"Stryders Journey"

Stryder had his last OT session on Thursday with Angie. She is very sad that she will not see him. She said that we need to hold off on "brushing" him until we get over there because right now there are a lot of other stresses that he will have to seal with right now. She reminded me how important it is to get an OT ASAP when we get there and told be to purchase a book called Tools for Tots as soon as I can. She said that it has a lot of detailed info on some of the "habits" Stryder has and some good ways to deal with them. We won't be able to get it for a while though, this move and the DR bills are eating away at every last dime we have.

We are talking a lot about airplanes and going in one and once we make our final landing in Oregon, we are going to go to McDonalds to let him play before our 3 hour drive. Stryder loves NaNa Naaa as he calls it. We need to give him as much normalcy as possible and give him things that are familiar as much as we can as to not disrupt him and make him more anxious than he will already be.

Tomorrow we are going to go around and take lots of pics of the area, to remember where he spent the first few years of his live. I am going to miss it here too. We also have to go to the store and get some medicine to help relax him, but tell him that it is good medicine and "let him pick it out" so we have a better chance of him taking it. I don't foresee any problems on the airplane, but sith Stryder having Sensory integration Disorder (on top of everything else), we are just not sure what to expect. He is a great kid and will do anything you ask though.

Tonight, we went to Walmart and Stryder started to organize all of the soda packs and this lady was so amazed, stopped and watched him organize. It was rather cute to her, but not so much for us anymore LOL. He walked around saying some conversation, but it was obvious it was something important, we just don't know what.

Stryder has his speech therapy on Monday and then the Early Interventionist will come to see him on Tuesday. I'm really sad that we will not be with Jayme anymore. Stryder loves playing with her and she does so good trying to get him and his mouth to do what it should. She is even often sacrificing her own fingers to hold his tongue down, to no avail LOL.

Things are great with him right now, although he can't shake off his sickness. I hope that he gets rid of it before we leave. Even when our AC went out and it was 96 in the house, Stryder would not take off his shirt and he had to sleep with a thick flannel blanket. We didn't know this was common with kids with SID- they call it a weighted blanket. Kasiah said "Mom, look, his hair is brown!" It was brown because it was wet from sweat. We put a fan right next to him and tried to remove the blanket when we could. We are learning new things all the time, and new ways to help him and us cope, so I'm sure there will be a lot of bumps along the way.

I finally got a video converted. I have a few more that I will be posting too.
Stryder is outside playing. He is so complaint with everything, and will do everything you ask, we are working on giving him his own voice.

Most parents think it would be great to have a child that will listen and do what you ask, but it's not and I feel sad for him. He will do things that are even uncomfortable and not talk back about it. He is unable to make choices for himself, too. One of the 'tests" that Jayme keeps repeating is asking him what he wants and making him choose while playing with things such as play dough.

For example, Stryder said that he wanted green playdough and there were two different greens. Jayme held both asking which he wanted, but he would point to both and say the last thing you say. Jayme wanted to test this by putting her shoe in one hand and asking. Again, he wouldn't choose, pointing to both when it's obvious he would not want to play with. I am going to try to get a video of this but Stryder tends to not want to do anything when he is on camera LOL.

Here is a video of him playing and talking in the front yard. At the end you will see Jayme show up, she is his speech therapist and he loves her- it's going to be hard to leave such a great person, but hopefully we will find another great therapist. It's going to be a lot of work0 I have to get him tested for the preschool program in Oregon and line up all of his therapy there.

Stryder had his first appointment with the occupational therapist and she went over his results. The poor little boy has been stressing about things- We have to take this brush and "brush" him on his arms, legs, back, feet and hands, and then we have to pull and stretch all of his joints ten times each- once every hour. We also have to do strokes inside of his mouth, top and bottom, before he eats and in between each eating. He really hates it, but it will be good for him and when he has an "episode" in the future, we can brush him to calm him. It's all foreign to me, but everything made perfect sense when she was talking about it.

Stryder gags whenever we (or him) try to brush his teeth and he chokes on almost everything that goes into his mouth at some point, although he doesn't swallow it. When he is on your shoulders, he will not hang on, even if you try to make him fall backwards, all of this has to do with sensory integration and balance. It's amazing how it all intertwines, but it makes a lot of sense as to why people assume he has autism, when he doesn't.

Oh and that reminds me. We went to a meeting with the school district to see if he would qualify for the preschool program and the school district manager (Dee) feel in love with him. She said that she foresees him in the program. She even picked him up, hugged and kissed him-although I did find it a little strange, but it just shows how adorable he is. Even Angie (the OT) said she has never seen a two-year old sit so long listening to nothing -Stryder watched her the entire time telling me about his results and the things we will be going through. Mandy (the early interventionist) said that she has never seen Dee hug or pick up any child in the 7 years she has known her and thought it was strange. He just has a bog heart and people want to be a part of his life.

I have some videos of him, I know I keep saying I will put them up, but he has been sick and I haven't had the time to do anything and living on an hour sleep at night. Warren and I try to take turns sleeping on the couch, but since he has to work, I usually take the weeknights unless Stryder has some really rough nights like he has been. I will get the on here as soon as I can. He is so adorable and cute. He is like a magnet to everyone and every animal.

We got our plane tickets and Stryder and I will be flying to Oregon on August 18. My mom is excited and so is Warren's family. There is a big family reunion the last weekend in August, so we will be going to that. I just worry because everyone always wants to pick Stryder up and hug him and he HATES it and can't tell them so. I don't want to over protect, but I don't want to cause more stress for him either.

I will try hard to put the videos(s) on this weekend for ya'll.