October 17, 2020
The weather the last few days has been insanely hot and yesterday a ton of wind. Enough wind that I am always slightly hesitant to take Bradley to the car even because of it. This morning the heat was greatly delayed and the wind had stopped, what a relief. I have been trying to get Bradley outside on our good days in the past few weeks; but for some reason, I am having a hard time encouraging him to go outside. And when I say a hard time, I mean, I am sitting outside or playing with a ball outside and calling to him and Bradley just looks at me like I’ve lost my mind, turns and walks off somewhere deeper into the house. Granted it has been pretty warm and Bradley really can’t handle the heat or make his body adjust to the heat. So I know that he isn’t all that interested in being outside. Plus, his sisters aren’t coming out to play so what’s the point of playing on his play yard or even playing ball when your only playmate is your mom? So, you know there’s that.
Not sure why, but today was the day. For whatever reason, today he decided that the weather was perfect, and the timing was right - so he took his mom outside to play. I don’t do the play yard, but I do have some experience playing volleyball, so while he sat on his favorite stool (let’s not get exercise crazy or anything) he let me help put his hands in the right position and we worked on his passing. I think he has real potential at being a passer once he learns to keeps his arms together, to look at the ball, and maybe to stand up. Really minor adjustments when you think about it. But we did that for a bit, and he got bored and just looked at me. So I got tired of just standing there, and I decided to go sit.
I set myself up to swing in one of the hammocks and called to Bradley to come sit with me. Turns out, he has a better memory than I thought. He remembers that typically, a snuggle with mom or dad in the hammock means a nap for Bradley. Given the time of day, it is probably best he didn’t join me and come take a nap, we both would have wound up sunburn and since I just had a small pre-cancerous spot removed and didn’t have my hat, a nap in the sun is not on my list of things I want to do.
But he did decide to climb into the other hammock. Bradley brought a beach towel to put in his hammock and then climbed in and settled into a slight sway. For the longest time, Bradley has always refused a swing of any kind. Since June, the swing at therapy has been a cornerstone to helping him regulate and then get back on task to complete the work put before him. Which is why when we found a hammock in the garage storage, we bought a frame and put it up. That worked so well, we decided to get a second one. Now when Bradley needs it, he has a sort of similar swing to use to help himself settle.
Today, he almost settled himself into a nap in his own hammock on his own. I’m not sure what really roused him, it might have been the warmth of the morning turning into the warmer early afternoon, but for some reason, he climbed carefully out of his hammock and walked into the house. Of course, he soon after chose to walk to the kitchen and have peaches and a sandwich for an early lunch, so he might have just been hungry.
Either way, I was happy that he was willing to come outside with me to play a little and get some fresh air on one of the rare good days we’ve had in the last few weeks. Heat, smoke, and winds...it’s been rough.
In other good news of the day, he decided to leave his movie behind and enjoyed every meal at the table without it! We worked more on drinking from an open cup and he is showing such wonderful progress with it. We haven’t progressed past a Dixie cup and water, but he doesn’t seem to mind. Today we actually used an open cup with a tongue block in his straw - it helps him to work on lip closure that helps him learn to close his lips on a cup. He isn’t always willing to try, but today was just the kind of good day that had him trying. He was more compliant with diapering and meds, and for once he was willing to work through choices with Madison to get what he wanted rather than throw a fit - showing such wonderful flexibility and patience.
My little boy is growing up. He is practicing all the skills he is trying to master throughout his twelve hours of behavior therapy a week. Luckily, the ups and downs of therapy have settled into a nice balance between a very nice supervisor and a sweet therapist that Bradley loves. And I am grateful. Our last experience with attempted Behavior Therapy was such a negative, it was really hard for me to make the call and get it started again. But I have learned a lot, I am more out spoken than I used to be, and I like to hope I am a little bit wiser and better equipped to negotiate the nonsense that comes with insurance and therapies. Regardless, things are going well right now in therapies, and Bradley is willing to continue to work what he is learning with us - so I think we are having more success for sure.
There are less tears and more smiles, so that’s really all I need.
Have a great Saturday night. Supposed to be another beautiful day tomorrow...so who knows, maybe more play time outside in the morning. :-). We’ll see.
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