In the Swim of Things

The weather lately has been cold and blustery and my thoughts are already turning to warmer weather. That stupid groundhog in Pennsylvania indicated that winter is nearly over (pfft, six weeks is nothing!) which means spring and summer are right around the corner, right?

Right!

Today, I am over at the SPD Blogger Network with a review of a fantastic new bathing suit for boys. Trust me, it’s not your run of the mill suit.  Come check it out!  You can enter to win a suit of your own, too!

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A Month of Gratitude – Day Nine: The Weekend!

I am grateful that today is Friday and the school week is over for Nik. This screwy schedule of so many days off in November (crazy school district schedule!), plus the hurricane, plus the election… Nik’s whole sense of time and place is way off.

Mine, too, little buddy. Mine, too. It’s time for some decompression and relaxation!

May your weekend be as stress-free and rejuvenating as possible!

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In which I reintroduce myself to my blog

Um, hi.  Yeah, I know I’ve been AWOL for a while.  I’m not even going to try to relate everything that’s gone on in our lives since my last post.  Well, okay, for the benefit of the fourteen faithful readers who keep checking back for posts, I’ll try.

• Nik’s been making amazing progress with his “talker” (speech device).

• Nik’s made tremendous gains in eating “real” food.  Turkey sandwiches, chicken, spinach (!!) and the like.

• We’ve hit upon something we think might be at the root of  Nik’s gawdawful gastric troubles.  But it’s complicated and difficult to explain.  It’s still a work-in-progress so I’m not ready to write about it yet, sorry.  If we’re right, it just might help us all sleep again!

• Nik’s been battling rampant ear infections…again.  On and off since Memorial Day.  We see the ENT (again!) tomorrow to discuss removal of yet another tube and whether or not to replace them…again.

• Nik’s getting over his sensory issue with sand in a major way. As in we-may-be-hitting-the-beach-this-summer kind of major way. (Insert quiet, hopeful SQUEEEEEEE!)

• Nik’s learning to play in my sister’s pool without his swim vest.  As long as he has his arm floats, he does just fine. He can now doggie paddle the length of the pool a couple of times over. The boy adores the water, for sure! Nearly every day the first words out of his talker are “Go swimming. Cool.”  Yes, we’ve figured it out; he really does say cool when he means pool.  Sometimes he’ll even voice the “puh” before touching the button for cool. It’s adorable. And annoying.  But mostly adorable.

• Sadly, the relationship between Nik’s ear infections and lots of swimming? Pretty much a one-to-one correlation. Which, no surprise, also correlates directly to broken sleep. GAH! With this latest heat wave, we’re willing to forego some sleep in order to satisfy the boy’s pool cravings.

• And, last but most definitely not least, Nik has returned to school.  Today was his first (part) day.  This topic merits a separate post for so many reasons.  For now, though, suffice to say it’s not a perfect situation but it’s so much better than we could have anticipated.  Where we once felt sick and hopeless about the idea of putting Nik back in school, there’s now a glimmer of hope.  It may be elusive— like that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow— but we’re going to chase after it with all we’ve got.

We’re ready, Nik’s ready.  I hope school’s ready for him!

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Nothing

Nope,  I’ve got nothing tonight, sorry.  Niksdad and I have worked nearly all day on multiple home improvement projects in between Nik’s back-to-back PT and OT appointments this morning, running last-minute errands for groceries and supplies and waiting for the snow storm to end all snow storms!  Sanding, spackling, painting, demolition (ok, fine, dismantling if you must be precise)…  all for some long over due improvements.

I’ll write more details —and maybe even post some pictures over the weekend.  After all, I don’t think I’m going anywhere anytime too soon; the forecast is calling for more than twenty inches of snow.  That’s more than we got with the last big storm right before Christmas. 

That one looked kind of like this:

This was after Niksdad shoveled most of the walk...then we got another 6 inches!

Our grill. We were crazy enough to dig a path to it and used it the next day.

I can’t wait to see what it looks like tomorrow!

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Going bananas

Image Courtesy of Church of the Banana (http://www.churchofthebanana.com)

It’s been a really crazy time around here.  I already whined about last week here.  Turns out the weekend did not bring good health to my little one.  Monday had us back at the pediatrician’s for what we suspected was —and turned out to be —an ear infection.  And bronchitis.  So, Nik’s back on antibiotics and nebulizers, more advil, cough meds and decongestants, and we’re canceling appointments right and left.

The one appointment we kept was with the developmental pediatrician.  Despite Nik’s less than stellar health, I think the doctor got a pretty good sense of how he is on a day-to-day basis.  This was our first time seeing this doctor professionally; I’ve known her for a couple of years since we served on one of the Governor’s councils together.  We had seen her partner twice before and just didn’t get the warm fuzzies we needed.  We’re glad we made the change.

Even more glad that we kept the appointment; the wait list for established patients is already in the six to seven month range.  Feh, what can I say?  They are the only game in town —in the state, actually.

We discussed Nik’s latest diagnosis —ADHD — and how it fits with his other issues, and how best to handle it right now.  Meds were discussed, educational options, increased speech therapy, behavioral supports at home, even more evaluations.  It runs the gamut.  Right now we’re sitting with the information we discussed today and will wait for the doctor’s written report and observations before we decide anything.  Once we’ve got some sense of options and what’s right for Nik and for our family, I’ll share more.

Today, I’m over at (Never) Too Many Cooks sharing my GF, allergy-friendly banana bread recipe.  It”s so easy even a, well, monkey could make it.  Swing on over for a taste!

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Stirring and stirring and stirring my brew…

"Stirring and stirring and stirring my brew...ooh!" (Image courtesy of scubagrl.net)

Today, I’m busy over at (Never) Too Many Cooks, stirring the pot and cooking up some fun with my inaugural post. Stop by and find out what’s cooking!

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