Friday, January 30, 2009

Quick note on Chloe's sensory issues

I think blogspot hates me today. It crashed five times in a row as I typed this so I’m typing in Word and pasting. Take that, Google!

Anyway, as I was saying before it was rudely deleted, I was waiting to post until I had lots of concrete data but that will be a while in coming, so for now:

Chloe was evaluated by an OT and the EI coordinator, and she “DEFINITELY qualifies” for early intervention/therapy. So they had to go have their weekly EI meeting and add her and get her team chosen, and now she has another therapist coming Tuesday to evaluate her development (or lack thereof) in more detail. We also have a series of three classes to attend for parents of non-verbal kids to help them communicate better. We also get to rent all the signing videos from the library for free (normally it’s a dollar per DVD per week). I’m glad we’re in the process of getting Chloe some help, esp today as it has been a very bad sensory issues day. Chloe spent the entire morning eating dangerous things whenever possibly (jewelry/rocks, plastic outlet covers, unpopped popcorn kernels, etc), doing her Super Stomp all over, jumping, bouncing (which for her is SUPER hard, intense, brain-joggling bouncing, which is no fun when she starts doing it on me!!), throwing things, thrashing, flailing, yelling, wanting to nurse every ten minutes, and smashing head-first into things when she got upset, until she collapsed on me, exhausted, about 20 minutes before naptime. Although, bonus for her, she did spend her two play minutes (two separate minutes—she doesn’t play for two minutes at a time together. I wish) playing with a big wooden puzzle and then with some wooden blocks. So that was good—any positive developmental seconds we can squeeze in with her are good.

And Alanna cut her own hair yesterday while I was at work. After her bath she gets a new haircut.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Quick Note

One week until Chloe's early intervention evaluation. We'll see which one of us is crazy then--her or me! I hope they can figure out what's going on with her--it's like having a newborn for almost 16 months, but one who can run around and wreck things in the few seconds she doesn't want to be held. And who can turn on the bathtub water on hot and climb in (not at the same time *yet*), and who eats glass shards and chalk and crayons, and dumps ice water over herself for fun. Or who runs into the snow barefoot with no coat and proceeds to play like it's high summer, climbs on everything and falls off onto her head without even trying to catch herself, will not play with toys or read books for more than thirty seconds at a time (unless a new baby is over to play with--they are more distracting), chews on everything in sight (including her own fingers, arms, the metal hinges on the doors, the frozen porch steps, the business end of Snappis, and anything else that normal kids would cry if they bit, lol), bangs her head on things, wants to splash in water so much she will climb into the toilet to get a chance at some or try to dive headfirst into the sink, can't control her emotions at all yet, almost non-verbal, and on and on and on. I can only breathe or get anything done at naptime. Or after work, like now--which is 1am. She doesn't even like being worn--there's not enough movement for her. She will tolerate the SSC, which is super-fast to put on (as with staying still for a wrap or mei tai she flips out), but she really wants to move and bounce and change scenery and tactile sensations constantly so she wants down very quickly. If it's naptime I can get maybe an hour--half an hour of bouncing her to sleep and then half an hour of her sleeping. And that's it. It's easier to just put her down for a normal nap, lol, which lasts 45-90 minutes. Poor Alanna gets the shaft with Chloe demanding so much attention. And I am So going crazy.

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Green goals!

I will (hopefully) have more tomorrow on sensory stuff and whatever else I think of. I keep wanting to make this an interesting blog people will want to follow, but everyone seems to have already said what I am thinking, LOL.

So for now, as I avoid going to sleep for some reason, I am answering Crunchy Domestic Goddess's question about my Green Goals for the year.

As a review, in 2008:
We started our first garden and learned a LOT ;) and actually got some veggies out of it.
Became full-time cloth diaper users with my youngest and switched to full-time cloth finally with my oldest, and then she started using the potty about two weeks later. Go figure!
Got cloth shopping bags and started asking for paper when I forgot them. Which was most of the time.
Started using a cloth bag for the library instead of the plastic bags they provide.
Started shopping at the natural food store, and then the new Sunflower Farmer's Market opened up and I found the regular farmer's market, so we get more organic and natural foods.
I went pesco-vegetarian for a while, and now I have (due to my insanely high metabolism) settled into a much-less-meat-and-only-organic/humanely-raised-meat diet. Less money, less sad animals, less dead animals. Reminds me, I need to set out the pot of dried beans to soak.
I started using less plastic/unsafe toys and started looking more at wooden, natural, WAHM-made and imagination-inspiring toys.
Dd1 broke our TV so we used a lot less electricity for a few weeks until we replaced it.
We stopped our cable TV, so again much less electricity wasted, and less brain cells melted, too. Bonus!
I breastfed the entire year--do you know how many cans of formula are not in the landfill thanks to that??
Less vaccinations, so less Tylenol used.


For 2009:
Bigger garden, and we're going to try freezing or canning some of it.
Buying more local food, especially when the farmer's market opens again.
Dh wants a peach tree!
REMEMBER my darn cloth shopping bags, lol! I'm going to keep them in the car.
I want to start a compost pile this spring.
We're going to rotate out some more of the plastic toys and either leave them gone or replace them with natural or local (both!) toys.
I am going to sew more, so I buy less that I could make. (I am finishing up a sensory blanket right now.)
I am (and have been) fighting the CPSIA that needs changes so it doesn't put WAHMs and small businesses out of business, and I will keep fighting that until the law is revised. Who wants to have to buy from giant corporations with China-made goods because they are the only ones who can afford the massive amounts of testing in products for anyone under 12??
We are building up our food storage and emergency kits this year.
Keeping on keeping on with breastfeeding!
Ummm that's all I can think of because it's about midnight.