Another School Year Gone

Aiden has been enjoying Summer Break for a full week now, but he's been so busy that I haven't had a chance to share all the exciting progress and highlights from his school year...

That's a glimpse at his summer plans - like I said, just a little busy

When he finished up his actual school year at Abiding Hope, they sent home a file with some of his best work and accomplishments from the year, as well as a "yearbook" for him to keep.

 I can't believe how much he grew! He was barely over the "days of the week" in August, and in May be was to the top of the colors! And his hair is growing too! He insists he doesn't want it cut but we'll see how hot he gets this summer.

In his "portfolio" for the year, he had a self portrait from August. He knows at least that he has blonde hair and that McDonald's is his favorite food. Dinosaurs might be more of a learning interest now than a game but I had almost forgotten about how he liked to "play dinosaurs" so this was a really fun page to look at.

 They sent home a sample of "self-directed art" too. He might not be Picasso, but because he's Aiden, it has been deemed an instant classic in our house.

After Christmas time they asked what his favorite gift from Santa was...surprise, surprise we haven't forgotten about the Shake Shake Bridge!

They also inquired about his birthday party plans and the cutie-patootie continues to make my heart melt!!

One of his candid photos in the "yearbook."

His class picture. The teacher on the far left is his favorite - she had him last year too. In the front row, third from the left, dark hair and pink shirt is Christina. Aiden talks A LOT about this little girl...and in the front row, second from the right in a dark blue shirt is Anthony who Aiden says is his best friend ever. Mrs. Morrin on the far right, we are so utterly grateful for this woman. She really got things going for us in terms of OT for Aiden and learning development this year.

We celebrated the last day of school with a trip to the park and played for hours and hours! Racing, sliding, riding bikes, swinging and just getting into Summer-Mode in general.

I am so proud of how much this kiddo has grown this year. There have been some huge adjustments and major growing pains along the way, but we're doing so good - because we have each other.

Small Miracles

What a difference!!

Aiden has begun his occupational therapy (OT) after weeks and weeks of being wait-listed. After all the insurance drama and prescription debauchery, it was so worth the wait. Miss Jackie (the OT) will be taking Miss Jo's place since Aiden is done with speech therapy and she is an awesome fit.

We talked for about an hour about the things that bother Aiden and what his teachers see as "problem areas," and she listened and took notes and came back with good, solid answers.

Everything about Aiden tells her that he is a "sensory kid." His issues have to do with his Kinesthetic Sensory System and his Vestibular Senses.

The Kinesthetic System is what "grounds" your body - you know you are standing on the floor, supported by the foundation which sits firmly in the ground. You are aware of the location of your limbs/extremities and you can feel the space around you. For Aiden, these sensory receptors are slow or interrupted (between the shoulders and other major joints, and the brain) so he is unaware of what space his body is in, how much room he has to move or stop moving - thus he plows over and through things without a second thought to get to where he wants to go.

The Vestibular System  is managed by the inner ear and fluid inside of it. This is less of a problem for Aiden, as he often "crashes" on purpose because of the jolt it gives his Kinesthetic receptors - not because he can't balance. However, this particular system explains a lot about this kid. Why the car in the street sounds as loud as the game in his hand, as loud as the dishwasher in the other room, as loud as the thunder outside, etc. It's all loud, all the time. He actually calls it fast - this is intentional. All of the noise input makes his mind race and he gets confused and disoriented. It also explains why he doesn't like showers or getting his head wet - those sensations further exacerbate the input he is getting an overload of.

Once we talked about what's going on with Aiden, we talked about ways to help calm him down. Jackie brought a bag full of sensory objects to touch and feel and we founds somethings that Aiden could wrap around his arms to help reset his Kinesthetic receptors.

We also practiced some things that we can physically do to help him - rhythmic pressure through his arms and legs to the shoulder and hip joints. Randalicious and I took turns practicing and by the time we had it down, Aiden was hypnotized. It was a miracle. And he loved it. He said it felt good, he was smiling. He was calm.

Jackie watched him work with some play-doh and asked about his hobbies and his puzzles and she was truly astonished by what he knows and can do - this leads me to worry a little toward the other end of the spectrum. Clearly he is a smart kid, but if he can't figure out how to literally settle himself he could potentially hate learning and get really frustrated by school.

For now though, I am happy that we are figuring out the little pieces - I think he is too.

He's had a really good week, playing with his kitty - who is dying to go out for walks now that the weather is better.

Going to the Aquarium.

He even found his Game-Boy - which I had given up for lost over a month ago!

And he is hard core sleeping at night.

It's the little things. It really is.

A-B-C, 1-2-3

Hi all!!!

Sorry for the lapse in updates! It's hard to write about Aiden when I spend most of my time chasing after, cleaning up behind and keeping up with him.

He is doing splendidly though! I may or may not have mentioned that he has finished his speech therapy and continues to speak more and more eloquently everyday. I get a lot of flack and funny looks when people hear the way we speak to each other - suggesting that I talk to him like an adult and should speak on his level...but he has grown to very clearly express himself and his emotions in the most beautiful way that I can't see any reason not to speak to him as though our vocabularies are equal.

He starts occupational therapy this week, so hopefully we can put that budding syntax of his to good use once he decides he wants to sit still!

Everything about him seems to be changing and growing so rapidly. After some long thought, I decided that his toddler bed was "dwarfing him" and that he could probably really benefit from a big boy bed - not just a bigger mattress but something that really made him feel like a big kid.

He is now the mayor of his very own twin-loft bed with a tent. And miraculously, he suddenly looks so small in the massive structure. Even just the size of the twin mattress makes him look so little.

Not only is he speaking like a big boy and sleeping like a big boy, he's working hard like a big boy too! As recent at 2 months ago he started counting all by himself to 30 - struggling with some of the teens and not really knowing what they look like, but trying really hard to understand.

So for the last week or so we have been doing the "numbers puzzle" before bed. It's 20 little 3-piece puzzles. Each puzzle has a number piece (i.e. 6), a picture piece (i.e. six puppies), and a word piece (i.e. s-i-x). So he lays them all out numbers first, 1-20.

Then I give him the picture pieces, one at a time and in random order - this way he has to count the pictures and find the matching number.

When we are all done, I read the word piece to him and he has to go back to his line up and find the digit that we are talking about.

Not only is he getting good at it, but he calls this "playing" and he wants to do it every night, uninterrupted by the TV! I freaking love this kid.

He's also getting really good with letters. He wanted to write the "B" on Aunt B's birthday card all by himself - though he got frustrated, he really wants to figure it out.

After introducing himself to strangers - not sure where he learned how to do that.... - the first question he asks is what letter their name starts with. Then, he asks for my phone so that he can make note of it:

"A"

"G"

So that's what we have been working on. He has a parent-teacher conference this week and then when May is over he'll start going to school 3 days a week (well, summer camp) and then Pre-K in the fall for 4 days a week.

Certainly growing up.

Easter and Such

And now for those Aiden updates I had promised....

First and foremost, a big congrats to my little guy - he is done with speech therapy!!! He still has to have an OT evaluation and potentially some intervention in that area, but language-wise, he is right where he needs to be. He had so much fun catching up with Miss Jo last week, it's almost sad that they won't be hanging out together anymore, but he did phenomenally! He knew and pronounced all the words perfectly and even rambled on about each one for a while. The sounds he still doesn't have down 100% are sounds that most kids don't master until they are 6 and he has trouble with pronouns a bit but again, that comes with another year or two of talking the talk.

So the OT thing (occupational therapy) will just be about helping him concentrate. Some kids require lots of sensory input to focus, others receive too much. With Aiden, we have noticed a sensitivity to sounds. He will hear a neighbor or a car or a thud outside and immediately want to know what it is. He complains when the radio is too loud ("too fast" he says) in the car for him to hear his game boy, etc. So, likely, Aiden is getting to much sensory input and it manifests itself by making him move his body around to compensate for every sensory receptor his body is receiving. He'll do funny things, like run his head along the floor, stomp his feet, crash hard on the ground with his body, etc and it's all a means to solidify all the "noise" he's getting.

In other news:

Aiden had a splendid Easter, hunted eggs with Aunt Dana...

 And because it was such a beautiful day, we went swimming! It was gorgeous, the water was warm, the sun was out - and Aiden took no bribing (well maybe a small amount of "I'm gonna push you!") to jump in. He swam his little self all around the pool, glorious :)

Some other interesting things that have been happening lately...

For the last couple weeks, at bed time, Aiden has been sneaking into his closet and closing the door. The light is on of course, but he sits quietly in there for a couple minutes, sometimes whispering, sometimes silent, then he comes back out and gets back in bed. Peculiar....

His hands and lips have been especially dry over last cold months, so I cover them in A&D ointment before bed and leave the tube on his night stand. The first time the tube went missing, I chalked it up to mishap cleaning and replaced it with another (we have plenty). Last night, it was missing again, so I got a new one upon Aiden's insistence, covered him in the stuff and went to bed.

Not long after I lay down, I could hear the closet door closing and the whispering start. Shortly after, he went into the bathroom and washed something in the sink, then asked to be tucked back in - OK kid, one more time, but then really, bed time. When I snuggled him back in bed, I noticed the A&D missing...the one I just put on the night stand. Peculiar....

When I asked where it was, he said he put it in the closet. So I took a peek...

Everything in Aiden's reach in the closet was covered and smelled of A&D, then in the very back of the closet, sort of hidden, were 4 empty, squished up tubes of the stuff.

Since bed time had long come and gone, I said, "back to bed." Mostly because I was hoping that if I went to  sleep pretending it never happened, it'd take care of itself. This morning, when trying to dress Aiden in something that wasn't covered in goo, I realized how terribly wrong I was.

Who run the world?

GIRLS! We run this mother...strong enough to bear the children, then get back to business.

I promise Aiden updates soon, we have so much to be happy about these days. But first, I have somethings I want to say:

I'm 25 years old today. Fewf, that was hard to get out. Not because I fear getting old, but because my other fears are prompted by age.

Fears that I haven't learned, absorbed or experienced enough. Fears that I started chasing my dream with only a small window of time in which to achieve it before it will be shelved with other lost wishes. 

I think we get really wrapped up in mortality and worry over the exact amount of minutes in which we have left to live and I have been working hard over the last year or so to change that within myself. It's okay to express anxiety over the passage of time, but I beg of you, let that passage of time appear to you in a way that is circular, spiral and wide - ultimately, Gabriel Garcia Marquez-esque. Let your worries be about the moments in which you presently find yourself and fill those moments with your whole self.

A little over a year ago, I was lying in a hospital bed and weighed 100 pounds on a good day; felt alone, frail and deeply depressed. That week of my life, feeling like I might die, was quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to me. I walked away from it with a hunger to get better, to be better and do better. If not for me, then for Aiden. So I did. 

This last year has been filled with the most courageous, beautiful learning experiences. I found myself, I found strength and I found the will to push forward - to stop waiting for life to happen. 

I am so truly blessed for all the support and opportunity I have received this year, I am also much more aware of how fragile those commodities are. Support and opportunity can be here one day and gone the next. It is the conviction of will and the strength of character which pushes you forward.

There are so many more women in my life this year than ever before and I am ecstatic to have them to work with and learn from. Ladies, we hold each other up, we can do anything once we realize it is simply in our own hands.

I am stronger. I am brave and resilient. I am better. I am unstoppable. 

I am 25 and I am not ever going to stop moving forward.

A Much Happier Hoe-Down

Hey all, lots of requests for pics and videos from last week's Hoe-Down at Abiding hope.

It went MUCH better than last year.

Aiden was such a champ, and so totally into it - I might have shed a tear or two, either out of beaming pride or total laughter.

Anything that doesn't fit in this post can be found on Facebook :)

And some of the action...

See Facebook for more videos - Aiden had really, just such a great time :)

Curious Curiosities

Last night, Aiden was a bit subdued. After sustaining a small injury at school he was being quiet and just wanted to play LEGO's after dinner, so I left him to his own devices while I read awhile.

Shortly before bath time he asked if we could watch Dora or Diego. This is a new fascination of his, but it is thrilling to me to no end. When I am in the other room putting away laundry or in the kitchen cooking something and I hear him talking to the TV about how old he is, how many animals he sees on the screen or singing in Spanish - I am over joyed. I love the interaction he enjoys with these kid's shows; I am really not sure where it came from but he thinks it is the greatest thing in the world and I think him learning these things (especially the basic Spanish) is pretty neat too.

Anyway, the episode was progressing and Diego was trying to save a baby chinchilla from some snakes when quiet, docile Aiden asked me, "Do we live on the Earff?"

We went around and around until I understood the "Earff" is the "Earth," and I told him, "Yes, we live on Earth, pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah, it's a good idea, I like the Earff," and he went kinda quiet again, watching Diego go on about his business, when he piped up again with, "A rock hits the Earff? A big rock crashes?"

My jaw dropped. "Who told you that? Where did you hear that? No, sweetie, there are no rocks going to crash the Earth." I waited to hear his response.

"We have a moon?"

Ok. Time to get the solar system puzzle out.

Aiden got a big solar system floor puzzle for Christmas that he hasn't played with much since, so we got it out and put it all together.

After we got it together, we started talking about the different things he could see. I asked him about the sun, why is it so big and so yellow? And we talked about why the "Earff" looks so blue, and which one of the green patches we live on (and Grandpa too!). We talked about all the things "floating" around in the Milky Way - which prompted the need for candy...and we talked about why Pluto is on the puzzle but it's name isn't there.

Aiden's a pretty cool kid. A curious kid, who's curiosities make me curious. But, a really cool kid.