E-man and Little Buddy have been a handful lately. LB has graduated to this stage where he wants to throw everything. He especially loves forks, he'll gather up a few from the drawer when I am not looking and while running throw them up in the air to watch them fall. One night he was doing that and E-man found some tent poles he was running around with and I was worried Martin would come home to find me impaled to the wall.
When the kids develop this off beat pattern with an object my job is to figure out a way we can make it a game or somehow direct the pattern of play into something that might happen in real life. Stuff like play eating with the forks, having a doll use the forks or anything really that won't injure him or anyone else is preferable. LB is having none of it, so when I take the forks away it's on to a new object to throw and the whole cycle begins again. It can be a real struggle to try to figure out what to do with these items to redirect his attention away from throwing them.
On top of that LB has had some eye issues the past couple of months when he started crossing his right eye in. After taking him to two specialists the conclusion that was drawn is that his eye sight is fine but he needs to wear a patch on his left (good) eye to help strengthen his weaker eye. Thankfully it's only for 2-3 hours a day, but man that 2 hours (the most we've been able to get him to keep it on) is that longest evvveeeeeeeerrrrrrrr. However his tolerance of it is getting better, but I can't leave him alone with it.
On the other hand, E-man is doing pretty well and has been fairly happy lately. The challenging thing that has come up with him is actually at preschool. While there he has an IA (instructional assistant), two times in the past month when the IA used the restroom E-man has tried to elope from the classroom. Thankfully he never made it much past the outside of the door (which opens up into a gated playground). At his last IEP meeting I let the team know I wanted to be notified of this behavior and I want it documented each time. After that meeting is when these two times occurred and it makes me wonder if they happened previously and I was just not told. I feel like I am learning a big lesson here. Things may go on that I will never find out about and if it is something I need or want to know I have to not shy away from making these needs known in the future. At that last IEP we discussed how E-man's strengths tend to be in the cognitive realm, which can be a double edged sword. He is smart, which obviously is good but it can make it tough to get him to ask or engage you in some way if he can figure out how to get what he wants on his own. With him I feel like I need to be two steps ahead in any situation.
They are handfuls now but I am learning ways to help me deal with the stress and one big one is exercising. I know, I know, it's annoying to hear but it is very true. I didn't really realize the impact it had on my ability to cope until I was majorly slacking off and suddenly everyone seemed unbearably annoying. It was a good realizations and I have come to a few new conclusions about my health and well being I want to detail in another post. So until then I am doing burpees for my sanity.
