Ordering French Fries At the Park

Judah had his eye drop today. He has an eye condition called strabismus. Basically, his right eye sometimes wanders in a different direction than his left.  His eye drop dilates the "good eye" forcing the other eye to work much harder, since it is being so lazy. ;) His eye drop lasts for 24 hours.On his eye drop days he goes from doing one thing to the next, having a hard time focusing (literally). So it's not always a super progress day, but sometimes that's not the case!

I was just looking at strabismus online and found a couple interesting things...

• Recent evidence points to a cause of infantile strabism lying with the input to the visual cortex.^[11]
• Strabismus often occurs in children who are otherwise completely normal. However, disorders that affect the brain such as cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, hydrocephalus and brain tumor are more likely to develop strabismus.

Maybe Temple Grandin was onto something with her theory of autism being a brain issue..

 

Sebastian had a melt down at drop-off. We talked in the van for about 10 minutes before he had to get out. He wants desperately for me to volunteer. The principal came & stood by the van after we had been parked there a while. I was supposed to be moving my vehicle up as the other cars moved forward. Obviously I wasn't doing that, but I had purposely parked with room for at least 4 cars to fit in front of me, as not to cause a disruption in car flow. Not a single car had to maneuver around me & we had caused absolutely no disruption in traffic flow, but I wasn't obeying a rule.. so that needed to be made clear to me. Thank you misses principal. She walked Sebastian into school, holding his hand, stopped at her office so he could get a Kleenex & took him all the way into his classroom. After school I caught up with her & she asked what Sebastian had been upset about. I let her know that Sebastian was having a stressful start to the school year. I said that he had told me this morning that he didn't feel safe at school. "That's interesting. Did he say why?" - that was about as much concern as she had over it. I told her he didn't tell me why. She then let me know that she assumed I wasn't moving my vehicle because I was having a talk with him, and that's why she stood outside of the van & didn't interrupt.  ?!?!?! Who cares.

 

I don't know why he said he doesn't feel safe. We've talked about school a LOT today. From what I gather he feels inadequate because of a variety of different things. Kids who finish first get to be "helpers"... check marks get you prizes... but check marks are taken away for not finishing work or asking too many questions (2 things happening with him)... half of the class is fluent in Spanish which causes him to feel like he is incredibly behind... the teacher won't explain things in English to him so he has to ask her repeatedly what she is saying & he feels like he is annoying her.. he's embarrassed to go up & ask her questions & believes raising his hand will take too long (29 kids, one teacher). Lots of stuff that is perfectly understandable - and many things that we don't know how to help him feel more confident about!

As I talked with Sebastian tonight he repeated some things that his teacher often says. Through him talking about class I could see that he has picked up quite a bit more Spanish than we realized!! I let him know that!
 

I spoke with a mom who has a kid in Sebastian's class. Her kid is not fluent in Spanish - pretty  much in the same boat as Sebastian. Her kid is very confident & social. She said her kid wants to switch to English classes. She also said that she has volunteered a few times & that just being in the classroom was stressful to her. She told me that the teacher speaks 100% Spanish and that half of the class is fluent in Spanish. I'm volunteering tomorrow.

 

The kids, myself & J's aide went to the park to play this afternoon. Willow stood in a spot that appeared to be a drive-thru window to the kids. Judah walked up to her and said, "Chips please!" Later he requested juice, "Juice please!" Another kid quickly joined them. They all played this drive-thru game (Willow as the employee) on & off together for quite a while. Judah found a penny on the counter today & said, "I'm rich!" His phrases are coming!!!

At the playground Judah talked at one end of a pipe and I talked back through the other end, which was far away. These are built into many playgrounds. He said, "Mommy?" to make sure I was there. He would touch a body part & I would name it. I could see him. When he was done he said, "bye". He talked to his aide through this too.. he told her "potty" through the pipe because he had to potty!

Judah has looked at me several times with great eye contact, saying "Mommy". Often I get kisses. :) Tonight he stood on the bathroom stool at the sink, washing his hands. After that he put soap all over his face, belly & the top of his head. Then I gave him a wet washcloth & he washed himself! ha. He didn't want a bath though. He also wanted to run around naked after that, lol, which Daddy allowed for a little bit.

 

This morning Judah sat on the floor and covered his lower body in big couch cushions. Willow joined him. They sat side-by-side with cushions as their blanket & chatted somehow (I can't remember the words). Judah got up & went to the table. He picked up Willow's bowl of applesauce and brought it to her. Then he sat back down with her. She spoon fed him her applesauce & he allowed it! She likes to feed us too. They were there communicating & playing gently for quite a while! Then Judah patted one of the cushions, motioning for me to join them. So we all played there. I have never seen them communicate like that, lots of eye contact, smiling, laughing, repeating words & actions, etc. They were very loving towards one another. I was teary-eyed watching this from afar. Later they were playing on the couch & one of Willow's dress buttons got caught on a cushion thread. I didn't realize what was happening. She tried to get untangled but it just made her dress tighter. I went over to see what was going on after I saw that she was stuck. I found Judah with his face inches from her button, carefully trying to get the thread unwrapped to free his sister. That's what he had been doing the past 5 minutes or so but I didn't realize it! So sweet.

Last night I was laying down in my bed with Willow. My bathroom light was still on so I said, "Willow can you turn the bathroom light off please?" She says, "okay" and climbs out of bed. Sebastian was taking a bath in the hallway bathroom at this time. Willow walks towards my bathroom and then passes it. ? Then I hear Sebastian scream, "Aaaaaa!! Willow!!!!!!!" I look over to see her casually walking back towards my bed. She thought she had done just as I had asked, haha!!

Willow thinks "back yard" refers to the back yard AND the front yard. "I want to go to the back yard!!" and then she walks to the front door, ha!
 

Judah had one large bm. He was in underwear all day long & slept in underwear last night - 2 or 3 nights in a row now? No accidents. Went potty on his own at least once.

 

Judah missed fish oil, beta, b-6, iron-up (we're out).

 

Did eye-drop & skin rash med.