Back to the Blog!

Now that I've finally got my camera back and a little bit of time in the mornings before Sophie gets up I can get back to blogging about the children and especially Eli and the RDI program.

First off, let me just say I have nothing but positive things to say about RDI. The vibrant, loving boy that we had before age 2 is coming back to us. He is now actively seeking us out for engagement, looks at me or his father often for information when approaching situations, and just overall seems to feel more confident and happy. I feel more confident as a parent with him now.

Yesterday, both children helped me clean the kitchen. We are now applying our RDI activities to life as often as possible. Eli loves to play his woosh woosh game (basically I spray and he wipes) so we've translated it into helping me clean surfaces all throughout the house. Sophie is at that age where she wants to help mommy too, so both children got to help wipe while I sprayed water for them. The counters look great! The hard part for Eli is translating the wiping from a table top surface to the back door glass...the upright surface is harder for him to process, but we are working on it. The door has a lot of funny streaks!

The other thing that made this week particularly hard is Eli found himself on a mound of fire ants and got bit all over his feet and legs. It was just awful..he had one bad night that was very reminiscent of my older children with chicken pox..just up miserably crying because it itched so bad. Feet are SO sensitive, and to have these horrible painful itchy bites all over them..well..
Benedryl helped a lot, and then apparantly with fire ants the bites get infection..so we had to pop all the bites and get that out. After that things were fine, but then the other night his feet got bitten by mosquitos (that being the only bare spot on him) and he was miserable all over again. This time I used Caladryl, then Hydrocortisone, neither worked..so finally benedryl cream which took a while to sink in. He got so fascinated with creams providing relief that I had to hide every cream and lotion in the house yesterday because he kept applying them to himself...!! He is a sensory seeking boy and enjoys textures like creams and lotions. I think I'm going to get him some of his own lotion to put on every day.

Anyway, the good news is, RDI is definitely the right choice for him still..he is blossoming. His teacher at the new program says he is participating more at school and I am seeing the signs of that at home. It's like doing RDI has brought me a happy child who feels a whole lot less frustrated and a whole lot more competent and content. There's still a long road to go, which will have bumps and turns, but we've gotten off to an amazing start!

I think Eli is growing again..

in such a positive way. I got shared attention with him yesterday and he was showing off to me!! Usually Eli will play or draw on his own, he doesn't explain what he is doing unless you directly ask him. Well, yesterday he was drawing on his magnetic drawing pad..came running to me with it all the way to the back porch saying "Paw Print!" He brought it to me and said "Paw Print, Paw Print!" so I said, "Oh look, you drew a paw print!" He looked at me and smiled! He just showed off to me!!!

Later that night he did it again. He drew a paw print and brought it to me to show me, then he climbed into my lap and erased it, and drew some more, each time telling me what he was drawing. Once, I took his hand and drew his name for him and he said, "Ewi, dat's Ewi", and then he erased and drew something and said, "wook, a cart, a cart!" and looked at me and I said, "Yes, that's a cart, very well done!" and he said, "Want me do it again?" (I was gaping by now) and I said, "Yes, draw again" so he erased and drew and said, "wook, a guitar!" and I said, "Wow, well done" and he erased and drew a cart, etc. He was sharing with me. Looking at me and telling me what he was doing. It was a beautiful moment. I tried to get his daddy involved, but he really just wanted to share drawing with me this time. I am beyond astounded at this right now and I can't stop thinking about it. It's progress!

He does so well with RDI activities. I took him outside last night after Tom took Sophie to bed at 8pm and took him for a walk. We'd walk ten paces together and stop, over and over down the block, across the street and back. Near the end of the walk I pointed out some mushrooms in the yard across the street and Eli said, "Oh, marshmellows!" and went over and touched one whereupon it broke. So I just kept merrily going and said, "well, they looked a lot like marshmellows, but when you touched it, it sure wasn't a marshmellow" and we went home doing our ten pace walking. He is really doing so well. I'm so proud of him!

Just regular days..

Around here until school begins in a few weeks. Jake comes to visit soon so that will be a change of pace at least.
Right now everything is hunky dory. Eli is just getting better and better every day. He is doing such an amazing job with RDI ...we have put pausing into the routines to elicit facial referencing and it is working so so well..

well, the demands of children never end..Sophie is begging for something again..be back tomorrow!