Today was a rather short day with Tony. When I arrived he seemed
really excited to see me and kept saying “Hi Danielle!”. I noticed
that his playroom was a disaster so while he was content watching
Blue’s Clues, I tidied up the room so they would have space when
Brittany (OT) arrived.

After Blue’s Clues was over Tony seemed pretty tired and kept rubbing
his eyes, but as always he pushed on into his room. Once in the room,
he wanted his crayons. The one’s I pulled out didn’t seem to suffice,
so Anton went upstairs to get more crayon boxes. Tony and I then
started packing the boxes with crayons, but he started to get upset
and I knew this wasn’t what he wanted. He began to say “new crayons”.
I knew we didn’t have any new ones so I tried to keep filling the
boxes as quickly as possible, but he was just too tired and was
getting upset with everything. It was evident that he needed a nap so
Anton took Tony upstairs to sleep.

While Tony was sleeping, I ran to the grocery store to pick up a few
things for him. I know he will happy because I got him a few bags of
the chips he loves along with some juice, waffles and chicken. Once
back at the house, I unloaded the groceries and then cleaned up the
living room. I also ran through the ABLLS book to look for new skills
we want to target. So hopefully….we will be able to start on that
tomorrow!

Today was a extremely calm day for Tony. When I came in, he did his usual routine of running to see the door and yelling my name. I had Chick-Fil-A, so he was happy to be receiving french fries. He gobbled them up quickly.

About an hour later, he went over in the corner to get his little car that he likes to ride around on. I pushed him around the room on it. Everytime I stopped, he would say “again, again,” and “peeeeas”, so I kept pushing him around until he was ready to get off. He was giggling the entire time.

He manded for Wiggles later, and it was the most amusing thing to watch him do his noodle dance. He was flailing his arms around and jumping up and down, all the while singing along to the video. It was so amusing that I had to play it again for him. As soon as the show ended, he spoke to the TV and said his usual “bye bye wiggles.”

Sometime during the day, he got a blanket and pretended to go to sleep on the floor. I told him “Wake up Tony!” every few seconds, and he would repeatedly pop his head up and put it back down.

Later on, painting was in order. He seems to be amazed by the cup of water, requesting it first and saying it over and over again until I go get it for him. When we paint, it’s more like take the paint brush, dip in the paint and repeatedly put the brush back in the water. He seems to enjoy the color change. While he doesn’t seem to mind getting paint on his hands, he repeatedly asked for a napkin to wipe off the paint that he would accidently get on the cup from the paintbrush. While he was busy doing this, I painted a thinking chair for him. After that he wanted me to draw the other characters of Blue’s Clues.
He was sitting in his Mom’s lap, trying to decide which Nightmare Before Christmas toy he wanted before I left.

When I arrived this morning, Tony was watching a show in the living
room with Sissy. Within about 5 minutes he was manding for paint and
we were heading into his playroom. I used this as an opportunity to
ask Tony “what else do we need?”. He asked for paper, paintbrushes,
water and his paint shirt! I figured we would try to change our
normal painting routine a little and make our hand prints. I did not
know how this would go since Tony usually doesn’t like getting
anything on his hands but it went fine. He liked the way it felt on
his hands and pushing them up against the paper.

As soon as were all done painting, we headed to Kmart for a car ride.
Tony was really excited as soon as we were approaching the store and
kept saying hi to it. He seemed to enjoy riding around the store
looking at all the Halloween stuff. On our way to the cash register,
he started getting a little cranky and was ready to go home. He
started to scream so I decided to take him to the car while Marlaina
was paying. On the way out, Morgan and I noticed a Halloween display
with ghosts and a skeleton. Tony immediately calmed down upon seeing
this and thought the skeleton was Jack from Nightmare before
Christmas.

When we got back home Grandma and Grandpa (Anton’s parents) stopped by
for a visit and Tony was really excited to see him. They brought him
a few new outfits which he loved. He changed into his new overalls
and loved the hat even though it was too small for his head…lol.
The rest of the day Tony was pretty content playing with his people
and watching Baby Einstein movies. Then we went for one more car ride
to Tuesday Morning and then it was time for bed.

Mands = 22

For the first hour that I was there, Tony was in a very calm state, only getting agitated when I accidently spilled a drink and when he left me a present in his diapers. It’s interesting that when he needs a diaper changed, he immediately says “yucky” or something along the lines of that. He was calm for about an hour or two. Playing with his little people as usual and watching Wiggles which he seems to have been completely infatuated with the past few days.
We went into his room finally and he immediately asked for a bed to be built. He did his routine of putting Duckie, Froggie, Kittie and Turtle in this bed. Although he was calm in the living room, this seemed to have dramatically changed when he got into the playroom. I think he might be going through a stage of attachment to his mom because as soon as I closed the door to the playroom, he was screaming “open”. Other than a couple of times of crying for his mom, he was very behaved, manding for whatever he needed every few minutes including hot dogs. This, i think, is partly due to the fact that he wanted to watch one of his shows that has a hot dog character in it.
His mom gave him a new paint set today and he was very excited. He had to try it out immediately. He seems to have an artistic side. As the day came to an end, his mom came and asked him if he wanted to go upstairs to bed. It was amusing watching him make what seemed to be a life altering decision. He kept going back and forth in the doorway between the living room and playroom, debating whether he should watch his current show playing in the DVD or go up to bed. In the end, he finally gave in to sleep.

When I walked in today I was greeted by Tony with a bright smile. He finally got my name to Jen-na after calling me Tony for several days. He was watching Wiggles when i came in and he continued to ask for Wiggles through out the day.

We went into his room and played with his little people that he has named either Daddy, Mommy, Tony, or Sissy. He started yelling for “daddy”. He was MIA. We searched up and down for the correct daddy until finally he was found in one of his many boxes of toys. He asked me to build him a house with his cardboard boxes which I did. Assuming that it was going to be used as a house for his people, i left the roof off. I had no idea that as soon as I had accomplished this task, he would try to get inside the house. In the end, he was standing in the middle of 2 foot high stacked boxes with absolutely no room to move.

After about 2 hours, he started getting a little grouchy from the lack of sleep so he was put to bed for about 30 minutes until he started screaming again. He came downstairs,a little devastated it seemed like and we played his new barney DVD which seemed to entrance him immediately. Right before I left, he was walking around and playing with his little people once again and asking them an assortment of questions.

Today was not a very productive day for Tony. When I arrived he had
just woken up from a nap and was very cranky. Marlaina and I were
trying to get him interested in doing an activity, but nothing seemed
to interest or soothe him. He then threw a tantrum which was only
stopped by the option of a car ride. So we headed to Chick-Fila for
some fries. When we got back home, Tony wanted to watch a movie so I
put in Blue Clues for him.

I started to try to do some ABA with Tony but it was evident that
nothing was going to get done today. Throughout the whole day, we
watched Blues Clues almost continuously and I tried to keep him happy.
Later in the day, Tony and I went out to the bus. He seemed to enjoy
it for about 5 minutes and then started to get upset again ( I have no
idea about what this time) and throw a tantrum. I tried to calm him
down and even told him we could go back in the house. He then began
to scream even louder and throw his little people around the bus and
at me. I told him that we do not throw things and tried once again to
get him out of the bus. Tony then started asking for “daddy” and I
couldn’t figure out where he had thrown him. I finally got Tony out
of the bus and took him inside, so I could go back out to he bus to
look for “daddy”. Anton accompanied me outside and found him as soon
as he opened the door! Once back in the house, Tony was still cranky
so Marlaina took him up to bed. Hopefully, Wednesday will be a better
day!

Tony has recently been going through a fascination with Christmas. In fact the first thing that he asked for was the Elmo Christmas DVD. He refers to it as �El-mo Santee Clause.� He watched movies like this the throughout the day, ranging from Wiggles, Christmas to Nightmare before Christmas.

He got a new toy today from the �mystery bag.� It was a cowboy with a horse, which he named �daddy.� He kept it by him basically the entire day. While he enjoyed his new toy, I asked him the normal questions, �A chair is for us to��. I asked him several like this to which he answered correctly.

Later in the afternoon Danielle came over. We went outside but not without putting on the necessary bug spray. We drew on the sidewalk with his bucket of chalk. While he did this I drew some pictures(star, heart..) which I asked him to identify. It only took him a second to respond with the right answer. After finishing with the chalk, we hopped on the bus. He sat in the front seat and pretended to drive. We tried to convince him to take a wagon ride, but he seems to be relunctant to leave home without his mom for more than 5 minutes.

After Danielle left, he manded for chips. They were no where to be found. We were out. Marlaina redirected him and said that we would go to the �store.� Tony got extremely excited. He continued to say store over and over again. We got in the car and he behaved the entire 2 minutes of the car ride. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, he started talking to the store, telling it hi and asking what it was doing there. When we went inside and put him into the cart, he began to accommodate himself, putting his cup in the cup holder and turtle in the space in front of him. The first thing we did was go to the chip aisle, where he became increasingly excited. He said yes to every kind of chip imaginable, from veggie chips to spicy ones. As we walked through the store, he contently sat and ate his chips, knowing very well that we were shopping for him.

When we got back to the house, it was Wiggles Christmas back int the DVD. This was on replay for the rest of the day. He had a lot of energy even though he continuously rubbed his eyes and yawned. After hours of playing and Wiggles Christmas, he had to be hauled off to bed.

(Dad/Anton’s note: Tony seems particularly smitten with spending time with Jennifer. Not that he doesn’t love his other girls as much…because he truly does…but we had to literally drag Tony away from his room and Jennifer this evening to go to bed. And HORRORS, his Elmo Saves Xmas tape died in the player, and Tony was so tired and so peaceful, he didn’t even bat an eye when I suggested Elmo’s Wild Wild West tape. He was half-asleep (lids at half mast) by the time I shut the light off and partially closed his door. Amazing day for him.)

I forgot to write the blog yesterday, so I will be doing today’s and
yesterday’s blog.

Yesterday when I arrived, I was informed by Marlaina of a problem in
Tony’s playroom. Apparently, water had leaked in from somewhere and
so half of the floor was soaking wet. So Tony and I had to do play
and do ABA in the living room until the problem is fixed.

The day started out as usual with Tony pretend playing with the little
people. After he was done playing with the people, he wanted to bring
his music backpack out of his room. The bag had several things such
as a drum, maracas and xylophone etc. Tony seemed to enjoy making
music on all of them. When he pulled out the drum, I patted it twice
and tried to get him to pat it twice as well, but Tony seemed to
really like the noise it was making and patted it multiple times.

Later in the afternoon, Marlaina and Anton had to take an important
business call, so I decided to take Tony outside so they wouldn’t be
disturbed. At first Tony was excited to go outside, but as soon as we
closed the back door he started screaming for his mom. So I picked
him up and tried to redirect him by jumping and running with him.
When this didn’t work, I then tried to spin around with him. He
usually enjoys this, but this was not working either. I then
remembered that I was wearing his Wiggles backpack which I had packed
with a few things to keep us busy. I then put Tony down to try to
grab something out of it to distract him, but he tried to run off and
when holding his hand tried to drag me back towards the house. I knew
that going there was not an option now, so I picked him back up and
headed for the pond. He enjoyed looking at the pond, and calmed down.
Which I was happy about because I hate seeing him upset.

On our walk home from the pond, Tony manded for “bus” so we headed for
the bus. After playing in the bus for a little while, he then asked
for his mom. I figured we needed to buy a little more time so I told
Tony lets go look at my car. He seemed excited to do this, but when
we got there he said “open door” and then I realized I did not have my
keys. I was thinking that was going to be a problem but Tony was fine
just looking through the windows. We then headed back to the house.

Once back at the house, we watched a few shows and then headed back to
the bus once again. We were sitting the bus with the door open when I
heard some ducks. I figured they wouldn’t be in the parking lot, but
to my surprise about 10 ducks showed up at the door. So Tony and I
headed back in the house to get some bird seed to throw to the ducks.
He seemed to enjoy giving them food and then he went back in the house
to go to sleep!

Today was not too eventful, Tony and I did a lot of painting and I was
able to get a lot of ABA done with him today! He knows almost of all
his intraverbals and is doing well on everything else. We also played
in the bus and ran around outside for awhile. His behavior today was
excellent as it has been the past week. He only got upset one time
and was easily calmed down. See ya next week!

Mands=31
(Jennifer) When i first arrived, Tony was busy playing with his trains. He said
my name for the first time. It sounded like Jen-na. After finishing
with the trains, he tried to run off into the playroom. He accidently
tripped 🙁 He got upset for a minute, but got over it quickly. We
went into the playroom and the first thing he wanted to do was build a
bed. He manded for the pillow, the turtles and the blanket. After we
finished building the bed, Tony then wanted to watch “Wheels on the
Bus.” As soon as we started the movie, Danielle arrived.

(Danielle) When I arrived Tony and Jennifer we were watching “Wheels on the Bus”.
After he finished the movie, we got Tony to go outside. As soon as
he was out the door, he manded for Jennifer to pick him up and
immediately said “gooo”. We ran around outside for about 5 minutes
and then Tony said “house”, so we headed for the house. As soon as we
were outside the front of the house, Tony wanted to go inside the bus.
He manded for me to open the door and then wanted me to shut the
door. It was a very hot day so I tried to get him to leave the door
open but he wanted it shut. But I ended up persuading him to let us
roll the windows down.

Once back inside the house, Jennifer and I did a little ABA with Tony.
By this point he was tired so it was a little difficult, but we did
manage to get some done. The rest of the day Tony was very tired but
adamant that he was going to stay awake. We watched a few shows
Fraggle Rocks, Elmo Happy Holidays and Wiggles. Then Tony was off to
sleep!

Mands=15
Today was a really good day for Tony. When I first arrived he was
busy building with his blocks. He would build one house and then it
would fall over and he would build another house in a different style.
This was pretty cool because it shows that he knows what parts a
house needs and that a house does not have to have one certain style.
Another thing I noticed was that whenever the houses would fall down
Tony did not get upset. Usually, when something is not in the exact
order or falls over Tony gets upset and I am frantically trying to put
it back together. This was not the case today, he was calm and then
decided to start building again.

Today Jennifer was here for training. While Tony was busy watching
Fraggle Rocks, his new favorite movie (which seems to have replaced
Nightmare) , I was explaining to Jennifer what we do and showing her
around Tony’s room. After the movie, we painted for a little while
and then decided to go on a walk. While on the walk, I showed
Jennifer where Tony likes to go and the places we try our best to
avoid. Once back inside, Jennifer and I did some ABA with Tony and
got him to tell us what letters he was eating out of his french fries
(Tony has alphabet french fries.)

Overall, Today was one of the best days with Tony in the last week. I
was really impressed at how he is not getting upset when things fall
out of place or he gets something on his hands. Latley, he has also
been having seperation issues with his Mom, but none of that was
evident today. There was only one instance when he got a little
worked up because we couldn’t find his markers, but he was easily
redirected. Hopefully, there will be more days like this.