Saturday
Ashley had a good session with Jeremy in the morning and even gave him the potty PEC when she needed to use bathroom! She enjoyed playing with balls, brain flakes and lots of tickles! She did not want to play Candy Land today but wanted to look all over the game board!
I took both kids with me to HEB and Ashley barely fits in the main part of grocery cart. She did better than last time and I just have to keep trying these outings.
At lunch she said "chip, juice, water" and after when we were playing in living room she said "awesome & yes".
Jeremy took her to Play for All Abilities to enjoy the great weather and they had a water table which she loved. There was also a birthday party going on and the adult was blowing bubbles. Ashley ran over to join in and they were really nice to let her be included! Bubbles make her so happy! The adult let the young birthday girl try to blow the bubbles but she didn't do a great job so Ashley went over got the adults hand and put in on the bubbles! Haha! She was clearly telling the adult she wanted her to do the bubbles! :)
At dinner we had a great coupon for pizza so I ordered the kids a cheese, sausage, bell pepper & spinach pizza to challenge both of them to expand past plain cheese. They BOTH ate it up but Ashley pulled a few sausages off which her daddy did not mind helping eat up!
She did even better tonight when we flossed her teeth which is nice to see a little progress each time!
Sunday
She had a rough first hour at church and Haley thinks it might be because the music was really loud today. Once they went down to Kings Kids A she had a great time!
In the afternoon Haley took Ashley to Play for all Abilities and Haley's 9 year old cousin came too! Apparently Ashley LOVED playing with her and wanted to play chase with her while made lots of great eye contact! I love hearing how Ashley wants to be social now and it is her engaging others!!!
Monday
We went to Variety Peaceable Kingdom Retreat today with other special needs families in Killeen. It was soooo much fun and it went so much better than last year! My mom and niece Chloe came to help and Chloe was a HUGE help! The kids enjoyed the bounce house at the beginning and Ashley was going over to Chloe holding both her hands wanting to jump at same time. At one point Ashley (pictured below) got on her stomach and Chloe joined her. Ashley thought it was so funny and started playing peekaboo with her too! :)
We then got a ride on golf cart to miniature golf but both kids only lasted about 1 hole. Ashley wanted to roll ball around and Noah liked the rocks. Then we went to the Pirate Ship Playground and swings are always popular with our kids.
After we went into the theatre house which had a miniature theatre showing Big Hero 6, pool table, board games, basketball game, air hockey, pac man, etc. We stayed there for a long time and Ashley kept going over to fish tank to watch the huge fish. They even gave Ashley some ice cubes from soda machine!
They had golf carts to help families around the Retreat since it can be a long walk to different activities. The kids loved the golf cart and I think Ashley would have been happy to keep riding.
We did the parachutes for about 5 minutes and Ashley enjoyed pouring the balls in the center while Noah wanted to run underneath.
We took a short break and ate lunch inside with AC because it was starting to hit 90 degrees. After lunch we caught another golf cart to Archery which both kids sat while he explained the rules but kids were not too interested in actual activity. Chloe loved it and was pretty good!
We walked over the low ropes courses to explore and this year Ashley took about 1 step on each course which was better than last year. After that it was almost 2pm and we were ready to head home. It was a very fun and memorable outing!
Tuesday
We went to Urban Air this morning with other special needs families and kids got some great exercise. The hard part was keeping kids out of obstacle course when other kids were going through it. It also started getting really crowded at 10 so we had to leave pretty fast. At lunch she said "juice & chip".
I took Ashley to a play based therapy facility to get evaluated because they have a fun summer camp program. It has lots of fun field trips and social skills are worked on in small groups. The assessment did not go well and they had toys all over the play area to where she could pull out anything. There were also other therapist with their clients in there. It seemed to be overwhelming and very distracting. She had several meltdowns and sadly they do not think she is ready for summer camp. It would have been nice to have consistent schedule for her each day even though far drive. I have to keep remembering that she has made TREMENDOUS progress this last year and in-home might be best to keep doing. We have been praying a lot about this and summer plans for Ashley. We were praying for wide open doors or closed doors so this was a definite sign of closed door. I was definitely emotional afterwards. I am thankful we had God show us clear direction that this is not answer for Ashley but selfishly it was not the answer I wanted. :) We are praying and searching some other possibilities for this summer and what is BEST for Ashley.
Last night Noah and Ashley were so playful with each other playing chase and in the hammock. It was fun to watch! Even though her evaluation was a disaster I just need to remember how MUCH progress she has made in this last year and I believe she will continue to make progress in her own timing!
Wednesday
We had a lazy morning which was nice and again Noah wanted to play with Ashley so I loved hearing their happy laughter! Late morning we went to cookie decorating at Baked By Amy's which lasted about 15 minutes. I was trying to pay and Ashley started to eat her cookie. I couldn't blame her because I had not told her to wait nor was I right next to her. We got another cookie for her to decorate but she was not to interested in really spreading the icing. She did enjoy putting lots of sprinkles and then eating it! She even shared with me and gave me 2 bites! Wow!!!
We went next door to outside playground and kids enjoyed that before we left for Speech. In speech with Brooke, she said "push, duck, watching veggie, swing, yeah, ooo (for no) & watree". She also played the ducks game with Brooke and gave her the correct number of ducks with correct symbol! Brook would ask for 2 purple ducks, 1 red duck, etc and she did 100% on about 10 requests! There was another boy that came into the gym and she shared game and played with him! It was really encouraging to hear! Brooke even captured a picture because Ashley is normally very possessive over that game.
In session with Tracy, she had a great session and was really interactive with Tracy! Ashley loved playing with books, balls, tent, pillows, dancing with fabrics, looking at herself in the mirror and jumping with small poms on trampoline! She also played Candy Land for 4 minutes and then lost interest. However she did listen attentively to 3 stories that Tracy read. During session, Ashley said "bite, want, eat, crat (for cracker), treat, more, tree, yeah (answering a question), mine, this, jum (for jump), no (for nose while pointing to it), why, ttt (for turn), what, ball, two, three, one, fi (for five) and fff (for four)."
I know it is only Wednesday of Spring Break but so far this has been best school holiday break ever for Ashley at home! Holidays are normally really challenging with schedule changes. It has been so sweet to see Noah and Ashley playing together! I tried to capture a little of it this afternoon because I love seeing how she is interacting with him! She even told Noah and me to "run" so she could chase us! God has blessed us with 2 precious children!
Thursday
Ashley wanted to run again with Noah this morning and they had a good time!
Ashley had a great session with Grammy this morning! They played with My Little Pony, made train with crayons, read books and played with new Dora music maker!
In speech with Brooke, she said "push, quack- quack, tridangle (for triangle), dircle (for circle), bug, duck, watch me, bubble, pop, gym, jump". Brooke also sent me a picture of the game and how Ashley liked matching shapes today and had a great session! She enjoyed the bubbles and new game with bugs of different colors!
In session with Tracy, she got to play with confetti eggs and really enjoyed spreading confetti around and jumping on trampoline watching them move! She did great at matching colors, shapes and numbers, allowed Tracy to use her finger to track words while reading 1 story! She said "what's this (when holding egg carton), this, more, eat, my more, treat, one, tritri (for triangle), ooo (for oval), or (for orange), gree (for green), buh (for blue), book, batra (for bathroom & pointed to Potty Pec)"!
In the evening we had early dinner and went to the school playground! After when the kids were in bath tub Noah started singing the song I sing when washing his hair. Ashley smiled and got right in his face watching him sing! She said "mouse" when wanting Mickey mouse figurines and "awesome" when I got her ice chips.
Friday
We attended a special needs event at Catch Air this morning and a friend we have not seen in long time was so sweet with Ashley! She followed her around almost entire time and was trying to engage Ashley!
I also decided to take a risk taking both kids to Mighty Fine Burgers (new place for Ashley) all by myself! I am learning new tricks each time we go out and Ashley's learning patience while we wait on the food to come! She also ate half her cheeseburger which was great seeing her try new food! Yay!!!! We have come to conclusion that some adventures will be successful and others will be disaster but we have to keep trying!
She had a great session with Brooke but I forgot to get a copy of her words. She had a hard time waiting on Brooke to come out to get her today but at least she left happy which normally she hates leaving. At home I did a session with Noah and Ashley and brought in confetti eggs again! the both loved it and how fun it is to make a huge mess! Ashley said "this one, more, buh (for blue egg)."
Saturday
We had a great time at Special Needs Easter Egg Hunt at Play for All Abilities Park this late morning! Glad we signed up for last time slot with this cold weather! Thank you Seton Hospital and Round Rock Recreation for all your hard work! They had to stuff hundreds of eggs and tape them or hide for 4 different rounds.
Sunday
We ended spring break with Ashley painting a turtle and she did a great job! She used ALL the paint for background, drew the 2 circles and even painted inside the lines! I helped her hand over with the face and his smile kept getting larger and larger
No comments:
Post a Comment