Rice Noodles - It's A Good Thing

We walked to the grocery store this morning and I came across some gluten-free, casein-free rice spaghetti noodles. I made them for lunch and they only take 3 minutes to cook! If you can get past the fact that they are white instead of your typical pasta colors, they are really good. Raquel loved them and even had them after her nap for a late afternoon snack with just some non-butter spread to coat them. I'm discovering new things each day and her diet is really getting much easier. The main thing now is to make sure that I have things readily available to heat and serve. Raquel cannot always tell me when she's hungry until her hunger pains strike, and then I find myself scrambling in the fridge and pantry trying to throw something together - and fast.

Yesterday she had her first session in the new ABA program. That was different and will definitely take some getting used to. I guess that is why they are coming here every day.

To start, Raquel woke up at 5am crying, "Me mad! Me mad!" and was pretty much like that the entire day - unless she was in the car. Walks were out of the question in the afternoon because of the heat - it's been over the 100 degree range here - and she seemed to be having an off day for some particular reason. She must be teething again. Either that or the heat is making her irritable. I know it was making me easily annoyed. Fortunately, she went down for a nap before her 2pm session.

Janine & Cari came in the afternoon. Raquel was happy to see them both, but was, for the most part, very uncooperative. Janine does an immitation (such as putting her hands on her head) and then says, "You do!" and then Raquel is supposed to repeat it. Yesterday, she told her "No." Janine said, "No?" and Raquel said, "No." Janine said, "You don't want to do?" and she said, "No!" It was too cute, but very unproductive.

But this is how the ABA program differs from what I'm used to - they don't give her an inch. It was somewhat similar to what I've experienced only during Elizabeth's sessions (except they don't intentionally try to get behaviors out of her like she did), but it's still a little different. At one point, they had her sitting at her table and wanted her to do matching. After a few minutes, she started arching her back and trying her best to get away but they held her there and, hand-over-hand, forced her to do whatever they were asking - several times - before letting her get down and take a break. If she threw a toy, they forced her to pick it up and put it down nicely. If she played inappropriately with a toy, they forced her to play right. And if she hit or scratched them, they made her be gentle. If she hit or scratched me or Gabby, we were told to immediately get up and walk away from her instead of acknowledging it.

They also used bubbles as a reward. This is a new thing that Janine came up with last Wednesday when I was rocking Raquel in the chair when she was having a tantrum. She started blowing bubbles and Raquel immediately calmed down. So now, in a session, they wait until she gives them what they've asked of her before she can blow the bubbles.

Janine also took more pictures for the PECS program. It will definitely be implemented next week but I think she wants to wait until after she overlaps with Mary for speech therapy on Monday afternoon.

We've got a really busy schedule next week. It'll be interesting to see how the first week of daily therapy goes. I'm still remaining pretty optimistic.