Winter, Big boy bed, and more!

So it may be hard to see, but this picture was the start to a very big change for Grayson in 2014.   He started throwing his leg over the side of the crib. I don't know if he was just stretching or plotting an exit, but I wasn't willing to take a chance.  We decided to get him a toddler bed, and exactly four days later, we had a new bed in his room.  Yes, we could have gotten a "tent" to put above it, but his sleeping pattern has been horrendous lately anyway.  For the last month, he has been up for between 1-3 hours in the middle of the night.  Not crying or upset, just awake.  Babbling, yelling, kicking, running around the crib.... So we figured, if this moving to a bed thing was going to be a shitshow, we might as well do it now, while we aren't sleeping anyway.

We were both very nervous since any two year old might have an issue with this transition, but typically children with Autism have a much harder time with transitions, especially our little man.  We could not have been more thrilled with his reaction.

 After bath time we do naked reading in the room.  Him, not us. :)   And as soon as he saw the bed, he ran right for it.

 Pulled the covers over himself and laid down.

 We were so excited that we dressed him in his PJs in bed and read his stories in his bed.  How do you think he felt about his new bed?  That smile is worth a million words.

He typically sleeps in a bat cave with black out shades on the windows,  but because this was a new thing, and we were sure he would get out of bed, we put a nightlight back in his room. Didn't want him running around in the dark. He fell asleep great, just like he normally would.  As soon as the clock struck somewhere between 1 and 3,he ran around at night for hours, just like he would in his crib.   Then I decided to turn the night light off.  That  fixed that problem.  He is about 50/50 now, two weeks later for being awake in the middle of the night for an extended period of time, but he stays in the bed.  Nap time has been a different issue.  After about a week of no naps, and yes, he does NEED a nap, I decided to use the pack and play for nap time.  Of course, if he is given the option to run around the room, he is going to.  If not, he has about a 80% chance of napping.  So, I will do anything to increase his chances of napping.

 One day I decided to put him on top of the mailbox as we were playing outside.  He loves it and now likes to be put up there to look around, then get down, and go back up again.  It is a great workout for Mommy's arms.

Grayson's teacher at pre-school asked if we take hand me down clothes. Duh, I said.  I couldn't have been luckier with the bag she gave me.  All Ralph Lauren Polo tops.  I couldn't resist this picture.  What a handsome little devil.

 We have actually had a winter this year!  A late one....but nevertheless, a winter!  We have been building lots of fires and Daddy is an expert pyromaniac.  Grayson loves them.  Above he is enjoying a snack by the fire and below he is admiring the fire from afar.

 He has made so much progress in so many areas recently.   This ATV was a gift from his godfather, for his second birthday.  He was scared when we have tried to put him on it in the past and cried to get off immediately.  I don't know why I was feeling confident, but I put him on it, and away he went with a great big smile on his face.

At circle time at ABA they watch videos on the computer that are teaching different skills.  All of his therapists there always tell me that he loves circle time because of the music.  So we decided to download the songs on our Ipad and let him watch them here.  One of his personal favs is Usher singing the alphabet with the Sesame Street crew.  Who wouldn't love that??!

Side note- things are going very well at ABA.  He is signing for about 10 different objects; cereal, chip, banana, raisin, music, slide, swing, drink, ball, and jump.  We are thrilled that he has been able to imitate these signs since that was one of our biggest priorities when starting ABA.  Imitation has always been a huge struggle for Grayson.  So we have overcome that obstacle, and we know that G knows that when he signs for something he gets something, but based on the amount of incorrect signs, and scrolling, going through multiple different signs when asking, we are still working on trying to get him to link the correct sign with the correct reinforcement.  Nevertheless, they love working with him and always tell us what great work he has done that day.   He is starting to babble a ton more.  So they are trying to have him make a verbal request as well as signing for an item. Any verbal request that comes out of his mouth is celebrated and reinforced. Since that is going so well, they are now trying to shape his sounds.  This is where imitation comes in again.  He has NEVER imitated vocally, so I am sure this will take time, but we are thrilled with the prospect.

We always have made leaps and bounds of progress socially and sensorily.  We went to Pump it Up last night for a party.  It is a place with inflatables for jumping and sliding.  Last time we were there was a year ago for another party.  This is when we had just started with Early Intervention and were at the peak of all of his issues.  We had a Grayson glued to our bodies that would scream cry when we would put him down.  There are three different rooms that you are in, 40 minutes in each room.  By the last room, where we got to eat pizza and cake, he started to mellow out a bit.

Fast forward a year.   He LOVED it.  Went right in and did a few laps and circles with a smile on his face.  Then went right with Daddy down the huge slide which resulted in a huge smile.  They had a mini roller coaster with two small hills.  He transitioned so well between the two activities and was such a good listener when it was time to switch to the next room.  We went in all the inflatables, obstacle courses, and slides alike.  He kept grabbing one of our hands and pulling us back to the start to go again.  What a pleasurable time we all had.
Really makes us look back at all the progress he has made, and although we still have a lot of work to do, it reminded me that this is a marathon not a sprint, and we have to stop to celebrate the great successes that we have achieved along the way.   Enjoy the two videos from the fun we had last night!