First Dance! - Jan 29th, 2016

Saturday

We had a lazy morning and Ashley is starting to enjoy her swing more! We went to Chic-fil-a for lunch and Ashley said "eech-eye" for French fry! After we got home she asked for "water" and said "awesome". She had a fun session with daddy and made lots of eye contact.

We went to swim lessons and when she got out of the car said "swim"! Ashley still seemed hesitant to go into deep water and I am not sure what is going on. :(

Tonight we went to Special Needs Family Winter Dance hosted by Round Rock Recreation. It was Ashley and Noah's first dance! We had no idea how it would go but wanted to try. I found some cute clothes at consignment shop for both kids! Ashley seemed to love her dress and wearing mommy's necklace! She did say "dress" when I asked her if she wanted put on her purple dress.

 

As soon as she arrived, she was nonstop moving to the music and the kids did not want to pause for a family picture. Ashley walked right out onto the dance floor and started her rocking to the music! Ashley also LOVED swing dancing with daddy and did that a lot! She loved being twirled around by him and made such great eye contact with him. It was hard not to cry watching because it was so special!!! They had some cupcakes which was a challenge to keep our kids away from eating all of them. Ashley did say "this one" looking at a chocolate cupcake and "water" when we went to get drinks! She loved the dance so much that she threw giant tantrum leaving so I hope they will have more family dances!

Here is some video of her when she first went into the dance. She immediately went onto the dance floor and these are her moves!

I was also able to capture short video of Daddy and Ashley dancing! I love how she comes back to him for more twirls and you can hear her happy squeal!

Sunday

Ashley had a great time at church today and was in a great mood! Alissa said she sang "boppy" a lot and also sounded like trying sing ABC song! After church, I had a good session with her and we played peek a boo with her tent. She enjoyed us reading Brown Bear book together and liked me singing Whole New World. She said "water, no, tih (for tickles), boppy, & wah-way (singing this to tune of Whole New World)!"

Jeremy took her to a park to enjoy great weather and they had a great time! In the evening we had my parents and brother's family over to celebrate Noah's 3rd birthday. We all sat in dining room eating pizza and Ashley did great! After we got Noah's Star War cake to sing happy birthday and Ashley was patient waiting. When we started serving the cupcakes, she was watching me so I said "everyone gets 1 cupcake". Today she finally understood this and did not have meltdown after finishing hers super fast. We wiped her hands and she went off to play. This is one reason why we can't attend birthday parties because she has huge sweet tooth. We opened Noah's gifts and he got some new robots. This is where it got really rough because Ashley wanted to play with them too and Noah didn't want to share his new birthday gifts. We had to separate them because she started getting really mad and hitting herself.

Monday

At school, she said "water & ready". At recess, she sat on the sidewalk and waited patiently for a swing to become available. Once a child got off, she walked over to the open swing. Yay!!! She normally throws big fit because patience is something we are still trying to work on. She also went to restroom today on her own with no prompting!

At OT and speech, she said "tube" for the tube swing. She also did great following directions and pointed to items on her visual schedule they made for her. Her best friend D has therapy there at the same time and today they were in the gym at the same time. Ashley wanted to get in the big hammock swing with her so they sat back to back. When D had to leave the gym, Ashley got really upset that she left.

At home, we did a short session downstairs since she seemed interested in the swing. She sat in it for probably 8 minutes today with me pushing gently and she made great eye contact with me smiling! When I finished drinking water at table, she came over to sit on my lap and pulled my arms around her. She wanted to cuddle with me!!! she gave me several kisses and thought it was funny to move close to my face and pull away. She also liked me giving her tickles and kisses on her arms! She sang "bubba bubbles" several times and I sang bubble guppy song with her which she seemed to think funny!

 She was also a great listener tonight with letting Oscar out to potty and closing all the blinds! I came around the corner to observe a sweet sibling moment. Ashley was sitting in her swing and Noah was pushing her. She was laughing and enjoying it!

Tuesday

Today she had a great day at school and said "water & bubbles". Her OT was so impressed with her today because she followed directions for a 6 step activity to make snow! She also listened really well to her teachers and did great job today during transitions.

When we got home, Noah and Ashley were both in great moods. Noah asked Ashley to come help him at the train table. She started lining up the trains and cars and Noah helped her! She got in her swing and he came to push her again. They were both laughing and it was so cute! He is going to be such a great brother to her!

In session, she started saying "watree" for everything which got a little frustrating so I started playing dumb when she was requesting items. She wanted me to say all the Brown Bear characters today and then wanted to listen to music. She wanted me to sing A Whole New World and watched my mouth again. She also wanted me to sing Tangled song but I didn't know all the words. She eventually said "chee-cha (for cracker), no, ball, want, boppy, woe-way (singing to tune of Whole New World)." She kept yawning and seemed so tired so I thought we would change it up.

We went downstairs to make Brownies for Tracy who comes tomorrow. She did great cracking the eggs, pouring in the butter and brownie batter. When we washed our hands after cracking eggs, she said "wash". She almost stirred the batter until it was fully combined which can get really thick and tough to do! She then poured it into the pan and now seems to understand it has to go into oven to bake! Then I let her lick the spoon so she was super happy!

Tonight Ashley started a new project and put most her stuffed animals into the swing. :) However she had a process and decided which one went next. She didn't want us helping but she did let me stay to watch. After she put all the animals in swing that she wanted then she pushed them in the swing! When Jeremy got home an hour later, she took his hand immediately to pull him to see her swing! It was interesting because she wanted to show off her work to her daddy!!!

Wednesday

At school, Ashley had a cute interaction with one of SLE peers! The teachers told me her peer was sitting down playing with some toys and one item had ball attached. Ashley walked over, grabbed the ball, and ran off laughing! The boy was laughing too and came up to her with his hand stretched out. Ashley smiled, made eye contact and put the ball into his hand. They said it was only about 2 minutes but this was Ashley's first interaction with him and she initiated it! She also said "bubbles, chips, water, &  strawberry shortcake". She didn't sleep well last night so they did mention she wasn't very focused during work time but still in a great mood today!

In session with Tracy, she said "cha-cha (for cracker), cra-cha (for cracker), mu (for music), water, eat, this, want it, mouth, boppy, ju (for jump), pooh (for poop), no, that and no poo" several times when tracy asked if she needed to go poop. She enjoyed bracelets, books, jumping, counting and dancing today! After session, I asked if she wanted to put her stuffed animals in the swing again but she responded "no". I turned on TV while I was making dinner and Mickey Mouse show came on. She brought her Ipad over to me to ask for Mickey Mouse figurines and then said "mouse".

Ashley has been enjoying swinging all her stuffed animals yesterday and today. She even let Noah help her place the animals today! When I said "listen" to Noah, she said "isten" (for listen). She seems pretty proud of herself! Last night when Jeremy got home, she even took his hand to lead him over to swing so he could see what she had done! Tonight was sooooo pleasant with both kids and they got along so well!

Thursday

Today at school she worked really hard and has almost mastered tracing her name perfectly!!! She said "glasses, bubbles, watching, & water"! When one of her teachers put her sunglasses on for going outside, Ashley seemed very intrigued by them so that is when she said "glasses" after teacher said sunglasses.

In session with me, she said "ball, che-chee (for cracker), boppy, no & woe-woe" singing to tune of A Whole New World. today she wanted to listen to some music, shake pompoms, throw fabric in the air, and play with doctor set.

Friday

She had a great day at school today and was very talkative! She had no challenges today and said "trash, yes, bubbles, toy story, water & puppy".

In speech with Brooke, she said "push, no, bo, yes, watching veggie, no potty, tank eww (for thank you) & want to swing"!

After dinner, Jeremy took Ashley to local school park. There was another family there with 2 kids and Ashley played with them for almost 30 minutes. She made great eye contact with the boy and they chased each other laughing! Jeremy said it was so great to watch seeing her engaging with another peer and playing so well!