Start of ABA Therapy

Hello! We've had a good week, starting with more smiles, giggling and talking from Kate. She really lights up when she has someone to talk to. She has to start early with the talking to have a chance to get a few words in between Emma's. I'm really enjoying my sweet little girl! Josh started his ABA therapy on Tuesday. I had explained to him that we were going to a "new school" and the names of his teachers. We got there too early and I didn't realize the doors wouldn't be open yet for us to go in, so we ended up standing outside the door for 15 minutes. Josh remembered playing there and wanted to go in, so there was no getting him back in the car and he wouldn't even go with me to practice climbing stairs. When we went in, the therapist took us to a big play room and started playing with him to get him comfortable before I left. He clearly could care less if I was there or not. After 10-15 minutes, I explained to him again that I was going to leave and pick him up in the afternoon. He gave me a hug and kiss goodbye and went back to playing with the toys. I got a call after lunch to let me know he was doing well and loving the attention there. When I picked him up in the afternoon, they carried him out to me asleep. He was pooped! Thursday was much of the same. He was happy to be there when I dropped him off and went straight to the therapist and didn't look back. He was in a great mood when I picked him up. There isn't too much to tell about what he's accomplished or how he is doing. This week, they completed a detailed assessment and worked on making Josh feel comfortable there. They'll meet with us to go over the development plan they put together for Josh based on the assessment. They'll also have a parent training for us to learn and follow the same teaching methodologies they use, as well as have monthly meetings with us to follow his development. On Thursday night, we were out in the front of our house and our neighbors were walking with their daughter, who is one month older than Josh. Josh ran right up to her, made eye contact, waved and said, "hi." I figure they were probably practicing that with him at ABA. I want to ask that because I haven't seen him deliberately do that to a child he hasn't known. He greets friends and family he knows, but it was neat to see him go out of his way like that! All in all, I feel really good about having Josh in the ABA therapy center. I think that it, in conjunction with healing his digestive system, will do wonders in catching him up. I did have a hard time seeing most kids there being far worse off than Josh is. Quite a few are not speaking at all and I could see the envy in the eyes of some of the parents with Josh speaking nouns galore when their children weren't talking at all. In some ways, I feel caught a bit between two worlds: 1. the "typical" world where it became really apparent earlier this year that Josh was getting farther and farther from the norm at daycare. I got "the looks" from other parents and shared concerns with his teachers. 2. the development disorder world where Josh is relatively highly functioning. I guess the sympathy I am feeling for the other families in the ABA center is similar to the sympathy the other parents were feeling toward Josh and our family at our daycare. I guess we're still absorbing the feelings of being in this new world. I am looking forward to their assessment findings, as I often find myself still talking myself out of there being an issue with his development. Danny and I did reflect this past week on more improvements with Josh. On the down side, we're having some milder head-banging again and he wakes up every single night for an hour some time between midnight and 2:00. He is itching like crazy. We usually have to give him Benadryl for relief and he gets back to sleep within an hour. On the up side, he is doing a great job of walking with us holding hands (mostly with Emma, but we'll take what we can get!), gross motor skills have improved greatly (balance, climbing, jumping), he's much more compliant with diaper changes and bath time, he is eager to communicate with us, and he is adding several more phrases to his vocabulary! This coming week, we only have his ABA on Tuesday because of the 4th. Our other therapy sessions haven't started since they are still getting pre-certification from our insurance for his speech therapy. Hopefully, we'll get that scheduled out this week. In other family news, poor Danny got in a car accident yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, he is okay and none of the kids were with him when it happened. He was driving in the right lane, about 40 mph. The two left lanes were stopped, but his lane was clear. A truck headed in the opposite direction was waved to turn left into a gas station by a stopped car in the left lane. He pulled right in front of Danny and Danny's car t-boned an F-150 truck. The truck flipped over. Danny and the other driver both walked away. Several people from the gas station ran over to help them out and a cop was there when it happened. Danny's hand has been hurting and that's been his biggest complaint so far. I'm sure that the emotional tie to his car will be more to deal with tomorrow when he starts to deal with the collision center. Everyone who knows Danny knows he loves this car. It's the first new car he's ever bought and it's just over a year old now. Hopefully, they can repair it to be just like new again. Here's a picture of the damage... :(

Have a great week! Have a great 4th if I don't make it back before then.

-Bonnie