Kittens, appointments, and so much testing!

Every day when we come home, Mason does this...

He looks for the kittens.  It's cute even though the kittens are still scared of his loud movements and voice.  Yoda is the braver kitten.  She loves when I hold her and then Mason can pet her to his heart's content.  Using the kittens as a distraction was great the other day as he was going into an insane tantrum zone over wanting to go outside.  We couldn't go outside because it was too cold, and it was dinner time, which he, of course, didn't understand.  Usually Mickey is the only that can distract him from this zone, but bringing a kitten to him was able to distract him.  It makes me so happy to use less TV and have a much better distraction tool.

Mason only had two appointments this week as his speech therapist had to cancel the appointment. The first OT appointment was pretty usual.  He is getting much better at slowing down and noticing things and people around him.  He even tolerated wearing headphones for around 15 seconds to help him with therapeutic listening music.  He usually lasts 1 second at most with headphones on his head, so we were happy with that.

The second OT appointment was today.  It started rough.  He had just woken up and was cranky when I picked him up from daycare.  This resulted in the insane tantrum zone in the waiting room and in the therapy room for the first 15 minutes. He starts off just being cranky in the car, but as soon as he you shut him in a room and shut the door behind him, that's when the insane tantrums begin. He threw any object that came near him, even his usual comfort objects (bunny, kitty, blankie, pacifier).  He tried to hit the therapist and I.  He threw his body around.  He almost throws up from crying so hard.  He just points to the door and tries to leave. It's so so hard to watch him through these tantrums knowing that there is no way to help him or communicate with him. When he hits us, we just calmly, firmly say "No hitting mama.  That hurts mama." We also sign "no."  In the past month, he is actually starting to comprehending what it means to hurt mama.  Even saying that to him in the middle of his tantrum, he puts his face in his hands because he feels bad.  One time he even signed "no" to himself through it.  I feel so bad because when he gets in this zone, he can't get himself out of it.  I can read when he is calm enough that his comfort objects will help, and then when I put his pacifier in, he can calm down the rest of the way. It feels nice to be with a therapist who understands him when he is in the insane tantrum zone.  She is always so calm, and she says that she feels so bad that his body is so off, which makes it hard to regulate himself.  After he calms, he is pretty exhausted for a few minutes.  The OT is able to do a lot of "body work," which can help get his body feeling better and then he can regulate better.  I know this "body work" sounds weird, but his calm reactions to this shows me that it works.  After he recovered, he played in the lycra hammock, climbed up the slide, really engaged with the OT, and let her continue doing other body work.  After the really rough start, he definitely ended the appointment really well.

The past two weeks, Mason's special education preschool has been doing a lot of testing to measure where he is at developmentally and to help set goals for him.  Our speech therapist measured his receptive communication (how much communication he understands), expressive communication (how much communication he says/uses), and his social skills.  They also had a physical therapist watch his movements to see if he also needs physical therapy.  The two therapists went to Mason's daycare to observe and work with him.  It was hard for me to let go and not be there, but I knew it was best that I didn't interrupt his routine at daycare or else he would have wanted to leave with me. I also had to spend an hour on the phone with the speech therapist completing the "parent report survey" where I had to answer questions about my observations of Mason's abilities.  I am glad that all of this testing is done!! His IEP for preschool is next Tuesday where they will share their results with us.  My speech therapist did tell me that they will recommend physical therapy for him because of his problems with balance and feet while walking.  I am not surprised at all about this although it is adding another therapist to Mason's repertoire. I really am so thankful for so many great professionals working to help Mason develop and grow.

Thank you to anyone still reading the blog.  I know I write a lot of details about everything Mason is going through.  It may seem simple that you are just reading a blog, but it really means the world to me that you care enough about us and our Mason to understand everything that he is going through.

Typing is a little more difficult with the kittens but definitely much cuter.

He loooooves his bed, books, and blankies.