Picture Story Practice

First things first.....lets get caught up:-)

Last Friday we had our Wholistic sensory therapy - with none other than Russ the gentle giant horse.  Actually I am concerned that Fridays might be a problem with getting 'horse' time due to them being short staffed,  but we'll try to make it work.  This past Friday they happened to be a bit slow during our time so Kari (his OT) let us go with her to get Russ from the corrals at the farm.  Sam was so excited to take the 'lead' and walk Russ to the therapy corral.  I just enjoyed the walk there and back - getting to see where they keep the animals and even though it wasn't necessarily 'therapy' time - we loved it.  Found out that Russ is 33 yrs. old - most don't live past 30.  That tells me he knows he has a grand purpose and loves helping these kids:-)  He is an amazingly beautiful horse - the OT says she trusts him with her life AND her babies life!! 

Yesterday Sam filled an entire sticker chart and we usually give him a little something for that.  Well, he has been bugging us about some John Deere monster truck set that Don knew about - and thats what he got - they're the 'mini' ones.  Don brought it home and we congratulated him on another FULL sticker reward chart and gave him his small prize.  He says.."Wow, this is a great addition to my collection!"  Okay then Mr. Samuel -glad you're happy:-)

Now for the 'picture story' story......after much frustration with Sam and his not understanding HOW to have a conversation and HOW to wait for someone to listen to him, I decided to read his "Conversation" story before bed.  He listened VERY well and actually wanted to read it again (we also read the LOUD noise story since he doesn't seem to understand HOW to speak quietly) anyway......within the story it talks about letting 'mom and dad say two sentences' while HE listens - before he speaks.  So I decided to practice this......I said, "Okay Sam, it's time to go to bed."  That is sentence number one.  "Let's go rock and give hugs."  That's sentence number two.  Sam says he wants to practice - "Okay mom, it's time to got to bed.  And you can rock-a-bye yourself!"  After laughing hysterically - I told him he did a good job - and yes he got the idea, but I guarantee I'll have to remind him a hundred times before the week is up!!  When we read it again, we practiced listening while the other said a sentence and vice-versa.  This time he said "I like John Deere" and "I like to talk about Iron Man, Tony Stark and Obadiah."  What a silly little man.  He makes me smile.

I still have more to write, however, it is 11:45 PM and after several interruptions it has taken me two hours to write this little ditty!  I actually just heard a thud and Nasya start to cry during the last paragraph - poor girlie, she fell out of her bed so I rocked and calmed her before finishing.  I'll have to write more later this week...........dealing with CONSTANT power struggles and the OCD side of things......IE:  Cracked Corn Dogs, he will not eat!  Try baking one of those and NOT have the bread part actually crack here and there - impossible!!  'Broken' cheese - he will not eat!  And so on.........