Sam, I Am Three!

We had so much to celebrate on Sam's third birthday! He has passed so many milestones, seemingly all in the past couple of months. With his speech delay, I tried not to put a timeline on his progress, but I hoped, secretly hoped, that we would hear words from him by 3. And we did! I recently posted about his speech progress, and already I must add to his list of words he says on his own, something I could likely do daily!   (nose, toes, tickle tickle tickle, banana, I love you, shake, eyes, hot, coat, sit down) It's so fun now to watch others with him, like he's a new game. His brother and cousins love asking him, can you say this? Sam, say this. Recently he even said Annabelle. So let me tell you about Sam, because there is so much more to him than the words that come out of his mouth. First off, he is the biggest snuggler! Particularly in the morning. He will come into our room and crawl up on my side and lay down on top of me, literally fully body on my body. Or if he wants to snuggle up on the couch, he finds his greatest comfort sitting up on my chest. While not always the most comfortable for me, I do love it. In many ways he seems younger than he is, and it's allowed me to keep him a baby for a little longer. It's amazing to watch him play more with others and want to engage in activities. Before, it seemed he would prefer to play on his own but now he's becoming more curious, more daring, more eager to participate. At playgrounds, he now climbs and slides instead of only wanting to swing. He loves dogs. He recently discovered (and loves) escalators. His recent fascination is with Wii bowling. Not to play but to watch, and Adam is always happy to fulfill his requests (he brings us the Wii controller). If you miss some pins, he says Oh No. But if you get a strike or spare, he repeats the audio's Nice Spare! We are almost-there with a spoon. He knows how to use it but doesn't like doing it on his own, so I assist by applying just a little pressure and guidance to his elbow. He occasionally will still chew books. Adam is always on alert for this. Ironically, though, he loves baths! Ok, not the hair washing bit which is still traumatic for him, but he is always eager to get in the tub. He doesn't mind the splashing (just don't add bubbles), and it's not uncommon for me to give him a bath even when I didn't plan to. You start taking off his clothes and he runs to the tub... sometimes too eagerly. His favorite food is Life cereal. Or maybe it's popcorn. (Eating is still a challenge for us; he's very picky and won't try things he doesn't recognize.) He has a great memory, and in the car I can ask him which way? and he will point the direction we should turn. Or, if he wants to go to the park, he'll point to the road as we pass it. It sometimes works against us, though, as he will start to fuss if we even slow down near the pediatrician's office or the barber. (He still hates haircuts.)

He doesn't sing (yet) but he fills in the words. I'm a little...sunshine... He will ramble on and on, though, in his own little language. He certainly knows what he is saying.

He knows his letters and letter sounds and shapes and colors. He can draw circles and lines and can write his name. Michael will write other simple words on his chalkboard to have him start tracing those lines and learn other letters.

Here are his 3-year stats:
Height: 36" -- about the same as Adam at the same age (36.5")
Weight: 31.2 lbs -- and just a little heavier (28 lbs)
20/20 vision
Great health

And for your viewing pleasure, here's a fun video of his neatest trick:

We of course had to have a little party to celebrate him! A very special THANK YOU to the Williams, Mauneys, Uncle Daniel, Gramma and Grampa for helping us celebrate!

Halloween Happenings 2015

Halloween was a fun occasion this year, as Adam was really into it. The day fell on a Saturday and the weather was perfect, so it allowed for a lot more community and socialization with neighbors.

Adam wanted to be a demolition man for the weeks leading up to it, so I picked up the construction costume. Then he decided he really wanted to be a miner. (I don't know where he gets this stuff.) We added a headlamp, and voila! a miner! (Which, by the way, is the perfect Halloween costume -- headlamp and reflective vest make for ideal safety wear!)

Sam wasn't too into it, but I was just happy he wore the cape I made! I planned on him being a fireman (Adam's costume from a couple of years ago) but two days before Halloween, out of the blue, Adam told someone Sam was going to be a magician. (I had previously commented that Sam looked like a magician in his tuxedo shirt.) Adam's idea stuck with me and I knew I had to do it! It's not Halloween unless I'm whipping up a costume the night before! (I was overly excited about the top hat I made... until it didn't fit him...boo.) Samuel walked around without his hat, wand and rabbit (did I really think he would wear/carry them?), so he looked more like an adorable Dracula instead.

We started the evening with some pizza with Adam's schoolmate, and then some enthusiastic trick-or-treating! So many neighbors made the occasion an event, with fire pits and lawn chairs in the driveways. One house was even giving away hot dogs to anyone that came by. It was a great way to meet some new neighbors and reacquaint with those we don't see very often.

One house was giving away full size candy bars, and Adam chose a big Hershey bar to take home. Later, when I was emptying his bad, I asked him where it was. Answer: "I ate it."

Yep, that's Halloween for you!

Sam Speech, 36 months

So much has been happening in little Sam's life and development! It's really exciting to witness and fun for his therapists to see notable progress even after just a couple of weeks.

We added Occupational Therapy to his routine to help sort out some of his sensory issues and hopefully help improve his pickiness in eating. He goes to OT every other week where she works on different textures and working with utensils with the fundamentals of gross motor play, which he loves most. This helps center and regulate him for additional therapies. Unfortunately we had to drop music therapy for the time being to accommodate the OT.

He continues with his private Speech Therapy, and we tried out a Speech social group his ST put together, thinking it would be ideal for his social skills in preparation for preschool. After 4 sessions we decided that his time with his therapist is better spent individually, as he had trouble sitting with circle group and engaging in the group activities.

Sam aged out of the the Help Me Grow (Ohio) program at 3, when he gets turned over to the school system for intervention. (Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our home therapist, who has been so great with him for the past year and a half.) Sam had a home evolution by the local school's psychologist which led to an invitation for further evaluation at the school. We took him to the school where he was observed by a speech therapist, occupational therapist, developmental specialist and school psychologist, all trying to get him to do different tasks. We cooperated very well and, I think, showed a true representation of how he typically is. A few weeks later we were back to review the results, with all the above parties, plus the school assistant principal, his Dept of Disabilities caseworker and his Help Me Grow therapist. It was really moving to have this wonderful team of women surrounding him and intervening to make him the best he can be.


Each of the specialists reviewed their observations, combined with other tests he's had and a survey we completed. All came to the conclusions that, from an educational standpoint, he should be classified as Autistic, but acknowledged he would be on the low end of the spectrum. (The only other classification would be Developmental Delay, but aside from the speech delay he doesn't exhibit enough disability, plus in some areas he's already ahead of his peers (shape, color, letter, letter sound recognition. There are also so many more programs and opportunities available to the Autism diagnosis than Developmental Delay.)

We accepted the diagnosis after some discussion, including whether any ceiling would be placed on him and worries that he would carry the diagnosis throughout his school career. (He'll be reevaluated every 3 years, with a new Individualized Education Plan (IEP) every year.) With all that discussed to our satisfaction, he was accepted into the school system preschool program!

We met once more, this time with the school principal, his preschool teacher, and the speech therapist and occupational therapist assigned to his classroom, to review his IEP they created for him. Each reviewed their area and the goals set for Sam during his time with them. He will have speech therapy twice a week for two 20-minute sessions and occupational therapy once a week for 20 minutes. His therapists will also be on hand if he needs additional assistance in the classroom during regular learning activities. He will be in a blended class with typical children, attending 4 days a week, half days, at the same school as Adam. (Unfortunately their school times don't correspond as conveniently as we hoped, but we're adjusting.)

We are thrilled for this opportunity for him! We feel so good about the staff that has been put in place around him and like them all so much. (I even told Michael I wished we could have them all over for a barbecue... fun people!) We expect wonderful changes in Sam.

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It's been two weeks since Sam started school, and there have been no tears at drop-off! We get little day-to-day feedback about his day, though the first day we were told that he "communicated well and participated in circle time." After his first OT session, we had a note in his backpack that while he did not like the tackiness of the stickers they worked with, he did great overall. And his speech therapist gave a very optimistic report about his attentiveness and participation, eye contact and alerting to his name.

Just within the past two months his sound output and word vocalization has spiked, and he has over 30 words now. He repeats everything he hears and since starting flash cards with him we realize he knows a lot more words than we thought!

A running list -- Dada, Mama, Adam (Ad-duh), ball, bear (Bah), milk (mm-k), shoes, socks, outside, car, cookie, go, cereal, Oh's (cheerios), all done, star, pumpkin, no, door, up (up-ah), off, on, Sam, more, slide, apple, baby, diaper, cheese, please, nose, Elmo, bye bye, carrot, cheese

He doesn't sing songs but will fill in the blanks, like high, star, sky, are on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Adam is so great with helping him, often challenging him to say something (the other day he had Sam saying pineapple) or exclaiming when he hears Sam say a word.

He knows shapes, colors, animals, letters, letter sounds. He can count to 20 and backwards from 10, and each time his pronunciation is better and more distinguishable.

Sam has greatly reduced his stimming, where he would track horizontal planes with his eyes. He still likes to align objects but we can now enter a building with automatic doors without him wanting to stop and watch.

He can write letters! We bought an easel, wrote his name and was shocked when he traced the letters. He now writes his name on his own.

I need to take some updated video of him. These videos are up to 3 months old so just imagine how much more he's doing:

Sam counting down from 10, video from October

Samuel playing with automatic doors, video from September

Sam writing, August 2015

Sam talking, August 2015

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Next up: In December we return to the DDBP (Dept of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics) for what I'm assuming is his annual assessment. Curious to hear what they say about our boy!.