3.22.2005

Catchup

First: Yay, Jo got her house!

No blogging much of late as Iz has been home sick since last Thursday (barfing/farting flu turned into conjunctivitis turned into faucet-nose), and Therapist F is still honeymooning. Amazing how many errands a person can run with three kids in tow if one really has to. And if one begs suckers friends like Ep to please just come sit in the car with the squallers while one runs into a restaurant to pick up dinner.

Today was conference day at Iz's school. In the last three months our girl has turned into a model student, and the teacher couldn't be happier. Only problem areas is intransigence re: facts, even when multiple sources confirm the opposing position. Example: she read somewhere that Lincoln was the 17th president, and no amount of subsequent class outrage/presentation of posters or homework sheets would convince her he was 16th. Gotta admire her gumption, but still.

When I got home I told Iz about fact checking, and how, if you can find three published references to a fact then it's probably good even though your previous reference was different (although this is admittedly a method from pre-online days). She was skeptical. I later told her a bedtime story about Tyler, a new little girl in her class who kept tricking Iz into believing erroneous things about Star Warz episodes Iz has not seen, until Iz used some critical thinking techniques to maintain their friendship without having it turn into a daily battlezone. And the little girls' speeches at the end got very dry and silly and in the story Iz eventually asked Tyler why she sounded so much like me instead of like a six-year-old girl. Then Iz and I busted up and I promised to tell her a better story tomorrow. And perhaps we'll look up "didactic," together, too.

Leelo is still doing beautifully, despite a runny nose and what appears to be a bladder infection (pink pee today; one benefit of potty-training is the wee potties' collection devices for ready specimen inspection). I am worried that an infection will mean antibiotics, which would be really a bad idea as he just went off the anti-fungal Amfoteracyn as of two days ago (the anti-fungal was combating the yeast overgrowths that resulted from all the previous antibiotics' killing off the good gut bacteria with the bad). Although Dr. G does think it might be viral.

Today and yesterday he did a solid half hour of stilted yet entirely Leelo-led engaged play with me and his farmyard animal quartet--entirely verbally from my end, as I was in the nursing chair. He would present each of the four animals to me and announce what they were. Repeat several times. Then he'd say "Cow says..." and I'd have to fill in the blank. Or I could start and he'd fill in. After five minutes of this with the same four animals I then said "Leelo, kiss the [f***ing] cow!" Then it was another 10 minutes of "Leelo's kissing the XXX! I kiss the XXX!" I told him to have Iz kiss the cow and he immediately did so: "Izzy kissed the cow!"

Another great thing is his mastery of the generalization of "no." This is one of the first words kids tend to learn, and he had it for a bit before he lost his language. His use of it now is so natural that it took me a while to realize it was new. He's using it in reaction to our asking him to give us a stim toy, his Btwelve shots in the butt, trying to get him to put on his coat, etc. Basically where you'd expect a kid to do so.

Mali had her 4 month check up yesterday. The doctor said our girl's been reading the textbooks, as she's right at the 50th percentile for everything. 13lbs 5oz, 24 inches. The only developmental thing the Dr. asked about that she wasn't yet doing was pushing herself up on her arms while on her tummy, but then of course she did it when we got home.

And can I just write how much fun it was to bring all three kids to that appointment. Even the extremely patient homyopathic pediatrician was glad to see us leave after Iz polluted her bathroom and then "forgot" to flush (WTF is up with her still having to be reminded to wipe, flush, and wash), Leelo then responded with a diaper bomb of his own (which Dr. S asked me to change out in the car) and spent the rest of his time trying to destroy her office. If I'm ever in this situation again I'll cancel the appointment instead.

Dr. S asked me if we'd tried homyopathy with Leelo. I told her we've been working through various approaches and haven't gotten there yet. She told me to read Aimee Laynky's Impossibly Cured, about an autistic child's recovery using those techniques. Turns out Ms. Laynsky's giving a talk in these parts next month, so perhaps I'll go to the talk instead. No harm in hearing what she has to say.

Dr. S also asked about our take on vaccines. I said that at this point I was only really considering the HIB, as I haven't found anything troubling about it during my research. She said that HIB meningitis is extremely rare, and that in her opinion it is kind of silly to pick one of the many kinds of meningitis out of the air and mess with a body's immune system for a single factor. Hmmm.

Therapist F returns in two days, and possibly will only be working two more days before leaving for good. We have not had much luck in finding a replacement. One candidate who seems to have the aptitude has no actual ABA experience, and the other candidate with experience has not yet confirmed our interview for tomorrow.

I miss my friends. I miss having any semi-time to my semi-self. Iz, go back to school! New therapist, materialize now! Mali, you can stay if you take some decent naps.

Anyhow. To bed!

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