7.30.2004

Tired

So this will be disjointed and scattershot.

That whole cuteness thing about Leelo being able to take off his own zipped jammies and diaper? It was still funny when we went to check on him one last time before going to bed at 11:00 last night, and found him sleeping in his bed totally naked yet dry. Seymour easily redressed him and put him back to bed. The nakedness ceased to be cute at 4:00 in the morning when he stripped himself again, peed everywhere, got all cold, started coughing, woke up completely, and refused to go back to bed until 6 A.M.

Leelo and I spent a total of 1/2 hour at home today. Iz, nada.

Leelo's appointment at Stanfford Neurology was fine. Mostly an intake exam. A two-hour intake exam.

He is 38 inches and 38 pounds. Does that make him square? It sure as fuck makes him heavy, says she who lugged his sleeping form from car to bed this evening.

The Neurologist wants to do an EEG, because of Leelo's occasional zoning out, petit mal seizure-style. He says the difference between one of these seizures and an autistic tuning out from overstimulation is not always apparent.

The doctor also wants to do an MRI, because our boy's got a friggin' huge noggin. It's a virtual planetoid. Has its own weather system*. Ninety-fifth percentile for size, on a very short boy. This is also a frequent characteristic in autistic kids, and may point to problems with overdevelopment of his brain's white matter, and problems with myelination. Not that they know what to do about this if it is the case.

Strangely, the doctor took a good five minutes of his precious time (remember, we had to wait six months for this appointment) to go off on the DAN! protocol, how wasteful and wrong it was, and what charlatans all its practitioners were. I told him that, while Leelo's autistic symptoms do not appear affected by diet, I have friends for whom the difference has been noticeable. I also said that it is not invasive, and there's no harm in trying it if the parents are willing to put in the time and effort. He scoffed as politely as he could. I couldn't really get too offended; for purist research scientists like him, non-scientifically-validated methodologies like DAN practices are complete blasphemies.

Also, we did/will do blood and urine tests for amino acid and metabolic irregularities. Will report as all these things take place and we hear back on them.

The phlebotomy was stressful for Leelo, as this is exactly the kind of thing he just doesn't get, so I promised him some naan bread and a sweet lassi when we left. Stupid me, this meant we arrived at the Indian restaurant at 12:00 on a Friday, the day they include beer with the standard buffet price. We couldn't even park in the parking lot, and the buffet line was hundreds of yards long. Thankfully they know and dote on Leelo, and snuck him his lassi without anyone noticing his line jumping.

Then home to get warmer clothes for the zoo. That part of the city is fogged in all summer long.

Off to Iz's school, to pick her up from her very last day. Sigh. The two teachers practically cried when she left, and had made her goodbye posters and signs. Too cute and sweet. Jo frothed over her new iPod. Cuter and sweeter still. Last frolic on the school lawn. Double sigh.

Off to the zoo. JP, Danielle, Elise, and baby Xander were there, so Iz engaged in much merriment and I got to concentrate on keeping Leelo out of the duck pond, or watching him ride the teeny tractors, or clamber around on the rope spiderweb. We stayed until the staff kicked us out. Then I discovered that some sick fucker had stolen Leelo's dinner sandwich out of my stroller. Bastard. I hope that person enjoyed all the vitamin- and enzyme-enriched almond butter.

Then off to retrieve Godfather M from his place near Pacific Heitz, and shuttle him down to San Metao for a birthday dinner at The Best Chinese Restaurant Ever (Godfather M'd rather go there than any similar place in The City). Fortunately this restaurant is adjacent to a stupid overpriced grocery store that nevertheless sells croissants and organic cheesy puffs, so Leelo got something to eat despite the thievery.

Then Seymour took Godfather M back home and the kids and I hit Holey Foods to stock up for tomorrow's BBQ celebrating Jo's birthday and my cousin's staying at our place for the weekend (she, her daughters, and charming Newfie husband arrive tomorrow morning).

I couldn't believe the kids were still awake when we arrived the store at 9:30, especially after so much driving and Leelo's naked party time, but they were patient and non-fussy, and we blasted through speedily and will now have tons of Californian yummies with which to torture my Ontario-dwelling relatives: wines, cheeses, mission figs, strawberries, avocadoes, tomatoes, champagne grapes; so good. We will eat panzanella, strawberries in real balsamic vinegar, soothing guacamole. Oh, and salmon for everyone who's not me or Ep.

We will set the tent up in the backyard and try to convince the non-Leelo kids to sleep there tomorrow night.

I will be busy all weekend long and the relatives will be sleeping in this room, so see you later.

*Come on, people. SOMEONE please ID one of these quotes.

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