Terrible Two's at Four

Like all children, Samuel has always enjoyed cuddling with April and myself.  However, recently he has become extremely attached to April.  Almost anytime she sits down in the living room, Samuel crawls all over her.  He just enjoys sitting with her and hugging tight.  He will still jump in my lap on occasion, but for the most part if both of us are in the same room, Samuel is all over April.  She is not real certain what has brought about this recent action, but she certainly enjoys it (even if at times, she would like a little space to herself).  I'm guessing that Samuel simply feels secure when he is with April.  It will be interesting to see if this is just a phase or something that becomes consistent.  

Sometimes I think Samuel is going through his "Terrible Two's" as a four year old.  He is reaching that point where he is exploring more.  This is especially the case when he goes outside.  Over the past few weeks, he has started taking off running in our backyard and has ventured into other areas of the neighborhood.  We cannot take our eyes off him for one second.  As a result, we are currently getting bids from fence companies in the area.  Hopefully we can get the back yard fenced in this summer so he can enjoy his playset without us worrying about him wondering off through the neighborhood.  

 

Another phase he seems to be going through is wanting to be home more often than not.  If we go just about anywhere, a short time into the visit he is saying "want to go home" and telling people "bye."  Last weekend we spent the night with April's parents.  We had told him early in the day that we were going to spend the night with "nana and papa".  He seemed to be okay with doing this until about 6:30 that night.  All of a sudden he was emphatic saying "want to go home."  After several tantrums, we gave him a bath before he gradually calmed down.  He fell asleep around 9:30 and slept good during the night.  However, this experience made us question whether we should take a vacation this summer.  Originally, we were planning to visit Atlanta for a few days.  However, after thinking about the noise of the city and staying overnight in a different spot, we have reconsidered.  We are currently leaning towards just taking several day trips instead. Hopefully in a year or two the communication between Samuel and us will be at a higher level so he can let us know when things are beginning to get too painful for him before it reaches that point.  This will hopefully allow all of us to have a positive traveling experience.  

Recently, he has also started throwing items off the shelf.  It is obviously fun for him to do this, despite us voicing our disappointment in the action.  We have noticed that he is usually in a quiet mood, when all of us a sudden he will start running around and go knock everything off the shelf.  After he does this once, it seems to become addicting and wants to do it again despite our objections.  I think he enjoys seeing us get angry with him, so we have started taking a different approach.  We try not to say anything, but simply point at him to go to his bedroom for timeout.  In addition, we tell him to pick-up his mess after the timeout is over.  I'm not sure if this is working or not, but it obviously is something we are trying to work through.  Something triggers him to want to take this action, so we are trying to determine what is the best method to improve.  

Finally, we are still trying to get the ABA Therapy scheduled for Samuel.  It has been an extremely long process trying to get through the bureaucracy of getting the State Health Plan to approve an in-network provider that is within 50 miles of where we live.  We still have not reached that point, but did receive a positive lead yesterday.  I will keep you posted as we try to get this approved and the therapy started.  

As always, thanks for taking time to read!

Have a great weekend!

Brian 

Potty Struggles and Throwing Toys

"Samuel, you have poop running up your back!"  These are the exact words I heard yesterday as I walked in the house from work.  I have briefly mentioned before that Samuel is still not potty trained.  His specialist in Greenville suggested that we not force it while he was adjusting to school.  Occasionally he will indicate an awareness of a wet or dirty diaper.  However, for the most part he does not seem to be overly concerned about a messy diaper.  We have attempted at times to get him to sit on the potty and have him wear pull-ups on occasion.  The pull-ups do not seem to help, as that is what he was wearing when I walked in the door yesterday.  He has approximately one more month left in the school year, so we are going to work hard on potty training this summer.  Hopefully progress will start to be made.

Samuel has recently started going through a different phase.  He has begun to throw items much more and has grown even more attached to other toys.  Today was a pretty rough day for him (and others) at school.  It was a very wet morning commute and April was forced to stop in a different location from where she usually parks.  As you know by now, Samuel does not like for his routine to be changed.  Therefore, this made him upset.  In addition, he has recently become very attached to these tiny Thomas trains.  He has collected every train Sodor has to offer (or so it seems).  Samuel likes to take two or three of them with him anytime we leave the house. Previously, he understood that he needed to leave them in the car when we arrived at our destination.  In the past week, he has started wanting to carry them inside with us wherever we go.  Unfortunately that was also the case this morning at school.  So when April would not let him, she had to carry a screaming child into school.  In addition, since it was raining he was picked-up by his teacher in a different location than usual.  This only made him angrier.  April said as she was dropping him off, he was screaming at the top of his lungs.  The teacher said as time went on he did calm down.  However, later in the morning he hit two classmates with a book that he was holding.  His teacher indicated that this type of behavior is more aggressive although very sporadic.  We have noticed similar behavior recently at home as well.  This weekend he had an episode where he just started throwing toys and knocking items off counter tops, while laughing hysterically.  Obviously he is getting overly stimulated during these moments, but we are trying to figure out how to recognize when these outbursts are about to occur, so we can direct his attention elsewhere before they start. Any suggestions that readers have are certainly welcome.

On a closing note, we did attended the 2016 Coastal NC Walk/Run for Autism in Wilmington on Saturday, April 23.  It was an inspiring event as over 500 people participated in different ways.  My parents pushed Samuel in a stroller, while Cameron ran beside them in the event.  April and myself ran in the competitive race.  Later, Cameron and my niece Caraline participated in the Kids Dash.  There were informational booths for all kinds of support systems that are available across the state.  Overall, it was a very enjoyable event that raised money for an outstanding cause.  Thank you to those who donated on behalf of Samuel.  It means more than you can imagine!

Till next time!
Brian