Sunday, July 26, 2009

No explanation needed!

If you're happy and you know it...

CLAP YOUR HANDS!

Owen NEVER clapped his hands. He just skipped this as an infant. Well, he does it now. They have been working on this at school and yesterday I was playing with him and said "Clap your hands!" expecting to have to initiate it and he did it all on his own.

So great, and the best part is that I started yelling "Good boy!" and clapped myself and he got this smirk on his face like he knew
what he did was special.

I'm going to try and get it on video but I'm assuming that he won't do it as par for the course :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

No, Whoa, and the big O

Owen has been very chatty over the last week or so!

Mostly babble, but we have had some word activity..

1st up: NO!

The scene: Owen wanted to have more juice and Daddy said "No, you need to have water". Owen then got mad, started to stomp his feet and say "No, No, No". Good times!

2nd: Whoa!

Scene: playing around, slipped and yelled "whoa!" Appropriately, and very cute!

and the big one... HIS NAME!

Rich and Owen were in the supermarket and Rich was singing his name to him "Owen, Owen.." and Owen very softly said " Oh- in" "Oh-in".

It was great, or so I hear.. as once again: I MISSED IT! Aaaaahhhh!

That's what I get for working a 40 hour work week this week!

More to come, later!

Thursday, July 16, 2009

The River is drying up!

Owen still drools.. quite a bit at times. He tends to "pool" his saliva in his mouth instead of swallowing and then it just falls out because he does have low tone.

Well, what a difference school makes.. Over the last 2 weeks or so, it's been next to nothing! Vuola his ST said she's been really working on his mouth and doing exercises and thought we should see a difference soon, but it's started. Wow! He actually wore a shirt ALL day the other day.. No mid afternoon change!

Talking, Dry Shirts, and a cute little boy, Oh My!

Monday, July 13, 2009

Did you hear that?

I picked Owen up from school today and I saw Miss Beth. Today, she and Owen's Speech Therapist, Vuola heard him say "Hi". Someone came in to the classroom and said "Hi" to the students and she said she heard a tiny little voice next to her say "Hi" right back.

Yup, it was Owen.

She said that if she wasn't right next to him she wouldn't have heard it, and Vuola was next to him on the other side and heard it as well. Go Owen!

In other notes, we got his Progress Report today and they are working on:

Simple One Step Directions:
Current Targets are: Stand up, Sit down and give me

Gross Motor Imitation direction: "do this"
Current Targets are: Arms Up, clap hands, tap knees "think head, shoulders, knees and toes"

Receptive Object Identification: "touch ________"

Gestural Communication "What do you want" with a point to desired item

Coloring: Just to do it!

PECS: This is a picture identification system in which they use photos and prompting to get Owen to 'express". Right now, he's been doing "ok" with 2 photos, but they are trying to get him to 1 photo for a few basic items. When I have more info, I'll post it...

And as usual, he tried to run back into school because he wasn't ready to leave! Too cute!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The Juice Cup Runneth Over...

Yesterday I picked Owen up from school and saw Miss Beth. I asked her how the culprit did today and I got more details on Owen's juice spree..

Well, Miss Beth gave Owen his own juice when she saw he didn't have any. She keeps a stash in the class in case kids need more, spill, etc. So, Owen had 2 cups with a straw. This apparently didn't cut it.

It was AFTER his 2 cups during his 10 minute snack break that he was trying the old "Wink and a Smile" routine and stealing juice!

The kid is like a camel! Where's his hump?

In other news, apparently Owen is doing great during circle time. He sits now and just laughs! He's not really "participating" in circle, but she's happy he's so being so attentive. She said that he watches her the entire time, which is great.

Also, every Wednesday during Summer session some High School volunteers are coming in and teaching the kids ball skills! They have a T-Ball stand and have everyone hitting the ball and attempting to catch and Owen did great and had a blast!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Wanted: Juice Thief

I got an e-mail today from Miss Beth, Owen's teacher. Daddy forgot to put a juice box in Owen's snack bag today and Owen was waiting until other kids turned their heads and was trying to steal their juice. She said it was really, really funny!

Regardless, I felt bad that the poor kid was thirsty. As everyone knows, Owen loves his drink!

On another note, leaving school today on the way to the sitter, Owen waved "Bye Bye" when prompted and I think blew a kiss! I'm not sure, but it looked like it.. He also attempted to knock on the sitter's door! He gave it a few slaps while I was knocking! So Cool!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Get it IN!

Owen loves yogurt. He will eat it all day, every day if you let him. When you open the fridge he will run and take out a cup of it and try to open it. Today was no exception..

The exception was that tonight we were having drinkable yogurt. But, the container had Owen's girlfriend Dora on the box and the containers..




So, the foil top wasn't coming off as fast as the boy with no patience wanted so he holding his straw yelled "IN" and attempted to put his straw in the container. WOW! Rich and I both shocked tried to get him to say it again and, he was too busy drinking by this point.

So about 3.5 seconds later, after Owen sucked it down, he immediately went into the kitchen to put his empty container on the kitchen counter which he does with all his cups when he wants a refill. Again, really great..

What has even better was that when Rich told him the yogurt was all done, he could have something else, he yelled and gestured at the counter, basically saying "Uh, excuse me? I know what I want!"

So, a cranky fit later, he's now eating Blueberries saying "Num Num" like Cookie Monster on Sesame Street.

Too Cute!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Paging Mommy and Daddy...

Tonight when Owen was getting ready for bed, Rich was cutting his toenails (Mommy's not allowed to do it) and he did NOT want his toenails cut at all. He called Mama and Daddy! Just once each time, very softly, and...

I MISSED IT!

He said it, it's what matters but still...

I MISSED IT!

Play Doh, The Snack of Champions

I picked Owen up from school today, and I saw his favorite aide, Notch which is a nickname of a something I can't pronounce.. Anyway, she told me that he was very mindful today of directions and played with Play Doh! Of course, excited but knowing Owen, I asked "Did he eat it?" and the answer was "Oh Yeah!"..

But, after a few redirections by her, he was successful and had a ball! Yay.. I've tried many times to get him to play with it, but he has had no interest..

Monday, July 6, 2009

Time to go home!

Those were the words of the day. Apparently Owen didn't really want to listen much today when it came to getting up and moving around the classroom, but when Miss Beth said "Time to go home, go get your backpack!" He ran to his cubby! He's so funny..

Miss Beth said that his Speech Therapist has been doing a lot of work in his mouth and really getting him to move his tongue and he's not complaining or crying about it.

Go Owen!