march - first half.

These past two weeks have flown by for us. It's the middle of March! And we are so excited for spring!  Emmett has been asking to go outside everyday after school/Fraser to explore and play in the puddles. He will be sad when all of the puddles dry up! One of his favorite things to do is toss rocks into puddles and lakes over and over again. And over again.
Emmett has been really into playing with baby dolls lately. He plays with them during his free time at school, at Fraser, and at home. He likes to hold them and say, "Shh, it's okay." It's so cute! Of course, he's holding it by its feet or hair. Such a boy thing to do!

^^playing with babies in the water table at school.

^^one of Ethnie's dolls that Emmett has been stealing a lot...

Sigh. Oh, the cars. Everywhere and all day long there are cars on every flat surface in our home. Emmett has to set them up and he gets really upset if we move them. We can't even use our dining room table! It can be very frustrating, but I'm trying to choose my battles carefully. Lately, I've been telling him that when it's mealtime he has to move the cars to a different location. If I let him do it and decide where to put them, it is a great compromise. It just takes him forever to move the cars because there are so many!  

^^autistic behavior at its finest.

Therapy has been going very well, but Emmett's therapists are talking about taking a break with Emmett. This is very common and healthy to do for kids on the spectrum. After about a year of being in therapy consistently (it has almost been a year!), a patient can sort of 'hit a wall' and become burnt out. So the general rule is to take a two-month break, then return to the usual schedule. Studies show that when patients do this, there is a jump in progress when they return to their regular therapy schedule. I can definitely tell Emmett is getting burnt out and is beginning to just 'go through the motions' versus really soak what he is working on that day.

Because it has been almost a year since his diagnosis, Teanna and Zena are doing evaluations again on Emmett. They have been testing him and having me fill out surveys to see where he is at with his progress.

^^playing the dancing caterpillar game

^^taking a test with Zena

I am going to try not to dwell on the numbers when these evaluations are done. It will be hard, but I realize that testing Emmett will not always showcase the progress he's made. The tests are really only for insurance purposes. Matt and I (and his therapists) think he has progressed quite a bit, especially in his speech. I also realize that progress will be made more in certain years than in others. I would say this first year was meant to get Emmett used to- and comfortable with what many years ahead will be like.