Too Much To Say and Not Enough Time to Write

Life in our household is changing and it is hard to keep up. I have so much I want to write about but I haven't been able to find the time so I thought I would do a blog post of all the bits I've been wanting to say.

I'll start with today's session at the Institute. It was better than Monday but still challenging,. We asked for a non wet sponge hand machine thanks to another Mum's advice and that definitely helped but Cameron attempted to pull the sticky pads off at least four times and it took My Little Angel and myself everything we had to keep Cameron in the seat and looking at the ipad. Actually, if we are honest, we lost that battle and Cameron almost pulled the machine off the shelf so we made him change seats. He wasn't happy.

Ten minutes just seems to be too long for Cameron at the moment - developmentally he is still at a one to two year olds level and when I think about it - you wouldn't expect a child of that age to sit quietly with cables stuck to the hand for ten minutes whilst expecting them to point with twitching fingers to pictures that you request.  We are back to the institute again tomorrow so we will see how he goes - he will eventually get used to it.

Cameron has been very out of sorts this week. When his doctor walked into the room this morning she could see he wasn't happy.He'd just hurt My Little Angel. I noticed before our appointment on Saturday that he wasn't himself and it seems to have escalated up to today where he was just grumpy and annoyed.

I decided to leave him alone at home and let him do whatever he wanted. That resulted in a full afternoon of Wiggle DVD's, more book ripping and primo block throwing. He eventually crawled up beside me on my bed for a while before returning to the TV and then this evening he crawled into my lap while we watched TV for a hour. That in itself is unusual because he doesn't usually want to be cuddled for so long anymore.

I think the therapy is tiring him and I think it may be overwhelming him. I wish he was able to tell me how he is feeling but I imagine his world must feel very strange at the moment. I've decided he needs to be left alone and allowed to rest, he will let me know when he feels happy and content again.

However while Cameron has been growing grumpy with us all he has still been doing things to make us sit up and whisper - Did you see that?

This evening at dinner we suddenly realized Cameron may be able to use a knife so we gave him one and he immediately figured out how to use it and how to use the fork with the knife to hold the food. It was hard and he was cutting meat but he was very happy with himself and My Little Angel announced that in future it will be four knives and four forks when we set the table. He has a little ways to go before he's using a knife like the rest of us but I was so proud of him for not putting it anywhere near his mouth or trying to use it flat or like a spoon - which he has in the past.

Cameron is responding to instructions immediately which is still taking us all by surprise. He is even picking up on comments and realizing the implied instruction, such as - I reckon that would be easier if the plate was turned around. I wonder if the cat wants to go out? If we put this away we can have a drink. These comments are generally not made to Cameron but he is responding to them and getting the job done.

In the swimming pool Cameron used to specialize in tsunami's and generally be in his own world annoying the other child as he went. This summer he is playing with My Little Angel and it is a miracle to watch. The other day they played for two and a half hours and had so much fun. They shot rocks with water pistols, Cameron gave MLA piggy back rides, they threw things into the pool and dived to see who could find them first. The biggest miracle is at the end of the swims when I ask Cameron to get out of the pool and he does. There have been days in the past when we have had to get into the pool to get Cameron out.

Over the years disciplining Cameron has been incredibly challenging because he has had no understanding of consequences and didn't care if you took anything from him. The only time he would object would be if you took something from his hands but even then he'd be over it in thirty seconds and forgotten about it or he'd just wait until you forgot about it and then reach up and retrieve it. But if you hid it he'd forget.

During the week Cameron has got in trouble twice and I have put him in time out. In the past this was pointless but something told me he would do it and both these times he was in the pool and I wasn't. I verbally sent him to the step and he went and he stayed there for the two minutes and only left when I told him he could. And both times he followed my direction to go straight to My Little Angel and apologize. He seemed sad that he had done something wrong and realized he was in trouble.

Last week we had to wait for our doctor at the Institute and we were in the consultancy room with a whiteboard. My Little Angel knows she is allowed to draw on the boards and started to quietly add to a drawing of Father Christmas. Cameron suddenly stood up and joined her. He carefully took the top off a pen and started to draw. Not little tiny repetitive scratchy lines but big, swooping, full arm movement lines. I was in shock. I watched as he kept changing pens, making sure to replace the pen lid every time and adding to his master piece. Suddenly he decided to erase his creation and start again which he did two more times.

I was so excited because I know how important this is to his development and there I was without another adult to witness what I was watching. But I took photos.

And one final little gem - this afternoon when Cameron climbed on to the bed with me I was texting someone on my phone using the voice to text function. (I was speaking and the phone was converting my voice to written text) Cameron watched me and then lifted his ipad to his mouth and spoke. I wish I could have understood what his message said. :)

So  there you have it - a very disjointed but exciting catch up. Life is one big roller coaster at the moment which feels like a dream. Please don't pinch me because I don't want to wake up.