Sunday, January 30, 2011

Quiet Weekend under my Blankets

Well after the shock of the actual light bill reading and realizing that I'm the only one that appears to stay cold I spent the weekend under blankets while I worked. The little one agreed to put long pants on and her father seemed to enjoy the fact that I was not burning everyone out of the house. I must admit I was more productive working with the window coverings open to let in natural light first thing in the morning and my eyes hurt less than they have in a long time.

Theresa's potty training was put on hold since she spent most of yesterday in disposables but she's seems to have picked up where we left off this morning. She's staying dry longer and longer which is a very good sign. Two out of three private therapists are assisting in the efforts and the other one well, Theresa will tell her she has to go then refuse to go. That therapist would be building the cooperation factor through other exercises and taking Theresa on a schedule they had previously worked out.

I actually enjoyed the chill in the air at night. I turned the thermostat down to 60-65 to keep the chill out of the air and the heat didn't run all night like it did when I set it higher. We've decided to invest in a space heater for the coldest rooms in the house. I'm looking at something with a settable thermostat for the smallest rooms in the house like the bathroom so that we don't get too hot. The baby has to have the chill out of the air when she takes a bath. I have to finish ripping up the carpet in there. Problem is I'm hoping for something with a cooling setting too so that they don't have to be stored and exchanged during the summer months. Is that too much too ask? I have to finish ripping up the bathroom carpet but that's fine too.

Theresa is enjoying Mickey Mouse right now. She has pre-school in the morning and I have four hours to work, clean house and run to the grocery store. I also get to stop and put air in my tires myself since I dear other half under inflated them last time. Neither measurement matched but both were below the guides for the tire. I think I'll get him a digital or rather me a digital so that I know what's what.

My biggest surprise this weekend was getting to read some out of each of the two books I'm reading for relaxation. I still have to find time to read the third but I"m keeping up with the posted study of it so I'm doing good in my world here.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

It's Almost Friday!

Well, it's Thursday which meant that yesterday we had preschool and ABA. We were supposed to have speech but it was cancelled yesterday and today because the therapist was sick. After ABA and before OT she's always a bit testy now.

I'm not really happy with the ABA this week actually since June Theresa has been having compliance issues after ABA sessions. It's these times of non-compliance that make working from home the most difficult. The fact that the ABA isn't focusing on potty training now and wants to wait irritates me a bit. The fact that I can keep buying disposables or continue taking her to therapy hasn't seemed to dawn on her yet.

Theresa loses potty training progress on Monday and Wednesday. She won't be able to go to her grandparents for even a short visit since they're well lazy since the invention of disposables. That and they don't listen any better than one of the therapists at the moment. OK I lost my thought so I'll be going now.

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Too Smart for Our Own Good....

That's what little Theresa is. My little darling has managed to get out of all her supplements today. I'm not sure how it happened either. She didn't get them this morning, of course I still have to buy some of them because she's out. Once I get them all together again she'll be getting them like she's supposed to. She spent the day being cute and making requests that for some reason she won't make for one of her therapists.

Theresa has school in the morning, she's going to be excited. She loves school and she made some progress on potty training this weekend. This afternoon she went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. When she was asked what she was looking for she said "special treat." At the start of the weekend I told her that if she worked hard and made an effort with her potty training that she'd get a special treat. I ended up making her peanut butter cookies. She's got a memory on her I'll give her that. There are times when I wish that it wasn't so good.

She did a bunch of cute stuff today but to keep from drowning you in cute I'm gonna call it a night.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Starting the Weekend Far from Quietly

This morning we had a speech appointment at 9:30. Well, of course it being Friday I wasn't paying attention first thing in the morning. I managed to get Theresa up, fed and dressed what I didn't do was remember to give her morning supplements or put her on the potty. See a problem yet? We got ready to leave and I was about the put her in her car seat when I noticed that not only were her pants wet but she was still peeing.

Of course this meant that I had to take her back inside. Did I mention she doesn't transition well when there are changes made to her routine unexpectedly? She started screaming and crying as I brought her back in the sit her on the potty and change her clothes. It seems that tiny change in the normal routine was enough to make her think that she was in trouble. My little princess was afraid that she wouldn't be allowed to go to speech therapy this morning.

We finally got to therapy and she great once she realized that she was allowed to go with the therapist. She did great during the session and since we came home we've had potty training progress. OK back to life, cartoons may not be ideal but they're a great reward for my little angel when she uses the potty.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Oops.

OK so Theresa's four and doesn't know what a fork is. She doesn't get one yet, she's a bit to hyper for me. OK so I'm paranoid careful, she makes me nervous. Now I have to teach her without it. Potty training is going well sort of. She has to wear pull-ups to school still because I'm not sure just how long she can stay dry and I don't want her to have an accident while we're waiting on the school bus.

OK so now we have to learn fork with pictures and other peoples. I'll be back later. I just found a news article that I want to do.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Talkative today

Theresa began the day talking! She was in her crib singing a rainbow song that she heard on "Mickey Mouse" the other day. She was putting the colors in order. It was just too cute. She even ate her breakfast although the little sneak did spit out her Vitamin C tablet this morning.

This afternoon I have to pack her a nice snack. We have speech and an hour after it lets out we have feedback with Dr. Cotter for her diagnosis re-evaluation. I'm hoping for a better diagnosis or at least a more specific diagnosis this time. The last one was more of a she falls in this catergory but we don't have enough to give a specific diagnosis so we're putting her here, come back in a year to go over her progress.

Well, I learned something this morning. My mail box is too far to walk barefoot when the ground is frozen. Ok just I'll be going now.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Theresa isn't getting back to her routine just yet

We went back to our regular therapy schedule last week which was good. Theresa needed out of the house a couple hours a day. This week we were supposed to start back to preschool but the weather has other ideas.

All the schools are closed tomorrow including the preschool because it's under the city school system. She's gonna be upset when she realizes it. I'm not sure but I'm guessing that we're not likely to have therapy tomorrow afternoon unless something changes.

We managed to get some therapy done at home today between preschool shows. I'm hoping that tomorrow will warm up quickly. I am wishing that I had some fire wood because these days are great for fires.

OK my tooth ache is getting worse so I'll be going now.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Saturday

OK I managed two loads of laundry, mopped the kitchen and vacuumed some of my living room; the part not taken over by toys. Theresa did get to watch a few cartoons and pretended to nap today. We managed to make a little progress on the potty training front. We'll running out of cloth tomorrow though, she has six pair and she's been going through them really fast today. I'll be washing them tomorrow afternoon as soon as she runs out, Monday she'll only use one or two, then Tuesday she'll be in them all morning.

I managed to find time to sit at the end table and do a little therapy with her today. We did a few words on her chalk board, some dough and a couple pages out of her workbooks this morning. At the moment I'm printing out a page or two for tomorrow. Monday I'll be going over flash cards and requests since we only have an hour or two and she'll work all day between preschool and therapy. We're doing more shapes coloring and the letter A tomorrow. I haven't decided what else.

She has speech, OT and ABA therapies. I'm having a bit of trouble lately fitting in what she has to do in therapy with what I'd rather she know at times. We're going to go over things that she does and doesn't know tomorrow and she'll get to color again. Following directions is the most important thing. I plan to take a few minutes on each page so she doesn't get frustrated.

Well, that about sums up today and the plans for tomorrow.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Progress I hope.....

Theresa has started to say "I'm sorry" when she has an accident wearing cloth underwear. She doesn't say anything in disposable pull-ups. Hopefully that's a sign this long road of potty training is fixing to make progress. We have the rest of the weekend to leave her in cloth. Monday school starts back so she'll have most of the day in pull-ups.

I'm not looking forward to next week, we have an appointment Tuesday afternoon to get her feedback. I hope that it's good. I want to know but I don't want to know.

I haven't gotten the results of the lab work yet. I hope to get it soon but I'm not sure that I want to know that either. OK I lost track of my thoughts so I'm going to go check and see if there is an article I can write.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Long day today and tomorrow

OK Theresa began her day with an 11a.m. testing appointment. She did fairly well. She started almost following directions and answered more questions that I would have hoped for a year ago. She had a bit of a problem with arms and legs. It seems she doesn't know them yet, it was kind of hard to tell with a picture of a teddy bear. I didn't know that bears had arms, I always thought they were four legged creatures that had the ability to stand partially upright. By the end of the testing interview when it came time for me to answer questions that ear bleeding  rather high pitched scream was back.

This afternoon she had a half hour of speech that turned into mostly play time because she was so tired. She had worked hard this morning so the therapist gave her a break of sorts. After therapy she wanted to stay and play because the clinic had new toys I'd never noticed before.

Tomorrow we have her four year check up. I have to write down her supplements so that the doctor has them in front of him. I also have to get referrals sent to the doctor we saw today and to the O.T.s office, the referral she had expires tomorrow. I have to remember them or we can't have either of the upcoming appointments. All that's left is to take the green sheet from the preschool teacher the day before the feedback session and we'll be good to go.

Tomorrow after noon we have speech and ABA therapy. That's going to be rather interesting to see how that goes. When school starts back it's going to be even more interesting to figure out, she'll have school, lunch, speech then ABA therapy.

Well, I'm tired just writing this so I'm gonna go. I haven't decided if I'm gonna update the other two tonight or not.

Monday, January 3, 2011

therapy went well

Theresa was a bit in her own world at the start of speech today but by the end she was focused and working well. She's holding out still when it comes to talking. I put her rocking horse in front of the television to get it out of the way. She pushed it back and it got stuck. She covered her eyes and said 'why did you do that?" Amazing!

She's 4 now! I can't believe it! I got my ink refill kit today. I have 3.5 refills total and I reset my printer to print economically. That'll help to make the cartridge last until I can afford to order a new one so that I don't mess up my printer. I've got to order a color refill kit next. I hope it's as easy to refill as this one was. I can copy the pages of her workbooks now so we can work with them. I can print out things from online too! 

Well, that's about it, we stopped at the grocery store and she was a little angel. So now I'm going to update Odds and Ends.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

We go back to almost normal tomorrow

Well, tomorrow we go back to almost normal for us. Theresa doesn't go back to school until the 10th but we go back to speech tomorrow afternoon. He daddy doesn't go back to work until the end of the week. Theresa has been rather relaxed these last two weeks and she's starting to protest when we do anything to interrupt what she wants to do. Therapy couldn't be starting back a moment too soon.

She demanded cookies this afternoon so I threw together some sugar cookies with the aid of a baking mix. She's happy with them, the rest of us on the other hand aren't as thrilled with them. I have everything that I need to make another batch after she goes to bed or in the morning. That way I don't have to worry about Theresa touching the hot oven.

Theresa learned that there is more than one t.v. in the house over the holiday. She even learned that she could reach one of them to turn it one without the remote and figured out how to change the channel with the remote. She had to figure out which remote was for changing channels first.

At the moment she's having a tantrum because she's not doing what she wants so I'm gonna be going.

Followers