Changes

We were sad to have to say good bye to our friends at Rise last week. Now we look forward to the changes ahead. Christopher will now be attending childcare three days a week here in town. This means that we can schedule the important quality time needed with our new friends at Reach. The team is changing, it is growing, and I pray that this week goes ok. I am really glad that our friend Martha will be with him for the beginning of his first day, and Renee will be there in the afternoon. I need to spend some time getting the rest of all the application and papers in order for him to begin on Tuesday. Also need to revise our Team Chris P contact page. As well as organize his communication binder for the team, need to print a blank calendar for it to keep track of who's coming, going, when and where!

Thank you to Rise for all the really great care and support, we will miss you, but promise to visit after Christopher has settled into his new environment.

Where's Ki Hi?

We were lucky to have cousin Kaleigh Rose spend the two nights with us this weekend. Thats three Thanksgivings in a row, so I guess you can now say it is tradition to have her here for Thanksgiving. Yeah, we like that. While she was here Christopher and she played together quite a bit. I think this was a mutually fun visit for the both of them. Christopher is able to interact much more and she found it less necessary to lift and carry him all through out the house.

She and he played with the Brio trains, she rebuilt a great track set up for him. And they played a great game of jumping around on the floor mattresses, she pretended that it hurt when she fell onto the mat and said "Ow", and then he did too. He was her little parrot, he copied her moves and some of her words.

We were in his room this morning and played a game of hide your eyes and then find Mommy. After a few turns of this I asked him to find Kaleigh. Where's Kaleigh? He said "Ki Hi", and would get excited and giggle when he found her. Soon there after Auntie KK came to join the game and she also was "Ki Hi". Kaleigh and KK sound very much the same, and have the same syllables.

Oh Hi.

I began to string the lights today. And in that process out came "Frosty". Our big plastic light up snowman that most people would put out on their front lawn, but not us. Frosty lives indoors. When I plugged him in and he lit up, Christopher look straight at him and said "Oh Hi!" and then proceeded to go to him and kiss him.

Thanks Giving.

We had a nice gathering for thanksgiving at Mema Dy's. Griffin did more of the giving and Christopher did the taking. In his defense how ever they were really cool toys! Big fire truck and a lighting McQueen! Once he got the lighting McQueen in his hand it stayed till we left. Sorry Griffin. Guess we now know what to put on the Santa list.

Actually it was a really nice visit for all. Mema did a good job clearing special kids space for the kids to be kids and the food was great. Christopher stayed mostly in the den with and without the other kids. They all came and went while he mostly stayed in there as his special little hang out. It had toys, and videos.

Once it was dark there was a fire pit and karaoke outdoors. Christopher found it to be great fun to hold the flashlight to spot light the ground, he chased this around much like a cat would. He played this by himself and he let me take turns holding the flashlight to move the light for him to chase. This went on for a solid ten minutes.

Later in the evening as people settled outside and or had left Christopher spent less time in the den and more time pushing the fire truck through out the house as some of us played a lively game of apples to apples. It was nice to see him out of the den and in the same room as us. He didn't however seek any of us out to join him, just passing through.

Nigh, Night Friends

We have begun a new step to saying good night. This past week each night in preparation for night night bed time we have said good night to all of Christopher's small fury and stuffed friends. Some times they get a big kiss, some get a hug, and some just get tossed in, while others he places just so. This has been a great quiet time activity. We snuggle, and slow down, and in the end he has crib full of friends to sleep with, and if he not quite ready to sleep then it's a crib full of friends to toss around and snuggle some more with. In the morning we put them all back into the box so that they are ready for the next nights routine. Thank you Daniel for taking this video for us, too bad the batteries went dead.

I found one.

So I have been on the hunt for a Christopher sized table do work, eat, and play at. Everything that I have found didn't seem right or cost too much. Then while walking the other day I passed Good Fortune in Keene as I do everyday when I walk. But something made me turn and go in . . . and there was this table with six chairs. So I slept on it, waited a night and day then realized that this must be the table for us. We'll go pick it up this weekend. This will be perfect for all of us really, these chairs are supper sturdy, so that even adults can sit at this table. Feet wrapped up around your ears but the chair will hold you up. This is about a 4 foot round Oak table that will also serve as a great board game space for the games that Daniel and I play. So it looks as though this table will become an important piece of furniture in our home for a long time to come.

Safety First!

Dan captured this snap shot of Christopher while Christopher was quietly watching cartoons one morning this past week. Neither one of us realized that he had taken his helmet down from his room so when we came upon him sitting on the couch with it on Dan found it most camera worthy. He was right, so cute. And it wasn't until posing this that I even realized he's sitting there with the remote in hand too. Now I wonder where he gets that from?

Whack a Mole

Poppy came to play with the boys while we went out on Friday night. (THANK YOU POPPY!) Daniel spent most of his time on the phone with friends and Poppy and Christopher had some fun one on one time. Christopher and Poppy in stitches while playing our at home whack a mole game. Christopher and I played some more this morning. Instead of whacking the moles himself he takes my hand and hits the moles that light up with my hand.

HOT!

Christopher likes to play in the bathroom sink. Mostly he plays with the cold, but today he kept turning on the hot water. He doesn't play with it just wants to let you know that it is hot. He turns it on and warns who ever may be near that it is "HOT!"

Fun with plush Panda

Gramma Nancy gave Christopher a new furry friend. A plush, and really super soft Panda from the Savings Bank of Walpole feed a friend campaign. Christopher really likes him a lot. While on our way back from hockey today he sat in his car seat with a small matchbox dumptruck and his new Panda friend. He was taking turns playing with the dupm truck, allowing the Panda to take turn to drive it too. He would take the Pandas paw and make believe that the Panda was taking a turn.

Blowing Kisses

We recently had a visit from Mema Jeanne. Christopher showed her all the fun places he has to jump around. When she left he blew kisses to her from the front porch.

CHANGES

Thank you for checking in . . . sorry to be so delayed in my posts. I am in the center of many changes in our childcare approach. Check back again on Sunday. I have a few posts saved up but no time till Saturday AM to post them.

Getting Bananas.

Dan called me as Christopher and I drove home tonight and asked that we stop and get bananas. So Christopher and I stopped at Garmarlos Grocery. As always he enjoyed pushing the smaller cart that they have there, we picked out bananas and then we passed a boxed of chocolate covered doughnuts. He picked them up and handed them to me and kept pushing the cart along. I put them back on the shelf. When he looked back at me and saw that they were not in my hands any longer he did a double take back to the cart to see if I had put them there. Once he discovered that they were in fact not in the cart he proceeded to return to their place on the shelf and reselect them and placed them securely in the cart himself. As we approached the check out he must have sensed his purchase was in danger so that he no longer trusted to leave the box in the cart but rather he held on firmly till we got through the check out and only with protest did he allow me to remove the box from his hands in order for the clerk to ring them up. Honestly the child size cart and his big determination; he looked like a little man.

The last time we he and I went to Garmarlos Grocery he and I had to wait in a rather slow line and he very much impressed me with his patience as he waited our turn again holding on to his miniature cart with his short grocery list inside.

Oh, oh, wanhelp.

Earlier today while not getting sufficient amounts of my attention, Christopher pretended that he was unable to get up. He made a big show of being half up and half down on the floor. Looking at me with puppy eyes and saying oh, oh, oh wanhelp, and holding out one little hand for me to come save the day as if he were hurt and really needed someone to pull him up. Only he was in no way hurt or stuck. Just wanted me to stop what I was doing. LOL - you are so cute kid.

Today at Hockey Game

First Daniels team won! Yeah Springfield Capitals!

I decided today to take a stand and stood firm on Christopher learning that once we were in the rink we were to stay in the rink. He stood at the door and pushed through to the lobby several times. Each time I brought him back in and stood inside in order to see the game, he would push but stop. He would look to see if I was looking, then go for it again. Eventually and not with out many attempts and full on the floor protests he did stay inside the doors.

He next wanted a bottle, so rule is for bottle we sit. That did not go so smooth. It was good that I was sitting in the front row of the bleachers because I could only imagine the looks that were coming my way for sitting there holding a crying toddler during the game. Hey - I just ignored them and his fit and he did relax and sat for almost a full period of the game. I could actually feel his body relax on my lap once he settled down.

Mema Dy came to the game today too. And that was nice. Always nice to see Mema Dy. Nice to have additional back up eyes at the rink that understand and can help out when Mommy needs to go to the ladies room and powder her nose.

Puddle Jumper

Daniel and I took Christopher for a walk down to the cows this afternoon. Today we took the wagon. Most of the trip to the farm Christopher sat happily drinking from his bottle till he saw the tractors and truck. Then we said hello to the dog and the cows. On the way back however once out of the wagon it was walking with the farm dog and then jumping into every puddle no matter the size. Once we said goodbye to the dog and she had to stay we continued to walk along jumping from puddle (muddy pot holes with with water along the dirt road) to puddle. He was soaked! We next said good bye to Daniel at the corner where we left him with some friends and proceeded home for a ride on the tractor. Still soaked - he didn't care. Once inside I stripped him at the door and he snuggled on the couch with Daddy for awhile.

Puddle jumping! What fun, wish I had my camera with me. Oh, well snap shot in my mind makes me smile.

Friday

The end of another week. This week has been a good week. Christopher used many new words this week. And we've added another member to Team Chris P. More is in the works. Fingers crossed that when some of these balls land that they fall into the right place. Good thing balls roll so they can get pushed around some for minor adjustments.

Mr Magoo vs. Evil Knievel

Christopher you need to watch where you are going. So often I find him running towards or away from something with his head turned to the side. He is often bumping into things lately. I have taken to calling him Mr.Magoo.

On the flip side . . .

This morning as I came down stairs the temperature was noticeably warmer as I came down. And by the time I got from the third floor to the first floor I was sweating a bit. The house was hot like a mid summers day. 85 degrees in fact! Just five more degrees till it reached the temperature that "Evil Knievel" had set the t-stat at. Evil Knievel aka Christopher had pushed a chair to the trunk below the t-stat and light switches and proceeded to turn it up to 90 degrees. Needless to say the coal hopper was hopping and had burned through all it's coal last night. The poor bunny was patting in his cage. He was grateful for all the sliding doors being open at 6am this morning.

Mom. Mom. Mom.

While working on the last post Christopher was at the end of the hall and wanted my attention. Usually he comes and tugs me from the computer, but not this time. Instead he stood at the end and called "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom." untill I looked over. I really don't know how many Mom's he went through before I looked over because he's never done that before. He usually comes and tugs on me while he says "Wanhelp?" When I did look up he stopped saying Mom and simply gestured with his hand a little come here and ran into Daniel's room where he needed some help with the TV.

Hi Dadee. I talk.

I was speaking with Dan on the phone last night and during my conversation Christopher wanted to have the phone. I handed him the phone and he said "Hi Dadee. I talk." And then he handed the phone back to me before he ran off to the other room. So cute.

Veterans Day

Schools, Post Office, Banks and the like all close for the holiday, but many still have to work including Dan and I. And thank you to both our friends Roberta and Lilli that made time to come play with Christopher yesterday.

Our visit with Roberta was fun, we scooted around on long boards and of course built, hid in , and climbed on the big blocks. Roberta has suggested that we find a small table and chairs to begin more table time activites. Good Idea!

I wasn't able to stay and speak with Lilli to learn about her time this morning but it seemed as though they were having a really good time when I slipped out. Daniel reported that Christopher had a hard time saying good bye to Lilli's toy train when it was time to go.

The rest of the boys day was spent playing with Poppy. He came to cover while Dan and I worked. THANK YOU POPPY. Thank you for your help yesterday, and thank you to you on this veterans day!

Havagooniegh.

I learned yesterday at pick up from childcare that Christopher had a moment of parroting! This is great - doesn't matter the words he repeated, more that he repeated words! However I must tell you the words. If only I could have been there. While having his diaper changed there was a mishap with the wipes in the way they dispensed and the adult said "What the heck?" and Christopher did too! LOL.

Melissa was telling me at pick up time that she thought she even heard him saying "have a good night" to friends as they were leaving for the night. And then while we were leaving ourselves he did it again. I heard it too. Way to go Christopher. It sounded more like "Havagooniegh" all one word. Almost if he had a rewind and repeat slowly button it would repeat a clear "Have a good night."

New Friend Joins TEAM CHRIS P

Due to power outage I was unable to post last night about Christopher's day on Monday.

He had his visit with Martha hear at home in the morning. She brought with her a new friend to join the team. Renee will begin to come and regularly work with Christopher specifically on speech. Christopher was happily occupied when they arrived else where in the house so it was nice that we three ladies had a chance to meet, talk and catch up for a bit before he discovered that they were here. We talked a lot about schedule and options that I need to work out in order to manage both Christopher's schedule and maintain a consistent work schedule. More on that as it becomes more clear. We also talked about his eating and our relaxed routine for table time. Martha always insightful offered some great suggestions for more structure in the eating department, we'll keep working on the food part as we go.
I met with Kathy last week and was excited to here her say that he had played with his food one day. He touched a food that was not part of his regular boring food list! This is good.

Anyway back to our morning visit. When Christopher heard Martha he came running out and I am sure he had the intention to run and hug her but detoured into a body flop on the mattress when he saw the strange face. He was a little shy about her presence but still his normal happy self. It did seem like he was more attached to me during their visit and less sure even of Martha. I think because of our new friend.

Welcome to Team Chris P Renee.

Lights Out!

Some unfortunate event seems to have occurred down the street at or near the beautiful farm house that over looks the valley below that meant Christopher and I had to turn and go home a different way last night. Prayers go to the people along with rescue and fire staff that were effected by what ever required the fire, police and power company. Christopher and I drove an erie dark ride up the mountain. Only faint glows of candles and flashlights from the homes we passed along the way.

So lights out even before bed. This was strange and Christopher was very unsure of his place in the dark last night. I was impressed that Dan and Daniel had found the emergency box in the mud room and had already set a glow the house with candles. Christopher and I found them napping on the couch in the candle light. Daniel thought he was out of having to do homework till I reminded him he could still type his paper on his laptop as long as the battery lasted. For dinner I heated up some water on the gas stove, cooked and quick batch of oodles of noodles. Simple no fuss in the dark. I located the portable DVD player and it's battery supply inserted a long ago seen Barney DVD and it was like magic before Christopher eyes! Dan and I took advantage of the candle light and opened a bottle of wine and discuss the days events.

Early to bed for all . . . no end in sight for powers return. It did come back near 1AM.

48 Hours with no where to go.

Well our weekend is nearing its end. Unfortunately Daniel has been ill since Friday. Seems more like seasonal flu than swine flu as he only had temp for little more than 24 hours. He has been completely fine all day, still with cough though. So we kept him still a prisoner of sick bay all weekend. Only allowed to leave his room to use the bathroom. I then follow his steps wiping down all surfaces of any stray germs that may have jumped free of him. Take that you germs! Anyway all this means is that we had NO SPORTS this weekend to go to. The teams survived without Daniel, soccer team placed 2nd in the tournament and hockey team won the game with a final penalty shot. And we spent the entire 48 hours of this glorious weekend at home. Christopher and I did a lot of bouncing on the mattresses we have placed on the floors to cuddle, bounce, jump, and goof around on. We also hung a bar with rings for some hang time suspended from a beam over a big mattress. Daniel will enjoy this too , when he's freed from his room. Christopher read buks with Dadee. And today we went for a walk to see the cows down the street. More interesting to Christopher were the rocks in the road that he felt needed to be removed and placed at the edge of the road. This went on for most of our walk as half of this journey to the cows is dirt. We now have a load of rocks in the stroller as well.

Stip!

Stip, or more commonlly understood as stop is a great word. Not only is it great that I am able to get him to stop but he also has learned that he can make those around him stop by using the word and hand sign for stop. This is such a wonderful unstanding that we have discovered this week. This will aid in keeping him safe and will help him to be understood when he wishes for something near or happening to him to stop. Through these discoveries I am learning that the simplest of things we take for granted equals mountains of knowledge and understanding for Christopher. Way to go Christopher.

New Words

Each day it seems now we hear new words. Not clear at first but then clearer and clearer. Two weeks ago during a visit with Roberta we played a game of find "Mommy" and for the first time I heard him saying and signing "Mammy" till he found me. Since then he and I play daily and now we include "Danool" and "Dadee". This week the words draw, book, and talk are the ones I can remember. Awhile back I began keeping a log of his words, but as there are more it seems harder to keep up. The thing that most impressed me this past two weeks is that more than words I hear his voice. As he has gained more words and puts more words into use as he communicates he has a sweet little voice that till now has really only been a series of grunts, whines, and sounds. Though the grunts, whines, and misc. sounds are still his primary way of getting our attention it's nice to hear his voice. "Wanhelp?" "Isstuck" "Tank" "Daggee" "Allo" "Stip"

Zero to Six Months Gone By . . . .

Six months ago we were first told of the possibilty that Christopher fell into the PSDS/Autism Spectrum. Since that time a lot has been learned. A lot has been done and achomplished and still there is so much more to do. This blog has been created now for me to keep track of all this hard work that so many including Christopher is doing. And hopefuly the team working with him now and in the future will find this to be a helpful tool. This blog may also serve as a place for family and friends to visit and check in on all the good things happening for Christopher.

Thank you for visiting . . . come back again soon and often. Please keep in mind this is my first real blog . . .so I am kinda of learning as I go.