where we've been

Unintentional blogging breaks are both good and bad. Good, because it means I'm out doing (hopefully) fun things... spending time with my family and friends, booking more work, therapy, trips to the beach, and just getting outside.

Worst slide ever...

Love  family (and boyfriends) that are totally cool to play with Noah the way he loves to play. :)

 Blog breaks are also kind of bad though, because I miss what's going on with my bloggy buds.

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Noah's therapies at the school have begun again. I'm still not thrilled with his OT. She's a nice girl, but she's kind of clueless.
Like last week? She had this sudden epiphany that "he seems to really like pressure on his back".

<insert me trying to control my "are you kidding me" expression>

Um... yeah. We had that figured out about a year ago. And she got her start in physical therapy. She should know this stuff. But whatever. She's free.
He has a new school speech therapist this year, and she seems really nice. According to his private SLP (who is AMAZING), she's fresh from the farm (aka. school), which explains why she seemed really excited to get to work with Noah. She's not even certified yet. She sweet thing isn't jaded yet from our crappy school system. haha.

To get an idea of how bad our schools are... Angie, our private SLP, is the best speech therapist we've ever encountered (*ahem* IRL, bc we love our online SLP bud Gina). She's amazing and in the two months she's had Noah, he's saying more than he ever has. Not when she's present of course, because they have a major love/hate relationship. But at home? The boy is talking so so much (mostly scripting, meaning he's repeating clips to shows). She remembers kids from previous years at school, to the point where if one happens to walk into the therapy clinic, she runs to give them a hug.
She's the reason Noah's sleep has improved. Like insanely better. Like he's asleep before midnight and up before 9am. <insert angels singing hallelujah chorus>

Because she's awesome, you would think the schools would be so thankful to have her. But not our schools. She's already warned me not to mention her name to them. That it may have the opposite result of what I would want. lol. The reason? She advocates for the kids. She fights to get them GOOD services, more therapy time, and more therapists. I love her, and the fact that even she has to fight for these kids only solidifies my decision for Noah's school (again, more on that later).

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Noah now knows his ABC's. He's obsessed with letters now, so I got him some of those awful refrigerator magnets that will probably be crammed underneath the fridge before too long. But since putting them up, he's made me sing the alphabet song 5348503945 times. If I stop mid-song, he'll say whatever letter I've landed on, which is how I test what he's retaining. It's pretty awesome. And his "Du-ooo" ("W") is adorable. I stop on that one almost every time, just to hear him say it. haha

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Now to go catch up on my blogs!
Happy Monday!

A mini Noah update

Every day, Noah turns more and more into a typical toddler. Now that he's on a routine and better sleep schedule, he's no longer constantly sleep deprived. Which means he wakes up and wants to do stuff. Like be pulled in a wagon in 90+ degree heat.

Or play in the car...

Or eat paper...



Or explore in the garage...

 

Or bake cookies...

 

 

And then throw the cookies...

 

 

 

Seriously, by the end of the day, I'm exhausted. It's a good kind of exhausted though.

He's also making his preferences known more. Last night, he absolutely did not want to wear his Thomas pj pants. However, he was cool with wearing comfy shorts. I guess the pants were making him too hot at night?

And oh the tantrums.
For the first time in his entire almost-4-years of existence, he shoved someone when he got mad. He was cranky (he actually was sleep deprived yesterday), and his speech therapist was making him work for his goldfish crackers. He knew they were in her lap, so he reached for them instead of doing what she asked first. Of course, she didn't give him one, and he pushed her a little. My sweet, tender-hearted little boy who makes people laugh because his tantrums are so mild... shoved someone. Speech therapists will do that to ya though. haha. I swear she makes that little brain of his do more work than he ever has before. It's uncomfortable for him.

But oh my goodness, she has done more for him in the last month than the public school therapist was able to do for him the entire year. It makes me want to cry and hug her neck. And also be angry at our local school system for being so crappy... to the teachers, therapists, and kids. Seriously, our area's schools are awful. But I won't get into that here. We'll just leave it at, "My kid will not be attending them." ;)

We've been working on waiting recently. Noah, being autistic and an only child, absolutely loathes the word "wait". He's getting much better though. He'll get annoyed at first, then look intently in our eyes and repeat, "wait!"

Or if we tell him to clean up, he'll respond with "wait!" haha.

I can't believe he's turning 4 next week. It's just too soon. It's gone too fast. We've got a lot of celebrating to do this weekend, starting tonight with "uncle" Chase coming back into town. And hopefully some 4 yr birthday pictures squeezed in there too.

Have a great weekend!

a light at the end of this very long dark tunnel we've been in...

If you've been following me for any length of time, you know sleep has always been a huge struggle for us (mostly Noah). It began when he was about 2, and it's been a battle ever since. He wants to be nocturnal, and any time I attempt to change up his sleep schedule? It totally backfires. I've been at the end of my rope. Just so desperate to have a normal routine and function with the rest of the world.

Brad is very spontaneous. His whole family is. His nieces and nephews would be up all hours of the night and still go to school the next day. So a schedule is kind of a foreign concept for him. He just rolls with whatever.
I, on the other hand, thrive on routine. I like knowing what to expect. I stay on top of things when I'm on a routine... the house is cleaner, dinners are made on time, and stuff just gets done.

This huge difference in our personalities has been the source for lots of compromising. I've learned to chill out and enjoy veering from a schedule. He's had to learn that if you say you're going to be somewhere, you've made that commitment. You have to be there.

So Noah? Yeah, he's our little curveball. Kids with autism like routine, yet his day has zero routine.

At Noah's yearly evaluation with the owner of the therapy company he goes to, she asked me what I'd like to see improve with him. Sleep was my first answer.
I've told my mom so many times, that if someone could just tell me WHAT to do, I'd do it. But at this point, I felt very helpless. I was totally out of ideas... weighted blankets, shut his door at night, use a noise machine (he's had one since birth), give him melatonin, let him take a nap, don't let him take a nap... basically, I'd done it all and felt like there was no hope. This was our life from now on.

Until this week.

I sat down with his speech therapist and OT on Tuesday. They brought up the issue of sleep. They felt it was definitely time to tackle it. We can't live our lives separate from the rest of the world forever, and they've seen what happens when you don't deal with it early on. They gave me a plan, a schedule to follow, and some ideas on what to do when he throws it all off.

Since Tuesday, we've been up by 10am every day (which, don't laugh, is early for us). Last night, he was out at 10pm (usually, this means he'll just use it as a nap and wake up at midnight) and slept all the way to 8:15am this morning.

Y'all have no idea how excited I am about this. It means that school (one day) may be a possibility for him. It means that we can go back to church, he can go on morning play dates, have breakfast in the morning instead of at noon, and that there's an actual flow to our day.

Since he's gone to bed early this week, I now get some down time at night too. Brad and I already watched two movies this week. Is this how most other people live? Because I'm a fan. :)