1st Dentist Appointment!

Thank goodness for Camera phones. LOL Dominic had a great 1st dentist appointment. We found out that even though he's missing a bottom front tooth and only has 3 that it may come in as a permanent and it may not. If it doesn't there's no reason to worry about it because most of the time with just 3 you can't tell anyways according to the dentist. Dave actually has 5 on the bottom so the Dentist joked that maybe dad took Dominic's. His teeth look great and he'll go back in 6 months where we'll attempt to get x-rays. The first 2 four year old visits are usually just meet and greets so they don't scare the kids. Then on the 3rd visit they will TRY to clean his teeth. He gave me some disclosing tablets for the kids (they LOVE those!) and he got a new cool looking toothbrush, kid's mouthwash, floss dinosaur, and toothpaste. Then he picked out a ball out of the toy basket. He told EVERYONE last night about his visit to the funny dentist. Our Dentist thinks he's a comedian. To me he's just a bit strange but the kids adore him.

ADHD and Karate?

I am so sad tonight. We took Dominic to watch the Tae Kwon Do and all he wanted to do was get up and try to go under the chairs or go out the door. He wouldn't sit 2 freakin seconds and watch. It really made me wonder if maybe I should just load him up with meds. Maybe I should just give, screw it ya know? They'd scream "kee yah" and he'd hold his ears and say it was too loud. One of the teachers said maybe I should try back in a year with him but then said if Dad got into it, maybe Dominic would follow. I told Dave he should try and see. Dave did it as a kid so he knows alot of the moves, he can even do the splits!! I bet if he saw Daddy out there, he'd get excited to try. I think it upset Dave too that he wouldn't sit there. I know he wanted the boys to be in martial arts.

Eeeee Yaaaw!!!

This week we will be taking Dominic to watch some Tae Kwon Do by younger kids and see if he's interested in trying to do it. He's already jumping around saying yes. He's excited. Dave did Tae Kwon Do as a kid and has always said the discipline and structure would be great for him. Well I started hearing that martial arts are great for kids with ADHD and researched it. Turns out it is. Here's one article on it. So if this all works out after he sits in a few sessions, Dom will start doing this on Tuesday evenings.

Dominic's Parent Teacher Conference

Dominic is doing extremely well at school. So well that they think he would do great in a more normal preschool setting. He will still be on an IEP but normal preschool. How does this make me feel? Extremely happy! I can't believe it. Little backround. Dominic goes to what is known as EI- Early Intervention. It's a preschool but made up of children with developmental disabilities. Most of the children are there for minor things like Dominic's speech and behavior, but there are some with more indepth complex problems such as blindness, deaf, down syndrome, motor skill problems, Autism, MS, etc. I knew what his school was like as far as classmates and it pleased me because I wanted him to be exposed to being around children that have some disabilities so he understood that they were just like him but in a wheelchair, using a hearing aide, a cane, etc. He's made great bonds with the kids and considers them all his "friends."

Dom's teacher had nothing but praises for me. She said that he's making an effort on everything and his fits are less and less it seems. They are still there but not as bad as they were (hitting teachers, kicking, etc.) Here's a few things he's doing great at.

• On Cognitive-Row counts to 6 then starts skipping #'s
• recognizes all the basic colors except brown and black
• understands basic patterns
• places things in order by size
• recognizes his name in print
• On Language- says his first and last name
• knows gender and age
• speaks in 2-3 word sentences, progress being made on 4-5
• Follows 1 and 2 ste directions
• understands some positional concepts. Up, Down, In and out. On and Off
• Points to Same, different, big, little, more, less, tall, slow, fat, hot, cold
• Self-Help: tries a varity of foods
• can use cup and bowl
• washes and drys hands without help
• can undo zippers, takes off coat, uses toilet with no help
• can nearly point to everything except for wrist, ankle, waist, hips, heel.
• Social Skills: follows the routine
• follows directions
• knows staff and classmates names
• initiates interactions with adults
• pays attention now for 3-5 minutes!!!! That's great!
• Fine Motor: dominant right hand
• can complete a 20 piece puzzle
• builds a tower of 10 blocks
• self portrait with 3 details (arm, stick torso, legs)
• snips paper
• Gross Motor: walks upstairs
• jumps down from things without falling
• balances on one foot
• walks on a balance beam
• throws, catces and kicks a ball
• jumps with 2 feet

Here's what we need to work on though. Social skills are still not all there. He's having a hard time with asking adult permission, sharing, watching and listening, waiting his turn, attempting to solve conflicts with peers, initiateing an activity with others such as "hey let's play with this.."

His language is there but he's still not able to follow 3 part directions yet. Cognitive and Language still need alot of work There are still some positional concepts he doesn't get yet such as between, behind, etc. He can't answer questions yet either which I knew that. He can't hold a pencil without clenching it and still doesn't like to attempt coloring in the lines. It's more or less scribbled. He doesn't recognize letters or numbers yet. Catagories he doesn't understand at all. We'll get there. I expressed my concerns about if we do put him in a new preschool setting that he would fall backwards. She said she would work with the teacher. They would also send a speech therapist to the school to work with him. Overall it went really good and I was pleased!

Spring Break

Dominic's Spring Break is here! He's out till March 19th!!! I might just have to shoot myself pawn him off on my Grandma a few days the next week or so. If not, I may just kill him end up in a nuthouse. I'm sure though, everything will be just fine, 4 kids and all. I'll just have to think of 300 activities a day for the 14 hours he's normally awake. Any ideas?

Update on Progress

So since Dominic has turned 4 now I'll give an update for the Baby Book. lol

As far as I know school is going really good. We have PT Conferences on Thursday. Last I knew, they do timeouts if he misbehaves and they have been able to keep him attention for the most part. He only wanders off occasionally now BUT they always have a teacher sit him on their lap so that probably makes a difference! He loves school though and the other day when it was out, he was really upset telling me he wanted to go.

He is still totally fixed on trains. Everything in his life is Thomas. He lines them up and plays with them. He only wants to wear Thomas underwear, Thomas Shoes, Thomas clothes. He plays with them 24/7. Still 1 year later, I'm making his toaster strudel icing into a train for him to eat.

The freaking out from shirt tags has stopped. Which is good because I want to know what the size of everything is for Damien to wear when it's handed down.

Naptime has been nonexistant since he turned 2 1/2. He's always been on the go since then. He's still up WAY too long. He wakes at 6:30 AM and is up till around 9-9:30. That's a LONG time to me for a kid. If I have a hard time doing it, I can't see how he does it. He's always running around the whole day laughing, giggling and doing all the wrong things. He still never thinks before he acts but then he realizes his mistake a few minutes later and will say sorry.

Outbursts are less it seems. If you remember some of the videos on here of him knocking the crap out of me, they are less but still there especially if you piss him off. He may say something like his school bus is BLUE. You correct him saying it's yellow and he'll tell you your wrong and it's BLUE. Now you can keep trying to correct him but it's best to just drop it because he gets really mad screaming his answer, clenching his fists and finally gets physical. This happens in public and people's eyes bulge and stare. He is always physical with Damien and Alex. I saw him twist Damien by the neck and throw him on the floor the other day for playing with his things. He jumps and beats Alex all the time. This is what the Dr said he'd really prescribe the meds for is the ODD part of his ADHD. To calm him before anyone got hurt. When I came home from the hospital I figured for sure this time I'd have a baby in the ER for some of his tantrums but so far we're ok. I keep a constant eye on her from the boys. Fits in the store are pretty much the same and we have them alot. Sometimes I can put them off by carrying suckers in my purse or a train from home he hasn't played with in awhile. I keep toys in my purse and diaper bag.

Last, his speech is soooo much better. More like a 4 year old now. The boy talks all the time in sentences!!! He's improved so much! We still have letters he can't pronounce and prepositions we are learning but he's getting there!