Getting Dressed All By Himself!

I have no idea where the time goes....It really does not seem like it has been almost three months since I posted!  Jeez!

We are keeping busy here.  Jadon is in heaven because we have a 4 yr. old boy coming to our house to play during the day for the summer.  This is the first time since Jadon has been born that I have watched a little boy the same age!  He is loving it!  This week we are doing a Space theme and today was A is for Astronaut.  We made space helmets to play in.  I love this pic of both arms raised up (Jadon is on the right)!

We have been working really hard the last few weeks on getting dressed independently.  Matt and the therapist kinda told me in their own ways (and nicely) that is was time for me to quit dressing him.  After all he is 4, he will be going to school in a year, and I will not be there to help him.  It was one of those things that was just part of our routine, and I did not really even stop to think about how much I was helping him.  Well no more!  I started encouraging him to show me he could do it himself.  He had been able to do underwear and pants for awhile but shirts and socks were a struggle.  I am happy to announce that he can now do both by himself now!

Ok mom....I got this! 

 Over the head it goes!  Beautiful!

 And Righy is in!

 Success!  Jadon is showing you his super cool ninja move in this celebratory picture!  LOL!

And here are some pics of Jadon getting his socks on all by himself for the second time!

 Hooray!  He did it! 

Jadon is still struggling with the socks.  With such a weak grip in his hand it is not something that comes easy.  Some days he does it quick and other days he struggles.  Sometimes it depends on his mood also.  I am so proud of him though! 

In other news.....we will not be winning BPI parent of the year anytime soon.  Jadon's Benik wrist splint went MIA several weeks ago and I have torn the house apart looking for it.  The good news is that my house is not completely reorganized and clean....bad news....no splint.  I think we must have left it somewhere outside of the house.  Darn...gonna have to pay for a new one.  Blah!  

We are leaving for a vacation of camping and hiking in Yellowstone very soon.  Jadon has been asking everyday if today is the day we leave.  We watched a documentary on Yellowstone with him and he loved all the animals.  He also can't wait to sleep in a tent!  I will post pics when we return!

Using tweezers.

I just realized I forgot to post this video I took of Jadon working hard to pick up little erasers with tweezers and transfer them. He loves these alligator tweezers we got at The Therapy Shoppe.

What We Have Been Up To

Our focus since returning from Philadelphia has been fine motor.  We discussed Jadon's possible tendon transfer  for his wrist in a year with our therapist and she feels that working on hand function is a top priority.  So the focus has been fine motor, fine motor, fine motor.

We have recently started a workbox system that seems to be working pretty well.  I say it is workbox time and Jadon goes over to see what surprises await him today.  We work in number order to help Jadon with learning to recognize his numbers.  There are six boxes that should take us about an hour to get through depending on the interest level in each activity.  If he is really into an activity we will not move on until he is ready so we don't always get through all six boxes. The workboxes are a combination of preschool learning activities and therapy activites.

Below is an example of one of the fine motor activities that I include in at least one of the above boxes each day.  I got these heart sticks from The Dollar Tree.  I thought they were perfect to put beads on. 

The Angry Birds Knock On Wood edition game was in one of the other boxes.  Jadon loves this game and has to use Righty to make the catapult work so it is excellent fun therapy!

On the suggestion of our awesome therapist we ordered these special self opening scissors for Righty to practice with.  He does not look forward to doing this but is getting better at it each time! 

 Here is a picture of the scissors we ordered from this awesome website The Therapy Shoppe along with some cool tweezers and grabbers for Righty.  This is a great website for specialty toys for any skill you are working on!

Jadon cut all three blue squares in the picture above with Righy.  MAJOR accomplishment!  So proud of this boy!

Here is a video of Jadon using Righty to take beads off of the stick after he was finished.  We do what seem like little things like this each day hoping that they all add up in the end!



Kiana