Month: May 2007

MONKEY! It was so cool!

After I got home last night Monkey ran out to the kitchen and pointed to the top of the fridge. We keep the junk food up there, lol. I asked him what he wanted and this conversation followed…

Monkey: “MMMMMMmmmm!”

Umma: “You want M&M’s?”

Monkey dances excitedly while I get the bag.

Umma: “Do you want blue or orange?”

Monkey: “Oooo, doh doh doh.”

Umma: “Do you want a blue M&M or an orange one, use your words.” (I thought he was trying to say orange again, he said it last week for his therapist.)

Monkey: “Bowl.”

Umma: “Did you say BLUUUE?”

Monkey, running to the cupboard, “No. Bowl!” and he grabbed a bowl.

LOL, he didn’t want one he wanted a bowl of them. He got a small handful as a reward. Little punk, I’m so proud.

Well, he is trying his hardest. Last night we went for a walk and when we got home we decided to relax in the yard for a while. For the past week I’ve been trying to get Monkey to roll around on the ground but he hasn’t been that interested in it, even when I did it…. But when Umma rolls on the ground and says “roll, roll, roll, roll….” it’s the best thing ever!!! He thought it was so great that he made up his own sign for roll and he even said the word…. within an hour he was saying “roll, roll, roll” in his raspy voice and both Umma and I were rolling towards and away from him as fast as we could. Little guy was cracking up as we were doing this and he was having an absolute ball! So looks like when he’s really motivated he can use his words.

Monkey has also warmed up to C. quite well. He’s actually pretty comfortable with all of his new providers; I’m so amazed at how quickly he’s taken to all of them. The past couple of weeks we’ve been trying to work on getting Monkey to know his colors, so on Tuesday I showed C. the signs for Red, Yellow, Green, Blue and Orange. Monkey knew how to say red and could do blue and green when he wanted. She has a toy with those colored gears that spin and she’s been making him use the signs to get the gears. He’s really starting to get his colors down!

We just got back from our visit with the PT and he really enjoys playing on the Gross Motor Room at the school. Today he sat on a scooter and scooted around on it a bit, he also went though their tunnel which is quite impressive as it’s not like any of the other tunnels he’s gone though before. It’s a dark shade of red and it a solid material, most of the ones he’s gone though have had mesh so he could peek out if he wanted. But he still went though it a couple of times, with the motivation of his blanket being tossed though it.

The PT was also impressed at how in tune I was with Monkey’s needs and being able to provide him with the deep pressure when he started to get hyper-aroused. Near the end of the session, when I was helping him to calm down with the “Monkey Burrito” and some deep pressure, she said that I’d make a great therapist…that’s like the 10th professional that’s said that.  She also said that I probably think it’s just natural to be in tune with him and to be able to calm him down as quickly as I can, but most parents are unable to do that. I have been tossing the idea of becoming an OT…. it’s just…. I don’t wanna have to go back to school to do it. LMAO.

Hey all, not much to report really. We had a great party with our EI/BB people on Monday. Monkey actually opened some presents! It was nice to get a chance to thank them for everything they’ve done for us in the last two years. And they brought a huge birthday cookie. Yum!

Tuesday was a day off…no EI services and no CPS services.

Wednesday was supposed to be the start of Monkey’s BB 3-6 services (the extra services the school is paying for through the summer) but his new provider, C., was in a car accident on the way to the house! Fortunately she’s OK. She was rear-ended by a truck at a stop light. Wet roads are dangerous.

Thursday and Friday C. was here playing with Monkey. She’ll be coming 5 days a week from now on. He seems to like her OK. He does play with her but it takes a bit of warming up to get there. Barley is really unhappy with her though. She has a toy piano that makes this noise….a really loud beeping noise. It totally freaks him out. We’re going to ask her not to use it anymore, lol. I was reading her note last night and noticed that she wants to introduce play dough next week. Looks like Umma is making more play dough this weekend since he won’t play with the store bought stuff, lol.

Usually I let Umma write up most of the posts but I had to add this in. Today was the beginning of the end of the Early Intervention and Building Blocks 0-3 services. Today was our last appointment with our PT and it was fitting that her last appointment was a co-visit with B. B. and W. were the two who evaluated Monkey initially when we first started EI way back.

Today was a nice trip to the park around the corner and just letting him be the little guy he’s grown up to be. He was running around with the other kids, constantly going down the slide and babbling up a storm! Yup he was dropping “Monkey Versions” of words… he said “ball”, “bowl”, “home”, “swing”, “hill”, and it even sounded like he said “tweet-tweet” while looking at a bird. He also ran over and checked on a couple of kids who were in the play house. He’s really becoming quite the social bug. Just earlier this week at playgroup, on Tuesday, Monkey asked two other kids for toys. He walked up to them and said “For me, please”, using sign of course.

He’s really made me quite proud this past week and it’s hard to believe that in just over a week he’ll be turning 3 and this chapter in his life closes. It’s going to be weird for both of us to have different providers now; hopefully they’ll be just as good as the ones we’ve had so far. Everyone who’s work with Monkey has been fantastic and has really helped us out greatly! I feel as though we really lucked out with some of the best providers possible.