say it once that I can remember but definitely not more than once at a time.
Last night, using the new technique, Megan said "on" 10+ times. It was AWESOME. She was happy and proud and we were happy and proud and Sam was happy and proud. It was a great time. Oh and that was in about a 30 minute time frame.
Last night, using the new technique, Megan said "on" 10+ times. It was AWESOME. She was happy and proud and we were happy and proud and Sam was happy and proud. It was a great time. Oh and that was in about a 30 minute time frame.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Eating Out!, Dancing Snowman and continued progress
We decided to go for it and eat out as a family. Several other FG families with very sensitive kids have been able to eat at Five Guys without an issue and even eat the fries. We took their advice and took bread for Megan to use instead of their bun and she did great. She was extremely happy to be sitting at the table eating her own fries. She had a blast and even better than that she didn't have a reaction to anything. It was so much fun to get to go out again as a family, it has been more than a year. We will definitely do it again.
I have a dancing snowman that responds to sound. When you make a loud noise nearby it starts dancing and singing. Megan LOVES the snowman. A few days ago, before I had finished with decorations on the mantel, it was sitting on the mantel with several breakable items. I was on the phone with Will and Megan was standing beside me pointing and grunting to the mantel. I said "you can't have anything from up there"and then I noticed the dancing snowman - which is what she was asking for. She remembered it from last year. Amazing. I had to replace the batteries first and then it was on. She played it with for an hour - turning it on and running around, dancing, repeat. It did take her about 10 minutes to warm up to it enough that she would turn it on herself - until then she had Sam do it for her. She continues to love playing and dancing with that thing every day.
Megan is continuing to respond to the limited program we have started implementing. Will is still reading the books and I am still getting through all of the videos but armed with just the information each of us has we are doing what we can. She is giving us really good eye contact both on her own and when it is requested "Megan, look at mommy". She will look me right in the eyes when I request it and previously she would turn her head toward me but wouldn't always actually look me in the eyes - in fact more often than not she would look off to the side. Today I learned that looking on request is on a different level than looking just when she instigates it. Yay for her!
She has also been extremely talkative the past couple of days - pointing around the room and using word approximations "ight" for light, etc. Tonight I was sitting in the floor and she stood up and hugged me and then started grunting to get down and I told her to "tell mommy down". I waited several seconds and watched her thinking about it and then said "say down" and she did the sign for down. It was incredible. She repeated this again a few minutes later.
I have a dancing snowman that responds to sound. When you make a loud noise nearby it starts dancing and singing. Megan LOVES the snowman. A few days ago, before I had finished with decorations on the mantel, it was sitting on the mantel with several breakable items. I was on the phone with Will and Megan was standing beside me pointing and grunting to the mantel. I said "you can't have anything from up there"and then I noticed the dancing snowman - which is what she was asking for. She remembered it from last year. Amazing. I had to replace the batteries first and then it was on. She played it with for an hour - turning it on and running around, dancing, repeat. It did take her about 10 minutes to warm up to it enough that she would turn it on herself - until then she had Sam do it for her. She continues to love playing and dancing with that thing every day.
Megan is continuing to respond to the limited program we have started implementing. Will is still reading the books and I am still getting through all of the videos but armed with just the information each of us has we are doing what we can. She is giving us really good eye contact both on her own and when it is requested "Megan, look at mommy". She will look me right in the eyes when I request it and previously she would turn her head toward me but wouldn't always actually look me in the eyes - in fact more often than not she would look off to the side. Today I learned that looking on request is on a different level than looking just when she instigates it. Yay for her!
She has also been extremely talkative the past couple of days - pointing around the room and using word approximations "ight" for light, etc. Tonight I was sitting in the floor and she stood up and hugged me and then started grunting to get down and I told her to "tell mommy down". I waited several seconds and watched her thinking about it and then said "say down" and she did the sign for down. It was incredible. She repeated this again a few minutes later.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Hopping! Hopping! Hopping! and other updates
Tonight, for the first time, Megan hopped all by herself. She has been hopping for a very long time, but only when she had something to hold onto with at least one hand. Tonight she was a little hopping machine and she was having a blast! I videoed it and she was even fine with that. At one point she walked right up to the camera and then went back to hopping with her daddy.
She is continuing to do awesome eating at the table. She is doing extremely well with managing utensils and just sitting there like such a big girl.
We will be starting a new program with Megan soon to help her. We have begun implementing a tiny portion of the program and are seeing amazing results. The part we have started working on is with her eye contact. We are getting TONS more eye contact - so much more that it is difficult to comprehend how great she is doing. It is so nice to have her looking us in the eyes.
She is continuing to do awesome eating at the table. She is doing extremely well with managing utensils and just sitting there like such a big girl.
We will be starting a new program with Megan soon to help her. We have begun implementing a tiny portion of the program and are seeing amazing results. The part we have started working on is with her eye contact. We are getting TONS more eye contact - so much more that it is difficult to comprehend how great she is doing. It is so nice to have her looking us in the eyes.
Sleep update and eating at the table
A little over a week ago Megan started struggling again with her sleep - she got to the point where she was up for 5-6 hours and was sleeping until 10:15 to make up for it. She is headed back in the right direction now and we are so thankful for that. She restarted her b2 and she got cst yesterday which visibly helped her while we were in the office.
This weekend I decided to let Megan eat her breakfast (cream of wheat) by herself to see how it would go. It has been several months since we last tried it, that time she took 1-2 bites and threw the spoon and then the bowl all three times we attempted it. On Saturday she ate 2/3 of her food before she dropped the spoon on the floor. She ended up finishing it after getting her spoon back. It was so exciting for her to do this by herself. She has been capable of feeding herself with a spoon for more than a year, that part wasn't the issue, the immediate throwing of the spoon and bowl was the problem.
After her success with her breakfast we decided to remove her tray and push her up to the table to eat for the rest of the day. Again, last time we tried this there was a lot of throwing of food and pushing off from the table so it didn't last long. Just like with the spoon/bowl attempt this time went so much better. In fact Megan has been eating at the table every meal since, except for one time. Last night she fed herself with a real fork while sitting at the table.
This morning she ate 3/4 of a bowl of oatmeal completely by herself. I was so proud of her and she is so proud of herself. She has been showing us that she wanted to be more independent lately and this just goes right along with it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)