Constraint Induced Therapy: Day 2

Shew, Day 1 was rough and I think I’ve spent day 2 trying to recover from it.  Luckily, Day 2 proved to be a little easier.  We started off at therapy which was extremely refreshing.  It was good for Ryder to wake up and get out of the house immediately, then go to a place where he could be encouraged and get assistance as needed. 

After therapy we headed to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, because Mama’s French Toast fixes everything!  With me being so super emotional and Ryder being so frustrated, we decided to treat ourselves to something we both love.  Then it was off to search for something called Boon Benders, they are flexible spoons and forks that you can bend.  Ryder ate applesauce with one in therapy today and I was amazed that he was actually able to feed himself with one of these!  They are only sold at Target & Babies R Us and we didn’t have any luck finding them (if anyone is out shopping this weekend and comes across them, PLEASE get ahold of me!). 

We stopped a few more places, I was seriously dreading coming home, that was where everything fell apart yesterday.  But we eventually made our way home and I was pleasantly surprised with how well Ryder adjusted today.  We got some new Birthday presents out that he would be able to handle with lefty plus Daddy felt well enough to come out of the room, so both of those things cheered him up.  He started being his playful silly self (chicken noodle soup for my soul) and the day ended well. 

Here he is trying hard to get a sip of his drink.  This has been one of the most frustrating things for him, but look, it’s only Day 2 and he’s making it work! 

Coloring is another frustration, and something Ryder loves to do!  He was just starting to draw circles with Righty and was so proud of himself, and now he’s back to barely being able to get a grip on the crayon, let alone make marks on the paper.  But with Daddy’s help, I think this is another one he’ll figure out soon.

Eating is by far the hardest part for him right now.  Ryder loves his snacks and is trying to adapt to a new way of eating them.  I have to say, he gets pretty creative trying to figure things out.  He wanted this fruit twist so bad, but wouldn’t hold it with Lefty to eat it.  His first approach was to hold the whole thing in his mouth and just chew:

When that didn’t work, he tried to prop it up with his sword:

Then it fell on the floor, so he laid flat on the ground to pick it up with his mouth!

Yes, that is how badly he tries to get away with not using Lefty.  But the happy ending is that he finally realized that Lefty was perfectly capable of picking it up and putting it in his mouth, so that’s what happened!

 

One thing that completely caught me off guard today was going out in public and everyone assuming that he broke his arm!  I never even thought about what I would tell people why my poor 2 year old has his whole arm in a cast.  Luckily, with Ryder around I don’t have to talk.  Every place we went, someone would ask something along the lines of “oh no, how did SHE (of course…come on people, it’s a BLUE cast!) get the boo-boo” and Ryder would say “Ryder fell off da golf cart” referring to the boo-boo on his nose.  I just agreed, every time, so that made it easy.