It's hard to believe it's September. Although it was hard to miss it when, at 5:13am on September 1st, Cole ran into our room and excitedly said, "Mom, it's September!!!". I think he was most excited because to him, September means short-wearing season is done. No more mom sneaking shorts into his backpack for him to wear at therapy throughout the day. Yes, it is that hard to get him into shorts. In fact, I don't think Cole wore shorts one time this summer!!
Now Cole is into one certain pair of jeans. He wants to wear the same pair every single day. I'm not sure why this is? So now I'm sending different style jeans in his backpack for him to wear at therapy. He is so smart, he even tries to look in his backpack before he hops on the van, to make sure there are no shorts or jeans in there. I have a separate bag with the jeans and luckily, the driver makes sure the "extra bag" makes it to MAC. Therapists want us to have Cole wear the jeans if he expresses interest in doing something. In other words, if he wants to play the Wii, he will need to put on different jeans first. We'll start this once he gets back from the respite house.. wish us luck!
We've had a few exciting firsts with Cole over the past few weeks. It's so rewarding for us to witness his progress!!!
The boys were invited to a birthday party last weekend for two twin boys who live across the street. The party was at Pump It Up, one of Cole's favorite places. Pat and I stayed at the party, in case things didn't go well for Cole. I'm glad we were there to see how awesome Cole did! Cole had so much fun. He played for the entire hour in the inflatable area. They turned off the lights, played music and gave the kids glow sticks. Cole thought it was cool. He even liked the "fighting" area, where kids had big inflatable "weapons" to hit and knock one another over. Cole played that with a few boys and laughed the entire time! Pat and I saw Cole (for the first time ever), go up to a child he didn't know. We couldn't hear what Cole said, but after a little bit of conversation, he turned to us and said, "This is my friend, Jack". Cole got a little too close for Jack's comfort level and he walked away from Cole shortly after their conversation. It didn't bother us, or Cole for that matter. We were so proud of Cole for trying to make a new friend. The time came for pizza, cake and presents. Cole found a place to sit amongst the group of kids. He was completely indistinguishable. If it weren't for one of the twins who said, "Cole has Autism", I don't think any of them would have known. Cole ate his pizza, politely asked for another slice and sang Happy Birthday just like the rest of them. He sat patiently for cake and brought his gift up to the boys without being told. He even let Connor run around and didn't need to be by his side the whole time. It was a huge success!!
Later that day, Pat set up the tent in the back yard. We set up a nice fire and torches. The boys brought out their sleeping bags, pillows and lots of blankets. The three of them slept out in the tent and made it until 3:30am, when Connor woke up cold. Cole loved sleeping out in the tent. They snuggled close together and Cole kept telling Pat, "I love you Dad. I love sleeping in the tent.". Cole has been so verbal with his feelings. He is constantly telling us how much he loves us and he's always giving lots of hugs and kisses. We are so thankful to get that from him.
Another first was Hippotherapy. Hippotherapy is Occupational Therapy that takes place on a specially trained horse. It is very expensive ($160/hr) and very hard to get into. I saw a neat program on the news and in July I put Cole on the wait list. It was supposed to be a year long wait, but we lucked out and Cole got a call two weeks ago. It was a mad rush to get all of the logistics worked out, but we succeeded. Cole's waiver program is paying for the majority of it and thankfully, the one time slot that was open happen to fit our schedule perfectly.
He went to his first session on Tuesday. It was incredible. Cole walked in, put on his horse helmet and hopped on Dreamer the horse like he had been doing it for years. Cole was so happy, calm, talkative and cooperative. There are four staffers working with Cole and Dreamer. They walk around for about 5-8 minutes and then stop and do OT-related therapies while on the horse. They taught Cole commands for Dreamer and Cole was soon able to say, "Walk on Dreamer". He would wave to other people watching and ask to go faster. It was so amazing to watch and it makes me excited to see where he'll go from here. This session goes another five weeks. At that time, we'll need to get approval to fund another session. Each session is over $1000, so I'm hoping we can find a way to make it work. (see video below)
Cole also had a ton of fun at Uncle Tim's Labor Day BBQ. Pat, Connor and Cole rode their bikes to Tim's house- something Cole loves to do. It's about a twenty minute ride and the boys love it. Before they could leave, Cole made sure to put three of our Rock Band and Guitar Hero guitars in the truck. He said he wanted to have a "dance party". Fortunately, Tim had everything we needed for this dance party! The BBQ is the perfect excuse to test out the Vikings tailgating set-up. For those of you who haven't seen it, Troy and Tim's set up attracts many people and puts the need for a downtown bar down to shame. Cole did so well. He lasted five hours and behaved really well. It was the first time I can recall where Pat and I didn't have to take constant shifts watching Cole's every move. Cole played with all of his cousins. They played baseball, ran in the woods, rode toy 4-wheelers and rolled down the hill. Tim let Cole drive his lawn tractor and after dinner, he turned on the music. Cole ran and got the guitars and went to town. Cole and the cousins jammed to music. Some of them sang into the mic, a few played guitars and some chose to dance around. I think Cole's favorite was singing Hey Soul Sister and playing guitar to 21 Guns. It was a fun party and we were thrilled to see Cole have so much fun with Connor and his cousins.
Personally I had a rewarding experience with my blog this week. I heard from a mom of an autistic child who reads it. She reached out to me after having a really tough day with her son. We emailed back and forth and traded experiences and insight. She was very complimentary to me and shared how helpful she finds my blog and how much she appreciates my advice. It was nice to help her and feel like someone else benefitted from my past experience. As I told her, we're all in this together.
