What a Busy Week!

Looking back on the completion of this week, I simply have to say, "Whew!" Monday started with doing therapy with Thomas here at the house. He wasn't very interested in anything that I planned to do, such the typical 2-year old. This kind of worried me because he usually lets me get at least 30 minutes at a time in the therapy chair at home. We quickly moved on to our 2 hour sensory and feeding assessment with ECI of Texas.

So, Tuesday came and we went to the pediatrician's office for Thomas' 2-year check up. All positive news there -- Thomas is 36" (90%), 31 pounds (75%) and has a 19" head circumference (25%). He has been in these ranges since birth and I was happy to see that we didn't lose any ground in his weight. That afternoon, Thomas once again didn't want to do therapy with me. So, I began to get frustrated which made me worry some more.

Wednesday rolls around with an appointment at the audiologist for new ear molds. As I was driving home, I got a "wild hair" and pulled in to our local Target. I wanted to scan the toy aisles to see if I could find some new therapy toys for Thomas. Boy am I glad that I did! During our afternoon therapy session, Thomas said "baw" for ball, "moo" for the cow and the "hoo" in yahoo. It felt like a light switched on in him. At dinner time, I LING checked him while he was in the high chair using conditioned listening. Not only did he perform well with the new conditioned listening toy, he spoke back to me "ss" "sh" "ah" and "mm." Needless to say, I was on cloud nine.

So then on Thursday, I dropped Thomas off at his grandparents' house and I went to a wonderful educational conference at Cook's. It was my first time to see Carol Flexer in action. Goodness, she is so knowledgeable, easy to listen to and frankly kind of fun. She reinforced so many of the strategies that we have been using through the wonderful coaching of Becky, our cert AVT. While I did learn a lot about Theory of Mind, I think that my big "ah-ha" moment from the conference wasn't anything tangible. It was inner calm knowing that we are on the right path and that our AVT is an amazing woman. Becky is simply great with Thomas and me, which is no small accomplishment given Thomas and my personalities. She supplies such clear goals each week and does a wonderful job of coaching me during therapy sessions. She is such a blessing.

Friday is audio-verbal therapy day. I was so excited to see Becky and tell her about all the great strides Thomas made this week. I really didn't have to tell her that much because Thomas showed her most of them. Becky gave me some great advice about pausing longer, not working on things that Thomas already knew and many other nuggets. Spending time with her is always a great way to end the "work week." I feel energized and much more aware of what I should be doing with Thomas. I'd love to get him home and immediately start working on them. Thomas always has different plans though and takes a minimum 3 hour nap after working with Becky. I guess it has been a busy week for him, too. If he could, I know that he would say, "Whew!"