Mommy and Noah Day

Today Noah and I spent the day together as we usually do on Tuesdays.  We started off the day by going to our group class that is run by Early Intervention (EI).  The class is called "Explore and More" and is for toddlers Noah's age.  It is always a lot of fun and today was no different.  The class ran according to its usual schedule-free play, sensory table, circle time, snack, gross motor, and art.  When I write all that out it seems like a ton but it is only a two hour class and it always seems to fly by.  It has been a great weekly activity for Noah and I and I think he really looks forward to it.  It has been great for me because it gives us something structured to do while we are home, I have been able to meet other Moms with children who have similar needs to Noah, and I have been able to see how much Noah has grown since we started going to class.

Noah and I first did a class last summer and it's crazy to think how far he's come since then.  At that time Noah was just sitting up and had not even started butt scooting.  That class was really more for the parents and it was a good opportunity for us to get accustomed to EI and get to know some of his therapists.  We didn't do a class in the Fall because of our crazy schedule and in December Noah moved up into the class he is in now.  When we started in December it just so happened that Noah was the youngest toddler in the class.  This was a little overwhelming for me because he wasn't walking and it seemed like he was so behind compared to the other kids.  I remember looking at some of the other toddlers in the class and thinking, "will Noah be able to do this?"  Fast forward to the last 2 weeks and Noah is doing everything!  He was running around the room, was one of the first to say "me," to pick his song during circle time, and has even started to hold his nose when we sing the "ducks go diving in the water."  It all seems kind of silly but it makes me so happy and I love seeing him grow and learn new things all the time. 

After class we went to the grocery store and then headed home for lunch and a nap.  Poor Noah only took a 20 minute nap yesterday and was still totally exhausted today.  He took a nice, long 3 hour nap today and I was able to get done all of my "chores" that I had put off this weekend because of Mother's Day.  I was even able to get my "streak" workout in which was great.  After Noah's nap we spent an hour doing constraint therapy.  Unfortunately, in the last couple of months, we have not been doing as much constraint therapy as we would like.  Noah went through a period where he was getting frustrated with it and we really weren't getting much accomplished.  Now that he is moving more and seems less frustrating in that area we have started up with the therapy again and are trying to do it for an hour four times a week.  I'm hopeful that we can do more in the future but for right now I think this works well.  He did pretty well today-got a little frustrated with certain activities but that is to be expected.  We ended the hour with playing with the cash register, his favorite.  The following is a video of him doing constraint therapy using the cash register from a couple of months ago.  Overall we had a wonderful day but I'm completely exhausted and heading off to bed!