TMI Alert

Feel free to skip past this paragraph. Haha. Skyler just pooed in his potty for the first time!! Woohoo!! So exciting for me. We only bought it for him on Saturday night and we weren't even home on Sunday. So he'd sat on it a total of one time before today. I thought I should sit him down on it and get him used to it (which I intend to do every day probably around the same time as part of his potty training) and we sat for a bit. He whined for about 2 seconds, but then we started singing, and clapping and patting. You start the clapping and patting and he's there. He loves to sway and rock back and forth and clap his hands and pat his legs. Lots of smiles! I decided to put him on it after lunch because I know that's when he usually goes. Anyway he relaxed, and then yeah! One less diaper change for me! My life is awesome. :D

Last night I stayed up way too late (midnight or a bit after) finishing my latest project. I'll have to take pictures of them for you. I made Skyler a set of flash cards. Each one is a picture of something or someone with large print on the top and Braille on the bottom. They're all laminated and everything of course. I made one of me (it says Mommy) one of my mom and my dad, one of chuck's mom, Skyler's ball, the phone, Skyler eating, Skyler sleeping, etc. The idea is that we can show him what's going to be happening next so that he has some idea what's going on.

I learned about visual aids/flashcards and sequencing from my Autism workshops actually and I thought why not try it? So I figured I can show him the picture of the phone, and the picture of whoever we're calling (Grandma for example) and say "We're going to call Grandma on the phone!" because he loves to talk to everyone on the phone. I usually will put it on speaker phone whenever I am on it so he can hear them. This way he will know who we're talking to. Also I still need to get a picture of the car, but I want to be able to show him the car, and the person we're going to see so he knows we're going in the car to visit whoever. I was thinking about it, even for me, I would be annoyed if I was unable to talk and people just kept taking me places without telling me what's going on.

I figure this way he has not only audio cues/words (us telling him what's happening) but also a visual to focus on and to help his memory. I know that I personally have a visual memory, and I know that while Skyler is low vision he does use his vision very well, and a lot. He is definitely using all his senses. Another idea is that he can use them to communicate to us, while we're definitely trying to encourage his oral communication skills it's going slowly, and the baby signs are fantastic but he doesn't have a sign for everything. I think having cards to point to when he really wants something or is too upset to sign for it would be good too. Encouraging communication in all it's forms is definitely a good thing, I want him to recognize the pictures and know what they mean along with the spoken, written and Braille words. Eventually.

It was very cute when I showed him the card with my picture on it. He looked at the card, then looked at me, then a huge smile came over his face and he looked back at the card. It was like he was thinking "Hey that's you! I have a picture of you!". I think it will be perfect for when he's with my mom or whoever babysitting him or if he's with his daddy while I'm at work, he can find the card with my picture on it whenever he misses me. Same with the card for daddy of course. Anyway I used the cards today to tell him that we were going to go to the potty and he seemed to get it. Yay for learning aids.

I hope you all are doing well. I'm off to attempt a nap.