We’re doing well… Nicholas is doing good – no pee accidents so far. No poopy on the potty yet.

Grandma and Grandpa came over last night. Nicholas moved his potty to the other room so he could go in privacy. This is so great!

So, today is what we’re calling Naked Nicholas day. We’re letting him run around naked from the waist down to get him potty trained, or so we hope.

He did SO well today. He peed on the potty 7 or 8 times….. no pooping there as of yet, but we’ll get there!

So, Friday night, Grandpa and Grandma picked Nicholas up for his big first over-nighter away from home without either Mommy or Daddy. After we loaded up their car, Nicholas got in and was ready to go. Grandpa commented on how much stuff Nicholas travels with (his bedrail, clothes, supplements, toys and videos..) and Daddy said, Nicholas tell grandpa it’s just for you… Nicholas responded, “pop-pop it’s just me” — it was so cute!

So, they were on their way and we got to working on taking our livingroom apart. By midnight, we were exhausted and famished so we headed to the diner. (yep, we went out to eat at midnight – boy it’s been a long time!) Anyway, Nicholas would not go to sleep for grandma and grandpa – they called around 2am – and we told them to try putting him in bed between them. He would NOT lie down. Grandma was feeling guilty that Nicholas kept asking for Mommy and Daddy, so when they called back at almost 3am, we told them is was okay to bring him home.

Saturday afternoon, they picked him up and brought him back to their house. They had bought a neat sink for him to play with outside and Nicholas just had a field day. He played with the water in that sink all day long. He helped feed the fish, water the plants – he was really good for grandma and grandpa.

When he got hom Saturday night, he was so excited to see us. He grabbed my digital camera, was holding it up to his face and was pointing it at us while saying “cheese” – it was so cute. He snapped almost 100 pictures (no exaggeration) – and was having the time of his life running all over the place saying cheese and then snapping the photo.

He’s starting to be okay with me giving him his shot. He didn’t kick, scream or anything. He just stood there and waited like it was no biggie. I hope this continues.

Sunday afternoon, they picked him up again because we were still painting. All in all, he was really good for them and had a really great time with them.

Last night, we had a little party for Daddy’s birthday and Nicholas even said, “Happy Birthday” to daddy. He did get upset when we started singing happy birthday and ran in the other room. Not really sure why.

His talking continues to improve much to our delight. 🙂

Our HBOT chamber has arrived, so we’re looking forward to getting back in there with him to see what happens next…

So, another great day is behind us. 🙂

Nicholas’s talking is incredible. Everyday, we seem to be getting more out of him. He no longer wishes to play alone for long periods of time. He’ll play by himself for a good long time, but once he’s done, he wants us to give him our undivided attention and play WITH him, which is fantastic!

Before dinner, Grandma took Nicholas outside for a walk. Little did Grandma realize that the walk was only going as far as the garden hose on the side of the house. Mommy joined them – and Nicholas was just in heaven playing with the water in his water table. He made quite a puddle and was just loving running through the puddle and getting all wet! he ran back and forth over and over splashing and just having the time of his life. He would take the hose and aim it at the tree above him – and make it shower down over him – he. loved. every. second. of. it.

Today, I caught him pulling his blocks out of his bookcase in his playroom. Why is this surprising? Because I dont think Nicholas ever “saw” the bookcase and that it is loaded with his toys even though it has been there all along. He hasn’t touched his blocks in maybe 8 months and he grabbed them to play with tonight.

Tonight, Grandma and Grandpa were over visiting and Grandma was holding Nicholas’s drawing toy. Nicholas drew a PERFECT circle – TWICE! It wasn’t a circle where he went round and round, it was one perfectly drawn circle. The 2nd time he drew it, he added eyes (and said eyes as he was adding the dots), the nose (he made this a little circle) and a mouth. Grandma asked him to draw a moon and he started to draw an arc then scribbled across the pad.

Friends of ours were also over, so there were 7 of us – Nicholas was like the little life of the party. He was engaging everyone – talking to everyone, telling us to “sit down” – it was so amazing to see.

Tonight was the first time we actually saw Nicholas receive a gift that he actually took interest in. Our friends brought Nicholas a Dora drum book which has buttons and is musical. He couldn’t wait for me to get it out of the box. He sat with that book for a long time and flipped through it, while playing the music on it. It came with a little plush Dora which Nicholas was actually hugging. he started playing a little game with it where he would hug her, then throw her up in the air. When Dora made it’s way back to Nicholas, he would do it all again.

Today was the last day of school. Nicholas will start the summer session on July 1st in the same classroom, but a different teacher whom he has met many times before.

Nicholas is going to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house tomorrow night and will be spending Saturday there too so Mommy and Daddy can paint. It’ll be his first night away from Mommy and Daddy.

Nicholas had a great day today. He was funny, chatty and his smile was shining so bright, he just lit up the house!

He is very excited that his spaceship has returned. Daddy and Mommy had been unpacking everything and setting it up. It smells a bit, so we’re trying to off-gas it as much as possible before we get into it. He is just SO happy that it’s back. He has asked for it several times over the past week or so, so I’m very happy that he’s still okay with getting into it. Whew!

Nicholas is watching different things on TV now. He is asking for Bear (bear in the big blue house) now instead of Wubbzy when he comes in from school. We love Bear – for anyone who hasn’t seen it, check it out – we just love it. He just loves Tree-Lo and Tutter the Mouse. He sat for a while and watched the Berenstain Bears and Little Bear – which never appealed to him before.

Before bed tonight, he came into the kitchen where I was working and asked me for an apple. There were no apples in sight. None. Daddy thought he wanted an ice-pop, but I said, no way – he wanted an apple. But, in hearing daddy say ice-pop, wanting an apple turned into leaving the kitchen with an ice-pop. A little while later, Nicholas returned to the kitchen asking for an apple. I had green granny smith’s in a bag on the top shelf in the fridge so I grabbed one – and showed him, he shook his head no and said “no, red apple” — I told him I only had green today and that I would wash it for him – to which he handed it back to me and said “wash it mommy” – he never ate the apple, he likes the red ones. 🙂

From Nicholas’s teacher:

Nicholas is blossoming everyday. He is now really saying some individual words clearly and he surprises us with them. During circle time some children get a choice to bounce on a ball sitting or upside down. He would never verbalize but he would yell if he was bounced. The other day he walked up to the ball when called and annouced, “upside down”. We all fell over.

Nicholas is such a joy. His big smile and now little hugs are a delightful addition to connecting with him.

His Goals & Objectives:
– Improve attention and concentration – Progressing (same as last marking period)
– Improve listening skills – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Maintain Eye Contact with Speaker – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Increase Understanding of spoken or signed words, single words, and continuous speech – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Begin to respond meaningfully to “no”, “stop”, “stand”, “sit”, “come”, “here”, etc – – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Accept and follow simple rules – (from Progressing and Introducted to Mastered)
– Play with a variety of toys – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Improve self-help toilet skills – Progessing (was Limited Progress last time)
– Match objects by color, size and shape – Progressing + (was progressing last time)
– Identify Body Parts – Progressing + (was progressing last time)
– Fit things together and take them apart – Progressing + (was progressing last time)

So today was an interesting day….. 

When I went into Nicholas’s room this morning to bring him his morning cocktail, he was awake and smiling at me (which he usually is not) – and was playing a shy hide game under the covers.  So, I took the opportunity and jumped in bed with him.  It was the best 20 minutes I think I ever had with him.  He was chatty and cuddly and was just so adorable I didn’t want to have to get him up to get ready for school.

So, he finally rolls out of bed and goes immediately to his train table (where I have to get him dressed while he’s playing) and he’s got a good 45 minutes or so before the bus arrives so plenty of time to play.  A usual yell of “schoolbus” up the stairs usually has him running down the hallway, the stairs and out the door to the bus….not this morning.  Nicholas wasn’t budging – he was too busy watching Dora.  Ok, so I drag him downstairs, but his backpack on his back and this is usually where he “kicks in” and runs out to the bus if the 1st attempt doesn’t work…. not this morning either.  I had to drag him out to the bus kicking and screaming and had to literally get on the bus and put him in his seat.  He loves the bus.  I have NEVER had to do this before – it was so ODD.

Anyway, when he gets home, he’s all smiles- very chatty as he gobbles down his lunch.  I put the Potty dvd on from Bear in the Big Blue House (which we LOVE) because Nicholas hasn’t seen it in maybe a year.  Well, he loved every second of it.  Later on, I entered Nicholas’s room and he says Pee-pee potty – so we opened the bathroom door and I expected to have to pull his pants down — he did it himself!  He didn’t have to go, but man, him pulling down his own pull-up was amazing.  About an hour later, he did the same thing to daddy and daddy went running for the bathroom with him – and guess what, he pulled down the pull-up again and actually peed!  He’s gone in the potty plenty, but he’s never initiated it like this, nor has he pulled his own pants down.

So, we made a HUGE deal out of it and I pulled his special Thomas underwear out of his drawer.  He was SO excited – he was on cloud nine!  I told him that if he continues to go in the potty, he can wear his thomas underpants instead of his bulky diapers.

Fingers crossed here…..

Nicholas continues to bring up new toys to play with – and they’re all different toys, not the same ones day after day.  Tonight he played with his new sand pails and shovels with me – we threw a bunch of packing peanuts on the floor and we scooped them up with the shovels – he had an absolute blast!

Before bed, we watched the rest of the Bear in the Big Blue House DVD and when it was starting to end, Nicholas was saying goodbye to all of the characters which is something we have NEVER seen before.  “goodbye bear, goodbye tutter, goodbye tree-lo, goodbye ojo….”  When I turned off the TV, he grabbed my pillow and said, “mommy bed want pillow” – and with that, I lost my pillow.  Couldn’t be to a more deserving kiddo.