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Will woke up, watched a cartoon and from there decided he wanted to be a robot. The three of us constructed this thing. Took about an hour. Soon as we were done Will says - umm mom, can you make me a paper airplane? Wow, if only he had asked for that first. and no I did not make the paper airplane.
A very generous person handed down this vest to us. It's exactly what we were looking for. Just a simple vest that says, 'in training'. He only wears it when we take him out. He's actually been out quite a bit in the past few weeks. Snoopy goes with Will to therapy in the afternoons, he's visited the school, taken numerous car rides, and today we tried out full public access. Costco. We weren't sure how they would react and when we flashed our card the girl told us that dogs weren't allowed. Then we showed her the vest and she said it would be ok. Snoopy and Will rode in the back of the cart the whole time and did just fine. Of course he's no where near trained right now, but this is all part of the socialization and the beginnings of his training.
While in Costco we picked up a bag of rawhides. He got to hold one for the ride home. He's having a few issues with overprotectiveness and aggression over food and treats. I've been working with him during feeding times. Handling, messing with his head and ears while he eats. It only took a few times of taking the food away to reduce the growls. We still work on it every time. And today he did the same thing with the rawhide. So we did some work with that too. If anyone (tracy, Cat?) has any suggestions on this let me know. I'm sure it can be remedied, but I want to do the right way.
See - don't those eyes just say, 'please don't take my chewy?' The expressive eyes are fine, just no growls and threats of bites please.
In the past week we have gotten quite a bit of snow. Right now there are only patches left in certain shady spots and all the roads are clear. But last Sunday was a different story.
Here we have the most beautiful dead plant I've ever shot. This past summer we bought this plant and before we got it in the ground realized it was quite the bee hang out. Well, in my haste to plant it, I didn't dig a deep enough hole (the bees outnumbered me) and it died right away. Now look at it! Looks like a cotton plant. I knew I kept it around for a reason...
The sun came out and Will and I figured it was as good as time as any to build a snowman. They don't look like much, but man! Snowmen are hardwork! LOL! The pirate acessories where Will's idea. I think he turned out pretty cool!
This pup LOVES the snow. He could play in it for hours, but I don't think his underside can stand it for too long. There were a couple of times that I thought we might need use a hair dryer to defrost his boy parts!
The kids had a BLAST here. This is a basin in our subdivision. It's like a big bowl. Perfect for sledding. I knew Autumn would jump right in, but Will surprised me. He seemed fearless! It was so cool to watch them go down together in all different positions and then by themselves. We will for sure go back there after the next snow.
We took the dogs with us to run around. They had fun for awhile, but then some big dog showed up and wouldn't leave poor casey alone. And I feared for the little one. So they were reassigned to the car. (note the tiny head in the backround!)
Mail anyone? In the latest edition of Will Kelly designs we have the mailman attire. One day early last week William declared that he wanted to be a mailman. So he set to work. Please take note that this is a one man show. All his designs are completed with no help or assistance from anyone. Except for the occasional inqury to an items location. So, the mailman costume comes complete with a hat, tie (this was an important one for him), vest, shoes, and mailbag. He made addressed letters to deliver along with packages of importance. The most important part of his deliveries is that you only 'pretend' to open the letter. And he was quite pleased when I 'opened' my package and and declared him a hero because he delivered my very important medicine to me! That was fun, but today he is a Knight.
Last but not least.... IT'S GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME!!!! Autumn's troop has a very high goal to reach since they are planning a two day trip to a amusement/water park this summer. We'll do our best.....
Here she is taking an order over the phone. If anyone is so inclined to buy GS cookies from Idaho they will get to you safe and sound. I know the hottest shipper in town.......
It just so happens that the start of the new year coincides with the start of a new plan for Will. School is going pretty well for him. He spends nearly all of his time in the regular 1st grade classroom. There is an aide that is assigned to help him and make sure all is well with him in the classroom, but she is only spending a small amount of time with him because that's all he needs! So basically he is functioning in a typical classroom with *some* intervention. The kids in his class love him and his most favorite friends are a few sweet girls.
For the past year we have been with a developmental agency that has provided us with an IBI professional. She came to our house 4 days a week to work with William. She was really experienced and good to Will and he has made some great progress with her.
A few months ago I got an appointment with Dr. Whitney. His practice works with children with autism and aspergers. Not so much on behaviors , but on socialization. We've had a few therapy appts there and I can tell you that it is much different from other therapies that we've been to. So, what we've done is moved to a developmental agency that Dr. Whitney works with. He will continue to have appts at ICACD along with a new IBI profession that will work with him here at home. And both agencys will communicate with each other about Will's program.
Also, in february, we are going to Seattle to see a new Dr that specializes in Autism treatment. Our biomedical interventions in the past year have (at best) been stagnant. He hasn't had any testing as far as blood, stool, urine in a couple of years. So, we need to see what's going on inside and consult with a DAN doctor on a new biomedical approach. It would probably be good to get ourselves to another DAN conference too.
As far as Snoopy - he is another piece of the new direction. We are hoping to train snoopy to be Will's 'special friend'. I don't know if we will ever get to the point of actual 'service dog' with public access, but I am doing a lot of research and I really hope to train him into a wonderful addition to Will's life.
So, that's the scoop for now. I'm sure I've thourghly confused you with my scattered explanations. Most of the time I'm confused too!
Snoopy has a big obsession with socks. He actually goes upstairs, into our closet, grabs one (or two) and brings it downstairs. Not only that, but once he gets a hold of one, good luck getting it back from him. You can always tell when he has something that he doesn't want to give up - he runs as fast as his little stubby legs can go (which is pretty darn fast) with his ears laid back on his head. It's pretty cute right now, but I think I'm gonna get tired pretty quickly of finding misplaced socks all over.
