Therapy

So, happy New Years Eve!

Everyone is still recovering at our house - I am officially over the cold, though, and Chris is well on his way.. Poor Maya still has a bad hacking cough, but usually just at nap & bed time still. Chloe is doing just fine. :)

So one of these days I will get around to posting more Christmas pictures... promise!

Yesterday I took Chloe to the hospital for an evaluation with an Occupational Therapist. Now I may repeat myself here, since I don't remember what all I have shared about this yet - so, sorry! Anyway, a few months back my sister gave me a Sensory Disorder Questionnaire and after answering tons of questions, my sister scored it and returned it to me & there were a few categories where it seemed Chloe might have some sensory problems. Now mind you, each & every person has sensory problems to a degree - you might find that you dislike foods that are mushy, or that you must cut the tags off your clothes cuz they bother you - and if you're like this, you're not just weird or picky, it's a sensory issue you have. So I've mentioned before that Chloe can get hysterical when we're outside on the swingset and she wants the swing to stop moving right way and it doesn't, and she can have some out of control tantrums at times for what seems like, to us, the silliest reasons. Really her body is having problems processing certain sensory things. So some people really have this to a degree where they need therapy and then there are lots of people who don't ever get officially "diagnosed" but just live with it forever. If you see issues arise early on in your child's life, and you get help with how to deal with your child's sensory problem, then they are much more able to overcome it and will do better socially, emotionally, and at school, you name it. So that's where we're at with Chloe. There were just a few (out of many) areas where Chloe showed some issues on the survey, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to at least have her evaluated by an Occupational Therapist. I got an order from our family Dr./pediatrician and yesterday was our appt. with a really nice lady named Sheri, who is an O.T., and who I was referred to by my sister's friend. It's in the rehab part of the hospital and since this was our first appt. and she was mainly being evaluated, I got to go back with Chloe and the O.T. (for rehab typically, the parents stay in the waiting area.) It was such a fun environment for kids, lots of wonderful & unique tings to play with (even a big swing hanging from the ceiling!) and we went in this little room where the O.T. gave her lots of things to do - whether it was building towers with blocks, thredding tiny little blocks on a string, drawing shapes on paper & cutting with scissors... It was SO interesting and it was so fun to watch... The O.T. was pretty impressed with everything she could do and in many areas she said Chloe definitely didn't have a problem, but because there are those few areas (especially emotionally) where Chloe has some issues, she wants to see her for a while, just once a week for an hour. She said Chloe definitely wouldn't be one of her long-time clients, but that she thinks that coming to this therapy would help her. She will also give Chris and I ideas of things to do that will help Chloe... And in the end, we're hoping less out of control tantrums are in our future. :)

So that is the update on that aspect of our lives for now... Chris thinks the whole thing is silly, which aggravates me, but I guess if I start reading the books about it & sharing more information with him, maybe he will understand it all better. He thinks we're just throwing money out the window. Ugh.

So anyway, now today it's New Years Eve and I'm going to leave work early since there isn't much to do. We're going to Chris' parents for dinner & to spend the evening and we're going to get Chinese & probably Mexican take-out instead of all of us trying to go to a restaurant. We'll probably be home by 9 something since the girls will get tired and what's the point of staying up, anyhow? I don't even care much, so who knows if I'll be awake at midnight. :)

Well, I wish you a happy new year!