I have such good intentions of keeping this updated... When I can get a laptop, it'll be easier. Blogging from my phone just takes longer than I have the patience for most days :p The typing I do is usually posting at www.gentlechristianmothers.com/community but the site is on summer vacation right now ;)
Ethan's continuing to progress with his occupational therapy :) We don't know how much longer he'll have it. The department it's under is in danger of being shut down due to budget cuts :( If it ends up a casualty of politics, there is only one other place that takes Medicaid for OT in this area. And I don't know if it would be worth it... Guess if/when that time comes, we'll make a decision.
His behavioral therapy has been a bit different. The social worker has been doing home visits. She wanted to see him in a setting he'd be more comfortable. It's worked out to be a very good change! She's gotten a lot of new insight and even got to see a meltdown including most of the lead-up. We'll be starting a new therapy this week called Circle of Security. Friday will be our intro meeting about it. I looked around their website some and was happy with what I've seen so far. It meshes really well with our style of parenting, and addresses some issues that haven't been resolved with what we've done so far.
And it couldn't have come at a better time! The last week with Ethan has been the worst we've had for a while :( He and Jesse are on another spiral of feeding off each other's negativity. It's awful to be around... Especially for someone like me who is so in tune with their emotions. Today and Monday were pretty bad. It's really hard to keep myself from absorbing the intensity of those emotions and letting them pull me down too. Let me just say that I have empathic tendencies, and anyone who has them knows what struggles I'm facing in the midst of all this anger and turmoil... I had to partially restrain him today which I haven't had to do in a while. But last night he fell asleep on the couch with his head in my lap... And this morning he and I rough-housed for a long time. It hasn't all been negative :)
On to Gabriel! He is so expressive and cracks me up when he gets going :) He's started throwing toys to get attention. It's not something we can ignore :( We're trying to figure out an appropriate consequence that works for the situation. He went through a short period of hitting himself in the head when he got frustrated, and wanting attention for it. Thankfully that's getting better! It's so hard not to respond when he does it, but that's the only way the behavior will stop. He's 2.5 and acting in very age-appropriate ways ;)
Ethan's birthday and party are this month :) He wants Clifford for his theme. I have a neat cake idea, just hope it turns out like I'm hoping!
I made Ethan a weighted pillow a few weeks ago. It's to put on his lap while sitting to help him sit still. He asks for it when he feels he needs it and has done really well with it so far! I'll try to get a post up specifically about the pillow...
And in other news... The boys' homeschool curriculum came in :) I'm pretty nervous but definitely excited too! Abeka K4 for Ethan (manuscript), and a few of their toddler workbooks for Gabriel. We also got the Abeka bible curriculum. We are mostly happy with it but will be adding some extra lessons as well.
Hmmm... I'm exhausted, so that's all for now! I'll try to be better about posting on this blog :p
