Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Happenings....

Here is our life lately in pictures (although if you follow me on instagram, then you might just want to ignore this post.)


Yahtzee night with our friends Jessica and Elliot. I love grown up time when our kids are asleep.  


I've been working out at the gym a lot.  It sucks and my butt is still huge. Go figure.


Visiting Nat once a week in Sugarhouse.  Oh how I love riding bikes and feeding ducks.  It is the highlight of my week.  Thank goodness for a twin sister :)


I bought a big plastic bin and filled it with painting and craft supplies.  I was so sick of cars and trains that I went a little crazy at the store.   Hooray for paints!


Travis' boss decided to buy us a nice dinner out on the town.  This was hands down the most expensive dinner I have ever had.  Really delicious though. I'm still dreaming about the ravioli. Mmmmm.


Eating dinner.  Cute Husband.


I couldn't wait for dinner to be over so we could go see the Hunger Games (which was really good).  I love date nights. sigh.


Hanging out with Bryant ALL DAY LONG. ha.  


He's so cute I just can't stand it.  Look at that face.  

In other news, we started Bryant's new therapy.  We had his evaluation with his new therapist last week and it was pretty intense.  The therapist recorded Travis and me playing with Bryant separately for a long time, and then we were evaluated on how we could change our communication with him.  Very nerve racking for a perfectionist guilt prone person like me, but it turned out to be pretty interesting.  For instance (interesting fact), a lot of kids on the autism spectrum ask questions over and over again that they already know the answer to. We learn as parents of these awesome special kids that the best way to get a response is to ask a lot of questions, instead of just describing things around us.  It is a little bit of a catch 22, because these kids learn how to speak well, but end up asking questions over and over and OVER. They find it comforting. Bryant does this a lot.  Good to know :)  

Overall, the things I'm working on this week with Bryant are: Describing exactly what I am thinking all the time, instead of asking questions.  Keeping calm when he freaks out and trying to slow down my speech.  Giving Bryant a "role" in our play so he is more interested in a give and take social play, and letting him calm down by himself more so he can learn how to self soothe in anxious situations.  The last one is really hard for me because he cries so loud when people come over that sometimes it is really difficult to take more of a back seat role.  Hopefully I can help him overcome some anxiety.  

Anyway, probably way too much information, but hey this is my life :)

Ps.  I know this song has been EVERYWHERE lately, but I can't stop listening to it.  It's awesome.

5 comments:

Tiffany Johnson said...

Um, I love hearing all about your life, blog or in person. Keep writing about it, seriously. I think it's super interesting. Sad I won't see you tomorrow, but excited for next week! :-)

Christin Foscarini said...

I know that song is so over played but it is the only song that river had ever tried to sing along too! SO we listen to it all to often, but I don't care if it gets him to talk (at least try to talk)

Angela and Mike said...

That's interesting about the whole question asking thing with kids on the spectrum. Colton does that too. And YES Bryant is SO cute.

Siobhan said...

Oh. I get it. Over Christmas you guys would never play games with us but suddenly some cool friends come over and you're all about Yahtzee.

WTF

johnpeterjohn said...

everybody has their own life history..
Preschool Games