Thanksgiving Trip

Ok, so I know it's almost Christmas and I'm just now writing about our Thanksgiving Trip back to the Midwest, but we've been busy and December just kinda got away from me. The trip out was awful .We had rain and fog the whole way and Hannah barely slept at all. We had a HUGE meltdown at a gas station in the middle of the night that lasted almost a half hour which seemed like an eternity closed up in the van. Once arriving at our first destination, Pap and Mindy's house, things got much better. Kyle and I slept and Hannah hung out with Pap playing, raking leaves, and carrying pumpkins all over the yard. Can you say heavy work!?! Hannah did well the whole time we were in Ohio although she was definitely overtired most of the time because of bedtimes stretched hours past normal. Our next stop was Mamaw and Papaw's house. Hannah was in heaven. She got to feed the horses, play with our dog Ella, climb on the swing set Papaw made, and get spoiled rotten with candy by Mamaw. While in Indiana we also visited with Hannah's birthmother, Tiffany, and her twins. We spent the day with them at the Children's Museum and had a blast. Hannah loved hanging out with her sister Kayla and Kayla and Chase really got into their roles as a big sister and brother. Hannah also finally warmed up to Donna, Tiffany's mom, and that was awesome to see. Up until now, Hannah has refused to really go near Donna for some reason. I think it broke Donna's heart although she'd never say that. This visit was different for some reason. When we prompted Hannah to give Grandma Donna a hug she practically threw herself onto her lap. The look of shock on Donna's face was priceless. After staying at Mamaw and Papaw's house, we headed back to West Lafayette to visit with friends. We stayed with Hannah's bestest friend Evelyn. The two of them were so cute together. It was so awesome to see Hannah finally playing independently with her and returning some of the affection Evelyn has always lavished on her. Those two still really know how to push each other's buttons. Even after not seeing each other for 6 months they were still able to do it instantly and push away they did! It was just like they were sisters! After Evelyn's house we headed to my sister's for a few days before starting the drive back to Rhode Island. We got to hang out and meet her new (to us) boyfriend, have dinner with Grandpa, and pick up Abby our other dog. We left bright and early Saturday morning and planned on driving straight through, but the weather again had it in for us and we ran into a snowstorm in the mountains of Pennsylvania and we decided to stop for the night after seeing several cars off in the ditch. It was an ordeal to find a hotel with rooms available that was also willing to take in a geriatric beagle pup. We eventually found a place to stay after I gave my sob story and a hotel that doesn't allow pets decided to make an exception for us. We got a good night's sleep and made it home in one piece the next day. How's that for the Reader's Digest Condensed Version of our two week trip?

Approximately 40+ hours in the car during our trip did have one perk. We were able to hear some awfully funny things come out of Hannah's mouth, all totally unexpected and unprompted. Here they are for your reading pleasure.

On the way out we stopped at a McDonalds for breakfast very early in the morning in the heart of Amish Country in PA. Though I grew up in a community known for a fairly large Amish population, Hannah had never met or even seen someone dressed in traditional Amish attire. Throughout the month of November Hannah and I had been reading books about the first Thanksgiving and been looking at pictures of Pilgrims and Native Americans. When Hannah caught sight of the large group of Amish in the restaurant (the only other customers in the restaurant besides us mind you) she pointed straight at the nearest group of young women in bonnets and shouted, "Mom! Look! Native Americans!" She was so proud of herself and I about died. I immediately knew what she meant and that fact didn't make me any less embarrassed. Poor Hannah had confused Pilgrims and Native Americans and she was quite certain that she was staring at a real live Pilgrim even if she had her terms incorrect! I quietly tried to shush her and explain that no, they weren't Native Americans, that she meant Pilgrims, but they weren't Pilgrims either, they were Amish and they were dressed that way because of the church they belonged to. UGH! I never saw that coming and had no prepared answer for reminding my daughter not to shout "Look Ma! Indians!" at poor unsuspecting Amish just out enjoying their Micky D's! I guess 3 year olds don't care much about political correctness!

A second McDonald's story occurred somewhere in CT. Because Rhode Island seems to have something against the indoor playplace in fast food restaurants, we happen to know the location of every one of them within a 30 minute drive from our house. Through trial and error (and a badly in need of updating McDonald's website) Hannah has learned how to tell if a McDonald's once had an outdoor playground that has now been converted into an outdoor dining area. The reason for getting rid of the playground we've explained to Hannah is that it was old and unsafe and they had to take it out. When pulling into the above mentioned McDonald's in CT Hannah immediately spotted the tell-tale "astro turf" and fence around the front of the restaurant and matter-of-factly informed me, "That playplace was old so they took it out just like Grandpa's teeth." I about peed my pants I laughed so hard. Someone's gotta teach that girl not to do that to a person badly in need of a bathroom break after many hours on the road!

Now for 3 completely random statements that we heard from the backseat of the van, in no particular order.

"Mom! When I grow up I'm going to be a truck driver." Do truck drivers wear tutus? What do you think?

"Don't call me baby (Kyle had just referred to her as baby). I don't like it. (at least she can use her words to tell us what she does and doesn't like!) Call me walnut. Mommy, you can call me acorn. Wait! I'll give you choices. You can pick acorn, apple, or pear." Seriously, where DOES she come up with these things? At least I got choices. Did you notice how Kyle didn't even get choices!?!

"When I grow up, I hope I get a baby in my tummy." How's that for a line that's sure to give a daddy a heart attack?

And then later the same day, "When I grow up I want to be a mommy and have six babies in my tummy and have a husband." Not an impossible goal I suppose in this day and age with reproductive technology and all, but I would have liked for the statement about a husband to come BEFORE the proclamation about the babies in her tummy!

Whoop! There it Is!

I apologize for the recent quietness on the blog, but we've been under the weather here at the Spontak house-for about six weeks. It started with Hannah and a moderate cold, or so we thought, that turned into pneumonia. Surprise, surprise! Then I became sick with a cold and then a nasty cough that increased in severity and never let up. Then Kyle got sick and ended up with a cough too. Of course Hannah had a cough too. We were a fine bunch to listen to-still are in fact since we still haven't stopped hacking and barking away. Turns out what we thought was just a cold was not an innocent cold virus, but instead Pertussis or better known as Whooping Cough. Leave it to us to come down with another archaic disease straight out of Oregon Trail. Last year was Scarlet Fever. This year Whooping Cough. Now all we need is Typhoid Fever and we'll have survived the Oregon Trail trifecta! For those of you not familiar with the computer game Oregon Trail. It became popular back in the 80's. I used to play it back in the day on the old Apple IIe's with the black and green screens. It was loads of fun. Those of you who grew up in the 80s or who had children who did probably know this game intimately! Apparently Whooping Cough is making a come back due to under vaccination and since your protection from the vaccine wanes after 10 years or so after your last dose (around 4 years old) you become susceptible again to anyone infected with the disease. So, Hannah who hasn't had her full round of vaccinations for it yet caught it and then passed it on to Kyle and I with our diminished protection since we're a bit past 14 years old. Fortunately since we all have at least some protection the disease is milder than it might otherwise have been for all 3 of us, but it's still mighty uncomfortable and definitely annoying. According to the doctor it could take up to 3 months for us to fully recover. I'm praying it doesn't take that long. I could certainly use a good night's sleep well before then.


Hannah continues to thrive at preschool and is permanently going full day now. I feel so blessed that we were able to find this preschool that is so sensitive to her needs and also doesn't put up with any crap from her either. They seem to know exactly how much to push and when to lay low. Hannah is making friends and has several little boys that she is particularly fond of. She always was one to prefer men! She also has one little girl who seems to be her partner in crime. It's so good to walk into the classroom and see her interacting without adult prompting or facilitation with her peers. Unfortunately her new found social skills at school don't seem to be transferring to other places. In fact, I would venture to say that she's become even more fearful and reluctant to play with or interact with other kids outside of school. It's to the point at the play place that she won't even go up into the play structure and play by herself if there are other kids around. That's quite frustrating, but at least I know she's getting social practice at school. I just wish we could find some way to generalize those skills to other situations.

We are preparing for a two week trip, starting next week, back home to Indiana and Ohio for Thanksgiving and Hannah is seriously pumped. She can't wait to go back to Indiana. She's especially excited to see her friend Evelyn and meet Evelyn's new baby sister Vivian. It should be a whirlwind trip with little time for relaxation so I pray we all handle it well. We plan to visit with all the grandparents and some of the great grandparents, aunts and uncles, Hannah's birth family, and some friends. I hope we can squeeze it all in there. People have a tendency to get mad if they get left out, but we can't be two places at once and we only have so much time. Really we will probably be over extending ourselves as it is, but we still won't be able to make everyone happy. :(

The other day Hannah surprised me by demonstrating that she knows her ordinal numbers (at least up to the fifth place). She told me she was going to tell me five stories and then as she told me each one she said things like, "The first one is about. . . Here is the second story. . . Next is the third story. . ." and so on. I had no idea she knew those. I've never explicitly taught her them. It must either be something they learned at school or that she just picked up. She's always amazing me by the things that she just absorbs when we aren't looking. I'm sure it helps that she's got a mind like a steel trap and NEVER forgets anything. I can't remember exactly what it was, but just the other day she recounted for me with pin point accuracy something that happened last February that I'm pretty sure we hadn't discussed since it happened (or at least not recently)! I was completely shocked of course.

Night time potty training is finally going well. We had a few months of accidents almost every other day and I was starting to regret my decision to ditch the pull ups at bedtime, but all of a sudden she seems to be doing ok and we've had 20 days with only 1 accident! It's been so nice to not be washing urine soaked bedding every single day. That was getting really old. We are still getting her up when we go to bed to potty one last time for the night, but that's not too bad. I can handle that if it means no more diapers and no more (or at least very few) accidents.

Hannah seems to be adjusting well to her braces. She doesn't seem to mind wearing them at all (at least no more than she minds wearing socks in general.) The one thing she doesn't particularly care for about them is walking long distances in them. She will start saying her feet hurt. I can't really say that I blame her. After all her foot isn't on a cushy insole anymore, but instead on hard plastic. The orthotic technician that made her brace was able to trim it down significantly so that it's very unobtrusive. He cut it so her toes can hang over the end and was able to trim the top down so that it ends just above her ankle bones instead of mid shin. I am extremely grateful for that. I think that makes them much more comfortable for Hannah and she doesn't stand out wearing them. In fact you really don't notice them at all unless you look for them because they sit mostly inside her shoes.

Auditory Sensitivities

It's interesting how when you are consciously thinking about something you notice that thing everywhere. Of course, whatever it is, it was always there in the same amounts, but you just didn't see it.  Like how a woman who desperately wants to get pregnant or who has recently had a miscarriage notices pregnant women everywhere. Or, how when we first started suspecting Hannah had Asperger's I started seeing people on the spectrum everywhere I looked.  Well, the past few weeks as I've been thinking about SPD and all the strategies we use to help Hannah overcome it's challenges I've been noticing others out in the community who probably also have SPD or at least show marked sensory sensitivities in one area or another.  For example, the other day at the mall we were walking along behind a family of 3-a mom and a dad and a son around age 10.  The mom and dad walked hand and hand together while the boy walked several feet ahead of his parents running his fingers along the walls and store windows.  He was aware of his parents though because he periodically checked over his shoulder at them and when they stopped, he stopped or at least slowed his pace.  The besides the sensory seeking of touching the wall, the other noticeable thing about this boy was that he wore sound canceling headphones-the kind you see people at racetracks wear.  He wasn't wearing your garden variety earphones in his I-pod. These headphones had one purpose and one purpose only-to block out sound. It appears they were doing their job well because the mall was quite loud and he seemed perfectly content to cruise around with his parents.  Then, today we were at McDonald's and a young woman and her parents sat down at the table next to us.  Besides obvious physical disabilities (she was in a wheelchair and had limited use of one of her hands), it was clear to me that she too had some auditory sensitivities because she spent much of the time during the meal with her fingers in her ears.  She would take a bite or a drink and then immediately place her fingers back in her ears.  She wore an almost pained look on her face and you could tell the whole experience was quite stressful for her.  While I didn't consider the restaurant terribly loud, at least not the way McDonald's can get on a Saturday at lunchtime, because I have been thinking about sensory sensitivities lately I stopped and listened for all the things I DIDN'T hear. Then, I heard it-the ice machine clunking, the lights humming, the chairs scraping, the crackle of wrappers, the hum of conversations, the occasional baby or toddler shrieking. It was all there and no doubt it was quite overwhelming to her.  Hannah was fine with the main restaurant, but I knew our time was about to come because we planned to visit the play place.  It was raining and yucky outside so the play place was packed.  As soon as we walked through the door the chaos and noise hit us.  Hannah stiffened and I knew we wouldn't be there long.  The poor thing tried to tough it out because she absolutely did not want to go back home and nap, but there was no playing going on and she was clearly uncomfortable so we left quickly.  It was interesting to me how there were two people with auditory sensitivities right next to each other, but the noises that were bothersome to them were quite different for each of them. That just illustrates how individual SPD can be and why it can be so hard for teachers, family members, and strangers to understand what our kids struggle with even if they already know someone else who has SPD. I guess that's why awareness is so important. Each new person we make aware is one more person who will hopefully be more understanding the next time they notice puzzling behavior by someone they think is inappropriate or overreactive.

Orthopedist

Hannah had her first visit with the orthopedist here in Rhode Island. If you've followed this blog for awhile you may remember that Hannah is extremely flexible and has loose, hypermobile joints.  Last year at the orthopedist in Indiana he recommended a watch and see approach and that we have her reevaluated in a year.  Well, we couldn't really go back to that same doc so we got referred to a new one here.  I really liked the guy. He was patient, took the time to explain to me what he was doing, why, and what it all meant, and he was funny to boot.  Hannah liked him because he gave her a sucker. Never discount bribery when it comes to a 3 year old's affections.  The results of this appointment were that Hannah's wrists are quite bad. They easily dislocate, but it causes Hannah no pain when they do! I knew they were wiggly, but I didn't realize they were actually dislocating.  The rest of her joints are very loose, but on the extreme end of normal for the moment except for her ankles.  She overpronates a lot which causes her to fall often and run funny.  She also has flat feet which isn't really a problem in and of itself except for the fact that it points to the underlying problem of loose ligaments.  Because her feet roll in so badly Hannah has begun to compensate by turning her knees in and getting her hips out of alignment.  In an attempt to prevent the foot rolling from causing a domino effect up the rest of her body that will eventually lead to pain and other bones being out of alignment, the orthopedist has recommended we place Hannah in foot and ankle braces for the next year.  After a year we will see if her ligaments have tightened up enough to prevent her feet from rolling excessively.  If they've tightened then no more braces and Hannah is considered at the extreme end of normal for joint stability and we don't have to worry too much.  If they haven't tightened or if they seem worse or if other joints seem to be less stable then the doctor will be evaluating her for something called Ehlers Danlos syndrome.  Please wish us luck that Hannah will tolerate the braces since she doesn't much care for shoes or socks! Also, pray that after a year all systems will be a go to remove the braces and be done with the orthopedist. 

Hannah has been doing very well at school.  In fact, she's done so well that we are doing a trial run to see how she does going full day!  So far, so good!  The other day when I went to pick her up they were out on the playground and she was pushing another kid in the swing and then later (I stood and watched for awhile before she noticed me) she called out to one of her friends and said, "Antonio, chase me!" and he did!  She didn't just play when approached by another, she actually initiated the play!  I was so thrilled!!!!! These social skills aren't transferring yet to people she's not comfortable with, but it's a very big start I think.

Lately Hannah and I have been doing a lot of scrapbooking together.  I've really been enjoying it. Even before Hannah was born I dreamed about someday being able to scrapbook with her and I prayed it would be something she liked doing.  So far I don't have to worry. She loves to cut, paste, and punch out shapes from paper. She's actually quite good at using scissors and is very creative when it comes to designing her pages.  Then there are times when she's just content  to sit and punch out her shapes. It's good fine motor heavy work so that makes me happy too. It's a win win!

In addition to all the advances Hannah has made in her reading skills recently, she's also acquired some mad counting skills too.  So far she can count by 1s to 100, 2s to 20, and 10s to 100.  She's working on learning how to count by 5s, but for some reason they are proving trickier for her than by 2s. She's really good at patterns so I'm a bit confused about why she can't quite see this pattern, but it'll come. She's only 3 after all!

This past week was an awesome week for Hannah. It was probably the best week she's had since we moved to Rhode Island 8 months ago.  There have been a lot fewer time outs than normal, less sass, and some amazing social interactions with peers. We've revamped her sensory diet significantly and brought in two more swings for the basement (Hannah's trapeze bar/rings from her swing set outside and Kyle also made her a platform swing like the one she uses at OT) and I'm positive that's had something to do with it. Today was a little more rocky than the rest of the week, but then we were more lax about the sensory diet and her days aren't nearly as structured on the weekends as they are during the week. So, we'll see how next week goes to see if we can keep this good momentum going. 

The other day Hannah and I were having a conversation about a friend who had a baby last month.  That got Hannah thinking about babies and how they are born and parents in general.  Hannah knows she was adopted. She knows her birthparents and knows that she grew in Tiffany's belly and not mine.  What I didn't realize is that she didn't understand that not everyone has two sets of parents.  She was confused to learn that our friend Sarah was both the Mommy and birthmother to Hannah's friend Evelyn and Evelyn's new little sister Vivian.  We then went through many of the people we know and Hannah asked who each person's Mommy and birthmother was.  By the end of the conversation I think she was still a bit astonished that so many people she knew had only one set of parents!  It complicates things a bit since Hannah's brother and sister were not adopted. Tiffany chose to parent her twins, but chose to place Hannah.  Knowing that Tiffany is Kayla and Chase's Mommy and birthmother, but only Hannah's birthmother was very head scratching for her.  I think this is the beginning of Hannah starting to realize that being adopted means that she came into our family in a different way than most people come into families.  We'll just keep on having these types of conversations so that she understands as much as she's developmentally able to get and that she feels comfortable with her status as an adoptee. 

What DO princes do?

Before I get into my SPD part of the post I have several fun Hannah stories I want to share. Princess mania is still rampant in our house. Hannah loves anything princess related and doesn't stick completely with the Disney Princesses although she certainly knows them well. I had no idea how much she had internalized the "princess persona" until last month when my dad came to visit. During his visit, Hannah asked him to play princess with her. She said that she would be the princess and he could be the prince. Grandpa asked her how you play "princess" and she replied, "I'll just lay down and then you kiss me." She then proceeded to lay on the floor (in full princess dress-tiara and all!) and close her eyes and wait to be kissed. When my dad grabbed her hand to kiss it he was reprimanded and told, "No, not on my hand! You kiss me on my lips." OH MY GOSH! What is Disney teaching my daughter? Her main objective as a princess is to be kissed by the prince. As if that wasn't bad enough, when asked what a prince does she replied that princes kiss the princess, help her up, and dance with her. At first I was appalled at her over simplification of the role of prince until I thought about it from her limited perspective-Disney. What do the princes in Disney do? They kiss the princess and wake them up from sleeping, they help them, and they always, always dance with the princess. For pete's sake, the princes of Disney don't even have names! Well, except for Prince Phillip in Sleeping Beauty. He has a bit more of an active role than the other princes. That same day that Hannah was conning Grandpa into playing princess with her, she began calling her daddy her Royal Prince which quickly morphed into Royal Daddy. Daddy gets Royal Daddy and I get, "Mommy, you can be the girl prince and kiss me because I'm the princess."

Ok, enough about royalty. Here are some other random "kids say the darnedest things" snippets. One day before church we realized that Hannah had outgrown her dress shoes so I pulled out a pair of shoes in the next size up that I had bought from a yard sale last summer. These new shoes had very small square heels on them. She was so proud of her new shoes and how they clacked on the wood floor when she walked. She excitedly exclaimed, "Look Mommy! I have up heels!" Any guesses as to what she meant? I burst out laughing at my poor girly daughter trying to gain feminine knowledge from her non girly mother and getting so horribly mixed up. :)

Here's another preschooler observation for you. Hannah called to me from the bathroom one day and I asked her what she needed. She replied, "Mommy, pee is like a shower from my butt." That it is sweetheart, that it is!

Finally, Hannah made her first real joke the other day. We were driving by a large hotel near our house that has a huge lawn that they often rent out for various events. Several times over the summer right after we moved into our house the hotel hosted dog shows. So often in fact, that Hannah started calling the hotel the dog show even when there was no dog show going on. On this particular evening as we were driving by the hotel there was a huge flock of Canadian Geese on the front lawn. Hannah noticed the geese first and exclaimed, "Look! There are geese at the dog show. It's a Geese Show!" Then she burst out laughing, knowing that she had just said something funny.

Ok, now back to our regularly scheduled programming, SPD Awareness Month. Hannah has an oral fixation and almost always has something in her mouth. When she is anxious or scared she will gnaw on whatever is available. This chewing is calming for her so we try not to discourage her because we like it that she has discovered a technique that helps her self regulate. Unfortunately, the things that are most readily available to chew on are her hair, clothes, or even her hands. Besides being unsanitary, soaking wet hair and clothes are just gross. We started thinking about what we could use as a substitute that would satisfy her need to chew. The first thing we found that worked well were simple teethers. At home Hannah still uses them, but the problem was that they weren't practical when we were out places because they were easily lost and they were quite noticeable. Because Hannah looks older than she is due to her size, she draws stares when others see her chewing on a baby teether because they think they are seeing a 5 year old chomping away. We didn't have any other alternatives until we moved here to Rhode Island and her OT suggested that we make her a bracelet that she could always wear that she could also chew on. She took a length of medical tubing and cut it to length to fit Hannah's wrist and tied some knots in it and Viola! We had a winner. Hannah's chewy bracelet has been a life-saver. We rarely go anywhere without it anymore and Hannah has it with her so it eliminates the need for her to have to ask for her biter. She can just start chewing away any time she feels nervous. I'm really hoping that this will help save her hands this winter because last winter she went through a period where she was particularly anxious and the combination of her chewing on her hands and the cold weather led to raw, red, bleeding hands.

Hannah's tactile sensitivity has seemed to be increasing lately. Well, we think it's increasing, but the reality could very well be that her ability to tune into her own body and communicate what she is feeling is getting better. Besides picking at her toes until they bleed, Hannah has started complaining that her socks and her coat hurt her. She has also started to say at times that tickling hurts her. The sock problem I've pinned down to the seams inside the toe. I've managed to solve this problem by letting her wear them wrong side out. The coat problem has been harder. I'm not exactly sure what it is that is bothering her. Her spring coat didn't seem to bother her and this is the same winter coat she had last year and we didn't have a problem last winter. It's a bit of a mystery and she can't really seem to tell me what she doesn't like about it, only that it hurts. The worst by far of her tactile sensitivity issues though is when she goes to the bathroom. Every single time she goes to the bathroom she either tries to wipe her labia raw or as soon as she pulls up her pants she starts crying that she's having an accident when she's not. I've tried doing the wiping, but it doesn't seem to matter how much I wipe. It's never enough. I've felt her to see if she really is having an accident or if there is still moisture, but I can't feel ANY moisture at all. The screaming and the meltdowns that occur after bathroom trips are awful. Not only is it upsetting for Hannah, but it can make it really hard to get out the door since she will insist she is having an accident and want to get back up on the toilet again, and again, and again with no results each time and no actual accident. UGH!

To close, here are some links to some of my favorite SPD bloggers. Enjoy!

Good Fountain http://goodfountain.wordpress.com/category/sensory-integration/

Pancakes Gone Awry http://pancakesgoneawry.blogspot.com/search/label/SPD

Three Channels http://threechannels.com/?cat=5

Good Enough Mama http://goodmum.wordpress.com/

Diary of a Mom http://jesswilson.wordpress.com/2009/03/11/american-girl/

Static Vox http://staticvox.blogspot.com/search/label/sensory

The Heald Family Blog http://thehealds.blogspot.com/search/label/sensory%20processing

Teen Autism http://teenautism.com/category/sensory-issues/

The Joyful Aspie http://joyfulaspie.blogspot.com/search/label/sensory%20processing

Sensing the Differences http://poopsie-sensingthedifferences.blogspot.com/

Hartley's Life with 3 Boys http://hartleysboys.blogspot.com/

The Incipient Turvy http://incipientturvy.blogspot.com/2008/04/26.html

Sensory Play Room Take 2

Before moving to Rhode Island we had turned our spare bedroom into a sensory playroom for Hannah. While living in our temporary apartment when we first moved we really missed all of the tools we had developed to help Hannah regulate herself. Finally, after almost 5 months in our new house, we have a sensory playroom for Hannah again. We have some of the same elements that we had back in Indiana while others had to be revised because of the space we had to work with. Some things are much much nicer than we had before, while other aspects of her old playroom we really miss. Before I go into what her old room was like and what we've done with the new room, I'll fill in those who are new here about what sort of sensory problems Hannah has.

Most people are very familiar with the "5 senses," sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. What many people don't know is that there are two more senses often described as the invisible senses, proprioceptive and vestibular. The vestibular sense I had at least heard of before. When someone feels vertigo or has an inner ear infection, the vestibular sense is involved. Your vestibular system controls balance, senses movement, and helps with spatial orientation. Hannah's vestibular system is not as sensitive as it should be. As a result she craves excess movement such as spinning, jumping, swinging, etc. She almost NEVER gets dizzy and we can't swing or spin her high or fast enough. She has poor balance (although it is improving) for her age, but she still takes excessive risks in order to get her vestibular "fix." It's almost like she's a drug addict in that her little body compels her to do whatever it takes to get the sensations that her body craves that the rest of us feel just by living our lives and take for granted. When she doesn't have enough vestibular input she is wild, overly anxious, defiant, withdrawn in overstimulating situations, and less willing to interact with peers. She basically doesn't feel right in her own skin, but doesn't know what to do about it. The proprioceptive system tells your brain where all of your body parts are in relation to each other. When someone is asked to take a field sobriety test and close their eyes and touch their finger to their nose the officer is testing their proprioceptive sense because intoxication impairs your sense of proprioception. One of the most common visible signs of proprioceptive problems is clumsiness. Hannah's proprioceptive system is also under reactive. She is extremely clumsy. She trips often, misses her chair when sitting down, and is constantly falling or bumping into things. She has trouble judging pressure so she often hugs too hard, pats too hard, and purposely crashes into people and things so that she can feel where all her body parts are. She doesn't just know where they are so she instinctively craves pressure and input from outside her body to replace the sensations that are not being transmitted properly within her body. Besides problems with proprioception and her vestibular system, Hannah is also over sensitive to smells, sounds, and touch.

OK, back to the playroom. Hannah's sensory playroom almost exclusively focuses on her vestibular and proprioceptive challenges because those are the most prominent and hard to deal with. The two things that I miss the most about her old playroom are a chin up bar that Kyle mounted to the closet door frame low enough for Hannah to grab it and swing and flip on it. This chin up bar worked both Hannah's proprioceptive and vestibular systems and she LOVED it. The other thing I miss is her hammock. We put an old queen sized mattress on the floor and mounted a hammock to the wall. We would swing her vigorously in the swing and also flip her out of the hammock onto the mattress. The hammock was also awesome because it worked her vestibular system and gave her deep pressure (proprioceptive system) which she craved. In her new playroom we have room for her to use her hop ball (works both vestibular and proprioceptive systems) in the house, there is a pole for her to spin around (vestibular), and (my favorite addition) a crash pit which works her proprioceptive system. For the crash pit I got a cheap blow up swimming pool (only $8 off season) and filled it full of pillows, blankets, and her stuffed animals. Hannah runs across the room and jumps into the pit giving her body the input it craves. Then when she is tired of crashing she burrows down into the stuff in the pit and just relaxes and watches a movie. All those pillows give her deep pressure that is calming for her. In her playroom we also have a mini trampoline, a disc swing, an exercise ball, weighted medicine balls, and a child sized shopping cart and lots of bags, baskets, and buckets for carrying and pushing heavy things around. Most of the things in Hannah's playroom are also at her OT's office, but the OT's equivalents are very expensive to buy. There is no way we could possibly afford to outfit a playroom for Hannah with all the features we wanted if we had to pay what things cost in the therapy catalogs. However, it's possible to make a fully functional playroom for not much money. The most expensive thing in Hannah's entire playroom was her mini trampoline and it cost $60. If you have an older child (Hannah was only 2 and was not very coordinated when we got it) you could get one much cheaper at Walmart, but we wanted one with handles since Hannah did not have good balance.

Here are some past posts that mention various aspects of Hannah's sensory difficulties.

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2008/07/two-years-old.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2008/09/power-of-sensory-diet.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2008/12/holiday-mayhem.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2009/01/unqualified.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2009/01/and-winner-is.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2009/03/rough-weekend.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2009/03/public-toilets-hand-dryers-and-garbage.html

http://gnatalie77.blogspot.com/2009/04/i-have-question.html

Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness Month

October is Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) Awareness month. Until Hannah's developmental therapist first mentioned SPD over a year ago, I had never even heard of it. Kimberly (Hannah's DT at the time) started throwing around words like proprioceptive input and vestibular system. I felt confused and a bit overwhelmed. She stated that Hannah would need a sensory diet and I immediately worried about my ability to deal with any sort of specialized diet since I'm not much of a cook. It turns out a sensory diet isn't food at all (well it can be, but that's another story!), but is instead a list of activities that meet various sensory needs. We would soon find out that a sensory diet for Hannah would turn all of our lives around. Throughout this month I'm going to try to post some information about SPD in general as well as how SPD affects Hannah and what we've found helps her manage it. I'll also be linking to previous blog posts where I touch upon SPD issues as well as linking to other blogs written by parents with children with SPD.

I'll start by detailing what exactly SPD is. According to the SPD Foundation,

"Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD, formerly known as "sensory integration dysfunction") is a condition that exists when sensory signals don't get organized into appropriate responses. Pioneering occupational therapist and neuroscientist A. Jean Ayres, PhD, likened SPD to a neurological "traffic jam" that prevents certain parts of the brain from receiving the information needed to interpret sensory information correctly. A person with SPD finds it difficult to process and act upon information received through the senses, which creates challenges in performing countless everyday tasks. Motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression, school failure, and other impacts may result if the disorder is not treated effectively. "

According to their website SPD can look like,

"SPD can affect people in only one sense–for example, just touch or just sight or just movement–or in multiple senses. One person with SPD may over-respond to sensation and find clothing, physical contact, light, sound, food, or other sensory input to be unbearable. Another might under-respond and show little or no reaction to stimulation, even pain or extreme hot and cold. In children whose sensory processing of messages from the muscles and joints is impaired, posture and motor skills can be affected. These are the "floppy babies" who worry new parents and the kids who get called "klutz" and "spaz" on the playground. Still other children exhibit an appetite for sensation that is in perpetual overdrive. These kids often are misdiagnosed - and inappropriately medicated - for ADHD."

For more information on signs and symptoms of the various sensory systems that may be affected check out the Sensory Processing Disorder Resource Center.

Finally, for those of you who aren't familiar with Hannah's story, here is a link to the post I wrote last year for SPD Month.

Sass

The sass that is uttered in this house is unbelievable. I never thought I'd deal with this kind of thing until much later on. If it didn't wait until the teen years, I at least thought I had until Hannah hit elementary school before I had to listen to it! Apparently not. Here is just a smattering of what I've heard over the past week in case you are curious what kind of sass a 3 year old could possibly dish out. Of course there is the ever popular, "I won't do it!" in all its many forms: "I'm NOT going to sit on my bottom!" "I TOLD you I'm not going to put my leggings on!" "I said NO!" "I absolutely WON'T put on my shoes because I'm NOT going to go to school!" "It's NOT cold outside (even though she's not even been out of the house!) so I'm NOT going to wear those socks!" The list goes on and on. There's the slightly more sophisticated, "You can't make me!" in it's various forms: "I'm not finishing my lunch! I'll hide under the table instead!" "I'll splash water on you if you do!" (trying to rinse shampoo from her hair) "If you put my hair tie in I'll smack you!" (I did, and she did!) "I hate these socks. I'm not wearing any!" "I'm NOT going to sleep! I'm okay with only having 2 books." (resisting nap time and letting me know that she doesn't care about a loss of privilege) Then there is my personal favorite, The world revolves around me. Here's how that one sounds: "I want my milk NOW! I will not be PATIENT!" "I already waited!" "Mom, MOM, M-O-M! Answer me!" "I said you can't answer the phone!" Finally, some miscellaneous sass for your reading pleasure: "I told you NOT to wear that shirt" (she thinks she has the right to choose MY outfits!) "Do NOT go to the bathroom Mom! Don't do it! I said NO!" (like she can control my bladder?) "I already told you I don't want that! I'm not eating it!" "I HATE school!" She even slams doors. If that doesn't scream teen attitude then I don't know what does!

I know three year olds are supposed to be full of defiance so maybe this is all normal. Maybe all 3 year olds sass like this. Since Hannah's my only child I'm a newbie at this so anything's possible I guess. Maybe it's just that all 3 year olds aren't quite as articulate and don't have as developed of vocabulary as my little darling does to torment their mother's with. Maybe. . . . But if this is what she can come up with now, what on earth is in store for her angst filled teenage years?!? Lord help me now!

Bringing in Machines

Today as I was working in another room I heard Hannah singing, but I couldn't quite make out the song she was singing. I snuck quietly to the doorway and spied on her. Here's what I heard (I about had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud) "Bringing in machines, bringing in machines. Welcome and rejoicing, bringing in machines." Any guesses as to what song she had innocently misinterpreted the lyrics? When you think you've got it, scroll down to hear how the song is SUPPOSED to sound! Just click on the link to watch a you tube clip of someone who actually knows the lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CijqH_2mLnc

Today was another good day. Hannah had a rocky drop off at preschool because there was a little boy there doing before care waiting to pick up his school bus who isn't normally there. He's non verbal and shrieks a lot when he's happy or excited, or for just about any other reason! The constant shrieking at random intervals was pushing Hannah closer and closer towards the edge until the teacher's aide offered to take Hannah to help her make some copies in the copy room. When they got back the boy had caught his bus and Hannah was fine. She ended up having a good day at school and was actually playing with two other kids when I came to pick her up. She and another girl were tipping over a foam coach repeatedly to dump a little boy out onto the floor and then all 3 of them would dissolve in fits of laughter and then do it all over again. It was nice seeing her engaged with her peers. In general, the rest of the day went smoothly and without major incident. Today was definitely a welcome reprieve from the Tyrannical Threes we experience most days.

Last weekend Kyle's dad came for a visit and Hannah was beside herself with excitement over him coming. That Friday she apparently told every single person who came into her classroom at school that her Pap was coming after dinner today. :) Once Barney arrived, both Kyle and I were chopped liver. I'm used to it since that's how I rate with regards to Daddy, but I think Kyle might have been a little surprised about it, though definitely pleased to see the two of them bonding. Historically Hannah has been a little leery of Barney. He is boisterous, unpredictable, and not exactly practiced in the art of interacting with a little kid anymore which makes him pretty untrustworthy in Hannah's book, but this visit there was a real breakthrough. Hannah chose to hold his hand over ours every chance she got and even let him hold her several times. She still refused to hug him, but there was progress made non the less.

So, what did you think of Hannah's rendition of Bringing in the Sheaves. I thought it was pretty darn cute myself. I only wish I had had the fore thought to grab my camera before I went in to investigate. How adorable would it have been to have been able to catch that on camera!?!

Good Day

Today was a GOOD day. I needed it. Hannah needed it. We needed it together. We spent a lazy morning watching cartoons and just lounging around. Then we went to the library. We were expecting to attend story time and do a craft, but they were both over for the summer. I expected a meltdown, but Hannah took it in stride. She was disappointed, but easily switched gears and went to play on the computers instead. We played Bob the Builder (an awesome computer problem solving and early math skills game for preschoolers by the way!) and had a blast. Then we picked out books, did puzzles, and then snuggled up on the library couch to read. Hannah read me 3 entire books almost completely on her own. She's really starting to conquer those level 1 early readers. I was amazed at how fluently she read most of the sentences. After the library we headed home for lunch. We ate without incident and then headed upstairs for nap time. Hannah went down easily and slept for almost 2 hours! I was also exhausted from our fun filled morning and laid down and napped as well. After our naps we had a snack and then went outside to play until Kyle got home. It was so nice to spend a day meltdown free and totally fun filled and relaxed.

Getting back to Hannah's recent jumps in reading skills, today she asked to read her "words" (some sight words I have written on index cards) and while we quizzed each other on the cards I realized that Hannah knows far more sight words than I even imagined. She probably knows at least 60 of the words off of the 100 most used words in the English language list as well as many other sight words. She's also getting much faster at sounding out easily sounded out words. It amazes me how quickly she picks up these words without any teaching. She must just be watching and following along as we read the dozens of books we read every day and storing word after word into her memory to bring back up to the surface when asked to read a word or when she sees it again on a sign or T-shirt.

Doing Well

Hannah seems to be doing well at preschool so far. She went on Monday and then again on Wednesday. On Monday she was pretty hesitant to leave me, but didn't cry. It took me about 10 minutes to get out, but I did so with a clean break. That was good. She apparently only got upset once on Monday and that was when it got really loud in the room. She told the teacher she wanted to go home, but her teacher was able to calm her by having her sit next to her during circle time. When I picked her up she ran over to me faster than I've ever seen her move and gave me a great big hug and said, "I missed you!" That made me feel good. Yesterday she separated much easier. It only took me about 5 minutes to get out of the room and when I left she was happily drawing with some crayons. She never even looked up to watch me walk out. When I picked her up I was able to observe her for awhile before she noticed me. She was standing around a table with two other kids and they were repeatedly pressing down and popping up a piece of bread in a toy toaster. Each time the the toast popped up the group with dissolve into hysterical shrieks of laughter, Hannah included, and then it was lather, rinse, repeat for at least 5 minutes straight. I have no idea how long they had been at it before I got there! It really made me happy to see her with that group of kids instead of off by herself, and while she wasn't talking to the kids she was fully participating in the "game"-no conversation needed! :) When she finally noticed me she didn't even come over to me! I practically had to drag her out of the room. On the way home she was able to tell me several things about her day, including that she had played "American Egypt" in the sandbox (whatever that means) outside during recess. It looks like we made the right decision to place her in this class. YEAH! Hopefully by the end of the year she'll be talking to her peers in her class and maybe even random kids she meets other places. Wouldn't that be great?!?

Kid's Say the Darndest Things

More and more often Hannah says things that just crack me up. Most of the time I forget to write them down and barely even manage to remember what they are long enough to tell Kyle when he gets home, but I've been trying to get better about it. Here are a few of the highlights from the past couple of weeks.

The scene: Hannah has been fooling around during lunch trying to stall going down for her nap. She tries her favorite avoidance tactic of saying she has to go to the bathroom. While on the toilet she starts playing with the toilet paper. I enter to scold her and warn her that if she doesn't straighten up lunch will be over and it will be nap time.

M: If you don't stop playing around you will go right upstairs!

H: (in a shocked voice) With no wiping?!?!

I had to fight back the urge to pull out one of my favorite lines from the Princess Bride on that one, "Inconceivable!"

The scene: Playing with the stethoscope in her doctor kit.

H: Oh no! I can't hear your heart beeping Mommy!

I wonder if she knows she's not far off in her beeping description since that's how it sounds on the EKG machines!?!

If wishes were horses. . . . . or should I say unicorns?

H: I wish I had a unicorn in my backyard to ride.

H: I wish milk could come out of the sink.

Do they make milk taps like they do for beer?

H: I want to do it by my own.

School Girl

Tomorrow is Hannah's first day of preschool. We ended up going with the private preschool because Hannah was determined ineligible for the school system program because she tested at gifted level on her verbal language test. This wasn't news to me. I told them as much. That's part of what makes Hannah's weaknesses so apparent if you really care to pay any attention at all. She's capable of extremely advanced language for her age, but is unable to use even typical language with her peers. It's a huge gap between what she can do and what she's able to display in a social situation with other kids. Hannah is pretty excited to be starting school. She's got her Dora backpack, Tinkerbell lunchbox, and Princess thermos. In her eyes she's all set. I'm a bit nervous about how she'll do. Four hours is a long time. She's never been in a social situation for that long without Kyle or I present.

I must say that if she ends up being comfortable, this should be good for both of us. It's been a rough few weeks around here and both Hannah and I need a break from each other. Hannah has fully embraced her place in the Tyrannical Threes and has been bossing around everyone in sight. She screams at even the slightest hint that she might not get exactly what she wants RIGHT NOW. And she's ramped up her hitting and kicking to never before seen levels. I'm sure her rage is becoming a neighborhood legend. At least once a day she will get to the point that she is hitting or kicking me and I am unable to get her to stop or stay away from me so I have to close her into another room and hold the door shut. I HATE doing this (and CPS would probably be do an investigation if they knew), but all other efforts to get her to deescalate have failed. I'm no longer strong enough to hold her arms and legs down so that she can't hit or kick so my only option to keep myself from becoming black and blue is to remove her from me. Closing her into a room makes her even more angry initially and her rage usually escalates, but eventually she will calm down when she no longer has a person to fight against. The thing that scares me the most about her rages is that she seems oblivious to pain during them. She will pound on the door or walls so hard that she will bloody her knuckles, but she doesn't stop. She keeps going and going and it's only after it's all over that she realizes she's hurt herself. She's only 3, but I have no idea how to help her manage such rage. It's so unlike the temper tantrums I see other kids have. Anyone have any ideas?

On a lighter note, Hannah's reading abilities are now transferring to her spelling skills. Instead of only spelling words she has memorized she is attempting to write words by sounding them out. One of her favorite things to do is make the grocery list with me. Here is a sample from one of her recent lists: MLK-milk, PES-Peas, FROOT-fruit, JLE-jelly The fruit really impressed me. That's how I'd expect a first grader who's been learning some of the more complicated vowel patterns to spell fruit, NOT a newly turned 3 year old! Her handwriting is also improving by leaps and bounds. She can now attempt all the upper case letters with at least some degree of success without any help or anything to look at. She's quite legible on most of them. S, G still give her quite a bit of trouble, but even those are starting to come around and she can get them pretty well with some verbal cues and an occasional hand over hand to get them started. She's also becoming quite well at transcribing. She can copy up to four words in a row accurately without any prompting or supervision. That sure made making birthday thank you cards easier this year! I'm so proud of all of her academic accomplishments. Makes me wonder what she'll be doing by the time she actually makes it to kindergarten and first grade though!

Yesterday we had such a great time out on the beach. Hannah and I walked down to the little beach at the end of our street to swim. Instead of swimming we ended up catching periwinkles (little snails for those of you back in the Midwest), hermit crabs, and even tried our hand at quahogging (digging for a certain type of clam). I never managed to get any Quahog though. I kept finding what the locals call steamers instead. Hannah was so happy splashing around in the water and chasing crabs and catching periwinkles. Seeing her with her little pail dropping in snail after snail filled me with such joy. She was so content. We are so lucky to have these opportunities within easy walking distance of the house.