Today the boys had co-therapy, where the speech and developmental therapists came over at the same time (mostly to accommodate Connor's field trip yesterday, but also to see how it would go having one therapist work with one child at a time). It would have went really well, except for the fact that we have a rather needy and demanding three-year old in the mix on Wednesdays as well. But it still went pretty well . . .
We did some of our usual play things, where we try to get the boys to speak or sign for certain things, like saying "go" to get help jumping off the chair (good behavior, I know, but you have to do something that actually motivates them and Xander loves this). He wouldn't say "go" for us, even though he can say it and does for me pretty consistently (he likes to play dumb with his speech therapist), but he did sign "more" before each jump to me, which is his universal sign anyway. You know, as in "Here, I'll do this stupid thing if it will get me what I want!" kind of signing. Sign with attitude, is how I see it.
We also tried some "crafty" stuff. Miss April brought over some Play-Doh tools, so we sat all three boys down at the dining room table (strapped the two little guys in so they wouldn't run off), and got out the Play-Doh that I think Aunt Kelly gave to Connor several birthdays ago. Still good, as each of the boys got a little red and a little blue to experiment with. They were all a bit apprehensive at first, not having seen it much before (once, to my knowledge, and it was not favorable). They eventually used the little knife tools to stab at it a few times. Sawyer liked the smell and even tried to eat a little bit of it, but it wasn't to his taste and he quickly spit it back out in Miss Lisa's hand. Always nice. Connor tried all of the tools, but was quickly bored when he'd gotten through all of them. Xander wasn't much of a fan, though he did play for just a little bit with help from Miss April. He mixed the colors together, which apparently bothers some people (Miss Lisa said she doesn't like it, and Miss April said her husband doesn't like it when her daughter does it either). But, surprisingly, it didn't bother his OCD mother.
We eventually gave up on the Play-Doh and decided to break out something Xander has always liked - painting. It's actually finger paint, but we use brushes and paper and it works well. It's also the washable kind, which makes cleanup nice (because you know it's all over the table, little hands and little clothes when we're done). Xander and Connor went through sheets of the expensive watercolor paper (the only kind I've found that's thick enough to handle the paint) like there was no tomorrow. I have seven pieces of paper and one paper plate (which I thought would be the palette, but no) drying behind me as I type. We painted for about 10 minutes. Sawyer contributed one, with a lot of help from Miss Lisa, because painting isn't really his thing. Xander paints on the front and the back of each of his pages (hence the mess on my table that is, thankfully, easy to wipe up).
And that's where we ended things today. The therapists gleefully running out the door with the boys covered in paint (only kidding, we'd already wrapped things up). The boys seem to be doing better with the therapists lately. Xander actually condescended to engage with Miss Lisa today, rather than be his normal standoff-ish little self. We were extremely impressed. Sawyer is always happy once he warms up to Miss April, even allowing her to cuddle and tickle with him after a good game of stacking up the sorting blocks (one of his favorites of late). She plays on his terms, and that always helps with him. A good day . . .