Huge Update

So it's been awhile since I updated.
We haven't managed to get the swing built yet, but I did finally make a sensory bottle for the kids.
Momzi, PawPaw, and Grandma moved to Las Vegas. We helped them pack and got some free stuff from them. We've visited their storage units a couple times in the past couple months. Galen and Flint really enjoy being able to run around it freely while we work.

It's amazing how much can change in a month. Galen's really enjoying being outside all the time and is exploring more things, like daddy's ladder. We've had a huge problem with him being scared of the fenced-in backyard, so we had to go in the front yard all the time. Well, I left the back door open, after locking the cats up, and Galen finally came out on his own accord, and so now, he'll go into the backyard more often and have lots of fun.

Now for probably the biggest news since my last post. HISD finally got back to us about getting Galen into the preschool for children with disabilities program last week. He officially started Mon. I haven't posted about it. I was terrified that he'd be miserable all day. I've always wanted to do homeschooling, but all these specialists said it would be wonderful for Galen, so I felt like I had to at least try. Well, day 3 has come and gone now. None of these days have actually been the full time because of previously scheduled appointments and his normal therapy days. He's tried matching, and exploring the room, and only cried when it was nap time (which he doesn't do) on Mon (he hasn't been there long enough the other days), because the lights were turned off.
Yesterday he had a make-up therapy day and played with water in a bucket and actually enjoyed it. This is a win, a small one, but a win. He's petrified of baths still here. I bought a water toy for him, which we set up tonight, but he was scared of it. I have faith he'll love it in a few days.

Now, for the astonishingly good news...

Galen ate a blueberry waffle and considered a cutie orange at school today. He even tried to help clean up. And he isn't throwing his food on the floor before eating it either! Then, at therapy, we did food stuff again, and after avoiding the jalapeno Cheetos for the past 4 tries, he finally tried it and just kept eating them.

So, it would seem, Galen is doing awesome at school, and while I wanted to homeschool him, this may be the best place for him. Of course, I think we'll re-evaluate when he would start kindergarten. But by then, he'll hopefully be talking, and will be able to give us input on what he'd like to do.
It's been extremely weird without him here with us. But, we've made astonishing progress on cleaning up the sunroom and hanging out with Flint by herself and she even played outside by herself, because she never minded the backyard and we can see her.
The sunroom is slowly being converted into a kid's playroom. It will need some sort of air (window a/c) to make it more comfortable, especially with the horrid summer ahead. But, it'll be nice to be able to have a room they can really play in year round, that's not just a bedroom.

Sensory Board Completed!

Since my last post, we took the kids to the Homeschooling Park day and didn't manage very long. Maybe an hour, but the kids absolutely had a blast, once they got accustomed to where we were.
Galen's been interested in going out more. We've gone to Goodwill twice in the last month for Galen to explore (and gotten a few toys to help his development), Harbor Freight once, and the Kroger grocery store twice in the last week with both kids. He's been very insistent on going out. Last week, he ran outside and got in the car in just his pull-up because Flint was going to the store with daddy, so we put him in clothes, and all went out.

So, as the title says, we finished the homemade sensory board. Completed for approximately $100. Incredible deal for the happiness it gives the kids. The swing will be starting in a few weeks. We're still researching it to make it as safe as possible.

Cole Therapy has combined Galen's Occupational and Speech therapies into one hour on Wednesday's and Thursday's. He's being tag-teamed by 2 therapists and is doing well. It started this way on Thursday and both therapists were excited and very hopeful after how well he did that day. More specifically, he was engaged with both therapists; watched the speech therapist read the entire book to him while she held it (usually he looks away or screams); and they plan to work on his feeding skills together. They know he needs to work on other skills, but his feeding skills are really bad, so they think they should tag-team that first, along with other skills being worked on in the background. We need to get white place mats because they'll apparently help make the food the most interesting thing he sees and will help get him off of "on the go" eating (crackers, pretzels, etc).
He has been playing with more foods and seemingly interested in them lately again too. He even played with gummy bears for a good 5 or so minutes today! And played with a see n' say for 5 minutes a few days ago.
Anyway, I'm going to stop here.

Short

This is a good article to read about Sensory Processing Disorder. Galen has it, but isn't officially diagnosed with it.

I meant to include in the last post that I imagine a few people, at the very least, want to know why we were asking for donations to help build a swing and a sensory board for Galen, yet I could afford to have surgery during that time. The answer is quite simple: Medicaid paid for the entire surgery based on the diagnosis of "nasal blockage".

We're currently working on the sensory board. Mazzu says my thoughts that we could get it and the swing done over the weekend is way off. He wants to spend around a month researching the best stuff to buy and use to make the swing as safe as possible. I agree with that reasoning. The sensory board is under way as of tonight. We bought the board last night to go along with all the sensory stuff we bought. The board is drying and will be cut in half before we start adding stuff to it. It's far easier to make stuff while the kids are asleep or somewhere else.

Tomorrow we're taking the kids to a Homeschooling Group park day, assuming they wake up in a good mood. Flint tried to climb into the car as soon as I told her we were going to the park tomorrow.

Longish Update

Galen had his preschool evaluation thing last week. They agreed he'd qualify. We had to turn in some more papers from Cole Therapy to them today, but should be in the works to getting him started soonish.
I'd much prefer to homeschool them both, but this seems like it could really help him in the long run, so we're going to give it a shot anyway.
We've had a pretty busy February so far. I had sinus surgery and got to experience the "fun" of having my nose bumped into by both kids multiple times during the recovery. We took Galen and Flint to their first funeral ever. Flint seemed to enjoy the church singing and fell asleep during it. Galen, unsurprisingly, did not do well. Lots of screaming, so we alternated who was outside with him during the service.
Then we went to a birthday party for a cousin's daughter and the kids had a blast. Galen took very well to that part of the family, despite having never met them before.
Last Friday, we went back to the Kool Smiles dentistry and had a crappy experience again, so we just plain walked out. We're in the process of finding a new dentist for the kids.
We've been taking Galen out on more short shopping trips lately, since he seems to be handling it better these days. After the dentist disaster, we went to Goodwill for about an hour. He wasn't particularly fond of the experience, but didn't scream bloody murder this time. And we managed to spend less than $7 on 3 gifts for the kids.
Today, we took Galen and Flint to the dollar store after we went to an OT make-up session. This wasn't actually in relation to the kinda disappointing news we received from OT today, but needs mentioning. Galen has til June to start making actual progress or Medicaid will cut him off from OT. He's just not making any progress.
We actually went to the dollar store for a different purpose, but managed about an hour before the kids were really tired of shopping. Galen's been doing considerably better at sitting in the shopping cart and not screaming. I did sit him down at the end of the trip for a minute and quickly regretted it when he ran off smiling and giggling throughout the store.
While there, we bought lots of different sensory like stuff to make our own sensory board thingie for Galen and Flint. Hopefully Galen will enjoy it and use it, but at the very least, Flint will. We got some carpet for a different texture, a hand duster thing with cool texture, a back roller, a toilet paper holder, and miscellaneous other things. We spent quite a bit, but it was far cheaper than buying it at Walmart or Lowe's and WAY cheaper than buying an already made one. Basically to put together a couple of different versions of things I've seen made by friends and on Pinterest.
I got to see the sensory room that Cole Therapy has today. It looks really freaking cool. A homemade play house with a slide on one side and a ladder on the other and a door and window to see outside it. Along with a "crash pad" which is basically a big mattress cover over styrofoam pieces. They stopped taking him in that room because all he does now is lay out on the crash pad.
We also got a piece of carpet to go on the platform swing like they have at Cole. But we haven't gotten the wood to do these things yet. It's definitely a long process cause it's so exhausting doing all these things.

Tiny Update

Not much new to update, but we finally have a date set for Galen's evaluation for the preschool for disabilities. It's in 2 weeks.

Flint and I sat in on therapies today (make-up for a missed one). Galen had a pretty good day. He's still not a fan of most toys, but he'll do them with hand over hand. His core muscles are very weak, but at least now I have a better understanding of how to work on those with him.

Both of the therapists got to experience how Galen interacts with Flint (as in, hardly ever). Flint had a blast playing with a cute little piggy bank with huge coins that Galen liked last week, but wouldn't play with this week. He prefers to run around, aimlessly, looking at the sky. But he did climb the wooden staircase thing they have there today, all on his own.

We were trying to potty train him since we'd run out of pull-ups. But a loving cousin sent us some and Galen (and Flint) are so much happier. Galen understands the concept, but he's just not ready yet. Flint's no where near ready.

Short update

Today I took the kids outside by myself. They both wanted to go outside, so it was fair to take them. Unfortunately, Galen ran into the street twice and I had to chase him a lot the second time to catch him before he could get hurt. We came inside instantly. This didn't go over well with either kid, nor my bronchitis, but safety first.
I really think we'll have to invest in a fence for the front yard, given Galen's afraid of the back yard. I don't understand why, but I tried to take them in the back yard first, and all he did was cry.

Start of 2016 Update

Galen turned 3 December 8th. We had a great party at the park for him. He didn't care for the gifts and just wanted to run around. It was a great time.

Christmas was...fun. Neither kid understands what Christmas is, but we did it anyway. The reasoning for calling it fun is that Galen came down with a bad cold the night before Christmas Eve and Flint came down with it Christmas Day. Mazzu's family dropped off bbq for Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day, we went to a restaurant with my mom and step-dad and Galen was miserable. He screamed and cried and it was a horrible time. But after he had a nap, which is highly unusual, especially a 2 hour one, he woke up feeling better and had a decent time at their house. We came home with a ton of new toys (the ones that are kept there, so not technically new per say). Mazzu caught bronchitis. And so, for a good week and a half or so, everyone in the house was miserably sick. Not the best of times, to say the least.

For bedtime, we now have a pretty decent schedule. A melatonin around 8pm, an hour or so later, the medicine and brushing teeth. We've brushed teeth once a night, every night, for 2 months now. Bedtime is immediately after medicine and brushing teeth. They've been sleeping from 9pm to 8:30am (or thereabouts) pretty much constantly since we started this schedule. It seems to be going really well.

He's recently begun chewing his fingers constantly again. I've sat in on his therapy a couple of times and have discovered a few things that we realistically need to help him, but can in no way afford.

As an example, there's a wood platform swing that Galen really loves in therapy and there's a gymnastic-like mat that goes under it (in case he falls off). While we can get on without one, it would apparently be incredibly important to have access to such a swing because it would help his "core muscles" in his stomach that are apparently way too weak by making him straighten himself out (sitting up or laying on it).

Another example is that we would really benefit from some sort of AAC machine (probably an actual Ipad with an expensive program designed to help non-verbal people communicate).

In general, there's not much new news right now. Just same ol' same ol'.

But, I did create a GoFundMe in an effort to help. I hate asking for donations, but this is for my son.

GoFundMe for Galen's needs