Halloween Day Two

 October 28, 2020

Another Halloween Dress Up day for Bradley at Therapy!

Today he was a Greaser from the 50’s...a return to a simpler time and a shoutout to my love of the movie “American Graffiti” and my belief that that was a simpler time.  It wasn’t, we were in between wars, kids were still grappling with the same problems but just on a different platform.  The idea of sacrifice was still fresh and the taste of freedom still very sweet...so simpler I guess in the idea of clearer understanding of where we had been, where we feared we were going, and the sheer relief that we made it through and were living better lives because of it.  When I say “we” I of course mean Americans back then...I was not born at that time thank you very much.  HAHA...  

So for his second Halloween costume this year, Bradley wore a white t-shirt, blue jeans with big cuffs, a varsity jacket, and I spiked his hair.  First problem, Bradley doesn’t like anyone to touch his head and he is not partial to plain white t-shirts...but today, he was good with the shirt and freaked out about the pants.  Hmmm...  didn’t even mind me messing with his head too much either....so weird.  Anyway, two weeks ago Dad tried to cut Bradley’s hair, and after I asked him to leave the top longer for my planned Halloween costume, he tried too...but Bradley is not a fan of haircuts and moved quite a bit.  So his hair is really short, and though we had adorable baby spikes, not sure you can really see them in pictures.  Furthermore, he watched the movie in the car on the way to therapy, so there is a decided line that marks headphone marks across his head.  Perhaps this was actually beneficial, helps to see the spiked hair I think.  He surprised us by wearing his tennis shoes ll the way over there and through the whole time at Therapy, though there might have been some sock time during OT...but he came out in shoes...  they lasted five minutes in the car on the way home...but for purposes of a successful Halloween jaunt...we were good.  HAHA..   

So without further ado, here is the finished product for the Wednesday portion of Halloween!  

So super cute right?!  HAHA..  

During OT this week they worked on some crafts and I was pleased to hear that some of this school goals were still in good working order and even surprised when he was willing to do a few other things as well.  

Bradley as a Ghost.  He had to use tweezers to pick up the cotton balls and then put them on his ghost.  He has been practicing this skill with different variations of size and difficulty the last few years.  Turns out I don’t have small tongs or easy tweezers and in a way did not work to maintain this skill he had mastered at school.  I am very happy he still has mastery of this skill and that given a two examples, he could proceed through he project all by himself.  That I ended up with the cutest ghost ever, well that is a perk for mom.  

This is the one that impresses me the most.  From even when Bradley was super tiny and his OT would come to the house, he has never, ever enjoyed stringing beads.  His hatred would reach an epic level of complete meltdown and refusal to return to work, so we just chose to turn our attentions and efforts to other skills entirely.  I was surprised and optimistic when OT was having some success with stringing beads in the last couple of weeks.  When he came home with a spider I was shocked, and so happy.  By taking away all the pressure to strong beads, he has decided it is okay to string beads.  Or perhaps his success at improving the dexterity needed to use tongs and tweezers has now created an opportunity for Bead stringing to be a successful activity and one that is not nearly as frustrating as it once was.  Luckily, I am pretty certain that the girls never brought home this kind of crafty spider, so I am relieved that I can say I LOVE this little crafty spider the most!  💛💙

So in the grand scheme of things, Bradley had a really good day and has been working so hard in his therapies, I couldn’t be prouder of him.  Even with the Potty training debacles that befall us, everything else is improving so I just have to push those failures to the side and know that someday, one day, maybe... he will fin success there too.  For now, we remain thrilled to have him.  And being a part of the learning curve is actually pretty rewarding.  I don’t know how or why, but even at home we are getting leaps and bounds.  On Tuesday, he chose to color and we got this lovely masterpiece shown below.  This from a kid that usually fights hard about coloring; not only did Bradley ask to color, but he was determined to be thorough and cover the entire page, even making attempts to stay within the lines of the page...except that one area where he realized that crayons will leave marks on the table too...  haha...  Hey, I always knew that some marks were not meant to be replaced and after seventeen years, this old an beautiful table shows the grace of three kids learning as they grew.  🥰

It’s on our refrigerator, because now, Bradley understands how important that is, and how proud of it he becomes.  He’ll have to work pretty hard to create the next masterpiece to replace this for sure...this is fantastic!  ❤️