As you can see from the title in my new role as stay at home mum I have lost all track of time and I can’t believe we are already in May. The time is flying past and I don’t feel that I am getting anywhere with any of the goals I set for myself in April.
Goals For Ethan
In April I set the following goals for Ethan
- Sleeping in his own bed
- Brushing his teeth
- Using a cup
- Learning Makaton
- Start to introduce the PECS system
- Healthy eating and eating more variety
This is how we got on
Sleeping in his own bed – Ethan has slept in his own cot every night, he still wakes up many times in the night and needs comfort from us so at the moment a single mattress is next to his cot and when he needs us we go into his room and sleep next to him. We still have a lot to work on but this is a massive step forward as he is staying in his room for the whole night. A new challenge will of course present itself when the sides of the cot come off but we will worry about that step when we are there. For now we are happy with our progress as we are all getting a, very slightly, better nights sleep.
Brushing his teeth – In the middle of the month I had Ethan putting his toothbrush under the water and then into his mouth, just sucking the water off of the brush, not getting anywhere near the back teeth but it was a start. I’m sorry to say that we have taken a massive step back with Ethan using his own hands, I’m hoping that it’s the fact that he had the ear infection and not regression but only time will tell. So at the moment we are back to me holding the toothbrush for Ethan and doing the work, still no closer to cleaning those dreaded back teeth!
Using a cup – We haven’t started this yet but we have purchased three Fireman Sam cups for us all to start using in the hope that it will encourage Ethan to drink from a cup. I think this will need to be worked on with Ethan at a later date when we work out what has stopped him wanting to use his hands again.
Learning Makaton – This is an ongoing thing but I really need to make sure I use the signs at all times when I talk to Ethan because sometimes I forget and Ethan needs consistency to learn.
Start to introduce the PECS system – We work on this at least twice a day with bubbles or chocolate and I have even made some PECS cards (to be blogged about) so I’m very happy with our progress. I need to make some more cards and start expanding what we use them for.
Healthy eating and eating more variety – I’m really proud of how we are getting on with our weekly food challenge, we are all eating lots of different things and discovering lots of new likes and dislikes along the way. I want to try to bring more variety in at lunch time as well as we do always have the same things for lunch.
I think Ethan has more than enough goals to be working on but I also want to try to get Ethan eating with a spoon more without any help, the issue with his hands has also stopped this and it even got to the point that Ethan wanted me to feed him his toast yesterday morning so we have some work to do.
Personal Goals
I also set myself some personal goals and the main one was to get more organised, that hasn’t happened but I’m working on it. I’m discovering that looking after Ethan all day, every day is both physically and mentally draining (I can hear my mum laughing from here) and as I said at the start of the post, time is just flying past. I honestly thought that by now my house would be spotless and everything would have a place but I’m not built like that, I’m more organised chaos and to be honest I would rather my time was being spent with Ethan as that is what he is going to remember. He won’t remember if I have put all the DVD’s in the right place or if my kitchen cupboards are organised.
I have organised my computer a little bit. I made and ordered a photobook of our family trip to Walt Disney World from 2008 and I actually finished the holiday video from when I went to New York in 2004. Yes you read that right I have been hanging onto that footage for 8 years!
I’m budgeting with the food shopping and spending hours making sure I get the cheapest items from either Tesco or ASDA, it drives me insane but last week I saved over £10 by doing this.
We are still having a bit too much TV time and Ethan has become obsessed with Peppa Pig at the moment but we have reduced the iPad time he only really gets it now after 4pm and even then sometimes he has had enough of it.
Now that the weather is getting better we will be spending more time in the garden and with Ethan’s ear infection clearing up I’m hoping we can go on more adventures with Darren during the weekends.
So my goals are still the same but this month, money permitting, I want to do a photobook of our 2009 holiday, find the light bulbs for our spot lights as I’m sure I have needed to change one for well over six months now and put a hook on the back of the bathroom door! Little things but if I write them down you can all tell me off if they don’t get done.
What Does May Bring?
This month brings Ethan’s 3rd birthday, Darren has some holiday time so we will have some extra family time, Ethan has an appointment with a specialist teacher, we have booked a visit to see a school for Ethan and Colchester Zoo celebrates it’s 50th Birthday so I really hope we can visit that weekend to share the event with them.
So we have quite a busy month planed and lots of memories to make…
