Amateur Hour

Charlie has a runny nose today. 

I’m sure it has nothing to do with our trip to the commissary on Wednesday.  I let him sit in one of those cute shopping carts that looks like a truck.  He *licked* the steering wheel.  Ewwwwwww.  Not a whole lot that antibacterial gel can do for that.

The shopping trip ended in that special kind of public humiliation that is reserved for parents of toddlers.  While standing in the checkout line, Charlie managed to grab a package of blueberries and dump them all over the floor in spectacular fashion - picture bouncing, rolling berries everywhere.  Cue temper tantrum.  He was mad, because he did not intend to dump the blueberries, he intended to eat them.  And there I stood, surrounded by blueberries and unable to clean up the mess because I needed both arms to restrain my kicking, screaming 2-year-old.  Good times.

I was not much of a nester during my last pregnancy, but this week I’ve been on a roll….

The silverware drawer, before and after.  Not the most dramatic transformation, but trust me, its better:

My spice cabinet was a total mess and not user-friendly at all.  Here it is, before and after:

The little stair-step thing I had was useless for storing spices.  Every time I reached for a bottle in the back, I’d knock over 2 or 3 in the front.  Plus, I couldn’t see the labels on the ones in the back.  It was ugly.

These magnetic canisters are much better:

I screwed the metal backing onto the inside of the cabinet door, and put the spices I use most frequently there.  The rest went into a plastic bin, which I can take down and look through pretty easily, without knocking everything over like dominos.  Bonus: there’s room for a bottle of olive oil, which I also use frequently. 

One more before and after shot of the pantry:

The next target of my hormone-induced neat-freakiness: the linen closet!  Stay tuned, its a thrill a minute here in the amateur household… 

can’t put on his own socks.  However, he has learned how to use the touchpad on the laptop.  No kidding - the other day we watched him use one little finger to carefully guide the arrow to a specific spot, then click the button to gain access to the programs on the computer.  Wow.  I guess I’m spending too much time on the computer during the day.  Maybe if I demonstrated the art and science of donning socks as frequently as I log on to the laptop, Charlie would be able to do that, too. 

I’ve been concerned about Charlie’s speech and language development for a while.  So, we scheduled an evaluation with the state Early Intervention team.  They sent a Speech Pathologist and an Occupational Therapist, and did a test called the Infant-Toddler Developmental Assessment.  The results indicated that his cognitive skills, social/emotional development, and “self-help” skills were all age-appropriate (in the 22-25 month range.)  His communication skills and gross-motor skills were delayed (in the 18-21 month range.)  I would have been more comfortable with tests that yield a standard score and percentiles, but this is what they use initially.  The important thing is putting together some specific, measurable, appropriate goals for treatment, and if they can do that with this test, that’s fine.  If not, I’ll push for more testing until we get enough information to work with.

The SLP observed that he definitely has communicative intent, but that his imitation skills are very weak.  His vocabulary is limited (he uses maybe 25 words, when he should be using at least 50), and he isn’t putting words together in short phrases and sentences yet.  In addition, he doesn’t use the words that he has consistently, and never ever on request.  She is leaning toward a diagnosis of apraxia.  They are going to recommend therapy at least once a week, and hopefully we can get that rolling within the month.

I was really happy to have a second opinion, and couldn’t believe that apraxia never crossed my mind before.  I was convinced he was a late talker because I wasn’t playing with him enough or talking to him enough.  Even though he showed some hallmark signs of motor speech problems, I totally missed it, thinking it had to be all my fault.  I’m sure if he was someone else’s kid, I would have picked up on it - strange the things you miss…

Anyway, he also showed delays in gross motor skills.  They noted that his running isn’t really running, but more of a bouncy, fast walking.  He’s generally low-tone, and he has a lot of unnecessary rotation in his trunk when running.  He also had trouble standing on one foot, and the way that he manages stairs is immature.  They recommended more time at the playground, etc.  I don’t know that they are willing to recommend therapy, but I’m going to push them and see if I can get it for him.  In the meantime, I’m scouring the local area for some kind of tumbling/gymnastics class that we can attend.  More on that later…

The OT said that he technically passed the items on the fine motor portion of the test, but she has qualitative concerns about his development in this area.  She said that at this age, he should be favoring either the left or right hand, and he really isn’t.  His crayon/pencil grasp is immature, his ability to stack blocks is somewhat limited, and his little hands still have that chubby-baby look - all of these things indicate low muscle tone, weakness and poor coordination.  She wants to have another look at him in 3-4 months, and in the meantime she recommended some activities to improve his fine-motor strength and coordination (play-doh, etc.)

So, we’ve been really happy about the mild weather lately, because that means we can spend more time at the playground.   And to reassure whoever might be wondering, none of these things are serious or permanent - a little therapy and some focused attention and he’ll be caught up in no time.