A Day of Firsts

Today was a day of firsts for both of the boys. This morning around 10am I dropped Zak off at daycare! He is going to an in-home daycare provider on Wednesday during Ryder's class. As soon as we got there Zak started playing with the 13-month old boy who is "all boy" and rough just like Zak. When I went to leave Zak didn't even care, but Ryder had a meltdown because he wanted to stay and play also.

After we left Zak at daycare Ryder and I ran a few errands before his class. We went to Michaels to look for some crafts, Toys R Us to buy some diapers and then we got some french fries from Chick-Fil-A and then went to his class. This class that I am talking about is a group therapy session that works on language skills, socialization skills, motor skills, and so much more. It is an additional therapy session for Ryder which will be weekly on Wednesdays. They have it set-up like a pre-school classroom and it is run like one as well, but only for 1 hour. They did free-play, circle time, art, gym, music, and then the good-bye song. Today there were only 2 kids in the class including Ryder because a few were sick and others were turning 3 this week so no longer are in the class. Normally there will be 8 kids in the class each week. Ryder did very well and was actually pretty vocal while in the class. The teachers talked with me after the class since this was their first time meeting Ryder. One of the teachers noticed that Ryder is incredibly visual so she suggested a few ideas for me to use at home with him to help minimize the meltdowns. She suggested using pictures on the fridge at mealtime and Ryder could go and pick out what he would like. This way we don't have to play the guessing game all the time. Of course this may not work 100% of the time, but could be helpful because of how visual he is. The reason she suggested this is because in the class they use a felt board with pictures for the daily schedule and Ryder was amazed by it and really understood it. Once we were done gym time we sat down for music time and Ryder was very antsy so the teacher asked him what was wrong. Ryder got up and took down the gym picture and handed it to the teacher!

Another great thing that occurred today...the boys are napping and fell asleep within 5 minutes of me laying them down!

Ryder's art project from class

Mittens

Yesterday our stocking holder arrived! I ordered it from WalMart and it works really well and is very cute.

My Betty Boop Stocking

Ben's Car Stocking

Box of Surprises

This afternoon the boys and I made a trip to Target because we needed to get them some milk (used all of our WIC milk until December 14) and I had a $10 gift card to Target so off we went. While there we also got a few other things so I ended up spending about $5 which isn't bad for a trip to Target!

When we got home there was a box on the front steps. After we ate dinner I opened the box to see what was in it. The box was from my mom and she had lots of fun things in there for us.

Singing & Dancing characters

Yearly Ornaments

Some decorations for the house

(I told my mom we didn't really have anything)
The boys liked all of them!

In the box we also found Christmas salt & pepper shakers, Rice Krispie treat snowman kit, Christmas movie collection (claymation ones), and pajamas for the boys. I am sure I have forgotten to mention something that was in the box.

Death of a Rubbermaid

This morning the boys were playing together very nicely. They found an empty Rubbermaid container and were pushing each other around in it and getting inside of it to play. They were even taking turns! But then Zak decided instead of waiting his turn he would just lay down on top of the Rubbermaid while Ryder was inside of it. Not a good idea....

I was worried about getting Ryder out of the broken Rubbermaid, but Zak started screaming. So I got Ryder out and looked at Zak only to find him gushing blood from his lip. It was bleeding a LOT so I didn't get any "good" pictures of his lip wound, but here are my attempts of showing it. The first you can see some of the leftover blood on his top lip and the second shows the wound which is in the middle of the top lip.

Christmas Tree

This morning I actually slept in a little bit. When I came downstairs Ben had already put the tree up so we could decorate it today. Ben got the camera out to show me this picture he took of the boys this morning...they wanted to have a lazy morning it looks like.

When I unpacked the box with lights I found these Santa blankets. The boys got them from my mom their first Christmas (2007) and used them as swaddling blankets since they were only 4 months old and still tiny. Now they are more like capes!

Ben put the lights on the tree while the boys finished eating breakfast. And then we let the boys take over the decorating. They actually did very well with putting the ornaments on the tree with some help from myself (Ben was taking all of the pictures). After a while the tree was pretty uneven with ornaments so I had to start guiding them where to put the ornaments. Zak did much better with doing it by himself while Ryder preferred to let me hold him and "help".

Once the decorating was done I took pictures of some of our ornaments on the tree. Some of them have special meaning while others are just because of our interests.

UNC is a must!

Ben's Coca-Cola

Redskins Football

Orioles Baseball

(I need a Yankees ornament!)

Zak & Ryder's Personalized Ornaments

Family Personalized Ornaments

Ben's 3 Must-Have's on the Tree

(Coco-Cola, Redskins, UNC)

Piper's Ornament from 2006

Choulis Family Ornament from 1986

My dad's Personalized Ornament

Ryder's Newest Speech Evaluation

Yes, I am making another post tonight! Today in the mail I got a copy of Ryder's newest speech re-evaluation. His therapist was nice enough to mail me a copy so I didn't have to wait until our next session. (Side Note: I love his therapist and am so upset she is going on maternity leave this month!). So here is what this re-evaluation found compared to his evaluation when we started therapy in Harford County...

June 2009 (22 months old)
Communication = 15 months
It lists his upcoming skills as: pointing to several pictures in a book, follow 2-step commands, points to body parts when asked

November/December 2009 (27.5-28 months)
Pragmatic (Social) Language = 15 months with scatter to 18 months
Gesture Age = 18 months with scatter to 21 months
Play Age = 24 months with scatter to 27 months
Language Comprehension Age = 21 months with scatter to 24 months
Language Expression Age = 18 months with scatter to 21 months

His play age is within normal limits while the others are all still considered delayed. His June evaluation was not as in-depth which is why it isn't split into the different sections like this last one. As for the upcoming skills listed in June...he now points to body parts along with pointing to pictures in a book. We have just mastered the 1-step commands so we need to start working on the 2-step commands soon. So he is definitely making progress, but still delayed in just about all language areas.