Applesauce

Jacqui, our new OT, started Wednesday afternoon. We had about 30 minutes to discuss Dominick's situation before he woke up from his nap. You can guess his reaction to finding this new person in our house. It wasn't pretty. We continued our conversation as well as we could, but it was hard to hear each other over the crying. The next session will be June 13 because Jacqui is out of town next week. I'm crossing my fingers that Dom will miraculously get over his anxiety by then so that she can actually work with him.

I asked Jacqui whether she thinks Dom's anxiety has anything to do with his sensory issues, and she said it could, or it could not. Some of these things start that way and then become behaviors. I think, however, that she may agree that there might be a connection after witnessing it herself. Like Monica, she recommended continuing with the brushing if it seemed that it worked for Dom before. (The technique doesn't work with every child.) Maybe it did. It could be coincidence, but in retrospect, the end of the brushing did precede the beginning of the anxious phase. It seems odd that he went through this before, got over it, and now is experiencing it again.

The title of this entry refers to Dom's favorite word. He probably said it 50 times today. He'll say it in the kitchen when he wants some applesauce, but he'll also say it out of the blue. Dom made up a new word today. He was blowing bubbles outside--he thought it was hilarious when he blew bubbles out of his mouth after putting the wand in there--and managed to say "bubblesauce." Then he corrected himself and said "applesauce" several times.

Dom made an important step yesterday when he said "shoes off," which he has since repeated. Monica had specifically mentioned wanting Dom to start using two words together, so it was exciting to hear him do it. I'll be hoping for more of this soon!