Cole has been slowly adjusting to the cooler weather and diminishing daylight. Not that he's fond of these changes, but he seems to be coping as best he can. Fall and Spring are the two most difficult times of the year for Cole. He struggles in the fall to let go of all the wonderful things that summer brings: endless tractor rides, short sleeve shirts, playing outside until 8pm, bike rides, scooter rides and other fun things.
It takes quite a few weeks for Cole to adjust to playing inside longer, putting on a coat and waking up when it's still dark out. The last few mornings, Cole has told me, "Mom go back to bed, it's still dark out". Now only if he said that on the weekends, when he's consistently up and firing on all cylinders at 5:45am. These transitions seem easy and for some people, even anticipated. For Cole, these changes throw him off entirely. It affects his behavior. He's on edge, irritable and doesn't understand when you tell him he can't ride his scooter in the dark. His therapists at MAC work on getting him to wear more than one pair of jeans and long sleeve shirts. Cole is so resistant to these things that he checks his backpack each morning and tells me, "no jeans or long sleeve shirts in backpack Mom." I have to hide them inside when he's not looking or sometimes hand a separate bag to his driver, so she can give it to MAC.
The other hard thing is the first few snowfalls. You know, the kind where it is snowing, but it melts when it hits the ground. That is the worst for Cole. He thinks he's going to get to plow snow with the tractor or at very least, shovel. He's ready to put on his snow suit, put the plow on the tractor and spend two hours moving the snow around. He doesn't understand that the ground is too warm.
Thankfully, over the past 18 months, Cole has learned a lot more age-appropriate play skills. This helps tremendously in the cold weather months. He loves playing the Wii, his Nintendo DS and more recently, he loves my iPhone and the music it can play. Cole has his own special play list. He jams to music of all kinds. Right now he's into Katy Perry, John Mellencamp, Pink and the Gear Daddies. He navigates my phone with ease, puts on his headphones, sings, bops his head and shakes his hands to the beat. He loves music, just like his brother does. Cole will even look up the music videos or concerts on YouTube. He can point out John Mellencamp from other members of the band and find him singing the songs he likes.
Cole continues to take private swim lessons at Foss. He is making so much progress. His instructor, Megan, is amazing with Cole. She's been working with him for almost two years and she knows him well. She understands how to motivate him, how to keep him from acting silly and more importantly, how to teach him to swim. We've tried other instructors and not one has been as great as Megan. Cole was thrilled last week when it was Safety Week at Foss. He got to put on a Foss sweatsuit and practice both swimming in the clothes and jumping off the sides. They walked around the read all of the safety signs. They talked about who Cole can swim with, where he can swim and what to do in an emergency. He loved it!
Cole is SO excited to start hockey. We have him signed up for his second season on the Polar team in the MN Special Hockey league. He is waiting patiently for the middle of November, when he'll skate every Sunday. I took the boys to open skate last Saturday. We met Uncle Sean at the arena. They both loved skating with Uncle Sean. Cole's legs were a little wobbly at first, but he got back into it. I even saw him talking to an older gentleman and giving him a high five. Sean and I both saw it and couldn't help but smile. Cole still loves to skate fast and then fall down. The goal this year is to teach him more about where to shoot the puck and not to fall until after he scores a goal. We'll see how that goes! As much as Cole loves to skate, his favorite part is the zambonie. At open skate, he was asking the rink attendant if the zambonie was going to come out. It made his day when the black and gold machine revved up and made its way onto the ice. Cole waved in excitement and told me the "zambonie was mowing the ice." I guess that's one way to look at it!
I have been looking for some homeschool activities that Cole can participate in while he's in therapy at MAC. We all feel it would be a really great opportunity for Cole. Not only will he get to do some fun activities throughout each week, he'll get the chance to socialize with and model after neuro-typical children. So far, we have him signed up for homeschool gym class at the YMCA, ice skate lessons, a monthly rock climbing group and I'm hoping to add either bowling or gymnastics! We are also waiting to see if there is a spot on the roster of a Special Olympics Floor Hockey team. I should find that out this week. I'm so proud that Cole has progressed to a point where these things are possible. What a gift!
Speaking of progress, we just had Cole's annual assessment with MAC. Each year Cole is tested to see where he falls on the Autism Spectrum. It's a big undertaking. I fill out several questionnaires, Cole is observed and tested, I am interviewed, along with several of his therapists. We had a meeting this week to find out the results. Things went so well. Cole showed so much improvement over last year. He is continually moving toward the mildest area on the Autism scale. He still tests and functions in quite low percentages when compared to kids his age, but I don't give a crap. He's making TONS and TONS of progress and his Autism symptoms are slowly decreasing in intensity and severeness... what more can we ask for? He is talking more fluently, teaching himself to read, understanding simple math and having less aggressive behaviors. More importantly, he is happier and enjoying life. His frustration level is decreasing and he has the skills to play with kids his own age.
MAC has been incredible and a critical part of his progress. His team of therapists are truly vested in Cole. His lead therapist came back from maternity leave last week. She told me at the meeting that while on leave, there was a chance she was not going to be re-assigned to Cole upon her return. She was so bummed out, that she immediately called her husband and then her mom to talk about it. She was devastated. Then a week later, she got her case load and Cole's name was on it. She called the office right away to confirm it and when they told her she would indeed still be working with Cole, she was elated. These are the type of people who work so hard on Cole's behalf. They are highly-educated, driven, passionate, caring and wonderful people. And we are so blessed to have them on our team.
I hope you all enjoy a fun Halloween with your families. This is the first year Cole has showed true excitement for Halloween. For the first time ever, he told me what he wanted to be and helped me find the costume. It came in the mail last week and he was so excited. Cole tried it on right away and stood in front of the mirror, looking at himself, dancing in it and asking if he could wear it every day. It seems so simple, but this is significant for Cole. We know how much work and progress it's taken to get Cole to this point and Pat and I could not help but revel in it.
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