9.14.2005

Updates

Yesterday (well, now two days ago as Mali woke up just as I was trying to finish last night) was a particularly interesting Tuesday. So much so that I couldn't even properly greet Back-from-TX-Badger, as I was hauling ass to retrieve Sophie with both Mali and Leelo in tow, and not be late to pick up Iz across town. Apologies, Dearie.

I had nary a minute between errands to tidy the house, so I had to cancel on Marroqui. Cleaning day will need to be moved.

Good news is that the day's irregularities were mostly due to training sessions for Leelo's new Therapist Y. Who is a MAN. Which is rare in the ABA therapy field. It took me over a month to find him, and he joined just in time. I am grateful to Therapist S for continuing to cover shifts in the interim even though it was inconvenient for her.

Tuesday was capped off by an Iron Gate night meeting during which Miss Mali cavorted on the floor, vocalizing loudly and tearing into everything in sight. To many aahs and oohs from the audience, and gaining the approbation of even Teacher P, but I don't think my nerves can stand bringing her there again. I will need to negotiate with Seymour for those nights; perhaps if I can get the trio washed and fed before he arrives? He has the superpower of soothing Mali to sleep without sticking a boob in her mouth.

I also decided to be Iron Gate class reporter again. Before Jo, etc., strangle me, let me just write that I negotiated doing so as writer only. Someone else will take the pictures. I can whip up four paragraphs of Iron Gate type while standing on my head and changing both Leelo's and Mali's diapers.

Pat is doing well. He does have some minor left side facial nerve paralysis, but his doctor thinks it's most likely bacterial (ear, general) and should go away with antibiotics. All tests for anything else nasty came back negative. We'll try a week of hard core antibiotics and see how that goes. As long as his third eyelid is working, she's not worried about him developing a dry cornea.

She was worried about his general health, as he'd lost weight and has developed a "galloping" hearbeat (meaning his ventricles are out of sync with each other), and also because he let her give him a full exam for the first time in his life. In the past she's needed help from at least one vet assistant. But as she can't find anything specific wrong with him, we'll be stuck in "wait and see" mode for a few weeks.

Mali is in an odd space. She's not eating much at all, again, instead mostly nursing. She still likes the plain white rice (or, thanks to Iz's food coloring experiment, the mint green rice). She's slimming down, which, as Seymour commented, means that in profile her cheeks no longer obscure her nose and lips. Today I left Iz and Leelo's play keyboard on the floor for her to play with, and she kept hitting the auto melody keys and then putting her butt in the air and wiggling it to the music. Cute! She likes to grab my hands when I'm clapping and do the clapping for me.

Iz is done with HP3, and is brandishing HP4 at everyone she encounters and lecturing them about portkeys. I am still trying to find her a friend who knows the books and wants to talk and pretend about them, because right now all she does is exactly what I used to do: brag about the fact that she's reading really big books. I wrote and rewrote my concerns about showoff reading two years ago when I had fewer children and a nimbler brain, and my position hasn't changed. I don't care about titles and page counts, I want to hear what she thinks. I don't want her to become a literary dullard like me.

She is also having emotional episodes in class, which yesterday culminated in hysterical crying and rolling on the floor after the maestra threatened to erase Iz's good student star from the blackboard. Seymour thinks we need to cut off reading in bed after 8:30, that she's getting too tired during the day. I agree, and also think it's hard to be a smart girl who hasn't found peers, with an autistic brother and baby sister who get take away so much attention. We did some roleplaying about taking deep breaths and trying to ask questions in a normal voice, but I don't know how effective that will be when she's caught up in the moment. Suggestions?

Off to Bad Moms coffee. Except the local moms' club will be overrunning the space. Why oh why did they have to choose the exact same date and time as us? Perhaps I'll ask Mauna or Knob if they can boot them to another time. Heh.

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