Denver Diary Day 19: A mouse and brotherly fun

Today was Cade's second day off.  He was definitely much more awake today...I'm so glad they give him 2 days off to recover from his long week.  Today for lunch we broke down and finally went to visit the mouse...yep, Chuck E. Cheese!!  We figured that hopefully if we went for lunch it wouldn't be too crowded...and trust me, that's the only time we want to do Chuck E. Cheese!!

Cade was so excited he could hardly stand it.  I have no idea why he loves this place so much.  For some reason, even though it's a sensory kid's nightmare, he loves to hang out here.  I think the excitement about the place is a much bigger deal to him than actually going, but he always loves it when we go.  And of course Kai loves it, too, which makes it worth going every now and then.  For Eric and I it just equals expensive pizza, headaches, and dragging kids out before they want to go.  Hence the reason we don't go that often!

This was Cade's favorite - a driving game, of course!



The boys driving the bus




Leaving with our prizes...Kai chose candy and Cade chose a coloring book and a whoopie cushion (trust me, he doesn't know the real use of it!)

The boys had a wonderful time, as always...and of course neither of them wanted to leave.  But we finally got everyone back in the car and headed back to the Ron McD House where at least Kai took a nap.  The boys were then treated to packages from home...they were so excited!!  They had so much fun opening everything.  It gets boring for them around here sometimes (ok, for all of us!) and it was nice for them to get mail.

 

Both boys were in a great mood yesterday and showed a bit of brotherly love by playing with each other without actually fighting.  They were so funny playing...and Cade decided to teach Kai how to do "Ring Around the Rosie."  Except Cade has his own version...

We have started to see a difference in the way Cade plays with others.  His social skills have been greatly affected by his SPD...he is in "Cade mode" all of the time and cannot typically allow others to have ideas that he can follow.  We have noticed in playing with the kids here that he seems a lot less frustrated with them in play.  This is a huge deal for us because we know his social skills are so important in his development, especially now that he is getting older.

We have also been working a lot on transferring what he is learning at therapy to "home" (although that isn't as easy not actually being at home!).  We are specifically working on teaching him how to respond to the way he is feeling, especially when he is mad or frustrated.  His typical answer is to act out by hitting or name-calling...Julianna has told us that he acts out because he does not know how to handle what his body is feeling sensory-wise.  I can only imagine how hard it must be to deal with the onslaught of everything coming into your brain being offensive to your body.  It is nice to be able to better understand this through Julianna...us having an understanding is the only way we can help him.