When I came in today, Tony was taking a nap. He had a long morning with his speech therapist and he was wiped out. I started to reorganize his playroom. After about 2 hours, Tony finally woke up. He came downstairs and greeted me with a “hello jenny” and a “how are you?” He asked for Blue’s Clues. He knew it was already in the DVD player somehow even thought the TV was off. When I was about to turn on the TV, he backed away. I guess he has gotten accustomed to the loud noise that the TV makes switching from TV to DVD. He got all excited when it came on finally, saying “press play” and “pweeease”.

Later on, he asked for “The Corpse Bride” and stayed in the living room to draw on his long sheet of paper. He went back into the playroom after doing this for a short period, and got into the mystery bag. He took out a new toy with dinosaurs. As he was playing with them, he started to name the colors and would give a “rawr”. After a while of this, he placed them on the mat that he got with it and would match the colors of the dinosaurs to the specific areas of the mat.

I started to clean up while he was busy with his toys, and he decided to join in with the sweeping. He took the broom from me. While he was doing this, I took the opportunity to ask him “A broom is for us to?” To which he answered to “sweep.” He helped me with the cleaning. When I was fixing to leave, Tony gave me a “bye Jenny” and continued to draw with his markers.

Today was a busy day. When we arrived, Tony was busy as always with his many toys and watching the Wiggles. We were there for about 15 minutes and then we headed over to the park. He was excited but as soon as we got there and tried to get him out of his car seat, he spilled the entire cup of water on himself. He is currently teething, so the Wiggles cup has become a problem with spills. We had to take him back home to change his clothes, so he wouldn’t catch a cold.

When we finally got back to the park, he pretty much bolted toward the slide. He had to bring his markers and turtle along with him, so climbing up the stairs turned out to be pretty problematic. When we got up there, we noticed there was a puddle of water at the bottom of the slide so Danielle had to clean it up while I held Tony at the top. He kept saying “1-2-3 Go!” but I kept saying “yucky” repeatedly which seemed to change his mind about going down. When Danielle finally got it wiped up, it was the usual routine of one of us accompanying Tony up the stairs and down the slide, while the other waited at the bottom of the slide to take him back up. This went on for a little while, until we finally convinced him to get on the kiddy swings. He liked riding the swings with his Turtle, but he didn’t seem to be able to make up his mind about “shoes off” or “shoes on”. It was a couple of minutes of him yelling shoes off and then the next minute yelling shoes on. After that, it was a few more times down the slide and then we were off to get some lunch.

We headed to Chick Fil A. He started asking for Marlaina, and eventually it generated to a repetition of “mommy, daddy” over and over again. When we finally got home, we tried to redirect him but it was turning out to be hopeless. We decided to take him to feed the ducks. This distracted him for a little while. I don’t know any other way to put this but he LOVES feeding the ducks. He’s all up in their faces and taking hand fulls of seeds and tossing it them. He finished off the bucket and so we decided to walk around a little bit. He seems to enjoy seeing the water. After about 5 minutes of walking, we headed back for the house. On the way there, he decided to put one of his fingers in his mouth. The problem was that the seeds had red peppers in them, so his tongue started burning and he started to freak out. He tried to wipe it off, but it only made it worse. I had to hold his hands down, and we had to hurry to the bathroom to wash them. He was spitting the entire time. We tried to get him to drink some water at first and failed. Eventually after seeing “Froggie” do drink out of the cup, he gave in and started drinking some water.

Not long after we arrived home from feeding the ducks, Mom, Dad and Morgan arrived home. Tony was very excited to see them. We then attempted to do some ABA with Tony but could not compete with the shows once again. We have decided that now we will try to do ABA out of the house, preferably at the park or while out on a walk.

Marlaina and Anton would like to get Tony socializing with some kids his age so off we went to Children’s Village. For some reason they were closed. They were supposed to be open but no one was there. Tony was looking through the windows all amazed and we could tell he was sad that we couldn’t go inside. So we decided to walk through the shopping center so Tony could look through the windows. On our walk, Tony spotted the mattress store…he immediately said “bed”. So we went in to look at the beds. He wanted to sit on them, so Jennifer pretended to be interested in a Tempurpedic while Tony and I tried out the beds. He was getting so comfortable that he wanted to bring his crayons and markers up on the bed with him.

Next it was on to the Children’s Gym. As soon as we walked in Tony immediately said “balloons”, “cake”, and “birthday party”. Apparently, they were closed off to the public due to the birthday party. Tony looked upset once again and did not want to leave. So we headed back home with intentions of Marlaina and Morgan joining us to go to the Aquarium. When we arrived at the Aquarium, we could not go in there either! Even though they were still open, they stop letting people in 2 hours before they close. So then it was on to Chucky Cheese.

It was a Saturday so Chucky Cheese was completely packed. The environment seemed to be a little too overstimulating for Tony. It just overall wasn’t a good experience, even though Tony enjoyed himself. We will spare you guys the details…but I don’t think we will be going to Chucky Cheese anymore.

Once we arrived back home, Jennifer cleaned up while Danielle ran to the grocery store. Then Tony was off to bed, completely exhausted from his very busy day!

When I came in today, Tony did his usual routine of running to the gate to see who was coming in. He was excited because I had Chick Fil A fries for him. He calls them “Fwies.” He was busy watching his Turtle Show again and playing with his markers. Not too long after I walked inside, he got a hold of the DVD holder and start looking for another movie that he wanted to watch. This time it was Tim Burton’s “Corpse Bride.” He seemed to like it, considering the fact that he kept asking me to “pwess play” everytime it had finish playing.

After a while of watching Corpse Bride, we went outside to feed the ducks by the pond. He was very excited by this. He was taking seeds by the handfull and pretty much pegging the ducks with it. Tony was getting all up in their faces, something that really scared me but didn’t seem to affect him in the least. He was laughing the entire time. A neighbor with greyhounds came by. Tony didn’t seem to mind them even though they basically towered over him. After we finished off the bucket of bird seeds, we headed home.

When we got inside the house, the first thing that he said was “yucky”. We didn’t even have time to wash our hands. He pulled me by the arm to the couch and layed down for his diaper change. These days, he has gotten into the habit of letting you know when he has “yucky(ed)” in his diaper.

After the diaper change, we headed to the bathroom to wash his hands. When we got done with that, he started manding for more french fries. He didn’t want ordinary fries though. He wanted Chick Fil A french fries, so it was off on a car ride to Chick Fil A. During entire drive, he was asking for a new paint set that he got. It is basically a paint brush that has a bulb full of water and it makes it appear like he is painting when he uses his “backyard book”. When we got home, he immediately started working on his “backyard book”.

After spending some time consumed in his book, he asked to go out to the “green” bus. He calls the blue bus, the “green bus.” The problem was that the blue bus was being fixed at the time, so it was off limits. We could go to the other bus. He was hesitant on going to the real green bus at first, crying everytime I tried to get him to walk past the blue bus, but he eventually gave in. As soon as we got to the green bus, he was excited again. He rolled down the windows, and started screaming “hello” repeatedly out of both the windows. When his dad came out, he started counting “1-2-3” and then yelling “Hello Daddy!” He did this several times. Since he kept counting, I started to ask him what came after certain numbers. I would ask him “What comes after 4?” To which he would replay “1 -2 -3 -4- 5!” He was very good at this. After a little while on the bus, we headed back inside. He played with his toys for a while and then he started getting tired. He wanted to go “Night Night on the couch,” but he was easily convinced to go sleep upstairs. It was off to bed.

I will be doing a double blog today as I didn’t do one yesterday.

Yesterday when I arrived Tony seemed excited to see me. He was watching a show in the living room but soon was running off into the playroom. When we got in the playroom he started to watch his new turtle movie. The show actually has frogs in it, but they look just like his turtle. I’m really excited that he’s watching this because I am about to start working on some excercises with him on identfying letters and their sounds. The show goes through the entire alphabet in a fun way. Tony really seemed to enjoy this show because it was on replay almost all day.

While Tony was busy watching his new turtle show, I began to make some cards for him with 3 and 4 letter words to identify. We then want him to match an individual letter with letters in the words. I began this excercise with him yesterday, but should’ve known I can’t compete with these shows!

After the show, Tony and I decided to paint. He wanted purple paint, but that particular paint set didn’t have purple. So I decided to show him how to make purple by mixing red and blue together. He liked mixing them together and seemed amazed at how it turned out. Today, he actually asked for red and blue paint to mix together to make purple!

After we were all done painting, Anton had to take a business call so Tony and I decided to go on a car ride. As soon as we got in the line at Chick-Fila he was already asleep in the backseat. Once we got home, it was evident that he was tired but not quite ready to give in yet. He kept saying “night night on couch” and would lay on the couch while watching a show for a moment and then the next be dashing into the playroom to see what else he could find to do. He did this for awhile until he finally said “upstairs” and was ready to go to sleep.

Today when I arrived Tony was busy painting. He has a new coloring book which turns colors when you paint it with water. Then it dries and you can paint over it again! This is a great thing for him to have because everyone knows how artistic little Tony is and how we go through so much paper and paint each week.

When we headed into the playroom, Tony asked for red and blue paint. He wanted to make his own purple again today. I was really surprised at how he remembered that after only doing it one time! Although, he had a different plan in mind. He wanted to paint his coloring book, which is only supposed to be used with water, purple. At first he didn’t want to budge, but I convinced him that he wanted the bigger plain paper rather quickly. Luckily, Marlaina got the purple paint off and saved the coloring book for yet another day.

The air conditioning guys came to fix the unit later in the afternoon, so Tony and I sat in the living room going back and forth between watching different cartoons thanks to Jennifer for introducing them! Not long after Brittany arrived for Tony’s OT session. He was pretty tired at this point wasn’t too into the activited again this week. So the session was ended early and Tony went up to bed.

Additional notes: As usual today we made our trip to the bathroom. We intended on going to the bathroom to wash our hands after painting, but Tony immediately manded for the toothbrush and toothpaste. Tony used to be content brushing once or twice, but loves the taste of the toothpaste so long that we usually brush 8-10 times! While brushing, he noticed our arms making shadows on the wall. He seemed to enjoy this so much that I decided to try to make a rooster with my hand and he loved it. He thought it was so funny and kept saying again. He was laughing so hard that Marlaina came in the bathroom to see everything was okay. Since I couldn’t remember how to make anything with my hands beside the rooster, Marlaina looked up other animals to try and Tony enjoyed seeing them all on the walls.

When I walked in today, Tony did his usual greeting of “Hello Jenny” with a huge smile on his face.  He was playing with his little people again.  He pretty much manded for Turtles Show when I walked through the door.  It’s a new show that has Frogs in it, but we just let him think otherwise.

We painted for about 30 minutes in his playroom.  Like usual, it is more like dip the brush in the paint and then dip it in the water.  A huge change that I noticed since I started working was that he doesn’t seem to mind getting his fingers dirty anymore.  There was a time when he would start getting upset about it, but today he was fingerpainting.  He also got a wipe for his hands by himself. 

After we got done painting, we headed to the bathroom to wash his hands.  He grabbed his “Santee Clause” and one his babies.  Little did I know, we were going to be spending the next 20 minutes in the bathroom.  When we got in there, instead of washing his hands like we had planned, he immediately grabbed his toothbrush.  He seems to like the taste of the strawberry toothpaste, so instead of brushing his tooth, it’s more like having lunch!  He kept asking for more toothpaste and eventually he decided to start brushing the babies teeth.  After working on the babies teeth for a while, he decided to clean up Santa Clause. I had to take him away, since Santa Clause had a face made of entirely fabric.  He didn’t seem to mind this.

After we finished up brushing everyone’s teeth in the bathroom, we headed back to his playroom and watched his “Turtle” Movie again.  It was on replay the entire day.  While he watched this, we started playing with his train tracks.  He eventually got tired and it was off to bed. 

Today was an exciting day for Tony. Marlaina and Anton had to do some shopping so we decided to take Tony to the park. When we got there, we immediately went down the slide. We took turns going down the slide with Tony. He saw Jennifer going down the pole, then he wanted to try it. We wouldn’t let him go down the pole from the top though. Instead we held him and would let him go down the pole about 3 feet off the ground. He seemed to really enjoy this. Afterwards we headed over to the swings, where he was finally willing to go on the kiddy swings by himself. He wanted Turtle to ride with him also.

Then we were all hungry so we decided to head to Chick-Fila. On the way out of the park Tony said bye bye park. After Chick-Fila we headed back to the house to eat and watch some Blue’s Clues Christmas. Tony started asking for his mom a lot and was not able to be redirected except when we asked him if he wants to go back to the park. He immediately forgot about mom and was ready for another adventure to the park. Tony was getting sleepy so we headed home. When we were walking from the car back to the house, Tony pointed out all of our shadows on the concrete and said hello to them all. We got him to wave to them.

We put in Muppets in Space and Tony drifted off to sleep. After about 30 minutes he woke up screaming for mom and could not be redirected so we called Marlaina to come home. We finally got him to stop crying by telling him we would go wait at the door for mom. He was so excited when her car pulled up and kept saying hello mommy.

Once Anton and Marlaina arrived, we went on another car ride in search of shoes for Anton. We went to Ross and Shoe Carnival. Tony seemed pretty amused looking at everything in the stores, but when that didn’t amuse him anymore he decided to start singing. He seemed to enjoy listening to his voice echoing throughout the store.

We headed home and Tony was content playing with his new playdough while Danielle ran to the grocery store and Jennifer tried to clean up before it got dark.

Today when I arrived Tony was busy watching Blue’s Clues. I saw a piece of paper and some crayons laying on the table and tried to get him to start coloring with me. He always gets excited whenever anyone mentions crayons and immediately came over to start coloring. I drew a sun and then got him to identify it and color it in.

After Blue’s Clues, Tony and I headed into his room to paint. I took this as an opportunity to ask him what was missing. He asked for everything his paint shirt, water, paper and paintbrushes. Lately, Tony has not had an issues with getting paint on his hands. He decided that he didn’t want to paint anything but instead wanted to use his hands and make his hand prints. After we were all done painting we headed into the bathroom and Tony washed his hands and brushed his teeth. I asked him what we needed for each and he answered right each time.

Then we decided to head to the park. Once at the park, Tony and I walked over to the swing set. He immediately put turtle in the swing and Tony and I swung him slowly so he wouldn’t fall out. After the swings we headed to the slide. Tony wanted turtle to go down the slide first, then him with me following. Without Jennifer being here this time, there was no one waiting at the end of the slide so turtle got very dirty…lol. After about our 50th time down the slide, I could tell Tony was getting sleepy so we headed home.

Not long after getting home Brittany arrived for Tony’s OT session. It was evident that our day at the park has worn him out so he wasn’t to into playing with her today. After Brittany left Tony went upstairs for a nap.

Today Tony was pretty calm.  When I got there, he had already been out the whole day for verbal lessons, so he was already a little worn out.  He was watching Monsters Inc.  when I came in, which got me really excited since he hadn’t seemed to have gotten to that type of movie quite yet.  It was a nice change from Barney and Wiggles. 

We went into his playroom, where I was able to get him interested in doing some puzzles.  He did the mouse one first, which he accomplished without any help the first time.  I helped transition him into the Sea puzzle.  He had a little trouble at first, but eventually with a little help he was able to put all the pieces in the right places.  He wanted to do the puzzle over and over again, until eventually he was able to look at it and know where to put the pieces very quickly. 

We took a road trip today to Ross.  He was really excited when we got into the store.  We went straight to the toy aisle.  When we passed through, he was turning around circles in the cart, looking for any toy that might catch his eye.  When his mom picked up something that she thought he might like the first time, he immediately said no.  He eventually had his eyes set on a Blue’s Clues book.  He looked at this while we walked through the store. 

Marlaina and Anton had to go pick up the cat from Petsmart, so I was responsible for taking Tony to the car and keeping him amused.  He was good for the first 5 minutes but then he began to notice the absence of his mom.  He started crying and I couldn’t redirect him for a few minutes, but I started drawing for him and asking him questions about his new book.  He seems to like it when I draw Blue for him.  I was able to keep him occupied until his parents came back.  As soon as his mom came up to the car, he got really excited and kept repeating “hello mommy.” 

When we got back to the house, he immediately asked to go to the green bus.  We sat in there for about 10 minutes, where he sat in the front and pretended to drive the vehicle.  Afterwards we went back inside, and he asked for Monsters Inc. again.  He also asked for Wiggles in the playroom, so he was running back and forth, watching the two movies.  Eventually he got tired, and it was off to bed.

When we arrived today Tony was coloring with his crayons. He immediately manded for Blue’s Clues Santa Clause and we put in to watch. While watching Blue’s Clues we tried to get Tony to identify objects on a card and count how many there were. He did identify the objects but went back to watching Blue’s Clues as soon as we tried to get him counting.

After watching Blue’s Clues we headed out to the new bus. While in the bus, we worked out motor imitation with him. He was a little a reluctant to do it at first, but with a little persuasion he started to do them quickly.

Once back in the house, Marlaina told Tony that Whitney was on her way. He got so excited he was getting red in the face and kept waiting for her at the gate and kept saying “here comes Whitney!”. He started to get upset when she didn’t show immediately we went headed outside to wait for her. As soon as he saw her car, he took our hands and headed for her car. Tony was really excited to see Whitney and even did his noodle dance for her.

We headed back into his room and tried to get Tony started on some Visual Performance exercises. He ended up doing 3 puzzles and did pretty well but needed a little help getting them started.

After the puzzles we headed to the park. When we got there, he went straight to the slides. We had to help him up to the top. He was relunctant to go down the slide by himself at first and forced us to ride down with him. After about the 10th time of going down the slide with us, he decided to throw turtle down the slide first. He eventually began to go down by himself, with one of us helping him up to the top and waiting for him at the bottom. After going on the slide, he rode the swings with us. He seemed to enjoy this for a little while, but craved the excitement of the slides more. A couple of more times down the slide, and he was so exhausted that he couldn’t even climb up the stairs. We headed home and he went straight to bed.

Today was another short day with Tony. When I arrived Tony seemed
really excited to see me and kept saying “Hi Danielle!” very loudly
while Anton was on a business call. So since I had stopped and picked
up Tony and I some fries prior to my arrival, I lured him into the
playroom with the fries. Once in the playroom Tony and I played with
his little people for a little while and built a chair.

As soon as I grabbed the book to start ABA Tony was manding for
Wiggles Safari. I put the DVD in and immediately tried to start with
some receptives, but it was evident that I couldn’t compete with
Wiggles.

Later on Anton and Marlaina decided to go get some coffee, so Tony and
I had the house to ourselves for a little while. At first we decided
to start building houses out of his blocks, then he started manding
for his people. The first one he asked for was “Tony”. So I headed
out to the living room expecting to see “Tony” lying with all the
other people, but Tony happened to be MIA. I kept looking and
couldn’t find him and would go back in the playroom hoping that Tony
had forgotten but as soon as I would approach the room Tony would ask
for him again. Thankfully, I found him under a cushion on the couch.
After this Tony was getting really tired and starting to get upset
easily. He started asking for Mom and night night shadows. Luckily,
I distracted him with a toy from the mystery bag and then Mom came
home just in time for him to take a nap.