Play Therapy

So far, so good. Ted had his first appt on Tuesday afternoon and I was able to 'go to the bathroom' about 5 minutes into the session and he was fine the rest of the time without me. When I left, he was busy scaring the therapist's stuffed elephant with the fierce roars of his stuffed tiger (she has a jungle soft animals thing on the floor). Umm...yikes! But when he came out he was smiling and we had to read a book before we could leave the waiting room. And he wants to go back next week. So, I say it's going well. He was very mean to Sam after he got home-perhaps a result of 'some stuff' coming up that neither of us are really aware of. He thinks he's playing, after all, but with her leading and constantly talking to him, they must have (hopefully?) figured out an empathy plan for the poor elephant?

Just got off the phone with the doc. I am a little disappointed and I'm going to consciously wait a week or two before making a decision on her. While she was able to play with him (and she commented on his amazing attention span) she is hoping that, as he warms up to her, they will be able to 'talk' more. Hmm. He's not even 5...I thought play therapy at this age was 'working things out' by PLAYING, not talking. Hmm again. She is a PhD with loads of experience with young children, so I am going to play along for a while and see what happens. I guess I thought they would be play-acting his 'issues' out...that is what was happening when I left them. Maybe he is capable of talking about how he is feeling. In the meantime, I was happy that she is supportive of our decision to have him sleep in our room. Not a separation issue, by any means (he's slept alone in his room since he was a day old with no problems) but because he and Sam play too much which leads to Ted being OH SO CRANKY and unreasonable. Considering the impulsiveness he has (climbing out on the roof, running out of preschool and into the parking lot, to name just the recent ones), she agrees that at the very least he NEEDS to be well-rested. I was feeling a little pressured to 'just deal' with the reality of two little boys sleeping together, but no. We are doing the right thing, at least in her eyes. He is so dead asleep that he doesn't really get much out of it anyway. So, that is the current state of affairs!

Mae had her very first Kindermusik class today with Elsa, our one and only music teacher. Both boys went through her program and we all just love her to pieces. Her daughter is 12 months, so she has been out of the teaching routine for a while, but is back in with a few classes and Mae was the right age for this one. Hooray! She LOVED it, although she did throw quite a few fits if she had to sit down (all she wants to do it 'walk' now...) but otherwise I think she is going to have a blast. It's my favorite curriculum (Milk and Cookies) of all the ones we've taken, so I really enjoyed singing all my old favorites. My time in her class with Ted at 2.5 holds firm as one of my favorite "Ted and me" times thus far. We both loved her class, Ted was still in a pretty sweet stage, and it was wonderful Mommy & Ted time for us. I am happy Mae gets to have this experience too.