OT and Speech Therapy June 24, 2015

This was not the most productive visit by a long shot,  but we got to talk a bit about the two year checkup. You can read about Monday's checkup here.

C. the COTA and M. the Speech Therapist came by and my son came to the door with me to greet them. The last few times he has an been very upset to see them. When I opened the door,  he smiled broadly at C. and grabbed her hand. He was babbling to her and was super happy, until we came into the living room.  As soon as we all sat down, he started crying and clutching at me. I got him some Annie's White Cheddar Bunnies and water as a snack and M. and C. observed him eating.  He picked up his little snack bowl and tipped it into his mouth.  M. stopped him from choking. My son countered by sticking his hand into the bowl and grabbing literally a fistful of bunnies and tried unsuccessfully to mash them all in his mouth.  C. started rationing his bunnies one at a time.

As he ate, I told them about the Pediatrician's concerns about his weight.  They both looked surprised and said he looks propionate and he has a pot belly. M. said both me and my husband are a compact little couple so we probably aren't going to have a large child.  C.  suggested giving my son Ensure as well as increasing the amount of milk he drinks from two cups to four, or more cups per day. M. suggested ranch dressing made with whole milk as a tasty condiment that also gives calories. C. suggested to use condiments and have him learn how to dip food in them so he slows down a bit while eating.  M. said that the same thing happened with her child and she gave them a scoop of ice cream after lunch. She said kids this young don't have cholesterol issues so it isn't that bad to do. I told hem I bought sour cream and I was stirring that into his food, only about a spoonful, and also I add olive oil to most of his food as well.  C. said we can use snack time as a way to connect.  We can work on eye contact, and fine motor skills, as well as language skills.  For example, I can make him ask for more using either sign language, or eventually words. 

I also told them about the Autism screening. M. looked surprised and asked why I think that is a good thing.  I told her if my son has Autism, it would be good to know so then we can start focus helping him instead of just giving general help for a delayed child, and if he doesn't have it, that is good to know too.  C. said that I should not be very surprised if it takes more than one visit to the CNDC to get a diagnosis, or to confirm he doesn't have Autism. 

When I told them about his potential upcoming surgery, M. said to let them know so all services can suspend until he is healed which takes about 2 days.  They both said it is pretty routine, and more than likely it would be laproscopic.

By this time my son was done eating/mashing bunnies into the rug and was drinking his water.  We took a quick time out for me to vacuum and finally, halfway through the visit his actual therapy could begin.

But my son was still not feeling it today.  They used the sensory ball which he usually likes.  Finally they were able to use the Melissa and Doug Peek a Boo Farm puzzle to get his attention.  

We had some actual success today.  My son usually just bounces on his legs but today he held my hands and actually jumped on the floor. He lifted his feet clear off the ground.  They are going to tell T. the Physical Therapist about this.

My son showed C. and M. how his climbing is getting better by climbing up on the couch all the way up so he could look out the window.

I told M. that my son said "hug I love hug" to me and then hugged me Monday night. It melted my heart to hear that.  I told C. how he paralleled played with three little girls that we know over the weekend. The girls range in age from 3 to 7 and they had a stuffed pig. My son watched them play with the pig and the four kids picked dandelions and shared them with each other.  That went so well, we are going to try to make with the parents so the kids can play again.

I think that is all that happened this visit.

Signs of more progress. OT and Speech Therapy 06/10/15

I was not sure how this visit would go today.  My son spent the weekend howling in pain from teething.  He is getting his two year molars right now and he is not enjoying it at all.  He also came down with a pretty nasty cold that resulted in a low grade fever. He never went about 101 which is good, but he was awfully miserable.

C. showed up and had A., a new COTA with her today.  I discussed the Sensation Station with them while we waited for M. the Speech Therapist to arrive.  C. was pretty excited because one of her professors opened the Sensation Station.  We discussed how my son is saying "go car" and how he is climbing now, by using me as a jungle gym.  M. showed up shortly after C. and A. arrived and I told them all how my son was under the weather and that I wanted to at least try to see if we could do the hour session.

My son started crying when C. and A. went in the living room. This was new behavior and it concerned me.  He shied away from C. when she sat on the floor to engage him.  He was also wary of M.  I could see him being shy with A. since he never met her before, but C. and M. he has seen multiple times.

My son has sensory balls, similar to the image below.  M. started the session off by rolling the ball along the bottom of his feet and down his arms.

This calmed him down and M. and C. played with my son using his sensory box. Because he settled right down, M. suggested doing deep pressure massage, or the ball on his feet to settle him down when I need his attention.  I think we will do this when we do ring bearer practice. He normally likes to just empty it, but he is learning what comes next, and he filled it back up.  

Because my son was irritated due to teething and being a little sick, M. and C. let him play at his own pace a little bit today.  

C. told me that there is going to be a sensory play group at the beach this summer.  I am not sure if we will be able to attend, but I think that is an excellent idea.  

Because my son was literally howling in pain over the weekend due to teething pain, I broke down and bought him some teething gel.  C. said many parents don't use it because sometimes kids swallow it and it numbs their throats.  She suggested  in addition to massaging his cheeks, to give him popsicles.  They make mini popsicles that would be perfect for him.  I told her I have been freezing fruit, like mangos as well and he seems to enjoy that.  

M. and I were talking and she mentioned my son paying attention to the world around him more.  I asked if that is what she wants to hear more about. When she answered positively, I told her that we were walking and my son saw a big black ant cross in front of him.  He wasn't sure how to respond, he just stood on the sidewalk with his arms raised wiggling his fingers. His eyes were wide and he wasn't moving.  I told him it is just an ant and I bent down to point at it.  My son also crouched down, eyes wide, staring.  He also reacts more to sirens and especially motorcycles.  Even if he doesn't look straight at them, he raises his arms and wiggles his fingers with his hands moving.  Or he stands still and shakes a little bit.  He really likes the sounds motorcycles make, he tries to find where it is coming from.  Over the weekend, we went to  a friends house.  My son engaged in back and forth play with an 18 month toddler by passing stuffed robots back and forth to him.  The two toddlers went on a little wagon ride around the house and my son maintained eye contact with him, and did back and forth play the whole time.  For my son, this is big.  There were four boys in total ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years old.  My son didn't really play with any of them more than the back and forth play with the baby, but he did watch them. In the past, he would not acknowledge other children.  At one point, the 18 month old and an eight year old were on a trampoline and my son wanted to join them.  He was fine until he realized I was too big for the children's trampoline and could not join him, at which point he started crying.  But he wanted to be near other  children.  Later in the evening, my son wanted something the 18 month old was holding so he walked over to him and grabbed it out of his hands. M. said she likes bad behavior. She said my son was aware that he wanted the object, he was aware someone else had it, and was aware of how to get it. That is three levels of awareness. She was really happy that he is progressing. 

This was a really good session as always.  Looking forward to next week. 

Occupational Therapy 05/14/15

Sadly, this was  another short visit. My son had a low grade fever and was just miserable. I thought he could hold it together long enough for his OT visit, but he only lasted halfway through.

This visit, we saw C. the COTA and D. a student.  My son just loves D. She is very patient and funny.  I hope D. goes on to work with children because she will be outstanding.

This visit focused on functional play and attention.

I got very excited because C. brought  a bag full of toys. Then I got even more excited because she had a parachute that she pulled out. I do not know if kids today have gym class, or if said gym class uses parachutes but back in the 80s you knew gym was about to get awesome if a parachute was on the floor.  C. and D. tried to engage my son in playing with the parachute with hand over hand play.  At first he was very hesitant.  He wanted to walk on the parachute and C. was worried about him slipping and falling. (The last time C. came over he accidently hit his lip on  a toy and bleed a little. She felt incredibly bad about it.)  C. helped my son climb onto the parachute and set him down. She and D. then flounced up the edges making waves. They then both stood up, securing the sides and swung my son gently side to side. He did not like that at all. They picked up some of his stuffed animals and put them on the parachute with him, and made waves again.  Then they took him off the parachute and swung just the stuffed animals. After he saw that nothing happened to his toys, he allowed himself to be swung again.  He was feeling sick so he expressed frustration at this point and C. and D. took a break.

C. asked me if I thought the session had to come to an end. I said that I think OT is very important and I would like to try to continue.  I gave my son some water and pulled him up on my lap to remove him from the activity. I told her about my son's new habit of eating non-food items.    
We have a pussy willow tree outside and he ate a bud off the ground.  It must have tasted as delicious as it looked because he promptly spit it out. We went to visit a friend who has a dog, and my son petted him.  He came back with a large tuft of fur.  The same thing happens when he pets our dog so I thought he would drop it on the ground. Instead he tried to eat it. The fur had to be wrestled out of his mouth.  We went to my mother's house and she has a gravel driveway. My son was walking up and down the driveway, then he sat down to play. Boys play in dirt so this was ok with me. I was talking to my step-father then out of the corner of my eye, I saw my son's hand go up to his mouth.  I went to go investigate and he had all sorts of goodies in his mouth. He had sand, pebbles, bits of twigs, and bits of plants. She said to try to work his mouth the electric toothbrush. She asked if he could have been hungry or thirsty when he did this.  I know when he ate the dog fur he had just drank two cups of water, but for all the events I could not remember how long it had been since he last ate.  She suggested instead of using these events to give him a snack, maybe just add an extra snack into the mix everyday and make sure he is hydrated.

After my son had a good rest, C. and D. played with him with nesting/stacking cups. He tolerated that for about 5 minutes.  He doesn't always like being guided in play and he doesn't like stacking. He likes knocking over stacks.  He started flinging cups over his shoulder which upset me.  That is another thing he started doing recently. He flings toys backward, over his shoulder. He walks around the room doing that. He just paces and picks up toys and flings them over his shoulder. He does it with all toys though, and he has hit me a few times with wooden toys and some of the electronic toys  I am worried he will break.  Once he breaks a toy, it is going to be all over because I am not replacing toys simply because I don't have the money to do so.  I asked C. why he is doing this and she said he gets some stimulus out of it. She also said it is his signature move and she doesn't see any other kids doing it.

C. then pulled out moon sand.  My son was hesitant to touch it, then he gingerly plucked a small amount up with his thumb and forefinger.  He loved it.  They played with it for almost 15 minutes when he then attempted to eat some.  The only problem was, all the moon sand went on my rug and I have a cat and a dog and a toddler so our rugs no matter how much we vacuum are always covered in something.  The moon sand had a melange of animal fur and my fur and crumbs in it.  I felt really bad and that stuff isn't coming out of sand.  I asked C. if she wanted me to buy it off her because of the fur and she said no it was fine. Then I think she thought about it and then she said we could just have it.  Since she gave it to us, we have played with it outside on an old sheet.

The visit came to a very grumpy end after the moon sand was done with.  Hopefully the next session can be full length.

My son's EI annual review and OT 05/06/2015

Hard to believe my son turned two on 4/19/15.  It honestly feels like yesterday I held my sweet boy in my arms for the first time.  I love my son more than I love anyone else and I am so glad he came into my life

Even harder to believe, it is time for our last annual review with EI.

This visit we had A. the EI coordinator, C. the COTA, and D. a student.

The annual review is a long, long visit. Lots of questions are asked. Lots and lots and lots.  Also a lot of paperwork. Basically you have to revisit the objectives made at the last review, decide if they worked, decide if you need new goals.  The last review, my son was not walking, using a sippy cup, or eating on his own. Thankfully, all of that has changed. Our new goals are to have him talking, at least one word where he can identify an object/idea and use it appropriately. I made the goal, maybe I am aiming too low, but I want him to succeed because that is my primary goal, not to fail.

While I was talking to A. about goals, my son was playing with C. and D.  They did functional play, but honestly I missed about 98% because there were a ton of questions regarding my son's development. Not surprising, he got 5 out of 35 for communication. At least I was not surprised by the results but to see your child get scored can be very discouraging.

I did get educated about RIPIN (http://www.ripin.org/) and will get to meet with M. a parental consultant.

One thing I did get to discuss with C. was the fact that I bought the electric toothbrush she wanted me to buy. I have anxiety and I always worry I am going to mess things up, even simple things.  I went to Walmart and bought the cheapest generic toothbrush I could find, because I was told the brand doesn't matter. As a toothbrush, I think this is an excellent toothbrush. As a mouth stimulant so my son can get sensory input, not so much. It is loud. Like really loud. I think the sound scares him. The first time I used it, I ran it over my cheeks and hands, then my husband's, then my son's. He flipped out. We use it sometimes on his cheeks and hands, but he doesn't like it for long. C. suggested to use it on his stuffed animals to show nothing bad will happen. I tried it with his stuffed Woodstock.......he was a little more receptive to using it on his cheeks, but not lips yet.

Suggestions for things to work on, using the toothbrush as a redirect from mouthing toys and fingers, and offering support in play.

4/30/15 OT/Speech Therapy/EI visit

     Wow full house today.  We don't always combine this many therapies, it just worked out.

     M. the Speech Therapist was scheduled to come at 10:30. C. the COTA was scheduled for 11:00.  My son has a lot of electronic toys and he would rather play with them than interact with the various people who come to see him and I am really frustrated by it.  He only has a year left with these services and I want to take advantage of them. I moved all his electronic toys from the living room to the hallway that connects the kitchen to his bedroom.  Ten thirty came and went which was making me nervous because M. was supposed to be coming.  Ten forty sill no M. so I checked my calendar because maybe I was wrong. Shortly after 10:40 M. knocked on the door. She said she saw C. outside  and was going to come upstairs with her, but after 10 plus minutes realized C. was just early.

     I told M. I hid all the electronic toys and she was really happy I did that. She said she would take the batteries out of her kid's electronic toys and then they were just toys.  My son would at first not engage with her and instead held on to the front of the couch and danced.  I asked him if he could dance with M.  M. picked up a puzzle and the two worked on that for a little bit. My son mostly wanted to walk around so M. kept distracting him.  Since he wanted to play on the couch, she picked up a ball and put it on the couch and rolled it to him.

     I did get to tell M. about "gotta go".  (http://momlovesscifi.blogspot.com/2015/04/my-son-just-made-more-progress.html) She was duly impressed.

     At 11:00 C. the COTA and D. a student arrived.  Sometimes EI/PT/OT/ST will bring a student. They always ask prior to the visit if it is ok.  I am pretty laid back and have never had a problem with students coming.  I do have a tiny apartment (about 400 sq. ft.) so we were kinda becoming a little tight in my extremely tiny living room.

     What I like about having multiple services is that they can double up.  It makes my life easier.  Although for someone with social anxiety is can be overwhelming sometimes, they are not here to see me so it makes it easier in that respect.

     When C. arrived we discussed how my son is doing with baths.  She had suggested in the past that he gets placed in the tub first, then draw the water with him in the tub.  I was sceptical at first, but it worked.  He was fine until his hair was washed, then he got upset.  C. asked if he ever got laid down in the tub to rinse off and no he hasn't only because the tub is so traumatic that baths are kept as short as possible.  She said laying him in the water will rinse out his hair and some kids have an easier time with it. 

     M. and C. played with my son with his sensory box and they played with puzzles.  M. noted when given two puzzle pieces my son chooses quickly and doesn't hesitate like most kids.   When my son got frustrated and was done, they made him use sign language to signal he was done.  He played with D. with his toy where you push the beads along on wires.  M. noticed he would rock from foot to foot and asked if he does it with shoes on.  I really couldn't remember because we primarily wear shoes outside.  I put his shoes on and he continued doing the same thing.  M. played with sensory balls, the kind with rubber spokes all over them, by rolling them on my son's head, neck, and back. He loved it. Since bath time is so awful, I asked if it would be ok to bring the ball in the tub and massage him with it in the water.  They said sure.  M. even suggested textured bath mats.  M. and C. then engaged my son by having him play ball with them.  M. said to create opportunities for engaging him like this.

     At 11:15 there was a knock at the door.  It was A. the EI coordinator.  She was late because she had an appointment in another town.

     My son was mouthing a lot of toys and C. asked how brushing his teeth is going.  It is going well, except now he likes to bite the bristles of his tooth brush.  She suggested getting an electronic toothbrush and just rubbing the outside of his checks to give him the oral stimulus he needs.  She asked if he has a straw cup or a water bottle because that does the same thing.  He does have a water bottle with a straw but I don't know how to teach him to suck. She told me to put water in it, then drip a few drops on his mouth by holding the bottle upside down. He should open his mouth for the straw and once the straw is in his mouth,  run my fingers along his check to facilitate sucking. We are definitely trying this.

     M. commented this was an incredibly successful visit and credited my hiding the electronic toys.

     I am glad of our progress and looking forward to our next therapy/EI visit.

First Occupational Therapy Visit 04/13/15

     Mom fail, I completely forgot OT was coming yesterday. We went for a nice long walk, ate a late lunch and then my friend called. I was putting him down for a nap and chatting with my friend when someone knocked on the door. It was A. the Early Intervention coordinator. I was kinda surprised and let her in and then she said C. the COTA was on her way and should be here shortly.

    While A. and I were waiting for C., we discussed my son's weekend. Friday we went to the park with a friend and her daughter who is roughly six month older than my son.  He engaged in some parallel play but was far more interested in the wood chips on the ground than the little girl.  We did try the slide, but he wanted to lay down, not sit so I went down with him. He was laughing his head off.  We tried the swings but it got bad fast so we stopped that.  Saturday he went to the park with my husband while I scanned 173 old photos for a family tree project. He just wanted to walk around mostly.  Sunday, we went to the park as a family. He loved the slide, but the swing he is now deathly afraid of.


    When C. arrived, we discussed my son's history with A.  My son walked around, picking up a toy, looked at it, tossed it, repeatedly.  We have the Fisher Price Stride to Ride Puppy and my son played with that and one of those wooden activity cubes.  He also played with this A's help.
     (image from ebay)

A. read him The Very Hungry Caterpillar about four times.  My son loves turning pages and after each reading he would just sit and turn the pages.

    C. and I discussed my son's sleeping habits.  C. suggested giving him milk before bed as opposed to at supper which I meant to try last night, but fell asleep my self and messed up his night time routine. (I have been not feeling well at all for the last two weeks.)  C. also suggested writing down my son's schedule and scheduling in two snacks a day.

    We also discussed the sensory issues my son has. I discussed the terror inducing swing experience of this weekend. C. suggested taking my son to the park and having him help me push and empty swing to get used to how it works.  She also said taking a toy and putting it in the swing and showing him nothing bad happened to it.  She also suggested us sitting together on a regular swing and slowly working up to swinging together.  We also discussed bath time. My son shrieks in terror while having a bath. I am not using hyperbole. It is not the whiny cry kids use when they don't like something, it is full on blood curling shrieking and howling.  He clutches at you when you try to bath him and he tries to angle every part of his body out of the water.  She asked what temperature bath he gets and if we adjust it. We have tried everything from freezing to lukewarm baths.   She asked if we adjust the depth of the water. We have tried from a tiny puddle up to enough to float boats around the tub in an effort to make him play in the bath. It didn't work. She suggested not filling the tub prior putting him the water. She said put him in an empty tub and then put the faucet on. She also suggested showering with him, or turning the shower on when he is taking a bath. I will try all her suggestions and write about how things go.

   We also discussed me playing hand over hand with him, which I already do.  We discussed our weekend with his cousins and she suggested I play with the kids to try to engage my son. I told her I did that. I got on the floor and played with the toys with the kids to show my son how much fun it was, but he walked away.  I told her we do hand over hand play with all his toys but when he is done playing with something, he is done.  I showed her a sensory box we have:

She likes this because everything has a different texture. She suggested mixing up what is in it. Adding tissues and scarves for example.  I am going to do this several times a week. I will add/subtract items.  On her way out she saw this puzzle in a stack of toys I want to get rid of

She said this is a good sensory puzzle.  Instead of getting rid of it, we will keep it now.


   All in all this was a great visit,  I think working with C. is going to help us a lot.

EUREKA!!!

Today for lunch, I made my son a simple meal. It was just spinach, tomato, and chicken nuggets. I put him down so he could hand feed himself the majority of the meal. When he was down to just little pieces, I got a spoon. As is our routine, I gave him the spoon to see what he would do with it.

HE PUT IT IN THE BOWL, GOT FOOD ON IT AND FED HIMSELF WITH THE SPOON!!!

This is a huge breakthrough. I am overjoyed with this progress. It was hit or miss, sometimes he didn't get food on the spoon, sometimes the food was too far back in the spoon for him to get it in his mouth, but practice makes perfect. He is 23 months and this is the first time he did this.

We have been doing hand over hand with utensils for about a year now. I can't wait to tell EI and OT what he did today!

Occupational Therapy Evaluation 04/24/15

H. came from the same company that provides early intervention services for our son.

He was very excited to meet H. He was all smiles when she came over. The first thing he did after hugging her was to try to open her bags and he managed to rip a Post-It from deep within her bag and throw it on the rug. Being quite pleased with himself, he began diving deeper into H's bags. I told him he can't be doing that but she laughed and said its fine.

H. then handed me a questionnaire that was several pages long. The first section was demographic information about my son. The question that stuck out the most was about getting upset when their nails are cut. Every single time that is an issue.

While I was doing the questionnaire, H. attempted the test for my son. Parts of the test involved making a block tower. My son picked up one of the blocks and tried to eat it. Then he walked around the living room ignoring H. while giggling and trying to lick the block. There was also a puzzle of three simple shapes: a star, a square, a circle. He wanted to play with the pieces. She tried to direct him to put the shapes in the right place, but he got extremely agitated and started to cry because he wanted to play with the shapes. She then handed him a book and told him to turn the pages. He grabbed the book, sat with his back to her and started turning pages and looking at the book. She asked me if he likes to color. I told her that I can no longer give him round crayons because he likes to shove them up his nose but I will demonstrate what happens when he is given triangular shaped crayons. I set him up with some paper and his crayons. I already knew what would happen, but I wanted her to see this. My son took all the crayons out individually, held them up, and stared at them while rotating them and babbling to himself. I asked him to make me a picture and showed him how to make a squiggle. He dove into the pile of crayons again and started sorting them. H. said maybe we should only give him one. Then she and I made lines and squiggles and I attempted to help my son make a squiggle doing hand over hand. He was upset and just wanted to sort the crayons.  She told me that she could no longer do the evaluation because my son does not take direction or respond to verbal direction. I have known this for a while. She also said developmentally, he should be in the cause/effect and problem solving stage, but he is still in the exploratory stage. He does not understand that objects have an intended purpose or what they are. It is true. I can't argue or disprove that. 

We discussed my son's sleeping patterns. I know this is an issue. Right now he is "napping" which to him means laughing and bouncing on his back in the crib. I put him to bed every night at 8 pm. He then bounces on his back, or jumps up and down while laughing/babbling or lays in bed and babble/laughs. Sometimes he sings. He stays up until midnight-2 am. Due to the incredibly tiny apartment we live in, this means I am up till midnight-2 am.  Some mornings he is up between 6 and 8. If he doesn't get up on his own, I make him get up around 9/9:30 in the hopes he will sleep that night. He uses nap time as free play. There is nothing in his crib except a mattress and a crib sheet. He has a sound machine to help soothe. I believe in the cry it out method unless he is sick/screaming. He doesn't want to be in bed so crying is frequent and I make him work it out. She said that the set up I have and my not running in his room for every little whine is what she wants to hear.

My son sucks the index and middle fingers of his left hand.  She will order him an OT tool called a chew tube.

We discussed my son's eating habits next. I told H. that my son has a hearty appetite, but he eats with his hands. She asked if he uses spoons and I said although I put a utensil out with every meal he does not eat with it. It was discussed that I try to make him use utensils by doing hand over hand with him, but that he is not interested in doing it himself. 

According to her report, he has difficulty social referencing, limited joint attention, and inconsistent response to hearing his own name. Again, this is true. He lives in his own little world and doesn't like visiting ours. My son also rocks side to side and back and forth.

In addition to ot 3x a month, it was also recommended that my son get an eye exam and an optometrist was recommended

H. was very friendly and professional. Her assessment was dead on. .In two weeks I will hear from a COTA to start services.  I think we need this.

Early Intervention 03/17/15

Today A. the Early Intervention coordinator came. My son just loves her. We went to the door to meet her and he was all smiles.

My son was very vocal today. He sang to her and babbles up a storm. They read the same Bob the Builder book that T. read to him. They talked and throughout the visit A.and I discussed his development.

I told her that he identified a cat for T. yesterday and she was extremely happy. She said that she put in a request for the Speech Therapist to come out but they normally don't until the child is two. He will be two on 4/19 so she thinks later next month or in the summer speech therapy will begin. The Occupational Therapist is coming on April 7th for the o.t. eval and I will definitely be writing about that.

My son actually said a few distinct words to A. He said "Daisy" and "thank you" to A. The Daisy disturbs me a little because I had a miscarriage in January and had the baby been a girl, her name would have been Margarita which is Daisy in english. I nicknamed the baby Daisy but haven't mentioned Daisy as a word since January. He said "thank you" to A. after she handed him a puzzle piece.

We also discussed that soon, around 27 months, we will meet with the school department to discuss my son's needs as e.i ends when he is 3. I cannot believe that we are already discussing school at this point.

It was a good visit.  E.I is not as focused as P.T, its a more general discussion of how my son is growing. We have a good program and I really like the people that come out and work with us.

I'm back!

Holy cow. It has been way, way too long.

Sorry for the long absence.

So just to bring everything up to speed, here's what happened. I was working at a job that is about two hours from my house. I pretty much only was home for six hours a day. Last June, I quit my job due to daycare being crazy expensive. Since then, my son has been seeing a physical therapist, a nutritionist, and Early Intervention.  Turns out my son has low muscle tone, and developmental delays. We have also had ear infections, flus, vomiting viruses and many other sicknesses.

I don't plan on taking such a long absence again.

I actually want to jump right into things.

So I want to change the focus of the blog a teeny, tiny bit.  I want to start sharing what its like having a child with developmental delays and talk about his therapy as we go through this.  I still want to talk about other parent things, and pop culture things, but I really need an outlet to discuss what is going on.

What prompted all of this was at his 3 month checkup he could not hold his head up very high. He could hold it up, but not high.  At his six month checkup he wasn't rolling and he had a hard time sitting up.  We had an Early Intervention evaluation, and he scored pretty high so no services were sought.  At eight months, he could not hold his own bottle, and he wasn't  crawling.  The pediatrician sent us back to Early Intervention.  At 10 months he could finally hold his own bottle.  After several months of hard work, at 15 months he started to crawl.  I cried. He laughed and looked at me like I was nuts and crawled like a pro for the rest of the day. Shortly after this, he started Physical Therapy. After much more hard work, at 21 months, he stood up and walked. And walked and walked. I was speechless. Now we approaching the two year mark and he is not talking so we are going to start speech therapy shortly.  We have seen a neurologist who also recommended Occupational Therapy.

It is very frustrating because I never know what is working, and what is not. I never know what is getting through to him, and what is just frustrating him.  He would scream like he was being tortured when I was trying to get him in the crawling position, but when he was ready, he just took off.  The walking was the same. He would sometimes walk if I held his hand or hands, but he would scream and cry. I thought for a while he was in physical pain because of this. I would not take him on long walks either, just from the living room to the changing table or from the living room to the high chair. Then, one day at my mother's house, he stopped playing with his toys, stood up, and walked the length of her house.

Another specific challenge I would like to share is the transition to sippy cups.  This was another stage that would make me weep. We owned a great variety of sippy cups to help ease the transition. We also did not even attempt to transition until crawling started.  When you first gave him the cup, he would scream. This evolved to screaming and then throwing the cup. This is how we lost our first sippy cup. RIP Munchkin sippy cup.  Eventually, he would raise the cup to his mouth, but would let the liquid within pour down his face and chest requiring a complete outfit change. Finally at 21 months, we somehow put it all together. He drank from the cup! This is where frustrating comes in.  I know its hard to transition,but having a kid with developmental delays means we don't like change. It takes hard work to see progress and its normally many months in coming.

I will continue to talk about this ongoing. If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Or if you are going through the same thing, or went through the same thing, I would like to hear about it, if you want to share.



To change topics...........I recently saw Frozen.
Just a quick rant, I do not boycott or dislike Disney.  I do however feel that they were on the right track with Old Yeller and Bambi. Sometimes bad things happen. This is life.  I really like fairy tales and The Little Mermaid, though sad actually has a point. You can't force people to like you and don't change who you are to achieve that end.  I have not seen the animated Disney version, but I hear it does not end with Ariel becoming sea foam. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a very dark gothic novel that explores love, lust, desire, envy, and greed. It has a very touching ending after a thrilling climax. Once again, I have not seen the animated version, but I hear that Esmeralda and the Hunchback are not found with skeletons entwined in the catacombs years later. I have not seen an animated Disney movie in a very long time but I heard Frozen was the one to watch.

I like how this is not a typical "one day my prince will come story". Of course its there and its actually sad to me how "ordinary" Anna needs a husband that badly.  Being ordinary is extraordinary! There is nothing like the adventures one can have on one's own, especially at 18. I like how its about family relationships, reminiscent of Pixar's Brave.

However, it felt rushed. It is not a short movie, but I felt that the story was almost forced. The musical numbers are not spread out, they are mushed together in the first half of the story. I felt it would have been a lot more enjoyable if it had focused more on animation and story.


While I am reviewing things, I would like to briefly review Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.

Ready Player One is like if someone scooped up all of pop culture from the late 70's to the early 90's and made a video game out of it, and then played that video game in a dystopian future. Literally that is the what the book is.  I highly recommend this book to everyone everywhere.

The Thirteenth Tale is a wonderful story crafted by a master storyteller. The protagonist works in her father's bookstore and is asked to write the truth about a reclusive author.  The book takes place in England but does not specify the year or decade in which it takes place. This gives the book a very timeless feel. This book I recommend to people who enjoy stories. It is a ghost  story without a ghost. It is a love story between twins. I loved this book.

Before I go for the day...........I wanted to share a recipe.

My son is a toddler and I try very hard to make him eat nutritious foods. I am a SAHM now and I really don't want every lunch to be peanut butter.

In an effort to shake things up a bit, yesterday I opened up a can of black beans, sauteed  a quarter of a yellow onion, cut up four celery stalks, diced a tomato, added some frozen chicken stock (recipe and tips coming soon), added powdered garlic, and tossed in some cheddar cheese and heated it all up on the stove. I squeezed fresh lime over the soup and my son was laughing and smiling while eating it. It was cheap and easy to make.


I promise it won't take two years for me to write again because this is fun :) I hope to be back early next week.