Long Day

Thursday Eric went to school as normal. After that he had 3 hours of therapy at home. Honestly, he seemed to do better with all of this than I ever would have. That afternoon one of the therapists called and asked if she could come from 3:30 to 5:30, and talk about scheduling a Saturday session. I told her it would be OK by me but that 2 of her collegues were coming from 4:30 to 6:30. She told me it should be OK with the provider and state so I said let's give it a go as long as it's not way too hard on Eric. We all have to get used to the longer times for sessions so now is the time to do it. They are still in the assessment phase and playing with him a lot so that will make that time go easier. Once we are down to the nitty gritty it will be harder. Eric was none too happy to come home from school to find the therapist here. Nothing a little bit of playing and tickling couldn't take care of lol! He is still very heavy into the tickle thing. He says it so clear you just want to keep rewarding him for it. Too bad he don't know that he can't be tickeled all the time. Learning that even good things have to end is one of the goals with the therapy. They were able to get him to use the word "squeeze" with a new game that she came up with. Basically he said it and she ran over there and hugged him hard. He was loving it. It's amazing how quickly he is picking up on these words. She tried to play ball with him by asking him to say it before she threw it. He usually only says it when the ball is in his hands and before he throws it. He has to be able to do it when he is asked, not when he wants to. That did not last long. Then he was asked to say car so she would give him a car. This eventually was successful after numerous trys and him walking away, ect. We are still trying to find a way to get the message across that he can't stand on and jump off the furniture. Any physical contact is motivating to Eric. If we physically guide him to a sitting position or off the couch/chair he thinks it's a game and keeps doing it for the touch. Verbal commands alone do nothing for him. This is a challenge to say the least, but we have to find some solution to keep him safe. The first hour and a half went really quickly. The other therapists were running late so they got here at 5 pm. It turned out to be a good thing we had that earlier session or we would have lost that half hour. This is where the time started dragging for all of us. Most of the second session was used for paperwork, ect. I also discussed the feeding clinic papers and whether they could come to his next appointment. The case worker and the partners of the provider agency have be contacted to get those answers. I had to sign another release form and it took forever for the one therapist to get that ready. While this was happening Eric just wanted to play with his toys. He couldn't of cared less about the therapists or anyone else at this point. Jon started wanting every toy his brothers had. Eric got a little too physical with one of these incidents and we had to let him know that was not allowed. He got it pretty quick. Eventually the ball caught his interest and he became more talkative. Then we started a ready set go game with the ball. I would start saying it before I threw it and he would say "set go". I would say the same thing before he threw it. He did great with this. Finally all paperwork was done and his binder updated. The session ended and the house was ours for the night finally. I know we all have to get used to this, and it is going to get even harder. For some reason I was just tired after all of this. Today is a new day...

This afternoon Eric is going to have a two hour session. This is his first on a weekend. We shall see how he handles this.