Over the river and through the woods...

Yeah, we are finally at Grandma, and Grandpa's house! It looks like Cotton is rounding out stage 3 and 4 of the old stages!! Stage 4 has been coming along nicely with stage 3. I knew this would be the easiest stage for him, as it is a strength of his.

However, I find myself very focused on referencing activities. His referencing is still very scaffolded, and I want it to become more natural before I move forward. We are starting to look at the new objectives as well. There are a few in stage 1 that I want to spend some time on, but for the most part I think we are early stage 2.

I really like the new objectives, they are so detailed I feel like we will leave nothing out! We had a great day fishing, Our coordinated action was throwing stones in the water. Together, taking turns, I hand him a stone, he hands me one. You get te idea.

Language, language, language

Cotton as I have mentioned before is non-verbal. Completely meaning he has zero recognizable words, he gives good attempts and does his best to mimic me, but if you did not know what I was saying you would have NO clue what he was saying. Mind you this is not in my opinion communication, but he really needs practice using his mouth to form said words (which he will eventually:)

Anyway my delima is how to get this practice without constantly prompting him, and ignoring his non verbal communication, (which I actually count as communication lol). My consultant came up with a good idea of using familiar songs, and stopping at a word and practice that word, and move forward making it fun. I am totally up for trying this, but it is so frustrating!!!! His ST has actually said he does not think Cotton has apraxia, because his oral muscles work fine, it is just the communication from the brain to the muscles to form words. I would take ANY real word at this point!! So I am going to try songs and more songs, if anyone has any great ideas, I am all ears.

Jumping through hoops!

Ok, so I know it is not about teaching any skills, but I am so darned proud of this one. So, I took the old stage 2 standby of walking from chair to chair, referencing to see when and where to continue, and added throwing a ball back and forth. Not only was Cotton (who has major visual challanges) able to do this, he had a blast. This one blew me away! We also worked on putting two puzzle pieces together each holding one piece, not nearly as cool, but coordination none the less. I plan on changing my blog site soon, I have a mac now and they have a nifty blogsite so I can show video, I want to show this one off lol.

Otherwise things are going good. I of course would love to sleep in an actual bed. I can truly appreciate, having my own room, sleeping in a bed, having a closet.... I will not take these things for granted for a while. Next week we move in with grandma, I am looking forward to getting there:)

Cotton and I played a fun games on some stepping stones today. At first I would point or indicate to the stone he needed to step on,(stage 2), then We played a game of follow the leader (stage 3), then we added variation to it, by jumping to a stone, moving to a stone backwards, etc. It was a fun time. We are still doing a lot of walking, running, trotting (whatever) together. This really seems to regulate him. Yesterday we pulled and stopped with our suitcases together. For a little variation we would push our suitcases instead of pulling them. We tried to carry them, but Cotton's was too heavy. It was good for uncertainty. So we had to carry that one together. Over all he is doing much better, and for that I am grateful, only a month and half more to go!!!! Mr. Chief is in heaven, he loooves all the changes, flirting with the house keepers, and pulling the cushions off the couch to pull out the beds:) He is full steam ahead to the terrible two's. He is gaining words daily, it is absolutely amazing to me.( I love it).

Foot hold

I am happy to report that things are slowly getting better. Cotton is back, and connected, there seems to be ample opportunity at the TLF (temporary living facility) for coordination. We are havig fun again!! I also got my new computer so although I do not exactly have internet, I am somewhat starting to "reconnect". For the past few weeks, I have focused hard on stage 2 which for Cotton leads directly into stage 3 stuff. It has really paid off he is referencing better than ever. Coordination is snapping back into place as a result. So yehaa, here we go.

Detatched

Things are not too well in my world right now. Cotton is a little upside down. He is starting to find his footing, but I feel like I am pulling teeth. Poor guy has been through waaaay too many changes. I am trying to give him time, but when I have seen him come so far, it is hard to see him like this.

Not to mention that BOTH of my laptops crashed!!!!! So I am stuck in a hotel, with no link to the outside world:(

CRAZY!

I am so frustrated right now. We have so much going on that Cotton is really "locking up". He is coordinating beautifully, but with NO emotion, so it is really pointless. I know we are crazy right now, dad just got home, we went to go look for a new house,he had the stomach flu, and the movers come next week. I would be crazy not to expect some sort of growing pains. It is just so hard to watch my little guy who is emerging from this shell retreat:( I know this is temporary, and he will quickly pick things up again, I just love seeing that twinkle in his eye. I am hoping to get some really good one on one with him this afternoon (and some video), it will make us both feel better.