A new month, a new season, finishing the school year

At my baby shower, I remember my wonderful cousin Renee telling me that everything is a stage with kids. They will go through tough stages and will get past them. Then they will go through more tough stages and get past those. This is really helpful to remember when you're going through a tough stage. The end of April and beginning of May was rough for Mason. I have no idea why, but he was in a bad place. His teacher at school even asked if there was a change at home because he was having such a rough time at school. He would have many meltdowns...see the picture of the goose egg from hitting his head during a meltdown. 

Mason also started getting really clingy to me in the mornings before I left for work, which made a hard to leave the house. He had a bunch of major meltdowns at his OT appointments. One was so bad that we couldn't leave until 15 minutes after the appointment was over. He's getting so big that his meltdowns are hard to contain. We were getting hit a lot and he bit his OT pretty hard. It was a rough month. I felt pretty exhausted and disheartened. I felt like we took two steps back from the progress we were making. I felt like he would never talk or be able to communicate with me. I felt overwhelmed because we were trying so many ways to help him and nothing seemed to make a difference.

I knew it was a stage although it didn't make the rough days go any faster. His sleep is always all over the place. He goes to bed really well but can sometimes be up for hours before falling asleep or up for hours in the middle of the night. He doesn't ever call for us or cry, so I really have no idea when he is awake. I only notice when I wake up to feed Jonas in the middle of the night. We started him on melatonin a few weeks ago. It worked like a charm the first four nights! I think this helped Mason get out of his funk. Unfortunately, it stopped working. We are now just giving it to him around once a week although I think I need to up the dosage too.

Now the last few weeks have been awesome! Mason has been melting down less over little things. He has been talking a lot more. I've heard many random new words and a few two word phrases! It's interesting because we have said certain words to him for years, but he's never said them or tried to say them. We have no idea if he even knows certain words, but then he will just throw one out there. Today as we were driving to Meijer past the mall, he started melting down and saying, "Mall. mall." We go to the mall a lot to play there and always tell him we are going to the mall, but this is the first time he has actually said it. Last week, he went swimming in the hot tub with Uncle Jason, Bo, Helen, and daddy. He said, "Hi Jay." He's never said his uncle Jason's name before. This type of thing has been happening a lot lately, which is super exciting!

He's been just his overall happy, goofy self. It's hard not to smile when you are around him in this mood. When he gets his sleep and when he gets what his body needs sensory-wise, he is able to do so much more. He has been back to his usual self at school the last two weeks. He has been great at his last few OT appointments. Most of the appointments are with the lights off, but we go with whatever works! Mason has let the OT work on his feet and transitioning better at appointments. He's starting to try to pull the Velcro strap on his shoes, help pull his pants down, help put his socks on, climb into his car seat himself, etc. These are things he did not notice or would not help with a few months ago. He even likes to grab his shoes (and hat even though it was 80 degrees) when we are going outside. 

We are enjoying this stage he's in right now and hoping it lasts a long time. I have one more week of teaching before summer break. This summer break is filled with appointments for Mason. He will have his weekly OT appointments and may add some more intensive sessions. He will be going to summer school at his preschool for five random weeks throughout the summer. We have an intake assessment for speech therapy at the same place he goes to his OT appointments. He usually gets speech services at school, but since he won't have a lot of school this summer, we are going to add this for him. We also have an intake assessment for ABA therapy. We will see how often those appointments are. It'll be crazy busy, but hopefully we can help our Mason make some big gains.

We cannot thank our family and friends enough for their help with everything. My parents both drive Mason to school most of the days of the week. Our sister-in-law, Erin, watches our two boys at our house while we work. Patti still watches both boys one day a week. Thank you all for your help with Mason's transition to preschool this winter and spring. We are ready for the start of summer!