Friday, March 20, 2009

Overheard at Joey's Bath-time

“Hey! I said no bubble bath!”
“What, Daddy?”
“No bubbles! You added bubbles! And I’m going to tell you when to turn the water off tonight, and you will turn it off.”
“Awwww. “
“Oh, wait, you didn’t have bubble bath last night, did you? You’re OK then. I’m sorry, Buddy!”
“That’s OK! Thank you for saying yes!”

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Duck and Dodge

Andy had his eval today, the first screening step headed down the path of a possible 504 plan. The first thing we have to do is eliminate the need for an IEP. So off to the childstudy screening we went.

Good news: no IEP. Andy has tongue thrust, attention and focus issues, will probably need motion breaks and a visual schedule, but no IEP. Next step: go bug the elementary VP again and ask for a tour, with recommendations from his OT in hand with today's piece of paper (which does say he needs a visual schedule and motion breaks).

Ah, the joys of ducks getting all in a nice row.

Monday, March 16, 2009

What a Day! (Mixed Bag)

Right on cue, melty days are followed by a trip to the doctor.

This morning, I heard it, the sound that now strikes fear into my heart and shudders through my brain- the bark of the croup cough. Since Joey has a tendency to turn blue, I didn't mess around. Andy was dropped at school, and Joey and I went straight to the Medic One (a miracle of medicine in this town- you see the doctor in about an hour, instead of days!) Diagnosis: the very beginnings of upper respiratory infection. We now have an inhaler and some amoxicillin for the boy.

We went to get Andy, who came out proudly sporting an Andy O'Shenanigans hat (and orange beard). Ah, 'tis time for th' wearin' o' th' green!

But wait, the excitement isn't over! Andy started on a new therapeutic listening program. This one is going to work with both vestibular and speech. I managed a sinus headache (very rare for me), so our beautiful, wonderful Miss Lisa took both boys back to play! So I got busy getting rid of my headache, and they got busy getting out the wiggles.

After that, it was time to get home and get some rest, especially for Joey. So what happens?

Yep- I now have a snaggletooth boy! Time for the Blue Bunny to come visit! I wonder if she has any blue cars left?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Days in 360

I have a suspicion that some time this week I will be home with one or two sick boys. Whenever we have odd days like this one, we tend to have a real issue several days later.

I knew we were having an off day when Joey got to swimming. Andy didn't go this morning at all, he was sleeping in and spent much of last night saying he didn't want to see Ms. Heidi, he wanted to stay home with Daddy. He got his wish. Joey got to the pool, and right away I could see Ms. Heidi was having a harder than usual time getting Joey to do his swimming- and Joey loves swimming. Was it the rain? or a harbinger of something else?

At home, the moods are spinning. One minute we're happy, playing trucks or decorating our leprechaun trap for school, even watching a little TV or having some popcorn- and suddenly, with little to no warning, its time to melt down. A torn sticker. A dropped kernel. A truck that rolls just a little too far. The world blurs into meltdown.

Melty days are hard. For one, I have few tools to uncover the underlying issues and problems; I am stuck with trying to put out the little fires with no way to discovering what is smouldering or why. Also, the lack of warning means you have a lot of sudden noise, which means not only do I get startled, but Andy is also more likely to melt down. Trying to keep everyone engaged is harder to do, and no guarantee of peace. It also means all the usual tricks are used up by lunchtime.

They are also dizzying. Laugh, giggle, quiet, SCREAM, giggle, SCREAM, fine, quiet, giggle, SCREAM. Mood changing so rapidly that it is hard to know which one is current, and no way to know why.

Having it happen on a cold, rainy day only exacerbates the issues. You can't put them outside to make noise for a while. They are caught inside with you.

So it looks like tonight will be a swell night to pull out some amaretto after the guys are in bed, taking three deep breaths, and hope school goes OK in the morning.