Hooray For Swings...

Well, after writing my last blog I was encouraged to quit talking and get doing. I ordered a hammock chair for Ryan and I am happy to say that my wonderful man already mounted it up and we've used it a million times since! Ryan loves it! So does Dylan (who keeps saying he needs therapy too when we tell him the stuff we buy isn't just for fun but it's to help Ryan with therapy. I guess we could have just left it as "yeah, it's for fun" and not have a kid that claims he needs therapy... oh well, lesson learned).

This is the "in a trance" face Ryan gets after swinging for a  few  minutes. He stays in this zone for 15 minutes easily, sometimes 20 to 30 minutes. 

He was holding on to and playing with the smallest puzzle piece ever. He was pretending it was a rocket ship. 

We were blessed by my awesome grandparents who gave us some cash to use to buy some of Ryan's therapy goodies too!!! (Thank you so much grandma, you are awesome and we love you)!! We went out right away and got the boy a trampoline! We intended to have it put away when he's not using to prevent injuries and we have yet to do so because he has used it nonstop! I tried to get pictures of it... harder to do than I originally thought so I will save that for the next blog. The money also was used to pay for the swing and hardware used to mount it!

Next on the list is a possible homemade tunnel. I'm just trying to determine the best way to configure the opening so it stays open... (Any ideas Amber??) I was going to get some ugly, hilariously bright, fabric and just have fun with it! SO,Joann's sale section, here I come... but it was an epic fail! Even the fabric in the sale section was too pricey to get enough to make a decent tunnel. I checked out some dog agility ones online too but they're not cheap and I'm milking this cash! Finally, last night, I was remaking Ryan's bed after doing laundry and I had a thought...why not use an old sheet that isn't used! So I grabbed two sheets that we have lying around and now it's in the "to sew" in-box I have to be completed... (hopefully sooner than later).

I'm still working on the weighted items. I still want to get him the yuk-e ball. I am also considering a balance beam that Amber told me she made. Sounds awesome and Ryan has a blast balancing on stuff. Maybe I can get him a bosu ball...


On another note, we completed the testing for Autism with Kaiser. Great news, Ryan is not autistic. His final diagnosis is learning delay with speech delay and sensory processing disorder. Now the school district says Ryan displays autistic like behaviors and that's true. But the testing is done and the labels mean nothing. It is fine with me because they will continue to offer us the services Ryan needs to be prepared for general education. He also is too young to be diagnosed with Asperger's or ADD. So with the testing done, we just have to follow up with a behavior specialist every 6 months to a year, continue with occupational therapy, and see a speech therapist for however long they see fit.

The main objective in the testing was to rule out Autism to better diagnose the sensory issues. Most Autistic kids have some sort of sensory issues (or so I've been told by everyone from the school district and Kaiser). It's, of course, not always the case, but this is why we pushed for the testing despite everyone insisting that Ryan wasn't autistic. (And I use the term everyone but some thought it was possible). So now with clarification we can hone in to the sensory needs. The psychologist ruled out autism and says Ryan is a case where he only has SPD and speech delays.  

I guess that's all for now. I will post again soon. Hopefully I will have the tube and the weights. I shall keep you all posted.

With Love,
Audrey (and Ryan)