My heart is aching and I'm full of tears thinking about 2 little boys this morning!
It doesn't make any sense that a Mom can say goodbye to her 2 year old son and husband on the very same day. 1 life taken much too soon and a life long friend, soul mate, true love and provider to their family...gone just like that without any warning or goodbye. No last touch. No smiles. No hugs or kisses. No whispered words or laughter from the child. This really bothers me and saddens me to even think about. I keep thinking about the mother and her 2 remaining children. How are they doing? Do they understand their baby brother and daddy are not coming back? The mom has to be an emotional mess. Makes me sick to even imagine my life ripped apart and 2 very special people taken away immediately from a fatal car accident. I used to work with this mom and feel the urge to reach out to her now. We still work at the same company but I am at a different location now and lost touch after having my own child and my Dept was cut back in 08.
Some of you may remember a little boy named Johnnie who is the same age as my Sam.
Johnnie also has EE (Eosinophillic esophagitis). Unfortunately Johnnie's little body has not responded to any treatments and he continues to deteriorate. He now has the best care in Cincinnati but there has to be some undiagnosed condition that continues to cause him distress. His mom just posted an update on Facebook and I'm sitting here in tears. Why does this almost 4 year old boy have to suffer so much? Why must any child suffer, be poked and pried and undergo too many biopsies, be put under anesthesia time and time again? It's not fair! There has to be a reason and a better outcome for this child, for every child that suffers and cannot live a happy and healthy life like a normal 4 year old should.
Hug your children. Embrace them. Love them and care for them as if you never know when things may change. And now I will put down this iPad to spend time with my sweet love who is craving my attention. For me, he is priceless, my love and joy!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Schedule
Our neighbors must wonder who is coming and going at our house M-Th afternoons. Maybe you wonder what I do with 'all my time' every afternoon. No I'm not sitting and eating bon-bons or watching soap operas. haha! We are pretty busy every M-Th. This is Sam's home therapy schedule after he goes to school from 9-2 every day.
Some may think that 5 hours of school every day PLUS home therapy is a lot but it's not really. I don't think there's such a thing as 'too much' therapy during these early ages. And he's not working hard all the time. He has LOTS of fun and learns so much every day! He loves it and is such a hard worker! As for me, I'm very involved in his therapy. I sit outside of the room of speech to listen. I could sit in the reception room but then wouldn't hear him and this is where I learn ALOT!!! During home therapy I stay in the sessions too most of the time. I could be doing laundry or scrapbooking but I like to see what he's doing and also learn from the therapists. So we don't have much downtime here. But this ok! It's a good thing we have going on! And I will take all the help we can get now because that can always change with insurance coverage. The more "help" we get now the more likely services will be approved down the road or maybe he won't need them at all. The long term goal is to have him in mainstream classes in school with little or no therapy but only time will tell what his needs will be. The future for Sam is bright and very promising! This we know for sure!
- M- 4-6 ABA therapy
- T- 3:30-6:30 ABA therapy
- W- 3:15-4 private speech
- 4:30-6:30 ABA therapy with 2 therapists overlapping
- Th- 2-3 every other week. School ABA home visit
- 4-6 ABA therapy
- Fr- NO visitors so don't come knocking because we won't answer! :-)
Some may think that 5 hours of school every day PLUS home therapy is a lot but it's not really. I don't think there's such a thing as 'too much' therapy during these early ages. And he's not working hard all the time. He has LOTS of fun and learns so much every day! He loves it and is such a hard worker! As for me, I'm very involved in his therapy. I sit outside of the room of speech to listen. I could sit in the reception room but then wouldn't hear him and this is where I learn ALOT!!! During home therapy I stay in the sessions too most of the time. I could be doing laundry or scrapbooking but I like to see what he's doing and also learn from the therapists. So we don't have much downtime here. But this ok! It's a good thing we have going on! And I will take all the help we can get now because that can always change with insurance coverage. The more "help" we get now the more likely services will be approved down the road or maybe he won't need them at all. The long term goal is to have him in mainstream classes in school with little or no therapy but only time will tell what his needs will be. The future for Sam is bright and very promising! This we know for sure!
Word World
Sam's current favorite shows are Word World and Super Why! Goes well with his language EXPLOSION! I need to start jotting down new thing he says every day! Yesterday during home ABA therapy he left the living room where the 2 therapists were to come see me in the dining room. When he went back to see them he said 'I'm back'! We were laughing! He's now saying final consonants. Some examples of recent words are; pop, cat, book, up, stop, I get milk (used to call it 'ga'), puppy, cracker, cookie, 'scuse' me for excuse me when he burps, I toot or poop, downstairs, upstairs, horse, dog, duck, pull me, train, bus, spoon, fork, eat, cup, bed, go sleep, I cold or scared, sad, happy, mama's daycare, want, yeah, , here you go, yes...geesh I'm sure there are so many more! He can put words together like Dada go to store to get mama soup. But mostly uses 1-3 words together at a time plus still a lot of jargon. He LOVES doing anything with ABCs and words on the iPad, tv, books and puzzles and of course still loves his beloved trains! He loves school, private speech and his ome therapy. He has 10 hours of ABA therapy over M-Th (applied behavioral anaysis for autism) at home. He's doing so well with the home therapy that I wonder if the 10 hours is too much. The lead therapist has to keep updating his programs. They are going to help us with potty training which we tried last weekend and he clearly wasn't ready. He will be 4 on March 29th. Where does the time go?
Sam has the funniest sense of humor and the best timing for things. Trying to think of examples...He will call me Dada on purpose and I will call him Chloe (our cat). I will call him something like puppy or silly and he will say 'no I'm Sam'! Lol!
He can spell Samuel and count up to 30. He says the ABCs all the time and yesterday clearly said S and W (all 3 syllables). We are now teaching him his last name and age and then will move onto address and phone #.
He tells us when he's sad or scared. Yesterday when he came home from school I asked him what he did and he said 'E'. I opened his school bag and there was a letter puppet E! Monday he was home with Steve and I had to work. I came home and asked him what they did. He said 'go to store' (just 1 thing they did). I can't believe he is starting to tell me things that he does when I'm not with him! A few days ago he asked for crackers but we didnt have any of his left. He said 'I go to store to get crackers'. So smart!
He will tell us if he's cold but will not wear socks once he's shoes are off. He will not use any blankets or pillows in his bed but will use them in ours. He actually slept 2x in our bed this past week when he woke up sick during the night. I still can't believe he kept still! He would never stay still and lay down to cuddle with us a few months ago! And now he gives kisses all the time! Love it! Teaching I'm how to say love! So far we get 'uv'. I will take whatever we get!
Sam has the funniest sense of humor and the best timing for things. Trying to think of examples...He will call me Dada on purpose and I will call him Chloe (our cat). I will call him something like puppy or silly and he will say 'no I'm Sam'! Lol!
He can spell Samuel and count up to 30. He says the ABCs all the time and yesterday clearly said S and W (all 3 syllables). We are now teaching him his last name and age and then will move onto address and phone #.
He tells us when he's sad or scared. Yesterday when he came home from school I asked him what he did and he said 'E'. I opened his school bag and there was a letter puppet E! Monday he was home with Steve and I had to work. I came home and asked him what they did. He said 'go to store' (just 1 thing they did). I can't believe he is starting to tell me things that he does when I'm not with him! A few days ago he asked for crackers but we didnt have any of his left. He said 'I go to store to get crackers'. So smart!
He will tell us if he's cold but will not wear socks once he's shoes are off. He will not use any blankets or pillows in his bed but will use them in ours. He actually slept 2x in our bed this past week when he woke up sick during the night. I still can't believe he kept still! He would never stay still and lay down to cuddle with us a few months ago! And now he gives kisses all the time! Love it! Teaching I'm how to say love! So far we get 'uv'. I will take whatever we get!
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Open up and say Ahhhh!
Or WAHHHHH in our case at monthly acclimation dental visits for Sam. We go to Pediatric Dental Center of Mansfield and LOVE them! The problem is when you have a child who HATES going to doctor apps and cannot sit still for long! He gags when brushing his teeth and we worry that he may have cavities from years of acids reflux + all the vomiting and formula he still drinks! Well this visit went better but we still have a long way to go. He did well for the hygienist and after mommy pretended to demonstrate everything first; brush teeth, count teeth and look at teeth with their 'mirror tool'. He finally let the hygienist do the same. Dr. Bob came in and had Sam look in his mouth too. Lol! See pics below. Sam wasn't happy to do the same requests again for Dr. Bob and let out some BIG screams! Sigh! he said he has NO major decay on his teeth, just some staining. (One day he'll get a good cleaning). We were finally done and Sam got a new train which I had promised him (was leftover from Hannukah as he got too many). We'll be back on 2/7.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
AND I'm so HAPPY to have found a job that gives me a nice paycheck, insurance PLUS the schedule to be here for Sam after school. Steve has a GREAT job and we are setting goals for US in the new year. Looking forward to more GOOD changes and planning our next steps for the future!!! Here's to 2012!!!
12/31/11
12/30/11
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)