A Splendiferous Week

This week really has been splendiferous…there really is no other way to describe it. Joseph continues to amaze me on a daily basis. Sometimes it’s good (like when he was watching Super Why, which is a show on PBS that focuses on spelling, vocabulary, and phonics, and he was able to recognize the letters “R” and “S” as well as the picture of the apples…hearing his little voice triumphantly say, “appo!” was one of the best feelings) and sometimes it’s bad (I made the mistake of allowing him to ride in the race-car shopping cart at Lowe’s the other day and he threw the HUGEST fit when we left the cart behind to go home…he was crying, head-butting me as I was carrying him…it was BAD). Paul and I are finding that we are really having to start being firm about discipline so that when he does throw fits (which, in reality, are few and far in-between) we are united in how we handle them. He’s still a bit to young to reason with, so we focus on distractions. If he starts to pitch a fit, we try to distract him with music, a game of patty-cake or peek-a-boo, or (his favorite, so far) chase him around the house (with, “I’m gonna get you!). We are really blessed with the fact that when he does get upset, he tends to calm down and get over it pretty quickly. It sure makes it easier.

Another thing that made this week great was Joseph’s first meeting with his occupational therapist (who is working with us to get Joseph to chew his food better so that we can continue the transition from pureed food to table food). She came to the house and played some games with him and then was there as I fed him lunch to see how he was doing with his eating. He was really tired by the time lunch finally came, since the appointment took place right before nap time (usually I feed him at 11 and then he goes down for a nap right after that…the appointment didn’t start until 11) and he didn’t want to stop playing with the toys to eat lunch (a major fit ensued and lasted through lunch). Needless to say, next time, he’s going to eat lunch first and then play. Lesson learned, lol. The therapist did say that he’s made some improvements and to basically keep doing what we’ve been doing with him. He’s gotten a lot better about snacks…he used to take one cracker and just hold it in his mouth until it got soft enough to swallow. Now, I can see him make a conscious effort to chew a little bit. He powered through twice as many snacks than I thought he would at church today. He probably would have eaten more, but we ran out (note-to-self: pack more snacks next week).

The last big thing with Joseph that happened this week was that we switched out his clothes to the next size up. So, even though he’s not yet 2, he’s in size 3T. The clothes are a bit long and loose, but it’s better than them being too tight. He’s just growing so fast!

In other news, I expressed the desire for some outdoor plants. Paul decided that instead of going the quick and easy way about it (plastic planter), he’d make a planter box for me (he wanted a nicer-looking planter, which I agreed with). He picked up some cedar fence boards and sawed and nailed away (it was still relatively quick…I think it only took him an hour or so to do it and it saved us quite a bit of money with supplies). The result was a very beautiful planter box. I almost didn’t want to put anything in it! We then went and picked out some succulents (my favorite type of outdoor plant…very hardy, practically impossible to kill) and he planted them for me while I watched Joseph. It looks amazing!