Friday, July 18, 2008

Life in the not so fast lane

I got (received) good news the other day. The Birth to Three OT said that since we're doing really well with John with him seeking input for sensory issues. But its interesting because it seems we go in streaks where he has really good days and then days where he pins Matthew down on the ground, lies on him and tries to smother him with a pillow. Or he's just a live wire. Which has been the past few days.

The OT suggested more sensory play. We have a texture box with rigatoni, chickpeas, and navy beans. We have Crayola Fusion model clay. The kids will go around and around in circles on their ride-on toys. I encourage a lot of jumping and dancing. Outside in our backyard we have a mini-trampoline, ride on toys, a huge sandbox, a pool, two play sets and out of all that, I think John likes to play on the rocks or walk barefoot in the grass the best.

I'm very lucky that John has responded well. The only issues left for him are his oral fixations and his low muscle tone in his mouth. He still drools when he concentrates and much of the time his jaw is hanging open just a little bit. I'm not sure if the speech therapist will come for that issue yet or someone else.

Today I discovered at Woodman's that the Fast Lane (Under 20 items) is not really the fast lane. I newbie, who was actually quite old, was in charge of the five registers. I brought my own reusable bags and put them on the scale. The checkout lady just needed to clear the screen from her computer and I could go on checking out my 22 items. She was working another checkout area and couldn't get that error cleared. Pretty soon four out of the five registers were at a standstill because the rest of us just needed her to push just ONE little stinking button and we'd be on our own self-checking way. It took her eight minutes to clear me. I even asked her to just clear my bag weight error. And she was extremely disorganized and had to focus on just this one thing. She missed out on the multi-tasking gene.

So, I picked up my Dodge today from the local dealership today. They had to fix something something air condition piece in the rear of the van. I mistakenly thought they'd do this under the van. But no, they had to take out all three of my car seats out to do whatever they had to do. Scott told me to get over it, which I should. But it is a real pain in the patuddy to put them back properly. It will take me over an hour to get all three just right. And its humid outside and even more humid in my van. But wait! My air conditioning is fixed so I'll probably turn that on.

Today, as I was on the phone with the dealership trying to figure out if my van would be ready for me to pick it up, Jacob made the babies their dinner. I was on the phone downstairs so I wouldn't be disturbed. I came up and he had them in chairs, with plates and had given them yogurt, deli turkey and sliced cheese. It made my heart melt at how thoughtful and helpful he was. He gave them big people forks and he said,"Mom, I didn't know what forks to give them." And I said that he did a great job.

Tomorrow I'll blog about my arch-nemesis. Actually, I have two.

2 comments:

Elyse said...

Jacob is such a sweetheart. What a thoughtful idea!

As for John, I remember that an OT helped out with some of these issues. Hang in there and keep doing what you are doing!!!
~Elyse~

debi9kids said...

Glad to hear that John is doing so well with therapy. It is the same for us with Will, we go in streaks. A few great days and then a few horrible days... UGH