More

I'm back. The girls were having a surprise party for me out at their picnic table. I received a glass candleholder and two (slightly used, now outmoded) happy meal toys and a lovely letter of appreciation. Sweet little ladies. They even blew up balloons--halfway--and tied them up themselves. It took me a few minutes to bust through all the tape into the snowflake tissue paper they used to wrap everything. I nursed the baby and oohed and ahhed over their thoughtfulness and choice in gifts while they ate lunch. We opted for the angel food cake with strawberries, later had dinner with friends here at home, recovered from a serious error in judgement by the young males in the group, went for a nice two mile walk and had fruit tart when we returned. I'm rolling in happiness here...

So Q had therapy this morning. I asked his therapist about toe-walking, which G does and has since he first began to walk, but not in shoes, just barefoot. It turns out that some kids (absent any structural issues) do this in order to better organize their brains as they are learning or gleaning information. This would explain the learning of the times tables whilst marching up and down the stairs on his toes and memorizing the Gettysburg address whilst walking circles around a chair in the family room--on his toes. Most of these kids have sensory integration issues and exhibit this type of behavior, as well as many other troublesome (for the classroom) characteristics. This often results in taking away privileges, such as recess, which is the worst thing one can do to a kid like this. Bingbingbing!!! The bells are going off.

I feel like the lenses suddenly focused and things are making more sense. Q's therapist (I just love her) gave me a pamphlet on Sensory Integration (SI) for G and told me she thought it would be useful for me to read up on it now, as Q will likely be facing a number of issues related to this. Vestibular and proprioceptive function are two of the biggies listed in the pamphlet. So now I need to get back to the paperwork for G's ADHD evaluation and see where that leads. I think we're in a pretty good position here as far as resources go. The pediatrician is willing to do whatever the individual child needs (within reason, of course) and will work toward that end with other medical professionals.

Wouldn't it be something to have a plan? The therapist said that often OTs (they work more with SI than PTs) write out a "sensory diet" for kids who need things to be consistent in terms of input and the kid does much better when all the bases are being covered in an organized fashion. Wow. Just... Wow. I know G isn't "classic" if SI is in fact an issue for him, in part because he's not terribly bothered by textures and other tactile stimuli, but all that is only part of the story. Wow.

To be able to define this stuff in any way is just enormous. Here's to getting some useful information that will make G consistently happier and easier to work with. (I love the boy, but some days he plain ol' wears me out.) Woohoo. And the fact that it could all help my understanding of Q and his issues and get us more quickly to what he needs? It's gravy.

(The spinning is going well, by the way. Can't wait to get back to the optometrist for the next appointment and see what else there is to learn/do.)

Sweet dreams and peace to you and yours. Happy dancing off to bed.