Life skills are some of the hardest things I have to teach Owen. I’ve transitioned him so he no longer uses a sippy cup unless we go someplace. But this also means we can have messes. He screams and I try to show the face of patience. I don’t want him to get frustrated and I certainly don’t want a meltdown. He yells, ”no maka de mess”. Generally, that means he got milk on his tablet. If he gets it on himself it doesn’t bother him nearly as much. I don’t fill his cup very full. Tonight he asked for milk and I told him that he needed to get the milk out of the refrigerator. We have been working on this. He always wants to run to the refrigerator with his tablet but I make him leave it behind. He got the milk container off the door and brought it to me. I had him move his cup over and he struggled with those directions. I pointed to his cup about an inch away from it. I told him, “move your cup over here” and pointed to the spot I wanted him to put it in. It took three tries. He kept trying to move other things besides his cup. Once he moved it I had him help me pour his milk. This same thing happened numerous times after that. I made him go through each of the steps the same way. I always call it ”the art of repeat”. For every step, he learns of a process we have to do it numerous times for it to become part of his habits or learned skills. It can take months or years for it to all click together for him. He can count to two hundred occasionally using “eighty” as all the numbers but he can do it. However, he has a hard time using his fingers to count to ten. We have been practicing for years. I remind him we are a team and we will get through it together. He couldn’t settle as the night went on but I stuck with my new bedtime steps and he was out within twenty minutes. He’s going to bed later but instead of two hours to fall asleep it’s about fifteen minutes and falling asleep about the same time if we laid in bed for the two hours. He hasn’t been waking up two and three times a night either so for now we go with what works. Today, tomorrow, and always remember you are strong, you can move mountains if you set your mind to it, and celebrate your journey. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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