Happy Halloween!!!

Yesterday, I got to school early to see Stephen and his pals go "Trick or Treating" at the director's office for CDO. When I got there, the boy was in full-on, meltdown mode. He was very upset, and when I asked the teachers, they said that they were planning on getting the kids their snacks, but they were all running a bit behind, and hadn't gotten to it. No biggie, so I gave Stephen some cuddles as I helped him in to his costume. He finally told me twice that he was hungry. He actually used those words, twice. Excellent. Since he told me what the problem was, I let the teachers know I was going to give him a little snack. Then, they all headed down the hall to Ms. Stephanie's office for treats!(that little guy behind Stephen is Noah, his buddy. I think Noah was trying to figure out if he could get someone behind that door to give him some candy too...) Stephen and Noah play together whenever Noah is at school. I met his mom today, and hopefully in the future, we will be able to get the boys together to play outside of school!

They all made it down the hall, and were getting their treats...

I just love this picture (below). I don't remember what their teacher (in the striped shirt) was saying to them, but I love how they are all listening so intently!

So here he is, our happy clown!

We will be trick or treating on our street tonight, and depending on how Erik is feeling, we may or may not go to "Haunt the Zoo." Erik is sick, from all of the dust aggravating his throat and nose from construction right outside his office at school. Our sweet boy, knowing that Daddy was using a lot of kleenex, brought him the box while he was in the kitchen this morning. After he gave him the box, he went back to playing. What a sweetie!

Cool Dude

Grandma Deb and Grandpa Big Rick sent these for Stephen...

More stuff...

I can't even believe I forgot to post about this... Stephen graduated from Physical/Occupational Therapy last week!! His therapist was going on medical leave for 4-6 weeks, and he is no longer behind enough to warrant them assigning us anyone else for that period of time before his birthday. He is at or above age level in most areas of gross and fine motor skills!!! It's not always obvious to us, though, because Stephen has some very definite ideas of what he will and won't do, no matter his ability. Oh well! He has a couple of things to work on still, but we are all very confident he will have them in a short period of time.

On the potty front, we are also seeing some improvement. He still won't tell us with words when he has to go, but he gets pretty whiney when he needs to, because he doesn't want to have an accident. That works pretty well for us at home, but not so much at school. I think he will just have to continue to wear the training pants at school until we can get him to verbalize his potty needs better - we just can't expect 2 teachers with 10 kids to know all of his non-verbal potty cues!!

In about a month, Stephen will be evaluated by some people in our school district to determine how much speech help he will need after he turns 3. Several months ago, this stressed me out to no end - I didn't want him to have to have a an Individual Education Plan and be in the "system" at all. BUT... the fact remains that he doesn't talk enough, and when he does, it's hard to understand him. He understands everything we say to him (and frequently things we say to others... he's a smarty pants little stinker sometimes!), so we certainly don't worry about that. He just needs help articulating his needs and wants, and we are grateful that we have this resource available to us, without having to pay for it or go through our insurance! Our school district actually has a preschool class specifically for kids with language delays, which is pretty exciting. This means that there will be less likelihood of him being place in a class with kids with other issues, and end up having behavioral problems as a result.

"School" is going well also! Stephen just loves it so much there, and it's obvious that they love him as well. He pushed me out the door last week after I got my kiss goodbye, and barely even noticed when I came to pick him up! We can totally tell a difference in him since he started - he is just blossoming! It's just so nice.

Ok, for the next post, I promise some pictures. I just don't feel like waiting for Blogger to upload right now!!

To the Farm!

On Saturday, we headed down to Moore, OK, to go to the Orr Farm. There are a TON of things to do there, including a petting zoo, playground equipment, a corn maze, a train, a carousel, pedal cars, a bouncy area, a hayride, and of course, a pumpkin patch.

We started the day at the petting zoo. The goat was interesting...



And the pig felt rough and scratchy. The pig was very distracted eating, so he wasn't too interested in the small person touching him...


The best animals, though, were the sheep! We reminded Stephen what sound the sheep makes, and he just lit up, understanding that THIS sheep is just like the sheep in his current favorite book ("Moo, Baa, La La La"). He even fed the sheep a little bit!

Then we had to make him sit with the big pumpkin for a good photo opportunity. This was the only one where he was smiling - the others, he was just relaxing on the hay!

We rode on the Carousel... Stephen was pretty aprehensive about it for the whole ride. He had been on one before, but that was last summer, so I suspect he just didn't remember, and was a little nervous about it!

Remember that episode of the Twilight Zone - "Eye of the Beholder?" Yeah...

But here was our happy boy on the train. I was surprised that this was his favorite activity of the day, but he really enjoyed the 15 minute ride!!

After the train, we hopped on the tractor for a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our three pumpkins. About halfway through the ride out, Stephen started to poop out. He had very little interest in picking out his pumpkin, and dozed off a bit on the way back. We ran him pretty ragged, but all in all, fun times were had by the family! We'll definitely do it again next year!!!

Bad Blogger!

Yikes, it's been a while since I last posted... that's because the grandparents were here visiting from Tucson! They called right at the beginning of October and asked if they could drive out for a week or so, and of course we said yes. It ended up being very convenient for Mommy especially, as Stephen passed on his rather nasty cold, and having the grandparents here allowed Mommy to rest and get better more quickly. Stephen's cold turned into an ear infection, but that seems to have cleared up well with antibiotics!


Now, on to the pictures!!!

It was pretty chilly a couple of weeks ago - I think the high temperatures were about 20 degrees below normal for a few days, so we bundled Stephen up pretty well to go outside!

One afternoon, when Stephen and I were both feeling ok, we all went out to Bass Pro Shops, and then out to dinner afterwards. Stephen really loved running all over the store, and driving the big boats!

I'm not sure what Stephen was applauding at the restaurant, but he was doing it! He ate a TON that night. In addition to the food we brought for him, he also ate a good bit of fried okra, some chicken finger pieces, and some garlic mashed potatoes. He must be going through a growth spurt, because he has been eating a lot more than normal lately. I'm sure it's because Grandma hemmed all of his too long pants for him while they were here...

In other news, speech is coming along, and it is becoming evident that Stephen is a very bright little boy. He can pick out some of the alphabet if you ask him, and even knows what letters some words start with! He knows that Stephen starts with "S - T," Mommy starts with "M," Daddy starts with "D," and Ghost begins with "G." We never actually discussed Ghost and it's spelling with him, so he just figured it out by himself!!

He can also now go up AND down the stairs by himself (but we will still spot him for a while). And he is just so independent about it! He just wants to do so much by himself now, but thankfully Stephen is still as much of a cuddle-bug as ever!

Hey, I'm Chuck!

This is Stephen's new favorite toy - Chuck My Talking Dumptruck. He will play with this for 10-20 minutes at a time, and comes back to it often throughout the day. His favorite thing to do is make Chuck crash into things. Chuck talks, and he will move if you talk loudly enough to him as well... Pretty cool, and TONS of fun!

"I want..."

This is Stephen's new phrase, and he is using it quite a bit lately! First, it was "I want to do it!" (not that clearly, of course). Then it became "I want to poop" (and no, it wasn't a stall tactic - his tummy was bothering him). Today, it was "I want Gary!!" (his alligator bath toy). Can I tell you all how nice it is to have him communicating with us? FINALLY!!!!

Friends

Being a small person makes it hard to make friends. Add to that, walking late, and not talking much, and it makes it even harder for Mommy to set up play dates, so small people can MAKE friends. Nevertheless, Stephen has managed to make friends with some small people who belong to some of Mommy's friends (namely, Alexander and Jarrett). Today, however, Stephen made his OWN friend. The reasons for choosing this little boy are Stephen's own, and I'm sure someday he will tell us why his likes this little guy, but he and another boy spent all day playing together at school, and much of that time was spent laughing together. He may have a different buddy next week, but for now, he has a friend that HE has chosen, with whom he enjoys spending time. And that makes us ALL very happy.