I Am Mr. Clean!

I've wondered when Luke's pretending would develop to actually pretending he is someone else. It's such an abstract thing, I didn't know if he'd ever get there. But his pretending with toys has come so far, I thought maybe someday.



Luke's been really interested in cleaning lately, always wanting to help with sweeping, wiping the table, whatever. Cleaning is likely is such a rare occurrence around here, the novelty has yet to wear off.



Luke has had a love/hate relationship with Mr. Clean since he was a baby. He used to be terrified of him, cried anytime he saw him on TV. If he spotted him on products at the grocery store, he would start to panic and I'd have to dash to another aisle. Then he became kind of intrigued with Mr. Clean, would get excited about trying to find him at the grocery store, but didn't want to get too close. Now he's really into Mr. Clean, loves the commercials, and his favorite part of going to the store is searching for his bald friend.



So, the other night I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner and Luke asked if he could use the spray bottle (my homemade cleaner of water and vinegar. I am SO Martha Stewart, I know.) He sprayed the table and said, "I am Mr. Clean!"



And there it is. Luke's first character pretending. Well, if there's any superhero I need around here, it's Mr. Clean.







He is also Mr. Clean when helping me with dishes. Unfortunately he sometimes drags out some clean dishes to wash too. I don't think the real Mr. Clean would approve. Poor kid can barely reach the sink. You would think I'd get him a chair to stand on. Well, I did the other night when he wanted to help cook, and then Luke kind of jumped while standing in the chair (I know, jumping in a chair! That's very exciting sensory and gross motor wise. Safety wise, not the best.) and the chair fell and Luke fell against the counter. So, now he just has to reach.



Last weekend we enjoyed some beautiful weather and lots of time outside. And this weekend we've listened to tornado sirens. Luke is just so into playing with other children lately. He will imitate anything another child will do, which can be a great teaching tool and a great way to get him to try new things. But can also be a little bit of a problem. Not everything any 4 year old does should be imitated, and sometimes it annoys the other child. But Luke's at least very friendly while copying.



He is greeting EVERYONE lately, at the grocery store, at the playground, anywhere. Last Saturday we met a mom and daughter at the playground. Luke was smiling and greeting as usual. The mom commented that Luke must make friends wherever he goes. I thought that was a pretty funny/amazing comment, considering his autism diagnosis. And made me realize that Luke is getting more and more indistinguishable from typical peers, at least in short encounters. The longer you're around him, the more evident his developmental differences become. Of course, there are still times when we don't do things in the proper order, walk down the stairs the wrong way, don't repeat the words Luke wants us to, and he freaks out. I can only imagine what that must look like to someone who doesn't know our situation. But it doesn't matter. We're doing the best we can. His behavior has improved so much in the last few months.



Luke is still way into Thomas and friends. Here he is with Max and Monty.




But his definite passion right now is his friends. He doesn't want to leave school, but stay and play with friends. He LOVES playdates, so let me know if you want to get together, though that's always a challenge with school and therapy schedules. He's also decided he really likes Children's Worship lately, which has terrified him in the past.

It's also really exciting that Luke is starting to tell me about his day at school. I've waited a long time for that. Of course trying to piece together his version of what happened is pretty entertaining. He keeps telling me that his friend Abby "cried to Luke" and that "Luke sat on Cooper to read a book". And somewhere in there Luke cried too. I have no clue, but it made quite an impression. He's told me about it at least 4 times this weekend. I'm guessing the crying may have had something do with him sitting on another child. Likely not an approved activity.

priorities

Luke came home with his progress report this week, showing how much progress he's made on his IEP goals. It's a new IEP and the goals are pretty challenging. I was pleasantly surprised how close he is to mastering several of the goals, particularly the socialization ones.

I was reading the report while he was eating lunch. I told him I was so proud of how well he was doing at school and what his teachers said about him.

He looked at me and said, "But Mommy, I am eating."

big gordon

For months Luke has been asking for "Big Gordon". We think it began when he saw his little friend Joshua's battery powered Gordon at church. (He is a little bigger than the wooden Gordon. His name isn't really Big Gordon. Just at our house.) Big Gordon is not as readily available as many of the trains, but that's not surprising. All the trains Luke really wants are hard to find. We finally found one online at a price we were willing to pay. Big Gordon arrived this week. Here's Luke waiting for Daddy to free Gordon from the excessive bondage of three layers of plastic and 10,000 twist-ties.







And here he is the first time he got his hands on Big Gordon:






Love this look of admiration:

And a classic Luke expression to show his excitement:

So, that might have been an excessive number of pictures of Big Gordon. But he has not disappointed. Luke hasn't played with him on the tracks that much, but I have many of video of Luke singing, "I am Gordon. I am Gordon. I am Gordon. And God loves me." He's also had a great time racing Gordon, Henry and others on the patio. I'm very disappointed two of his battery power trains aren't working. Sure they've been dropped a few times, but they're toys. They should be durable. And they aren't cheap. Luke reminds me at least 20 times a day that "Edward and Skarloey are broken."

I've had the flu this week and boy is that not fun. Thankfully Lamar's had a couple days off, and my parents helped out with Luke. Luke said several times yesterday, "Daddy and Luke are going to play and Mommy is going to rest." Unfortunately that was the story of his life this week.

This is about the most playing he and I have done (It was his idea to copy me.)

Please, please, please do not click on that photo and enlarge it. Trust me, I look horrible and my house is a wreck. Of course it would never be that messy if I were well. :) And that's Cranky the Crane Luke has put there on the table for me. I promise it is. No need to click on the photo to see better. NO NEED!

Luke has kept us laughing this week. He announced about himself this week, "That is a sweet boy!" (That was after spending a day with Mimi, Papa, and Aunt Jan who was visiting. I suspect they might have said it a time or two.) Last night I felt well enough to make dinner for the first time all week. Luke took one bite of the chicken casserole and make fake vomiting noises. Nice.

songwriting, school, name

Update: It has come to my attention that many may not be able to understand the lyrics to Luke's song. It is "I gonna smile" repeated several times, and then "and God loves me." Most all his songs follow the pattern and end the same way.

The video is for those who haven't seen it on facebook. Luke's all about song writing these days, though most seem to follow the theme of a repeated sentence and end with "and God loves me". Very theological. I have no idea why he is using poor Buster as a trumpet.

This was Luke's spring school picture. I didn't realize the school did spring individual pictures. I knew they did class pictures, but they did these shots the same day. We were there last year for class pictures but got no individual shots. But I'm sure that's because Luke was crying too much to sit for them. So, this year I was surprised by the little poser in this photo. I wonder if they told him to put his hands in his pockets or if he came up with that. Either is pretty surprising. I think he looks old in the picture. Too old. Of course I bought the photos. Such a sucker.

Luke is really in a phase of loving school right now. He's started telling me about his day some. On the way to school he tells me who he is going to see (Ms. Judy is still top of the list). Last Friday he told me he was going to dance to three songs, which he named. Then he said he was going to "Play the doctor. Play the swing. Play circle. Play table toys. Do sensory and do art." Pretty exciting he is finally able to tell me about his day, or at least his plans for his day. Whether the coincide with Judy's plans . . . well that's for her to have fun with.

I'm continually pleasantly surprised with how effective the peer modeling program is for Luke. A couple of weeks ago another mom and I decorated Judy's door with the kids' pictures. When we were done, Luke and Cooper were looking at the door. Cooper found his picture and Luke was looking for his. Cooper guided Luke's hand to his picture in a textbook perfect physical prompt (well, he probably should have given Luke just a little bit longer to look himself, but hey I make the same mistake myself and I've got 28 years on him.) and then Luke and Cooper cheered. All this with no adult interaction. We just observed.

Then last week there was a school assembly. Luke went into the assembly and sat with the class, but once all the other students arrived, it was too loud for him. He cried and I would assume from my experience was rather, um, insistent that he leave. Jana, the autism consultant, was there with him that day, and she took him back to the classroom. Cooper saw he was gone and asked to go the room to be with Luke. I think that's just about the sweetest thing ever.

We've been working on more purposeful coloring, not just scribbling. I was really proud of his work on this picture using the Do A Dot paints. Love those things. He likes them because their more like paint so more fun than crayons, but they give more control than a paintbrush. Also, they quickly cover so he can complete it before loosing interest. As Luke painted Harold orange he said, "And now it is SO beautiful!"

And this was a fun little activity we did to work on writing his name. He is getting really close to writing his name completely independently. If it weren't for that blasted "k" he'd have it. Who knew K's were so hard. It's the whole starting in mid air to make the diagonal. So, if you're prone to fine motor delays, do not give your children names with K's in them. I'm sure there are other troublesome letters out there. I'll keep you posted as we continue working on handwriting. So, where did I get this dot painting the name idea? From all those parenting magazines and websites I read (NOT!). John and Kate + 8. Sad, but true.

dancing, snow, pictures

Life's been busy. Nothing exciting, but I had trouble remembering the correct order of these photos. That's how scattered I am. I can't remember what happened first.



Last Friday was the Rock N Roll Readathon at Luke's school. His class started their day in the sock hop. Well, his class and their buddy readers, who are 5th graders (those are not giant preschool girls in the background).






I decided to go to the sock hop with him. The music was pretty loud and it was a little chaotic. I told Ms. Judy I'd just take him to the room if he couldn't handle it. But he had a pretty good time, though he needed lots of reassurance that "it's gonna be fine." You see he even showed off some of his stellar dance moves.


After the sock hop I read to the class. I took a large book with fold-out animal pictures. They kids were so excited about the book. And Luke was just beaming that they loved it. I left the book for them to enjoy for a while.



Luke did great with the change and routine and me being there, even though he kept going over the order of the day. (#1 dance party, #2 Mommy reads to class, etc) He had his whole class "say bye to Mommy" as I left. I read to his class last year for this the readathon too. And Luke cried the whole time and had to sit in my lap. Good progress. It has changed our lives that he understands when I explain what the day will entail.






That day after school, Luke asked me to take a picture with his trains.




The picture posing continued Saturday night. Luke wanted a photo with Daddy, James and Percy under the blanket. Such an artist, that boy.





Sunday morning we woke up to a little snow on the ground. It was not good snowman making snow, but we still had a lot of fun with it.







After we got home from church, Luke asked to go outside again. He went to the window and said, "Where is the snow?" Doesn't last long around here. But he and Daddy had a great time playing kickball and whiffleball. I think this spring is going to be lots of fun. (And they're both wearing hats. I'm making progress with both of them!)


Luke continues to crack us up. The other day we pulled up to the ATM and he said, "Mommy, let's get some dollars." I had no idea he even paid attention at the ATM. Lamar handed me $5 as I left for work the other day (the only cash we had between us) and Luke said, "I want to hold the dollars!"

Luke is talking constantly. Like from the time he gets up til he goes to bed, chatter chatter chatter. I love it. And it exhausts me. He's going through a phase where he doesn't want to watch TV at all. He wants to play. He's up at 6 a.m. or earlier asking me to play. He slept til 6:30 today. Hooray! So as much as I love the interaction, I'm exhausted. I told him the other day I didn't do playdough before 7. I've been putting off most things like that til after school. And part of me feels just awful about that because we've worked so hard to want him to play. But I just can't do it all the time. And he has to know he's not in charge. As with all phases, I suspect we'll cycle through this one too. He's doing great, and still really challenging, just in new ways.