9 May
“I’m tired.”
Elliot is not down with an early wakeup call.
“My hair is in my face.”
Elliot is very suspicious of this gigantic donkey and his head squeezes.
“The sun is in my eyes.”
Hand In Pants = Instant Joy
*Tip of the hat to the real AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.
3 May
Alden is recovering from bronchitis. Night after night he was coughing himself awake. He coughed until he barfed on the floor at Shoney’s. That situation cannot stand.
Alden won’t eat food. So medicine… unlikely. But I really needed him to take it. I heard myself say, “Alden if you don’t take this medicine I’m going to have to hold you down and force you.”
I think that when you’re threatening to pin your child down and choke the medicine into him, it might be a good time to reevaluate the plan.
I looked right into this innocent little face.
And I lied. I told him the medicine is full of ferocious little guys who are going to run through his body chasing down cough germs and spank their butts. (He’s awfully interested in butt spanking for a kid whose own tuchus is pristine.) I held up the bottle and pretended I could see them. Then he could see them too. He sucked down the syrup and we talked about how many butts were getting spanked RIGHT THAT MINUTE.
Lesson learned: The more ridiculous the lie, the more likely my three-year-old will believe it.
Bonus lesson: Extend that precious precious toddler nap by waiting until he falls asleep and then filling his bed with a million Hot Wheels. He’ll forget to bug you for at least 15 minutes after he wakes up.
28 Apr
Good session with the speech therapist today. We spent a little time on the “Why” of it all. The bad news is that she can’t tell me instantly and comprehensively what the problem is, and then fix it five minutes later. Your tax dollars NOT at work, people.
The good news is that she didn’t tell me after the first few session that she was pretty sure he was autistic. She told me that today, and that as she’s gotten to know him her feeling has changed. Autism isn’t the end of the world, and of course we would deal. But that’s a loaded word, and I’m grateful she didn’t make me deal with it at the same time I was digesting the fact that my baby needs intervention on the scale of 3x a week.
He’s getting great help. I love his speech therapist, in particular. Whatever the problem is, he’s making progress. But eventually we’re going to have to decide what the cause of the delay is, as his ongoing treatment will need to be more customized as he gets older.
While Elliot’s therapist is only available to me a few hours a week, Dr. Google is on call 24/7. I’ve been doing a lot of research. I’ve also gotten lots of great comments and notes from wise mothers and therapists (thank you so, so much!) with valuable information.
The most common causes of speech delays (combined info from multiple sources) and my take on whether that’s what we’re living with.
Marked by delays in language, auditory comprehension and gestures. He definitely has language delays. He tested poorly on comprehension, but I think there was a lot of “won’t” in that “can’t.” It’s my feeling that he understands us most of the time, inclusive of times when I’m talking about something conceptual or referring to something not visible. He’s a gesturing fool. If this is the reason, it’s a mild case. I think it’s unlikely.
He passed his hearing tests as well as a baby his age can. They won’t be able to test him in more detail for about a year. We’ve already got our apointment set with the pediatric ENT for that time. If he has hearing loss, it’s mild. He can clearly hear. Theoretically possible there’s a distortion issue, but I doubt it.
This is when the central neurologic process required to produce speech matures late. Most common in boys, and often runs in families. We’ve got no family history of this, but last time I checked he IS a boy. Certainly possible. This is my favorite option.
I think these are two different things, but I haven’t been able to tease them apart. ELD seems so widely defined that I feel like apraxia can fit in there. Someone smarter than I am will have to explain it to me. The hallmark here is that children have normal intelligence and hearing, but a brain disfunction makes it difficult to translate ideas into speech. When I asked about it today, his therapist said apraxia is definitely a possibility. He does not, however, show a physical groping for words with his mouth that is apparently common with apraxia. That’s one strike against, but not enough to put this in the unlikely camp. These kids are more likely to deal with things like dyslexia when they’re older. Entirely possible.
This a receptive (no kidding) language issue. The desriptions I’ve read of aphasia sound too severe to fit. In general, he understands us. I don’t think this is it.
The many variants and severities of autism would require me to write a book. I know autism can have a late onset, and it’s possible that we’ll see more as he grows that takes us back to this path. But if he’s autistic, it’s not profound. (I have heard about severe, profound late-onset autism, but I’m going to call that a unicorn for now and leave it alone.) He doesn’t display unusually repetitive behaviors or express extreme focus on things or actions. He’s very attached, demonstrates eye contact, responds to his name, etc. He is slow to warm up with strangers, which is why he set off alarm bells by refusing to demonstrate those things in his initial evaluations. So, he’s still in the common diagnosis window (up to 36 months) but I don’t think this is it.
I’ve left off my list other common causes of speech delays that I know are not possible. Those include cerebral palsy, selective mutism, psychosocial deprivation, bilingualism, structural problems and prematurity.
I also read about something called Einstein Syndrome. Aside from the fact that it seems to have been made up by some dude with a book to sell, I think this is an excellent option for us to consider. Or at least for me to contemplate along with my fantasies about finding out that I am Oprah Winfrey’s lost half sister.
23 Apr
Who gets to go to Dollywood?
Elliot In the Piggy Parade
Babies who say “Mama” get to go to Dollywood!
22 Apr
After my foray into raw chicken, with bones, and innardy things (although not actual innards) I tucked tail and ran back to familiar territory.
Y’all, this recipe was so, so delicious. Best yet of the Jim Seger Sunday series.
Two things to know about my Dad in relation to food:
1. He did not care about the nutritional information associated with his food. He wasn’t junk food eater, but neither was he temperate in his consumption (of anything). One night he served me a shrimp scampi floating in a broth of butter and served with huge hunks of crusty, buttery garlic bread. He was honestly suprised when I pointed out that we would pay for that in poundage. I still cleaned my plate, and you would have too. But I thought about it, and he didn’t. That isn’t so relevant to the current recipe.
2. He did not care how much food cost. He wanted to eat what he wanted to eat. Period. This will come into play momentarily.
What I know about cooking meat could fill a thimble. What I know about cooking fish could fill… a big thimble? One of those thimbles you might see at a country fair. Something for your shadow box. Ceramic. Maybe painted with a duck.
I do know how to text (barely) “FISH kindoffish” to 30644 and get instant feedback from the Blue Ocean Institute on whether my choice is sustainable or if it’s loaded up with, say, fire retardants and other poisons. I am trying to cut back on my heavy metal consumption. It’s super cool. Try it!
There’s some nattering back and forth about wild salmon vs. farmed. For me, I’ll take the cost of wild with the reduced contaminent exposure. We may not eat it as often, but I feel better about putting it on the table.
So I hit Earth Fare to get some free-range dinner, and I wish I could tell how much I paid per pound but I blacked out a little bit.
I also picked up the cedar planks and some maple syrup. You know what else costs a lot of money? Pure maple syrup. When did it get so expensive to be a hippie?
I held my nose and bought a $10 small bottle of maple syrup, rationalizing that what was left would make our weekend pancakes extra delicious.
The recipe called for one cup of syrup. Guess how much is in a little bottle? Yup.
So, not even getting into the other ingredients, the wild salmon, pure maple syrup and cedar planks kicked this recipe up into the umpteen gabillion dollar range. Which is not something my Dad would have noticed, but it got my attention. We could have eaten a pretty decent restaurant meal for the same cash, and someone else would have delivered drink refills to my kids.
Still, so delicious. And I will say that my palate is not sophisticated enough to appreciate the cedar planks. If you skipped those, ditched the wild salmon (that you can’t even be sure you’re getting) for farmed and brought in Aunt Jemima and you’d be in business for a reasonable cost. I haven’t tried that, so I can’t speak to the taste attrition. I think it’s worth trying.
Recipe #3: Cedar Planked Salmon with Maple Glaze from epicurious.com, sourced from Gourmet (RIP) November 1997.
jaysaint 