Seminars, solid poop, veggies, and not so solid poop

Don't you just love the title? Purely there for aesthetic purposes, mind you. What autism blog would be complete without the mention of poop consistancy? Anyway, it has been a busy couple of weeks. I need to be better about the blog, I find I'm having trouble thinking of relevant topics that A: I have enough understanding of and B: are more interesting than just our regular going's on. So, I'm going to add a poll, and let you tell me what I need more of. And yes, if no one participates in said poll, chances are I'll have no idea what you readers want, and thus will continue to have boring lapses of weeks or more! We wouldn't want that, now would we? So the poll will be off to the side someplace...

Next order of business. Went to the Sally Rogers MIND Institute seminar on Early Intervention, Denver Model. Did not really pertain to Jaymes, as this was ages 0-3. My initial thought had been that well, Jaymes is around the developmental level of a 2-3, so the seminar's general theroies would apply. Unfdortunately, at the end, the speaker stated that by 0-3, she meant chronologically, not developmentally. Disappointing, but to be honest, I really think a lot of what she showed and talked about could very well be applied to Jaymes. A lot of it is just learning through informal play, arousing interest by being very "into it" as a parent or therapist. Things I can do! I've been trying a lot of what I saw in the couple videos she showed, and it works well to motivate Jaymes. I'm mostly applying it to meal times, because that's Jaymes' hardest at home activity.

My big complaint about that seminar is, they invited parents, and I'm not sure they should have. There were not very many, I don't think, it was really mostly speech therapists/OT/PT/Teachers. It was good, don't get me wrong, but very little was explained and some of the terms really stumped me. "Acquisition skill" being one of those. Would that mean a skill that lets you acquire something? Or the act of acquiring a new skill? I have no idea. "Intrinsic reward" "dyactic" and a couple others. I'm aware that I'm whining that the seminar was full of too many big words, though most of the technical language were things I have heard many times before from therapists, teachers, reading, or other blogs. I just would have liked to see her go into a bit of detail about some of it.

The food was incredible. I know, the food isn't supposed to be the highlight of the day. But yum. Club sandwiches on nice soft croissants, with really tasty multicolored pasta salad and cheesecake. Can't complain about that. Vegetarians had meal tickets so they would know not to give them meat meals, but long after we carnivores had been given our food, the veggies were waving their arms and looking desperate. They did eventually get fed, though.

All in all, a little boring in parts, but overall very interesting. I learned some good information and met some really interesting people. The Autism Society of NC is having a conference (actually parent-related, I believe) in March, which I hope to go to. That one is 2 days, but we'll work it out.

On to the poop. We'd finally started having some solid poop. So impressive. Very exciting for any of us, as you all know. Sadly, that went away and now we're back to melted chocolate oozing diapers of foul demonic nastiness. Same old, same old.

Jaymes has been doing really well. He's eating everything on his plate, so long as I sit with him and help him by reminding him "take bite". He's eaten carrots, potatoes, chicken, peas, lima beans (poor kid, mean mommy!), spaghetti-o's, pasta, egg, and even ate a hamburger yesterday! He is also doing a great job at home listening and has not hurt himself at all in I don't know how long.

I have to attribute the great eating habits to his wonderful OT. Rebecca has really gotten us over a hurdle that was making me crazy. I don't know how she did it, but she taught me and well.. He's eating. Awesome.

Walmart/any store.. still bad. Very very bad. He thinks it's a game to stand in the back of the cart with one leg draped out of the cart. People give me the nastiest looks, because clearly a parent who allows their 5 year old to dangle from the cart must be a cruel, sadistic person just waiting for the magical moment when the boy flops over and cracks his little head on the hard hard floor like a watermelon. Not quite. I flip the leg back in, he flips it back out. I ask him to sit, he sits for a second, pops back up, flips leg back out. I poke his leg, he yells at me and flips leg in. Then back out. With an ever growing smile of glee. Evil. It's a work in progress.

Went out to the Children's Museum yesterday, but got there too early. I've got to head out right now, and it's a long story that involves my fat rear end stuck in a McDonald's Playplace, trying in vain (and pain!) to rescue the stranded Sierra. More on that later.

TAKE THE POLL.