Wednesday Brag Day 3/18

[mrsbuttinski]

Any good stories to share?

[funchicken]

Yesterday was a "walk to school day." DD1 and I had planned to walk with one of her friends and friend's dad, but the dad flaked out and forgot to stop at our house on their way. DD was disappointed, but she did not cry, freak out, or otherwise react inappropriately. She and I enjoyed our walk to school together, just the two of us

[cam]

LO did awesome at the restaurant for THREE hours (immediately following the photo session no less) when MH's extended family got together. He was not only well behaved and patient, but he interacted with nearly everyone - didn't say a word to any of them, but let them talk to him/didn't hide his face, play with him, and a few caught him as he was running by and he didn't freak out about it (picked him up to playfully interfere with his playing).

LO can play Candy Land without guidance about which space to move to. The only part of the game he doesn't fully understand is that the special spots (the peanut, peppermint, etc) aren't good to get when you have to go backwards. He gets super excited to land on them even if he is right at the end, but oh well as he is having fun while still playing the game by the rules (except the occasional trying to make the spinner land on a special spot - yay for the thought process to try to cheat even if it isn't strategically advantageous).

LO can say "orange" and "purple" close enough that they at least somewhat resemble the words instead of the gibberish he was using sort of as a placeholder for those words that were too hard for him to get out.

[mcribster]

We just had a play date and DS went from the bounce house to the playground to an air hockey game. He was playing rough with a friend but they were both into it so I let it happen. It occured to me halfway through the date that DS was the only SN kid in the group (it was the NT bunch from the integrated preschool). The gym we were at was where we had DS 3rd birthday and he was totally stuck on the car track and wouldn't leave it. He played with it for about a minute today and quickly moved on. YAY!

[abs]

DD is really starting to articulate "L" very well. She's been working very hard on it so I'm super proud!

[junebug060609]

He did great at shape matching today

[akafred]

Not really a brag. DD is with her grandparents all week and I miss her so much.

DH found a stash of selfies she must have taken when he gave her his phone in the car on Tuesday. According to the time stamp, she took all 150 pictures in the 5 min drive from OT to school. Hahahahaha! She even managed to turn it to black and white.

[spooko]

akafred, DS has done this very thing! He didn't get it to B&W, but he did manage about 200 variations of his face and a few snippets of video. Too funny!

[junebug060609]

akafred, Those are awesome!

[anintrovert]

School is still going great for my kiddo.

My brag today is for myself though. For the second year in a row I participated in an event put on by several non profits (Children's Hospital, and several others who support children in many ways not just medically) at the state Capitol. They broke us into groups geographically (by Rep and Sen) and provide an advocacy coach to help you home your message and navigate the Capitol.

I spoke with my State Rep about upcoming bills that are good for children including funding full day K and creating insurance parity for ASD. Currently there is a state mandate for a certain dollar amount of treatment coverage the new law would remove the cap and require medically necessary coverage without caps. It doesn't apply to our self funded plan (loop hole that means they don't have to follow state laws) but it's a good change for many. I actually talked to my rep for several minutes and we got on the subject of the lack of services for adults on the spectrum. I think I gave her something to think about. It was sort of like preaching to the choir though. She is very pro child safety nets and services.

My newly elected State Senator did not have the time to speak with us. She is extremely conservative and I suspect she doesn't support much of what we were advocating (funding for preschool, funding for child care, funding for full day K, money to continue a program for long acting reversible contraceptives). I left he a quick and polite note that was delivered to her.

The last two years at this event have been such great learning experiences. (Like don't wear heels no matter how cute they are when you have to walk all over the Capitol :-p ). At the end of last year's event I ended up testifying in a committee in support of a house bill that would have made personal exemptions from vaccines a little harder to obtain (require a doctor's note or an online training module) A few months later Itestified at the Senate (the bill ended up being modified and lost it's teeth. It did make it so that schools and day cares are require to provide vaccine rates on request). This year I learned that the word lobbyist actually means a bunch of people standing in the Lobby out side of the House and Senate wait for the legistlators to come out. It was definitely an interesting somewhat chaotic experience.

I have been so wrapped up in advocating for only my own kid for the last several months that it was really nice to step out of myself and advocate more broadly.

[mcribster]

Mar 18, 2015 20:29:01 GMT -5 akafred said:

Not really a brag. DD is with her grandparents all week and I miss her so much.

DH found a stash of selfies she must have taken when he gave her his phone in the car on Tuesday. According to the time stamp, she took all 150 pictures in the 5 min drive from OT to school. Hahahahaha! She even managed to turn it to black and white.

Love it. I'm cracking up at the last one!

[numbbears]

akafred, those are adorable! It makes me want to hand over my phone to DS.

[numbbears]

My brag is according to OT, DS used 10 signs during therapy on Monday. I think it's just imitating, but that's progressing for him.

[mamaturtle]

DS has done his school work at school for the past two days because he wants to watch Uncle Grandpa when he gets home from daycare. I did not know the re-enforcer for watching a show would hold for the entire school day. It has worked, so I will take it.

[akafred]

Mar 19, 2015 8:42:12 GMT -5 numbbears said:

akafred, those are adorable! It makes me want to hand over my phone to DS.

It's the first time she's taken pictures of anything but her feet!

[cam]

Mar 19, 2015 8:58:21 GMT -5 akafred said:

Mar 19, 2015 8:42:12 GMT -5 numbbears said:

akafred, those are adorable! It makes me want to hand over my phone to DS.

It's the first time she's taken pictures of anything but her feet!

This all reminds me that LO was using my camera over the weekend, and I haven't yet looked at his photos. We have a folder on the computer that is all photos he has taken. The dogs are common subjects. He has taken some pretty cool photos of toys, furniture, etc before too (extreme close-ups, unique angles, etc that give a whole different perspective).