The Pick-Up

My watch reads 2:23 as I pull into the half-empty parking lot of the local County Board of Developmental Disabilities. I’m early. I brace myself and, holding my breath, head into the building. Pick-ups are always nerve wracking. As I pass the office, the secretary calls out, “Hi Michelle!” I smile and return her greeting. She must sense my anxiety because she looks at me and says, “I didn’t hear anything today.” I heave a huge sigh of relief. “That’s great,” I say (and looking up silently whisper “Thank you”).

I make my way into the area that houses the classrooms and play areas. As I enter the play center, I am greeted by the sight of 14 little ones lined up in a neat little row dressed in their cute little hats and coats. They have just come in from playing outside and are waiting their turn at the drinking fountain. A quick glimpse tells me that, yes, this is Noah’s class. I scan the heads of the little ones, looking for that unmistakable red Lightning McQueen hat that Noah wears to school EVERY day, but I can’t seem to find it…..at first.

My eyes come to rest on Noah’s aide. She turns to her right, and there off to the side of the group, is my sweet little boy. I feel tears start to well up. He is standing alone, halfway into the speech therapist’s office,. He is staring fixatedly at the fluorescent light in the ceiling. He doesn’t even seem to notice that I have entered the room, but his little “friends” have. Almost in unison, cries of “Noah! Your mommy’s here! Noah!” rise up from the line of 3-year-olds. Still Noah doesn’t seem to notice. Finally, his aide kneels down and touches Noah on the shoulder. She speaks to him and after a few seconds he looks up. “Mama! You’re here!” he cries and comes running to me. I pick him up and squeeze him for all that I am worth. He pulls away, looks at me with those beautiful eyes and says, “I need to go home.” As new tears spring to my eyes, I reply “Okay, Noni. We’re going home.”

Whining

Noah's sleeping. The house is quiet. I should be napping with him. The last two weeks have been a roller coaster ride. Up, down, around. In, out, and back again. Do I sound bitter, or what? And it really hasn't been that bad. It's just.....been.

Noah had two REALLY good weeks at school. We had two reports. Minor things really. Last week, he got the "quiet as a mouse" award. Huh? My kid? Big surprise there. On Thursday, less than 20 minutes after dropping him off at school, we got a call from the school nurse. "Noah has a fever of 100.2 and he's really whiny. He just wants to be held and rocked. Could you come get him?" She also went on to tell us how good he is about taking his medicine for her at lunch (he takes 3 meds at lunch). She said that if she is late getting there, he is waiting on her. Pretty cute, but pretty sad too. When I picked him up, he was grabbing his throat and saying his mouth hurt. He ran a fever of about 102 Thursday and Friday. On Friday night, his fever hit 104. Needless to say, we ended up in the ER. He has tonsillitis. Wonderful. He is doing better now. No fever yesterday or today. I'm just worried about all the antibiotics he has been on lately. Poor kid.

He has been on hiatus from PT and OT the last two weeks. Apparently he hit his limit of OT/PT visits for the year. His new year doesn't start until April 29th. I think we have everything worked out and he should be able to start back on Tuesday. It has been so sad to go to his speech appointments because we have to drive past his OT and PT building and Noah always cries and says, "I wanna go see Noelle. I want Noelle." He really loves his OT. He's even been asking about Miss Laurie, his PT. Can't wait to see his reaction when he sees Noelle again.

I know being sick and the change in routine and not feeling well is really getting to him. He is so cranky and irritable. He's been crying way more than usual and has been more aggressive toward himself and others. He's back to hitting himself or the dog or me when he is upset. He's also back to head-butting and head banging. I was so sure we had seen the last of those. I just want things to get back to our normal. I just want my little guy to be the happy kid I am used to having around.

We had a support group meeting on Monday. It was nice. I love those people. They are like a second family to me. This journey would be so much harder without the wonderful people that I have met online and through the support group, Thanks for being here.

Random Stuff

First I want to say thank you for all the wonderful advice on the toilet training topic. You are all great!

Noah has had an awesome week. His therapy sessions went better than I had expected. He even reached a few milestones.

Physical Therapy
Noah had PT last Tuesday and his therapist, Miss Laurie, finally got Noah to jump. With both feet off the ground at the same time! We all cheered (even Noah). He was so pleased with himself.

Occupational Therapy
On Friday we saw Noelle, his OT. I, once again, brought up the issue with him not walking outside when there is snow on the ground. She was already prepared. She and Noah took their shoes off and stuck their feet in bins of different things (rice, corn, beans). Noah actually seemed to enjoy it. Then, Noelle covered the floor in shaving cream and they walked in that. Noah LOVED this. I was really surprised because he is normally a neat freak. Then, she brought in a HUGE bin of snow from outside. Noah was a little hesitant, but eventually they made snowballs and snowmen. Finally, we all went outside and played in the snow! Noah actually didn't seem to mind it much. At least he didn't ask to be carried. So far, so good. (He does still want carried into school, but I think that is more of a separation issue.)

Speech Therapy
Noah saw Miss Emily on Friday, too. He did really well. We are still working on sequencing and wh-questions. Noah did something that surprised us, though. At the end of his sessions, Noah always wants to play with the bubbles (sound familiar?) and usually he gets rather upset when he has to put them away. Miss Emily always gives him a warning and says, "one more time and then we are all done". When she was done instead of crying, Noah looked at her and said, "We're all done. Time to go. " Neither of us could believe it! I was so proud of him!

School
School was closed all last week (and most of the week before) because of the snow, so I was kind of nervous about how he would handle going back after over a two-week hiatus. I shouldn't have worried. He did cry when I dropped him off Monday and had to be carried into his classroom, but when I picked him up his aide and teacher both said that he had a great day. On the way home, I was looking through his valentines with him and asking him, "do you like E? Do you play with N?" things like that. When I asked him, "Do you play with K?" Noah looked at me and said, "He beat Noah. He beat my back. He said sorry." Oh My!! This about floored me. Normally, Noah doesn't share anything about school. I can't believe how far he has come.

Yesterday was even better. When I picked him up his teacher told me that he had the best day so far! He even asked to go potty and used the toilet like everyone else. (He made somewhat of a mess, but who cares!) Everyone was so excited for him! He has went two days without any behavior reports being sent home. I think that's a record for him!

I was really worried when he first started that so many hours at school would be too much (he goes 5 1/2 hrs a day, 4 days a week), but he seems to be really thriving and making huge gains there. I miss him when he is at school, but I guess I have to do what is best for him. He just seems so little!

So, as you can see, this has been a really good week. Can't wait to see what the next week brings!

Tackling Toilet Training

Any advice on potty training would be GREATLY appreciated!

We decided to try potty training again. We tried potty training a few months back and Noah actually went a few days with no accidents. Then, he missed the toilet and that was it. He would have nothing to do with the potty. This time is proving much harder. We are trying the "nothing below the waist" method and let's just say that most of the morning has been spent cleaning the floors. I am honestly beginning to wonder if Noah even feels the urge to go because he seems to realize that he is going once he starts, but not before. Maybe I am going about this the wrong way. Noah is my first and this is new territory. Noah is already 3 and I am really feeling the pressure to potty train. Any tips?

Ramblings

I guess I am not doing a very good job of blogging like I should, but things have been somewhat drab around here. We have been fighting the winter blahs. Noah has yet another ear infection and a nasty winter cold. Antibiotics and breathing treatments have been making things much easier though. He didn’t manage to make it to school at all last week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were all snow days and then Thursday started with a fever. Noah (okay, maybe not Noah, more likely Mama) was really disappointed to miss his classroom Valentine’s Day party. Daddy took his invitations into his classmates, though. They were Cars valentines, of course. It was either Cars or Transformers. We decided on Cars. We missed physical therapy on Tuesday because of the weather. We also missed speech and occupational therapy on Friday, but that’s okay. Hopefully, we will make it there this week.

Sometimes Noah says the funniest things. One of my favorites from the past week is:

Me: I love you, Noah.
Noah: I love you, Mama.
Me: Silly boy.
Noah: Silly girl.

At least he’s beginning to understand gender! Now if I can just get him to quit calling every adult male “a Dad” and every adult female “a Mom”, I’ll be good to go!

Noah also makes up his own words. One pretty common one around our house is “scoove it”. Yep…it’s Noah-ish. It’s a combination of “scoot over” and “move it”. I love it!

We’ve been dealing with a few issues around here lately. One of them is definitely sensory-related, but the other two I am not so sure what those are about.

First, we’re back to fighting during baths. Noah is back to screaming bloody murder when his hair is being washed. No matter what I do or how gentle I am or how fun I try to make it, he has a fit. He had been doing really well, but now he’s having issues with that again. Maybe once he is over all the winter sickies, he will be back to being okay with it. Keeping my fingers crossed on that one.

Second, Noah absolutely refuses to set foot in the snow. Not sure what is up with that, but he seems to be absolutely terrified of walking in the snow. The only thing that we can guess is that Daddy fell on the ice a couple of weeks ago and now Noah is afraid of falling, too. Kind of puts a damper on taking him sledding, considering we’ve got like a foot of snow on the ground! Gonna have to work on this one, so that we can build a snowman and go sledding before winter is over.

Third, Noah has been having this weird obsession/control…not sure what it is. It is much more apparent at school, but I have seen it a few times at home. I received two notes sent home about it and was informed about it by his teacher a couple of weeks ago, as well. I’m not really sure how to explain it, but here are a couple examples.

Example 1: Noah was supposed to walk to the gym, but refused. The teacher’s aide carried him kicking and screaming to the gym. Once there, Noah beat on the gym doors wanting to go back to the classroom so that he could walk to the gym without being carried.

Example 2: Noah was asked to throw his lunch tray in the garbage. When he refused, his teacher walked him over to the garbage can and made him throw his tray away. Noah then wanted to dig his tray out of the garbage so that he could throw it away himself.

Isn’t that weird? Not sure what to make of this. If anybody has any ideas, let me know. I’m at a loss on this one. (Of course I’m also wondering where his 1:1 aide was during these incidents, since he wasn’t with her during any of them. What’s a 1:1 aide for?)

I’ve rambled far too long and need to get my Cars fanatic to turn off the movie and go to bed.

Back to School

Noah finally made it back to school today! No fever yesterday and none today. I am so glad that we appear to be over this nasty bug. His teacher and his aide both said that he had a really good day today, one of his best so far! I was really glad to hear that. I was worried that he would have a rough day after missing so many and getting out of his routine, but it appears that he did well. He did have one incident report becaus he threw himself on the floor in front of the door and cried because he wanted his "Mama". I'm not sure whether to cry or jump for joy! LOL Up until he started school, Noah never seemed to care whether I was around or not. Now he cries when I leave him at school. It's kind of nice to know that he does want me around.

Noah had a really cruddy day yesterday. Noah's pediatrican wanted him to have some bloodwork and a chest x-ray because he had been running a fever for so long. So we went to the hospital and Noah did really well for the x-ray. Poor baby had a horrible time when it came to getting his blood drawn. After trying both arms, they resorted to pricking two of his fingers and trying to get enough that way. It was really cute though. Noah kept saying, "I'm all done doctor". When they put the bandaid on his arm, Noah said "Oh, Thank You". It was so sweet. They were really nice to him and got a laugh out of how quickly he went from crying to laughing. They also gave him loads of stickers, a coloring book and a box of crayons.

Today has been much better. He seems really happy and has been playing. Tomorrow we have school and physical therapy. That should be fun!

Friday Fever

Today was supposed to be therapy day. Noah was scheduled for his usual speech, OT and PT. Unfortunately, the fever is persisting and we had to cancel all three for the second Friday in a row. Unless we keep him pumped full of Motrin and Tylenol, Noah's temperature hovers betwen 101 and 103. This has been going on for over a week. He has had one or two days without a fever and then the fever returns. Not sure what is going on. The fevers and ear pain are supposedly the result of mastoiditis. We are on our second round of antibiotic/steroid ear drops and our first round of oral antibiotics. I hope they do the trick soon because Noah looks and feels just plain miserable.

Noah playing video games and looking sick