3 month update...well over due...and long...
In August we went to visit some people in Western Mass and she met Abigail and they had a fun time playing. It was certainly interesting time. One funny thing happened was Abigail got into the Vaseline and Rose came running to tell us that there was something icky and we had to take care of it. Rose would not touch the stuff, but Abigail had it all over her and in her hair. Rose certainly has her sensory issues. About three weeks after that she found the A&D tube and squeezed it all over my bed and had to come tell me about it.
I have been taking Rose to meet new friends. She has been loving playing with people. It has been different to see that. I have taken her several times over the past few months to be baby sat and she loved it so much at time she did not want to come home a few times. It is nice to see that in the past year she has changed so that she will stay with people now and not have a fit.
Rose had an OT evaluation in August. It told us she was over sensitive. Not that we did not think that, but it was nice to know that we were not over acting when we thought that. That has lead to weekly OT sessions and learning new ways of doing things. We have been working on deep pressure items with Maryann and doing major changes at home. We have been doing a brushing of her body. She does not really care for it. She fought it at first, but is not so bad with it now. A lot of the OT stuff she does not want to do. We have worked on it for weeks. We went from not touching the play dough, but playing with knife and fork for it, to she will some times touch it with her hands, but she has to work up to that point. She has made slow progress with the sensory stuff. It is hard to see progress when you have her all the time, but when I tell them things they say it is progress. We have an OT visit every week. Most times on Wednesdays. Her OT visit this last week she played with foam soap, because Amelia did it first. That was at least some major progress.
Rose has tried a few new foods. It is different to have her ask for something. When she asks we let her try it. She finally ate ice cream and liked it. Plus has tried humus and a few other things. Some things she did not like. She liked the outside of the kidney bean (salty), but you break the skin and she wanted nothing to do with it and spit it all out very fast. It is that way with to much food. Most foods, if she does not like the texture in her fingers she wont try it. She can pick up veggie puffs from Gerber with a fork. She will use any technique that she can to avoid touching the foods. Eating is still a challenge. We are trying to get her to try new foods. She did at least try potatoes mashed and liked that. So potatoes and rice are new to her diet. It is nice to have those few new things.
Rose's PT has made some progress. We see Lynn every week for PT and she really does like the PT more often than every two weeks. Rose finally walked in a line down the balance beam with every other foot and she jumped off the curb outside. I should not be as excited as I am about this, but I am. It is major improvement. It is odd to see her not be able to do something she should have been doing. Yes it is not great, but it is progress. The one time we wanted her to show off her not being able to do something, for the evaluation for the preschool people, and she does everything just fine. It was frustrating, but at least it was moving forward, just not doing what we know she does. I do wonder what this weeks PT will be like. It would be better to see more progress. We know it is the motor planning that she has problems with. It would be nice to get that over with. We know that the motor planning has an impact on the speech as well. It is a work in progress and coming up with new ideas to work with things. I'm going to try and continue a few things they worked on after Rose turns 3.
Rose is still throwing tantrums and fits a lot. I'm not always sure what triggers then. It can be anything that brings it on. Some times they go on for hours and other times minutes. I always try and tempt her with something to get her out of it and it does not always work. I showed a video of it to some of the people that work with her and they say that her pushing on the floor put deep pressure on her and helps her calm down in a lot of ways. I try and give her hugs during this time and she likes to be held. She really does like hugs and stuff that gives her the deep pressure that helps her feel better.
Rose is having speech as well with everything. Her speech is what started EI coming to the house. It has improved a lot over the time. It is not really still where it should be for her age, but progress has been made and you can see it. She has some 2 and 3 word sentences, but still likes to grunt and point at things. I would say she has as many as 200 to 250 words that just about anyone could understand. You have to prod some of the words out of her, but she can say a lot now. I've been told she should have 500+ right now. We will get there
Rose is currently really into dancing. It just happened suddenly this last week or two. She will be watching or listening to something and suddenly what to dance. She tired to dance with Amelia, but Amelia is still to young. So she dances with mom and much as she can as often as she can during the day. If she see a movie with dancing in it, she has to dance with mom during that time. I got her to dance with her “cat” and other stuff animals to make it easier on mom, but she still loves to dance.
Rose also wants to do lots of dress up right now. She will ask for a dress at the start of the day or ask for one when she seems someone get a dress in a movie. She says “Rose dress please”. We have to be careful about hows we says “lets get dressed” because she just thinks that means we are putting a dress on her and can get upset when it is not a dress. I think dress up clothes might be in her future.
Clothes have some times been and issue. We are working on it not being an issue, but that is a sensory thing again. She is okay going from the same type of clothes to another, but a change in fabric is hard on her. Knits are fine, but others are not. It is a long process to get her into clothes that are not knits.
We filled out the paper work for Rose to start going into the school system when she turns 3. The paper work was not un to fill out and then we waited to hear from them. Rose has had her first PT evaluation at the house and her introduction to the room and then a full day of preschool today to see how she would do in a class room situation. Rose did great. There were no problems and she was happy to be there during that time. She helped and played and had a great time. They said she was a joy to have. That was nice to hear for once. She will go back again next week to see how she does the second time.
Rose has started a pattern for when we go to the mall. She has her certain things she likes to do. She wants to see the dogs at the mall. Then get a bagel to eat and will want to see people at certain stores. She will ask for them if we don't do them. It is rather amusing.
Rose will ask for certain movies now. She is watching less TV now, maybe still to much, but it is getting to be less. She will ask for Sleepy b and most of the movies now she can say their names. It is nice to hear the talking and she has to tell me what will be happening next. Or point or pull at me when she wants me to see something. She is liking the new PBS series Sid the Science Kid. She calls it Kid, but she will smell everything after she has seen a smell episode and asked for a sticker chart after another. It can be useful for a lot of it.
Grandma, Nancy, Rose and I went and picked apples. The fun thing is that she picked an apple or two. She got into the leaves and pulled and did a great PT/OT session without me having to do anything. It was nice for her to see Nancy again. Rose got to meet Jack and Oscar (Nancy's two dogs). She loved it and she got to walk them both in the park. She did not stop talking about it for a week and still asks to see the dogs. Jack is her dog. She has informed us of this several time. I want my dog, is rather funny to hear from her. She likes cats to much. She got to walk both dogs with help, but is was her being close to the dogs and being good about it. It was amazing to see the changes in her with regards to the dogs.
Rose certainly has a fun way of remembering people. She remembers what they did or do when they visit or the drives to where they live. Nancy is bubbles outside and Jon is for his house and Becca is for certain drives (the way to church). She is building memories for a lot of other things around the house. It is fun to hear her talk about things that happen in the week. She never used to do that. She does remember the certainly toys that Liz, Lynn and Maryann bring in bags.
Potty training has been well not there for the most part. We are going to try again. She seems to want to do some of it, we shall see if it happens or not. I can only hope that it will. Rose goes before bed and some times in the morning and at least once during the day. The rest of the time does not happen. The past few days she has gone on her little potty and taken off running into her room leaving pee and the bowl all over the bathroom floor. It is a habit that we need to break her of, but it does not really happen. We are going to start a sticker chart since she asked for one. Rose seems to get the idea, but we shall see if it really does happen.
Rose tired the swings again, when we went to the park to walk the dogs. She also went down a slide and played in the sand (using object to move the sand). It was a great start for her. We are going to try and do more the next time. It was a great improvement for her to want to play with stuff at the park. I think we would have a great time the next time we go again. But the swings is a major improvement. She did not like them at all the first few times we went.
Rose saw a petting zoo and wanted to go see the animals. What surprised both Paul and I is that she wanted to pet the animals. She told us what all the animals were, that she knew and then she wanted to touch them. It was funny to watch her reaction to the animals. She smiled and laughed and wanted more time with them when we were leaving. At that same time she was telling me about daddy and his demo he was doing. She loved to watch him doing it.
Rose has been odd with sleeping. She sleeps good when she is asleep but before that is something to be seen. I have seen her out on the stairs and after long days and in the car. She is doing great things. She has put all her animals to bed with her and some times had odd things in her bed. It is taking her a little bit to fall alseep, and some times fights it until she is exhausted and just falls asleep where ever: stairs, hallways, bathroom and kitchen.
For the past year we have been doing an alphabet puzzle with Rose. She has loved it, but lately she has wanted to stop doing the puzzle before bed. She knows most of the abc and at least one word for each letter. Which is great. She knows her shapes as well. One thing that has increased is her want for us to read to her. She would have me read to her all day if I would do it. She wants to tell you about the pictures on the pages and if it has an animal she wants to tell the sound it makes. I am impressed with what knowledge that she has.
Rose still likes to blow bubbles and will ask for them as much as she can get away with. It is a great reward for a good day or a nice way to get her to the potty.
Well I think this slightly covers the last 3 months.