VBS

Our church is having a Vacation Bible School (VBS) for children with special needs this week. I must have been living under a rock or something because I did not know anything about it until the minister said something yesterday during his announcements. So, I brought Cooper today and he LOVED it! He had such a great time!! He asked me if he got to go back tomorrow so we plan on doing that. It is hard to come up with something to do for free with the other three kids for three hours but it is worth it for Cooper. It is too far for me to want to drive home (about 30 minutes) and back there to get him plus it seems so wasteful of gas! Cooper often gets left out of things because of his special needs or food allergies or whatever so it is nice for him to have something just for himself!

It was so cute when I picked him up he was excited to show me his bag and when we got to the car he wanted to show me all the crafts he made. We have also been working on his Bible verse which is Philippians 4:19 "My God will meet all your needs."

Summer!

We have been having a fun summer! Pretty low key though at this point just lots of playing at home. Cooper has OT each Monday morning but other than that we are just kind of laying low. In July my Mom is going to come here to visit while I fly to there to work at church camp! I am so excited! I went to that camp as a high school student and then worked at the same junior high week forever! Really about 10 years or so I guess (wow!!) but I have not been able to work since I was pregnant with Emma so I am really ready to go back to it!

Other family news is that Hunter needs to be evaluated for speech therapy:( He was in speech as well as physical therapy for a while just after he turned one but he has lagged behind again. I am of course FREAKING OUT that he is going to end up having some of the same issues that Cooper does. He has some similarity to Cooper in some things but not in others, he is social for one but he has never liked to be held so that is worrisome to me. A mother never stops worrying I think!

Someone came today to fill out paperwork and then she will set up a time that someone will come and evaluate him. We are going through county services because of cost and also because they come to the house! I am so over bringing 4 kids with me to sit in countless waiting rooms and they are so over it so this will be so much easier!

When I was talking to Kevin, my sweet husband, he just said "well, if Hunter does have some of the same issues as Cooper then it will be fine because you will be a pro and you will know what we need to do." He is a sweetie:)

Oh the peppers

We went to the grocery store this morning and when we were there we were in the produce section. Cooper saw some peppers and thought that they looked fun so I told him he could pick one and we would have it for a snack after nap. Well, the choice was hard they had red, orange, yellow and green. First he said he wanted an orange one so I picked one up, then he wanted red so I put the orange back and got a red one, well then he wanted the orange one so I just said "you know what buddy let's get one of each." Phew avoided that melt down right? Nope. About two rows later Cooper started screaming "I WANT GREEN! I WANT GREEN! I WANT GREEN!" He of course now wanted a green pepper. I just told him "no, sorry you chose red and orange we are not getting a green one today maybe we can get one another day."

That makes sense right? He responded to that right? Nope. "I WANT GREEN!!! I WANT GREEN!!! I WANT GREEN!!!" Thank goodness it was time to leave so we went to check out with him screaming his head off. I just paid and we left.

Now this is the annoying part a woman who worked there said, "you are doing a good job Mom I know you want to strangle him!" Um no not really.. then a man in the parking lot said "oh I know YOU have your hands full." Um more than you know thanks. Now, my husband is MUCH nicer than I am when it comes to stupid comments I think because he does not hear them as much. I have learned to just smile and keep walking. What I really want to do is say "that is the stupidest thing I have heard today. Shut your face." That might not be kind though.....

Red Light Green Light

Sometime along the way Cooper figured out what red and green lights are for well now he is obsessed with them! I mean that literally too! We were going to the aquarium a couple of weeks ago and were driving down a highway, well when Cooper would see a red light at the exit he would start screaming "red light! red light! stop! stop!!!" We tried to tell him that those red lights were not for us but he was not buying it. He also gets really confused when we go through and intersection and he looks out his window and sees a red light at the cross street it sends him into near panic mode. Lights with a turn arrow rock his world! He just does not know what to make of the red turn arrow and a green light hum.. what is that about...

Honestly it is kind of funny, sad and annoying all rolled into one! So no more reading of "Go Dog Go" to Cooper!

SCREAMING kid!

We started enzymes and the DAN! doctor told me that they have a high likelihood of affecting behavior. All I gotta say is man she is not kidding!!! Cooper has been SCREAMING all day and beating up on his brothers and sisters! Agh! I am tired and I cannot wait for Daddy to get home! We had really planned on going to church tonight but I just don't think Cooper is in any shape to do that:( The doctor told us that this behavior can last 10-14 days and we started these supplements on Monday.... man it is going to be a LONG two weeks.

However, I will say again that God is good! We have been blessed to be able to see this doctor and to go this healing route. We know that these enzymes and diet changes are healing Cooper's gut and in the long run it will help him and that is just a blessing!

I LOVE Melatonin!!!

We had to wait until we got Cooper's stool, urine and blood testing done before we could start him on his supplements. The blood work was fasting and the lab did not open until 11! AGH! He was not a happy kid!! So we got the stool and urine done this weekend and then we went Monday for the blood work. Monday night we gave him the zinc and melatonin mixed in his applesauce with dinner. He actually went to sleep!!! Holy cow! It happened again last night:) We love melatonin in this house!!

We also gave him a drink called Splash, it is made for kids who have GI problems and it is a type of formula but it seems to be more juice like. Cooper sucked it down and I will give him some more later today. He is supposed to have one a day. Because it is a formula for kids with special problems insurance can cover it if the doctor writes a letter for it. It has helped some with the GI issues also. I am really thinking that will help with the potty training too, it makes sense to me that if he does not have to RUSH to the bathroom it will be easier to learn. We are working on that this summer and I am actually going to try to potty train Hunter also so we are home bound starting tomorrow for a while!

Cooper has also started with his enzymes. He takes 2 before every meal and it is supposed to help with his digestion. He will start on probiotics in a week, the enzymes can cause some bad behavior problems as they change the issues in his gut so we are supposed to do the enzymes only for one week and see how he does. Then we add the probiotics and with those we faze them in. We do half a capsule (just dumped into his milk) once a day for a week and then a full capsule. Then once we get the results from the lab work we will be adding more supplements. I need to create a chart for myself I think....