Mands: 15

Ok, so the rain we were supposed to get today already blew over. That was before we went to Target to stock up on rainy day supplies. Yes folks, these supplies included countless boxes of Tony’s favorite: crayola crayons. Of course we also got many more art supplies and also some new “Blue’s Clues,” “The Wiggles,” and a lovely singer we have become familiar with through post-show music videos on the Noggin network. When we went into Target the sky was one big grey cloud, when we emerged the sky was bright blue and only dotted with light, fluffy white clouds.

After our car ride, which included a stop at Chick-Fil-A, Tony only had time to eat one fry before he was ready for a walk. We walked down the sidewalk and he pulled me in the direction he wanted to go. Soon we were making a bee-line for the pool. I told him we could go, but first we needed to ask Mommy and put on our bathing suits. He was satisfied and it seemed like this was what he wanted until we began to walk by the courtyard. Then Tony wanted to play his new friend: dirt! I let go of his little hand and he was off! He ran all the way to the hammock where he knew there would be an ample supply and plopped himself down. He entertained himself with the shovels present on site and som crayons we’d brought on our little trip. All he wanted me to do was sit down across from him; I was not to be a participant in his shoveling and dirt games.

We went back home and watched the new Blue’s Clues DVD, then we went back outside and colored on some new construction paper with some new crayons. Tony also colored on the sidewalk with the crayons, but each time I slipped the paper under the crayon and said “We color with crayons on PAPER!” I got the hint it was time for bed when Tony said “crayons, night-night, Daddy Daddy.”

Tony continues to make progress with his use of subject+verb+object productions “I want ____”. I would like to expand this to him using “I see ____” when looking at books. Tony’s use of “yes” and “no” has been really great too. Although, today he seemed to get confused a few times, especially with saying “yes” when “no” was appropriate. I think he definitely knows “no” when something completely aversive is presented, which is a good start! Tony is using two-word combinations, especially colors/numbers + objects. As always, I’m proud of the little man!

Mands: 17

The unpleasant weather no doubt played a role in the severe 180 Tony’s attitude just took. He went from mild mannered, happy Tony to screaming bloody murder with no obvious motivators. Whitney and I were stumped. Whitney tried to find out what the boy wanted but his responses included yelling, screaming, and throwing things. This fit ended in a trip to the bedroom for Tony.

Prior to the major mood swing, Whitney, Tony, and I had a lovely walk outside. I ended up having to pick him up to get him away from the shovels and dirt and headed home. It was raining, but that wasn’t a good enough reason for him to abort mission.

When we arrived home we played in his room and did some ABA. Tony did really well with Phase II tacts and we also tried intraverbals. Some he got, some he needed prompts for (again.) Then it was a mad rush to clean his room and the living room before Jill arrived with a guest. Tony, Jill, and Melissa seemed to have a fabulous time and we heard joyous hoorays and other exuberant noises coming from Tony’s room.

After Jill we were playing again and also trying motor imitation. This was when the stuff ‘hit the fan,’ so to speak. Night -Night, enjoy the good sleeping weather!

Mands: 14

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!,” Tony echoed after he handed Marlaina an iridescent pink “Birthday Princess” crown. That’s right everyone, it’s Marlaina’s birthday today, June 12th! Happy Birthday! Woo-hoo! and a Yippeeeeeeeee, Vunderbar, Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious (sp?) birthday week also to Morgan (whose birthday was Friday!

Today was a fun day for Tony. We went on two car rides: the first to the bank and to get coffee, and then to Lowe’s and shopping for Father’s Day. An early Happy Father’s Day grill for Anton was accompanied by another early present delivered today; a hardbound book dedicated to Anton, written and illustrated by his son Dominic! Pretty cool.

Today the laxative (sp?) properties of Jill showed their muscles when Tony was delivered to the living room spouting such niecities as “Eee – Uuuoooo,!” and “Stinky-Winky!” Right Away, I knew what must be done: it was a full, smelly, GREEN!!!! dirty diaper but we slayed the dragon with numerous wipes and a fresh, clean replacement diaper!

On a more serious note, Tony and I had a lovely walk during whitch his hands and face became thouroughly soiled with, well, soil! Tony rediscovered the joy of sticks after about a month-and-a-half hiatus. This time sticks are back with a vengeance and are unbeatable when paired with a newfound disregard for the fear that was: DIRT: YIKES GET IT OFF ME!!!!! Now his wardrobe will suffer as he gets dirt and even leaves on his skin and or Turtle and just moves on! This transformation is wonderous for him, bad for his laundry.

Today we tried some motor imitation unsuccessfully but trudged through intraverbals: phase II. I could only get most responses out with a visual or echoic prompt. I suspect not only distractions but also the first day back on a new phase as culprits.

Today we went to the beach on Sullivan’s Island. It wasn’t Tony’s first time on a beach but it was definitely his first full throttle beach extravaganza. At first he was hesitant, but his apprehension soon melted away when we demonstrated the fact that all of the pleasures of puddle jumping and more could easily be his. All he had to do was give in, give in to the feeling! WOO-HOO, WE’RE AT THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once we splashed around a little and assured him that it was okay his shorts were wet he remained in a constant state of wonder, amazement, and happiness.

Whitney, Tony and I splashed around in the small tidal pools and then waded through the calm creek-like expanse of ocean until we got to the sand bar. Halfway across the sandbar Whitney picked Tony up. He wasn’t complaining, but our feet were certainly feeling the heat and we didn’t want our little Tony to get hurt. Soon we arrived . . .here it was, the mighty ocean. Whitney held his hand while I jumped in the surf, sat down, lied down, anything to help him shed any possibly remaining dou bt. He thought twice about the incoming swells, but once he felt them and he knew Whitney wasn’t going anywhere he was thrilled. Each wave elicited a squeal of joy. This sublime happiness overcame any unpleasant sensations caused by salt water attacking his eyes and nostrils. He even stuck his tongue out and dipped it in the ocean to taste the saltiness.

Tony had so much fun that it was a fight to pull him away from his newfound friends (beach and ocean.) He was literally kicking and screaming while Whitney and Marlaina tried to strap him safely into his car seat.

Today we went to the beach on Sullivan’s Island. It wasn’t Tony’s first time on a beach but it was definitely his first full throttle beach extravaganza. At first he was hesitant, but his apprehension soon melted away when we demonstrated the fact that all of the pleasures of puddle jumping and more could easily be his. All he had to do was give in, give in to the feeling! WOO-HOO, WE’RE AT THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Once we splashed around a little and assured him that it was okay his shorts were wet he remained in a constant state of wonder, amazement, and happiness.

Whitney, Tony and I splashed around in the small tidal pools and then waded through the calm creek-like expanse of ocean until we got to the sand bar. Halfway across the sandbar Whitney picked Tony up. He wasn’t complaining, but our feet were certainly feeling the heat and we didn’t want our little Tony to get hurt. Soon we arrived . . .here it was, the mighty ocean. Whitney held his hand while I jumped in the surf, sat down, lied down, anything to help him shed any possibly remaining dou bt. He thought twice about the incoming swells, but once he felt them and he knew Whitney wasn’t going anywhere he was thrilled. Each wave elicited a squeal of joy. This sublime happiness overcame any unpleasant sensations caused by salt water attacking his eyes and nostrils. He even stuck his tongue out and dipped it in the ocean to taste the saltiness.

Tony had so much fun that it was a fight to pull him away from his newfound friends (beach and ocean.) He was literally kicking and screaming while Whitney and Marlaina tried to strap him safely into his car seat.

Mands: 15

Alright, fun day with the little Tony. It’s a good thing he hasn’t been in the mood for “The Wiggles” this week because they are now showing at 7:00 am. Hopefully this change in programming will not throw things off too severely, maybe we can tape that crazy singing and dancing foursome. This morning Tony watched “Sesame Street” and then Marlaina volunteered to take him for a car ride. This was an offer he couldn’t refuse. We went to the bank, Wholly Cow, and CVS. At CVS there was a mix up because there is an Anton imposter with the same name and a birthdate only a decade off from his also living in Mt. P-funk! How wierd.

When we got back Tony and I played in the room for awhile. He climbed into his house and said “on”so I put the roof up ‘on’ top of the house. Then I opened the doors and said “hi.” He said “hi” back and waved, then he said “dye-dye” and pulled the doors shut. Then he wanted to get out and he said “up, up, ahnt up.” WAY TO COMMUNICATE!!!! I picked him up and said “Tony’s OUT of the house.”

We did some coloring on the house and in the coloring book. Then Tony wanted to go for a walk. He manded for “walk,” then “over,” but before he could say his usual ‘open door,’ something caught his eye. “Chalk! Chalk!,” he shrieked. So we brought the chalk outside and drew on the sidewalk. We were having fun drawing shapes and just scribbling. Tony was tacting colors left and right. He said “cup” and I drew a cup, then he said “clock” and made tick tock noises so I drew him a big clock with all the numbers. Just then someone arrived. I said “Tony, someone’s here . . .” He jumped right in and said “JILL, JILL, IT’S JILL!!!! and sarted running for the sidewalk. I had to go go gadget jump and run to catch him. Once we were holding hands we briskly walked over to Jill. The whole time Tony was displaying his extreme excitement and greeting his Jill.

When Jill was finished with Tony and she brought him into the living room, Tony showed his new mailbox toy to her. There is an inkpad in the mailbox and Tony took the lid off of it and turned it upside down. He became angry when Jill and I flipped the inkpad over so as not to stain the red fabric of the coffee table. Tony was very vocal about his disapproval and it was stressing Anton out immensely. I decided to take Tony and the mailbox into his room and Tony liked this idea. We played for a little while and did some motor imitation and receptives which Tony did a good job with. When I tried to do intraverbals he once again phased me out, even with the microphone. Instead of trying to complete my statements he would say a word related to what he wanted to pay attention to. I could usually get responses from him echoically.

We started coloring the house and tony was in search of a particular red crayon. each red crayon I came up with was unsatisfying, so I decided it was time for a walk. There were a few obstacles on our walk. First there were some barking dogs, one of them off the leash, which Tony wanted to play with. I decided to pick him up. I let him look but not touch. When the owner got the dogs out of the courtyard we saw Tony’s friend Chara. We played ball with her and I had to explain to her why ‘monkey in the middle’ might hurt feelings and be frustrating for the monkey. Wisely she decided that Tony could get the ball just as often as everyone else. The next obstacle was a boy with a bebe gun, need I say more?

I quickly asked Tony if he wanted turtle and cup, I knew this would be a surefire way out of this sticky situation. Of course he did want turtle and cup and we were quickly gone home again home again jiggity jog.

Today was a very chill day with Tony. I went over a lot of maintenance activities and I’m confident that most or all of them are completely mastered. I also noticed that Tony’s clean-up song is very clear. He can sing almost the entire song along with me while we’re cleaning up.

We took three walks today and one of them we took his plastic golf club and ball to play with in the grassy area. Tony really enjoyed this and would mand “want ball” before each hit. Another thing that happened on our walk was that he made a request to return home. We were headed off to look at the pool again and he looked up at me and said “house.” At first, I thought it was only a tact. We were surrounded by many houses after all. I asked him if he wanted to go back home and he echoed, “home” while dragging me toward the house.

We spent much of the afternoon playing with the tunnel and the train set. We also spent a lot of time with his new mailbox toy. It has a set of crayons, stickers, cards and a stamp set with a paw print. I taught him how to use the stamps and the ink. After he got the hang of it, Tony was stamping everything with paw prints shrieking, “A clue!!!!’ I cracked up nearly every time.

I think that wraps it up for most of the day. I am glad to see that all the maintenance activities are pretty much mastered. He’s so smart!!!!

Mands: 15

A pretty good day for Tony. When I walked in he was toting four markers around with him everywhere. Only one of them was in working order and the others were out of ink. He still tried each one on each new surface as if another would just decide to start working again. Tony colored and jumped around. Then we watched “Charlie and Lola” Anton loves the jauntiness of the theme song. We went in his room and painted. I looked at my watch and noticed it was almost time for “The Wiggles” I showed Tony my watch and let him know what I’d thought of. Of course he probably knew It was time because his biological clock told him when it was time for the Wiggles the other day. He decided we should “open door” and so we did.

We watched the Wiggles and soon Whitney arrived. Tony greeted her with much enthusiasm. Whitney filled us in with details of her wild night and also joined the Wiggles for some song and dance. Tony was really into the show but not really into his breakfast. He sure had lots of energy for someone who ate so little.

After the Wiggles said goodbye the next show was totally uncool. We never watch that show. Tony said “dye-dye,” so I turned the TV off and we all headed for the room. The first thing Tony went for was the cardboard boxes he, Marlaina, and Morgan had made. Tony wanted to get in, get out, get in, get out etc. He kept saying “over” instead of in or out, so I would pick him up and lift him over the house. He really likes to put one box on top of the other while he is sitting inside so he has a roof. It was tough to keep one box perched atop another so I borrowed some tape and scissors from Marlaina and hinged them together.

We went on a couple of walks today: one was very long and we walked over to the pool to see if it was ready to swim in. No such luck. On the second walk we had a nice swing in the hammock and then retreated to the shady side of the builsings. Here Tony checked out the squares to make sure there were still eight. He gleefully walk-jumped over them at least five times calling out numbers as he stomped each square. Then he was off to the thinking bench. Whitney and I enjoyed the shade and the slight breeze while Tony discovered a new percussion instrument: a dowel and part of a two by four make nice stand ins for stick and drum!

We indulged in two rather long sessions of sidewalk chalk art, and it is even more fun now since we know Tony’s new chalk is absolutely safe for his use. After our last session Marlaina gave Tony a surprise which he was thrilled with: a “Blues Clues” mailbox complete with crayons, stamps, letters, and stickers! Lucky him. It was getting late though, and sleepiness was kicking in. We knew it was time for night-night.

Today was a rather quick day for Tony. He went down for a nap after his speech session at 1:00. Parker worked with Tony for most of the morning on receptives, intraverbals and motor imitation. Tony is really coming along with the feature/function/class receptive activities.

Tony had lots of requests for various activities during play such as “I want paints” and “I want puzzle.” We’ve been directing Tony to clean-up what we’ve been playing with first, and then moving on to the next chosen activity. He’s pretty solid with “all done ___” and “I want ___.” We’ve had to do minimal prompting for this lately.

I have been using the vibrating ball with Tony to teach targeted body parts like “leg” “back” and “arm.” The ball is very reinforcing for him. I usually prompt him to mand for a specific body part he would like to have vibrated. Today he repeated “ack” for back. I used some of Jill’s advise and prompted, “Can you say B-b-b?” Tony finally gave me a pretty clear “back” and then collapsed into giggles on the floor. Learning really can be fun!

This ends our session for today. Tony was ready for “night, night” right after she left. See you tomorrow Tony!