Vets, Therapy Sessions and Playing Pretend!!

Monday was busy, like insane busy. I took Heidi Anne to school. Came back to take Rowan to ABA. Then we had 1 of 2 vet appointments for the pup that day. We went to the first appointment to check on Bunny's hips, it came back that she suffers from Hip Dysplasia on her left back hip. Meaning, she has an abnormal formation in her hip causing slight pain. It could lead to arthritis down the road as she gets older. We're going to start her on some supplements to preserve what cartilage she has while she has it.

Next we picked up Rowan from ABA and off to another vet appointment. This time to check Bunny's eyes. Luckily, they were both perfectly normal. Which was some good news after the hip dysplasia bomb shell.    

In other news, Rowan is starting to play pretend! Right now he only plays pretend with Heidi Anne and his friend R at preschool / ABA therapy. He'll pretend to sleep or put baby dolls to sleep with Heidi Anne. At preschool, his friend R gave him a shovel and told him "Owan, we're going to dig our garden." Rowan followed R's lead and played along! Those 2 get into trouble together. I love that he has made a friend at pre-school / ABA. 

Oh, I have another sign of him playing pretend! In preschool they played red light / green light. It took a few rounds but Rowan actually played along. He even stopped on red light.  Then ran as fast as he could on green light. 

Tuesday was Therapies day, we had Rowan's Speech and OT. Plus Anastasia's physical therapy session, which is probably close to her last one.

Jill was first to arrive. She was blown away by Rowan's progress and is already impressed with his pre-school. We've noticed he tends to have scripted language, meaning he says the same phrases over and over, no matter the situation. For example, he'll say the following when looking for an person or object. "Where go?" Looks for the item, then states (very excitedly) "There is! I found it!" Even if he doesn't find the thing he'll still say "I found it!" 

Jill believes that these scripts make communicating more bearable for him and less overwhelming. He's also starting to mimic. Playing the "Say [insert word]" about half the time he'll try to say the word. Right now he'll say and sign the word "more" leaving us to scramble to discover what it is he wants "more" of. It could be more water, more food, to watch a show again, all we know is he wants something.

Jill wants us to focus on semi-scripted speech with him. Where he has a given beginning of a sentence that starts out the same and he can add the object at the end. We'll be adding the phrases "I want...." "I see..." and "I like..." to the start of OUR sentences and hopefully he'll mimic this and add it to his scripted vocabulary. The main goal being, instead of just using the word "more" he'll replace it with "I want oatmeal" or  "I see plane" to express his needs more adequately.

Vicki the occupational therapist came just as Jill was leaving. Vicki brought a dry sensory box with her for Rowan to explore. A sensory box can be filled with dry rice, dry beans, dry oatmeal, dry pasta shells, anything dry with different textures for children to play with. Vicki's was dry beans with little dollar store animals hidden inside. Rowan had to dig through the beans to find the animals. Kind of like an interactive I Spy game. He was up to his armpits, digging around a box the size and depth of a shoe box.  

We heard his script of "Where go? There is! I found it!" each time he found or buried an animal. I loved hearing him talk that much. Have I mentioned how I adore his happy, little voice? He would get super excited he'd pull out an animal so quickly that beans would go flying every which way. 

While all of this was going on Debbie was watching Anastasia's progress in walking. Debbie came in and Anastasia walked to the gate to greet her. Debbie was thrilled. She had Anastasia fine tune her skills by walking with socks that were too big, over obstacles, and helped stop Anastasia from eating the dry beans Rowan would spill. Debbie wants to see her another time or two before discharging Anastasia, just to make sure she has this whole walking thing down.

Rowan will eat 2 bowls of oatmeal and 2 yogurts for breakfast right now. I'm glad that he's starting to eat more, even if it's just more of his "safe" foods. Anastasia will eat 1 bowl of oatmeal and 1/2 to a full cup of yogurt. If I blow on Rowan's food for him, sometimes he'll try to copy me. Only instead of blowing on his food to cool it down, he'll puff out his cheeks, no blowing. Just inflating his cheeks. It's cute, but he ends up with hot food. 

I learned a funny thing about Rowan this afternoon. If you ask him what a Car says he'll reply "Vroom, vroom!" If you ask what sound do CARS make, he'll say "Beep, Beep! CRASH!!" I love that a car and cars make different sounds!