12.21.12

Singing at his first Christmas Concert.

More cuteness. :)

Some of the awesome lights in Morden.

Another house all dressed up for Christmas.

 Today was a really great way to end the week.  Wyatt had his preschool Christmas concert, and he did amazing!  I was a little concerned that he might freak out at all the people in the gym, but he did great.  The whole thing was just adorable.
After supper we went for a drive to look at lights again - I think I mentioned earlier this month that we tried, but didn't find anything spectacular.  Tonight we sure did!  Maybe next year we'll decorate our house like one of these. ;)  Or at least do one string of Christmas lights...

12.16.12

What? You don't do your painting while precariously balancing on a chair?

All dressed up and ready to go to one of our only gatherings this year!

Busy weekend.  My nephew's birthday party was on Saturday, then a Christmas gathering on Sunday. Both kids were exhausted, cranky and out of control by supper time today.  Wyatt seems to be more tired than usual in the afternoons, but still refuses to nap.  Not sure what's up with that - not that he refuses to nap, but why he's more tired than usual.
We're gearing up for Christmas - I think I have one small gift to pick up yet, and then it's done.  Wyatt's been pretty patient, considering the pile of gifts under the tree. :)

12.12.12

Today Wyatt had his last occupational therapy appointment until next month. We had wanted to try some weighted items - vest, lap strips, blanket - to see if they will help him calm down after a distressing experience. Which meant we had to put him through some of those experiences first. We did some work on a stability ball (which he dislikes because of the lack of balance), some writing and drawing (he has trouble holding a pencil or piece of chalk properly, and exerts so much pressure that he has ripped paper) and playing on a scooter board. He did very well, but really didn't like any of the weighted items. The blanket they had just had one strip where all the weight was (15 lbs). The ones I saw online evenly distributed the weight, so he might like that better.
The appointment was longer than usual and kind of discouraging. The therapist also noted that Wyatt has a tremor in his right hand when he does things that require fine motor skills. I thought maybe it was just because of the amount of pressure he applies when writing, but she noticed it when he was lacing beads as well.
It's just hard not to feel overwhelmed. How is this going to affect him in school? What if he gets picked on because of it? What if some monster of a child deliberately makes loud noises to scare him? What if his teachers get frustrated and give up on him? Arg!
He did draw a picture of himself BY himself today though. That was awesome. :)

12.09.12

 We started off Sunday with a little Christmas craft that I thought would be simple enough for both kids.  Ah ha ah hahhhaaaa. Wyatt very tidily painted his tree, while Paige tried to suck the paint off her paintbrush (thankfully I used non-toxic finger paint for hers...it's as though I saw this coming).  Then she tried to eat the pompoms and the glitter.  Okay.  Crafts are not for 18 month olds.

Here are the finished products.

 Then I got it into my pointy little head that we needed to try decorating a gingerbread house.  Josh and I tried several years ago, and it almost ended up in divorce.  It was not something we'll ever do together again (same with canoeing, in case you are keeping track). Wyatt was all for it, so we toddled down to Giant Tiger and picked up a kit.  The royal icing did &#$% all for keeping the house together, the whole damn thing fell apart and two pieces broke right in half.  Josh went back to Giant Tiger and bought another kit, and I put the stupid thing together with hot glue.  Worked like a charm.  I decorated it while Wyatt and Paige ate the candy.  Well, Wyatt tried to eat the candy.  He didn't actually like most of it. And I think Paige put a gumdrop in her ear.

 After supper we headed out to go look at the Christmas lights in Morden.  What a bust!  There wasn't much to look at.  And Wyatt fell asleep (probably out of boredom).
It was a fun Sunday regardless.  Josh and Wyatt had a "sleepover" last night (Josh slept on Wyatt's floor), but Wyatt wanted to be up for the day at 4:27.  They both eventually got back to sleep, but Josh headed back to bed after I got up.  The kids and I snuck out to Tim Horton's and got some Christmas-y donuts. ;)
Tomorrow is another OT appointment for Wyatt.  We're going to be trying weighted blankets (pretty much exactly what it sounds like) - sometimes they work to sort of flip that switch when SPD kids get overloaded.  They are NOT cheap though - even handmade ones start at $120US (plus shipping).  It is possible that once we get a diagnosis, we may qualify for a disability tax credit, which would help us to purchase something like this (if it does help him).

12.03.12

Sensory Overload (Interacting with Autism Project) from Miguel Jiron on Vimeo.
Yup, another SPD post. I found this video online, which shows what it might be like for a child (or adult) with auditory defensiveness. I know the video description mentions autism, because SPD and autism are often linked. Wyatt does not have autism, however he certainly experiences sensory overload. I found this video highly irritating to watch. After initially reading up on SPD, I suspected that I likely experience SPD, in a much more mild way than Wyatt. Certain sounds annoy and distract me - people breathing, for example (which I realize sounds ridiculous), and chewing! I have had to cut my lunch short on more than one occasion to keep from snapping at a co-worker. While discussing SPD and my son at work the other day, a co-worker (who happens to be a doctor) got quite upset with me. "Leave him alone!" she said, "Not everything needs to be fixed!" There was a lot of tongue biting. Because so few people know about, and understand SPD, I get that it seems like I am making a mountain out of a molehill. I get it. But until you have lived with it, you cannot understand how debilitating it can be for a child. It affects his gross and fine motor skills. He only crawled at 12 months old. He only mastered the stairs at 3. He still refuses to ride a bike. He hates writing, drawing, etc. We had to teach him how to take his socks off at 3 1/2 years old. He still struggles to dress himself - and NO, it's not because we coddle or spoil him. He just cannot figure out how to do certain things. He learned how to put his boots on this year, which was awesome. We're working on teaching him how to put his own socks on. We're struggling how to teach him how to put a jacket on (nevermind working a zipper!). Imagine a day where you feel like you have been totally overwhelmed with normal activities - I know we all have days like that - where everything feels like a chore. Or a day where you have learned something new...at the end of the day, you are mentally exhausted. Now imagine being a toddler and experiencing that every single day. Not only are you having to work through the normal demands of being a toddler, but struggling with how to react when a well-meaning adult blows a whistle in an effort to engage you, or feeling the pokepokepoke of a tag in your shirt ALL DAY LONG. It's taxing and Wyatt handles it quite well for the most part - but I think a lot of his tantrums are from sheer mental exhaustion. I notice on days where he has had a lot of sensory overload, those are the days where we have to give a lot of time outs. My new goal is to find an outlet for Wyatt. Something he can do that will release that stress and tension of fighting with himself all day long. There are certain songs that he loves listening to, and I think maybe if I can find a really soft pair of headphones I may be able to convince him to put them on. The long and rambling point to this post is hopefully to explain to people that a)yes, SPD is a real disorder and something that can serious affect the day to day life of a child, and b)I am trying my best. Telling me to "let him be" is NOT helpful - to me or to him.

12.2.12

Elf on the Shelf Night #3 (sorry for the redundancy, FB friends).  

Last week Wyatt was invited to his first (non-family) birthday party, for a boy that he went to daycare with in the summer.  He was thrilled, and I was apprehensive to say the least.  I spoke to the boy's mom, she said it was just their family and one other boy invited.  I figured Wyatt could handle that size of group, but I was still fairly uncertain about the whole idea.  I don't know this family at all (other than knowing who they are from daycare), and Wyatt's never been to a party on his own before.  But, I thought, it's a small party, and a short time, it should be alright.  I told Wyatt if he got upset at all, he could ask the boy's mom to call us and we would come get him.  Josh dropped him off, but stayed with Wyatt for a while because it turned out that there were actually quite a few people there.  Wyatt told Josh he could leave, but we got a call about an hour later saying Wyatt was ready to go home.  Turns out that the kids had whistles in the treat bags and had been playing with them.  That set Wyatt off, not surprisingly.  I feel badly that he didn't have fun.  

We've started his occupational therapy appointments, and those have been going alright.  The last 2 weeks have just been a series of exercises to see what he is capable of, and how he reacts to certain things.  This week we'll start working on sensory integration therapy.  As part of the process, Wyatt's preschool teacher had to fill out a questionnaire about how he acts in school, and some of it was hard to read.  He almost always needs encouragement to play with the other kids, and often keeps to himself.  I know there is one boy that he plays with there, so it's good that he's got one little buddy.  Just kind of sad that he's too overwhelmed with everything else that's going on that he doesn't want to interact with anyone else.  Sometimes, the more information about SPD I get, the more depressing it is.

11.30.12

 When my kids sleep, they sleep HARD.  No wonder the poor guy keeps having nightmares that he's falling!

Tomorrow we start up the whole Elf on the Shelf thing again, so I set everything up for tomorrow.  I saw this great idea for a North Pole Breakfast on Pinterest - the elf brings breakfast with him the first day he arrives.  I made up some little felt sleeves for their sippy cups, we have powdered donuts, mini cinnamon sugar muffins and we may make pancakes or cinnamon buns tomorrow morning.  Oh!  And chocolate milk, of course.  I thought hot chocolate would be great, but I don't think Wyatt could be convinced to drink it.