Mom's House

This morning's Speech wasn't the greatest. Nikko didn't seem into it today. He attempted some puzzles and fishing game using a stick with velcro, but he didn't even try to clean up the toys unless it was hand over hand. In fact, Nikko got very angry when Gloria took the fishing pole away. I had to restrain him from leaving the circle and was surprised that he was stronger than usual. It took me using all my strength for more than a few minutes to hold him back. He didn't have a lot of eye contact either. Nikko slightly babbled during the drawing with the magna doodle, but he was just a really difficult camper today. The first activity Gloria took out was pictures on flashcards and an accompanying object. She had a picture of a bus, cow, pig and shoes, and she brought a mini bus, wooden cow, plastic pig, and little shoes. I liked this idea because it goes along with recognizing that the picture is not the real object, it just looks like it. Nikko didn't want to play along today, however, so I think the lesson was lost on him, even though Gloria said he looked at the bus quite a bit. This could be because it was a horizontal stim.

After therapy was lunch, then Chinny left and I packed the kids into the Pilot so we could go to mom's house. The folks and Chinny are leaving on Wednesday morning to go to the Philippines for two and a half weeks. I am going to have a challenging time not having Chinny around during the week to hold Ronin back during Nikko's therapies. We are going to have to do the best we can. It's too bad because these last few sessions are critical to me. They are the final ones before Nikko turns three in July and I want him to get the most out of these sessions, not have unsuccessful ones. I just put mirror tiles on the wall in the therapy corner we use, tiles I got from Ikea yesterday, so I hope they will inspire Nikko to look and learn. Ronin likes them. They both keep hooking their fingers on the edges as if they want to pull them off the walls and I have to keep looking on to make sure they don't.

Nikko started carrying around the Signing Time DVD cover everywhere and brought it to mom's house, too. I kept the CD in a carrying case so it didn't fall out or get scratched. They watched the DVD quite a bit over there. Mom said that she saw Nikko signing Car, but I didn't get to see it. I'll keep watching to see. It would be great if he really did that. Luisa showed up with her kids, too. It's kind of an obligatory thing to go see the folks before they embark on a trip to the Philippines. I almost didn't go, but after a while I figured that the kids could use the socialization and I like seeing my folks. Nikko and Ronin liked the change in scenery because we hung out in the sunroom for a change. I'm glad I went, even though at the very end Audrey had the mother of all meltdowns and was screaming at ear-piercing decibels. Thanks to Atz who had the motherly patience to hold Audrey while I got all our stuff together, and mom and Chinny and Dad for helping me get the boys ready and outta there! At bedtime, Nikko seemed like he would lay in bed after prayers but when Denis headed to the door Nikko bounded up and started crying out in protest. That didn't stop Denis from leaving and we heard Nikko cry it up a little bit, but settled back down to bed. We don't have anything planned for tomorrow so I'll try to get us playing in the basement at some point, or it will be another Signing Time afternoon.