Acquara Independent School

We all kind of went kaplooey last week. But, lets see, we must have gotten a few things done:

Wednesday, the kids went to D’s house.

Thursday, we went to Turkey Trot in the am. We walked around the zoo a bit afterwards, but it was cold and we came home. Avery was extremely happy to get out of his stroller. He wants to be done with the stroller, but I’m not quite ready, yet.

Terry took this after Turkey Trot. (Avery's VH teacher who ran with Nik.)

At Stellar Cove with sea lions, sea otters and other fish and birds. Kids know all kinds of stuff about the zoo since zoo camp. They showed us a fish with no eyes and explained that they scuba dived to do surgery and remove them.

Avery was extremely excited by the stuff in the aquarium. There was a sea otter who was playing with a jug with ice in it, shaking it to try to get the ice pieces out. Kids found this hilariously funny.

When we came home, we made a relatively simple Thanksgiving meal. Dwight came, late of course… Aaron and Naim mostly ate bread and cranberries. Sigh. Naim was thankful for the earth, and Aaron was thankful for Bionicles.

Getting ready to eat, deciding to go ahead without D was a hard decision for A and N, but he did show up a few minutes later (Only 2 hours late!)

Aaron's picture of the "Feast"

Aaron's picture of Nik

Aaron's picture of me, he told me to take a big scoop!

Playing with D after dinner. Avery very much likes to be included, and sat on D's lap for a while.

More kids, and lots and lots of Apple products.

Somehow, the rest of the weekend devolved into Nik and I getting lots and lots of sleep and the kids playing lots and lots on the computer. I guess that’s good, that we slept and took it easy, but it felt very unproductive.

Well, it isn’t totally true. I have been working and working with Avery every chance I get over the weekend and we have had some minor breakthroughs. He is showing a few signs; most notably, “cracker” and “more” and “yes” (or a nod or a Yeah Yeah Yeah! Never just one yeah.) Last week he was awful, and we couldn’t figure out why. He lost all communication and just ended up whining on the floor a lot. Finally, I was talking to D and trying to think of what it could be and I thought it might be coconut milk, which we tried instead of almond. That was the only thing that changed. And he acted badly last time when we tried soy milk. (Rice milk and formula seem to be ok, but almond milk is by far the best.) The common ingredient seems to be some type of calcium tricarbonate additive. He had the loose, seedy poops again. Anyway, took him off coconut milk and within about 24 hours, he went back to being in a good mood and hugging and communicating again. Frustrating! First, you aren’t 100% sure that you aren’t crazy with all this, and second, almond milk is the most expensive milk substitute, of course!

I don’t know whether to celebrate or hold my breath in regards to the signing. I don’t know if they will remain to be built on, or if like everything else (except HereGO!) they will die in a few days. What we might possibly be building on, though, is that he might be seeing how communicating makes his life easier and how it has a positive function in his life. Hopefully, that will allow him to keep the signs/words he has and keep moving forward with an increased vocabulary. I will say that his receptive communication IS improving and it does not seem to go away during his bad days. But since he has decided to sign, and I am the best signer in the house, he feels the need to always come to me when he wants something. It’s ok, but I have an intense little shadow that wants a lot of crackers.

His main communication is to drag me over to the kitchen pantry door. Then I make him sign for what he wants.

Also had the kids play with play-doh today, but the play doh I had was all dried out, so I found some modeling clay. It was a bit too thick for Avery, but he did enjoy playing with it for a little bit. Need to get or make more play doh. Aaron made a bionicle of some sort. I think this is Rahkshi.

Aaron had structural integrity issues with his sculpture, so I think he turned this into a dog later.

Video of kids playing with clay.

Filed under: Art, Communication, Fieldtrips, Health and Medical, Physical Education | Tagged: Dairy Dilemmas, Thanksgiving, Turkey Trot |