Working on independence

Since I am starting to feel more like my normal self, I am able to do more with the boys than just the necessities.  I have been wanting to work with them on gaining more independence, especially with self-help skills.  They are constantly asking me for snacks or drink refills or whatnot.  I bought this refrigerator drink dispenser and filled it with water.  I showed the boys how to use it.  Blake was thrilled!  He loves it and gets refills for his little plastic mug all the time.  Drew hasn't used it at all, because he prefers milk.  My goal for him is to get another dispenser and fill it will his daily allotment of milk.  When he's used it all up, he'll have to switch to water. 

Here's Blake using his new water dispenser

Even though Drew won't get his own water, he's been more willing to do things himself.  For instance, this morning he wanted toast.  I told him he needed to get the bread out.  He got it out of the drawer and tossed the bag on the counter and said, "There--get my toast"  That sounds pretty rude, but I think he just was telling me that he thought he fulfilled his job, now he wanted me to do mine.  Unbeknownst to him, I decided it was his job to make his own toast today.  I did open the bag, as he has trouble with the twist-ties.  I am changing them over to a clothespin that he can handle.  I instructed him to get out two pieces of bread, showed him how to plug in the toaster and he put the bread in and pressed the button down.  I buttered his toast today, but I am going to transfer some squeeze margarine into an easy to squeeze bottle like this:

I got that great idea from my friend Cindi, from Mrs. Rogers' Neighborhood.  I think the regular squeeze bottles are a little tough for X-men with low muscle tone, and these are nice and squeezy.  :) 

I also attribute Drew's willingness to try doing new things to his drug trial medicine.  For other interested FX parents, he is on 10mg of Arbaclofen 3x per day.  We have seen a lot of positive things from him since beginning the open label.  There are times when we see his anxiety peek through, but overall we are pleased. 

These are just little things and there are thousands more ways they need to learn to take care of themselves, I am excited to see them doing what I have worked on so far.  I want them to feel capable of caring for themselves.