He took a shower!!!

Poor Brady has been wanting to start taking showers off and on for a while now, but has been scared because he hates getting water in his face. We tried to do one a couple months ago, and it did not go well, even with a swimming mask. He wanted to try one again tonight. It was still hard, but we got through it and by the end, he was closing his eyes and putting most of his head in the water. We even washed his body AND hair!!

It started off with us trying to figure out the water temperature. Brady likes his baths to be lukewarm, and there is a very narrow window of "correct" temperature. So getting the right temp from the faucet up to the shower was an ordeal and I almost gave up before he was barely even wet. Once we figured that out, he decided he liked the water on his back, so we started soaping him up. We had a few problems rinsing his front side, and moreso once it was time to get his hair wet, but he got through it. There was a lot of screaming for his towel to wipe his eyes. He said his eyes burn when they get water in them. Poor kid. His towel, and me, and the floor, were all quite wet before it was all done, but I'm so proud of him for getting back in there. At one point, he got some water on his face and said "I'm kind of fine, but I want my towel." He was trying to be so brave.

He was so incredibly excited and proud of himself for this accomplishment that I'm so glad I was able to keep my patience and help him get through all his fears and burning eyes. I hope this continues because I hear showers are a lot quicker than baths for kids.

Kindergarten Registration

I can't believe this day is finally here. It's been on my calendar for almost a year, and it's finally here!

I took Brady out of preschool a little early today and took him out to lunch before we went to register. He told me that they hadn't gone outside at school yet, so that was worrisome. To get some exercise, I asked him to do 20 jumps while we waited in line, and of course he didn't stop there. At lunch, he acted up the whole time we were there, couldn't decide what he wanted (even though he ALWAYS get the pizza), whined A LOT, spilled his milk (thank goodness not much got on him b/c I'm out of extra clothes in the car), and kicked his shoes off. I was worried. So when we finally got back in car, I did joint compressions and talked about behaving at the school and listening to the teacher. He was excited to go and told me he'd behave. When we got there, we had to wait in line, a short one thankfully. He kept pulling on me and trying to swing and jump around. Nearly pulled my arm out of the socket. Luckily, he took my suggestion of coloring the pages they had out for the kids. Once he got involved in that, he did fantastic. And did wonderfully on the testing. I think he was excited to tell the teacher everything he knew.

We went out for ice cream afterwards and then stayed and let him run back and forth on the sidewalk area for awhile. I'm so glad that this day is over and everything went reasonably well. So, I guess he's definitely starting next year! He's so excited and I'm very nervous.

Visitors

I really don't know if this an spd thing, a Brady thing, or just a boy thing, but having friends or family over to visit causes the children to go WILD. I really wish I could take Brady out of the equation and see how the other kids behave. Brady gets soooooo excited to have people over to our house that he just can't stand it. When we tell him someone's coming there's lots of jumping up and down and squealing, followed by asking every five minutes when they're going to get here. And once they arrive and the "hi"s are said, Brady proceeds to RUN around the house, sometimes bouncing off the furniture. And the other kids follow suit, most likely b/c they aren't allowed to do that at home.

With all the fun toys and games we have, all the kids want to do is run around the house. And throw things at each other.

Ok, so they don't always throw things at each other, but when my husband decides to blow up a beach ball right before guests arrive, they do. We had 3 boys and a girl over for dinner last night. For most of the evening, they all ran around throwing the ball at each other, hiding from each other, etc. The little girl would take breaks to play quietly with Henry, which was great, but they'd eventually join the fun. We did manage to get the craziness outside for a little while right before and after dinner, which gave the adults a much needed break. We have a fenced in yard, so we could just watch from the peaceful house. Only problem - poor Henry couldn't join them w/out an adult and none of us adults were in the mood to go out there. So he just sat at the screen door watching all the big kids. Luckily, he didn't get as upset as I expected.

So, I'm really wondering how playdates go when Brady isn't involved. I have visions of the kids doing some imaginary play, some games, maybe a little bit of running around. But maybe not, guess I won't really know until Henry gets to be Brady's age and have playdates without Brady around.

This also poses a problem when we have kids over that have a "no running in the house" rule at home. The other mom is constantly reminding their kid to stop running, and I apologize, trying to explain that I gave up on that a long time ago b/c Brady just doesn't know how to walk unless he's in a line at school (and even that didn't really happen until after several weeks of OT). So, the rule in our house is no socks if you're going to be running.

First T-ball Game

Brady has his first t-ball game today. Actually, it's called Blastball. They only have one base (which squeaks when you step on it) and the fielders just have to get the ball and yell "Blast". Hoping it all goes well. At the "orientation/practice", he was determined to always get the ball and all the kids tackled each other and fought for the ball. Hope it goes better today. We tried to have a practice last weekend, but only half the team showed up. The team is only 6 players, and one of the kids that showed up wanted nothing to do with it. Should be fun, and hopefully no one will get hurt.

The Shoe Store

I'd have to say yesterday was our hardest day in a long while. For some reason, I thought I'd try to do something spontaneous because Henry fell asleep in the car while Brady was at preschool. I knew he wouldn't be able to take an afternoon nap after that and both boys desperately needed new shoes. The best shoe store in town is 30 minutes away, so it's hard to find the time to get over there. So, Henry slept for 30 minutes in the car, we picked Brady up from preschool, went out to lunch, and then headed for the store. Lunch went fine, but took a lot longer than it should have b/c we ran into the boys' grandparents right when we had finished. Brady was still hungry and they offered to buy him another sandwich, so we stayed for almost an hour longer than we should have. Brady is used to having quiet time in his room every afternoon, but we sometimes skip it if we have other things going on. Yesterday showed me what NOT to do in lieu of quiet time.

We get to the store and Brady tells the lady that he has to have light up shoes. My only requirement is no laces. Poor girl searched all the brands for a light up pair in his size, but they had none, so he didn't want to get anything at first. While she was looking, the boys started unshelving their display of stuffed animals. I was ok with that at first b/c it was keeping them occupied and I knew they'd clean it up when they were done. But then Brady started, as I should have expected, throwing the animals at the ceiling, and I couldn't get him to stop. Once we managed to get the first pair of shoes was on his feet, he had to run across the store b/c the lady asked him to walk for her. And then he wouldn't stop. And then his brother started copying him. He got completely out of control and I should have just left, but we had a whole pile of shoe possibilities sitting there and it's so hard to get to this store. So we stayed. And things got worse. He refused to even try on the sandals, and when he put a pair of tennis shoes on, he'd pull them right back off saying they felt funny. The final pair, I managed to get him to keep on long enough to have them checked and told they fit him great. But then he said he didn't like them and tried to pull them off. I set a timer for 3 minutes and told him he had to keep them on until the timer went off. By the end of the 3 minutes, he loved them! Mission accomplished after way too much "Brady, please stop running." "Brady, please stop throwing." "Brady watch out for your brother!" "Brady, where did you go?" "Brady, please stop climbing on me" "Brady, just leave them on for a minute to see if they fit." "Brady, don't you want a balloon? 1, 2.."

All of this took over an hour, and I was so drained. Halfway thru it, I realized that joint compressions might help. They did, but only for a little while. I felt like the other customers were giving me dirty looks thinking these kids just needed some discipline. I wanted to tell them all that he was in sensory overload and just couldn't control himself. And little brother just wants to be like big brother.

I know shoe shopping for kids can be hard under any circumstances, but this was just horrible. He's usually pretty good looking for shoes, but I guess he was just "off" today and couldn't get it together. And little brother copied his craziness.

I really don't know what I was thinking trying to just up and do something productive.

Thank goodness he slept in today, and we have nowhere to go, so I'm hoping for a better day!

Introduction

I'm a stay at home mom to two boys, Brady and Henry. My oldest, Brady, 5 years old, has some "sensory issues" that make life a bit more difficult than it is for others. I'm hoping I can keep up with this blog as I'd like to use it as a journal for myself, but also possibly help others out there struggling with the same problems. The youngest, Henry, is 2.5 years old, and seems to be much more mild-mannered than his brother, but also loves to copy him, which can lead to some crazy days.