Easter Plans

We have worked everything out so we will be going to the campground in VA for Easter weekend. The boys are going to spend the night with Nana & Poppy Thursday night to dye eggs. Ben will be away for work Thursday night so that leaves me alone on Friday to get everything packed. Once Ben gets home from work on Friday we will pack up the dogs (and their crates) and head to Rich & Laura's house. We will drop the dogs off, pick up the boys and head to the campground. It will probably be about a 3 hour drive (possibly more) depending on traffic. We will get there pretty late at night, but all of the main activities are on Saturday so we want to just get up there Friday night. We will stay at the campground Friday, Saturday, Sunday and head back Monday. We will pick up the dogs on our way home. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 80 degrees so we should have a really good time!

On to a different topic....yesterday while I was talking to Ryder's case manager on the phone about the upcoming meeting she told me that his original speech therapist (the one we loved) was back from maternity leave. After we finished talking she put Rachel on the phone and we set up a session for this morning. I am so excited she is back! We talked a lot about his progress and what the main concerns are now. We are going to start working with picture exchange communication. He still does not ask for basic needs such as food, drink or needing his diaper changed. So she is going to start coming weekly (instead of every other week) while we get him started using the pictures. I am hoping this will make mealtimes easier so he can tell us what he would like to eat. She is also going bring pictures with her to make a Before and After board so we can visually show him what the schedule is going to be (First Dinner Then Bath kind of thing). I am also supposed to start giving him lots of opportunities to make choices throughout the day (what color washcloth, what shirt, etc) to try and get him to voice his needs/wants more. We will also work on yes and no questions with him.

Next week on Tuesday Ryder is going to have his formal Autism testing done at Kennedy Krieger. Hopefully we will get more of a definitive answer regarding this possible diagnosis. It is perfect timing since his IEP meeting is next Friday!