Ryan received two more B-12 injections this week. The first one went very similar to the one we did last Sunday. He was awake and Phil had to hold him down. It was a high anxiety moment for all of us, including Julia who witnessed this for the first time and covered her ears during the entire process. In hindsight, we should have put her to bed before giving the injection.
For his second injection, we told him on Sunday that he needed to have his medicine in his arm. We were leaving for a BBQ and then going straight to Playland. We didn't want to upset him before we left so we resorted to the fact that we would have to do it late at night after we returned from Playland. To our surprise, Ryan went to the refridgerator and told us he wanted to take the needle out of the bag. We took it out and then he said that he didn't want us to hold him, and he wanted to sit on the stairs to get it. We were both in shock. I was reluctant because this was a surprise to us and we hadn't applied the numbing cream. I knew this injection would hurt Ryan more than the others, and we've already seen what happens. But Phil insisted that we take advantage of this window of opportunity. Phil sat next to Ryan and held his arm in a way that Ryan didn't feel he was restraining him, but if he tried to jerk his arm during the injection he could restrain him. Ryan was so brave as he watched me do it without moving. He screamed that it hurt and he cried afterwards. But he knew we had fun places to go so he didn't run upstairs to sulk. He accepted the treat that we had waiting for him and we left the house.
Ryan has been producing some wonderful speech lately. His dialogue and conversations are more in-depth and high-functioning than they have ever been before. During the week Julia received a package in the mail with a doll house from Phil's sister. Both kids were thrilled! They spent hours this week playing (nicely!) with the doll house. It was nice to see them get along and be creative with their pretend play scenarios. At one point I heard Ryan saying, "Mommy, mommy..." and I answered him. He then said, "No, I'm talking about this mommy", holding up the mother figure that goes with the doll house. From that point on, he has been referring to the mother as "pretend mommy". It is cute to see him take the baby and say, "Pretend mommy, I need sunscreen." We feel this is unchartered cognitive and pragmatic development for Ryan and it is exciting.
It's nice to see and recognize improvements. I know we've mentioned before that living day-to-day it is not always so easy to see the improvements and it can get discouraging. But when others haven't seen him in a while the changes are more noticeable. Case in point: Ryan began transitioning back to daycare this week. He spent half the day on Wednesday and a full day on Thursday. The director who has known Ryan for two years now, but has not seen him since June, was very impressed with his accomplishments. She said he seemed much calmer and was able to stay focused and on-task for longer times with activities that would have normally frustrated him. At first I was worried that Ryan wouldn't want to be there, especially walking in with new faces (both kids and teachers) in the room. "Old" Ryan would have had a meltdown. He would have held on to my leg and hide from everyone. He would have been angered and upset when I left. He was shy and stood close to me walking in on Wednesday morning, but after a minute he sat down to eat his breakfast after giving me a hug and kiss goodbye. At the end of the day I was pleased to hear that he adjusted well and followed the routine as if he never left in June. The kids were happy to see him and he did a great job socializing with old and new friends.
On the diet front, we'll be back to doing a lot of prep the evening before for the next day at school and daycare. Ryan will need to bring a lunchbox with prepared GFCF food for daycare and the same for his 5 hour preschool program at PARC. And we will have to rely on his daycare teacher to make sure he gets on the bus with what he needs for PARC. More next week on the beginning of the school year and what we have put into place to make the whole process easier for us and his teachers.
Speaking of PARC, Ryan had his orientation this week. There were a lot of parents and students in the room since there was one orientation for the morning students, afternoon students, partial week students, and full day/full week students (like Ryan). It was loud and chaotic. He wouldn't walk in the room and Phil had to carry him and hold him for a little while. And even after he put him down, he stuck to us like glue for about 15 minutes. But then he warmed up and ran off to play with the toys in the room while his teachers spoke to the group. In fact, at the end of the hour, he was having such a good time playing that he was reluctant to leave. His teachers were nice and seemed very understanding and accomodating to Ryan's needs. He is in an inclusion class with approximately 12 mainstream children and 6 special education children. It is called SCIS for Special Class Integrated Setting.
Ryan met Olivia this weekend. Olivia's sister turned 5 and we were at their house celebrating. I brought a special cupcake for Ryan and he wasn't upset that he couldn't have what the other kids were having. While Julia ran around playing with all of the kids, Ryan was content sitting and watching The Wonder Pets with Olivia and playing trains either by himself or with Olivia's brother. There were a lot of people there that he didn't know and we were proud that he behaved well and didn't have any meltdowns. It was windy out and Ryan kept saying he was scared because a tornado was coming.
Ryan had a great time at Playland. He loved the rides; the faster the better. He went on a mini roller coaster with his cousin Amelia and he loved the ferris wheel. We stuck to the kiddie rides area for the most part and played a few games at the end of the night. He got very wild at the end of the night. I don't know if it was from the excitement and adrenaline, or the non GFCF chicken nuggets and cookie he had that afternoon. I'll end with some pictures of our afternoon/evening at Playland.
DC
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