"More" hugs for mommy... matching letters and brushing his own teeth (or at least trying to)

Prepping for the IEP is quite stressful. I've been talking to many people who have been through it and turns out I'll have a lot of homework to do before next Wednesday. And with Mike gone I'm always stressed anyway. And of course all that's going on makes me emotional in all ways. Lot's of deep breathing is taking place these days.

I have now submitted just about everything I need to for the Duke study. I had uploaded the videos they needed to this blog but realized wanted them to just see those so created one of their own. Just need to send the MRI which I will do Thursday. Have to pick up another copy when I'm at CHLA tomorrow. Can't find the one I had. We'll see if they take him or not. If they do it means 3 trips to Duke. Guess we'll deal with the logistics of that if we are accepted. 

And Pediatric Minds has put up on their waiting list. They actually called tonight to say we could begin April 4 instead of April 26. Which would be good for timing for Lila to not have so much of her summer driving to Torrance at 8:30 every morning. But not so great for now because I was trying to get an intensive scheduled at NAPA for 3 weeks with OT and PT (including treadmill) daily. I think that would be the push he needs to go off on his own two feet. But also trying to schedule a short one for the week of his birthday and after in case we don't end up going to AZ with Mike. 

He took more steps on his own yesterday in therapy. After lots of time on the treadmill and some walking with light assistance from the therapist. Just drives me nuts that he mentally can't get to the point of going it on his own even though his body is ready. Deep breath and patience. He's going to get there. And when he does I'll be frustrated with running after him I'm sure ;-)

Someone gave us a simple walker that we are using around the house and outside now. He's great with it. We're all hoping that will give him the desire to be more independent but we'll see.

Now onto the subject line. This boy is a heart melter! Tonight I geared him up in his trike to ride down to my polling place to vote. As I was putting his helmet on he reached out and hugged me. Straight after, he signed more and hugged me again! And again... and again! I was loving it! Oh my that just made my year. So sweet :-)

And something that I can't remember if I've noted or not but he's been matching letters for a while now. He does it in the bath as well as with the fridge magnets. They asked me if he could match like items in the assessment and I said yes but he didn't do it there, of course. He does it all the time at home though. 

He's also trying to brush his teeth on his own. Every since we went to see Dr. Sami, he's been trying every night. Drives me nuts cause it takes so much longer and now he doesn't let me get in there as much but it's amazing he's taking the initiative to do it. 

I'm a little worried about his teeth yellowing. Dr. Sami didn't clean them because she was looking at more the structure of the mouth rather than digging in on the first visit. She wanted him to connect with her, which he def did. So we are going to our regular dentist end of the week to get both the kids teeth cleaned. Hope she's able to bring them back to white again.