Sensory Issues

It was a long -very looonnngg day -yesterday!

Every time my body began to give me some signals that I should head to bed, something else seemed to crop up and take precedence.

There was the little "cat nap" I took after supper Tuesday night which gave me a little spurt of energy when I woke up around midnight so I worked on the pillow case project for a while. About 2:30-3 a.m.ish, feeling a little tired, I got another surge of energy when Kurtis decided it was time for him to rise and shine -and do it quite noisily for a good while too. Sleep took a backseat then to him.

Then, about 6 a.m. as I started to wind down once more, of all things, the phone rang! Who in blazes would be calling me at 6 in the morning? Well, of course -who else but my son, with a request -one he whispered to me over the phone (why, I don't know -maybe he was afraid someone else might hear him? Who knows!) that was to the effect that he really needed to borrow my car to get his scrawny butt down to Hagerstown for work this week! Seems his pick-up truck (which needs a new rear-end and which he's known about for the past 2 weeks now too but it didn't stop him from ramming around all over the creation on Monday and Tuesday this week while he was off work ya know) was having more "issues" now with the rear-end. That, plus the fact that Sonny Boy slept in yesterday morning thus missing meeting his ride with his co-driver to get him to Hagerstown on time.

Since he totaled my lovely 2000 Ford Focus 2 years ago this past Christmas night, I have, understandably so, been quite leery about loaning him the use of my vehicle unless it is an absolute, dire emergency. And right now, I was really hesitant about letting him take my jeep too since it has its own set of problems and needs some work done to a heat gasket on it. But, since there was no other way for him to get his butt to Hagerstown, reluctantly I granted him permission to come down, leave his truck here for real emergency use only, and take the jeep. Word on the street -via a phone call from him later yesterday is that his boss, Duane, will be bringing the jeep back home today or tomorrow to me so I won't have to wait till late Sunday sometime to have my vehicle here once more.

So, that phone call brought me back to alertness for a while. I dozed off for maybe 10-15 minutes before my son arrived here to pick up my Jeep and that little tiny catnap was just enough to wake me up and keep me rolling, till oh, about noonish when I started getting very sleepy again.

But that sleep process came after the grandson's behavior therapist made her weekly visit yesterday. Her plans for the session yesterday were geared toward some of the sensory issues Kurtis has from time to time. And the method used to work on this included spreading a plastic-type cover on the table and then, spraying it with shaving cream. He then got the shaving cream sprayed on his hands too -as did his mother -and then, the fun began as he was encouraged to "play" or "paint" on the paper with the sshaving cream, to clap his hands, smear the stuff all over himself (clothing included in the smearing) and in general, get used to the feel of something like this as a neat substance.

I'm going to post here a bunch of pictures I took of him and Mandy as they played (and he learned) with the shaving cream. The other little guy in these pictures is Matthew, son of Mandy's good friend and who she watches a couple hours a day during the week while his mother works. It was really a lot of fun watching Kurtis dig into the shaving cream, watching him and Mandy both clap their shaving cream covered hands and the foam would squirt and fly all over the place. Messy, yes -VERY! But oh so much fun in the process. After the conclusion of this session, both Kurtis and Matthew were treated to a nice warm bath that totally relaxed both the little guys into a little nap early on in the afternoon then.

( crashed then for almost 4 hours, Mandy fixed supper -her usual fare of Tacos -after which I crashed again in the recliner, waking up around 1 a.m. this morning and have been busy catching up on my blog reading since then.)

I really should have done a video of them with the shaving cream but didn't think of that till after I had taken these pics. So -brace yourself and watch the mess!

















































And, that's the end of the photo display on sensory issues 101 -application of shaving cream -liberally!

In response to some of the comments from yesterday's post -with the pictures of the trivet I finally completed as well as Mandy, Maya and Chino the cat -
to Debo Blue -I don't really know what we'll do with the trivet! Maybe hang it on the wall in the kitchen or something. Since the casing/cover is acryllic, I don't think it could be used as a thing to set dishes -especially not hot dishes -on it so I guess it will be relegated to becoming a wall ornament of some kind then.

To those commenting on my being contented, having a peaceful life, etc -that type of thing -well, to be honest, the embroidery stuff kind of forces me to concentrate on that, thus clearing my mind away from some of the stuff that happens here from time to time which can often make life a bit tumultous, to say the least! I got one of the pillow cases I'm now working on completed yesterday and have since started work on the mate to it. The only problem I've got now -from the embroidery -is that the fabric of the pillow cases is a bit stiff, thus making inserting the needle a bit difficult and I have an aversion to using a thimble on my right index finger which means, it is getting a bit sore from trying to push the needle through the fabric. (Thimbles and I have never gotten along very well as I can't stand the feel of things on my hands if I'm trying to do something -rubber gloves while washing dishes, thimbles while sewing or embroidering and heck, I can't even stand the "feel" of nail polish on my fingers either -makes my fingers feel very cumbersome for some reason or other. So the old index finger is just going to have to "toughen up" a bit I guess!)

Oh and last night -very quiet here as Maya was away -spending the night at the home of Mandy's friend (Jen-Jen) and her husband, (Nick-Nick) and their three children -Kurtis, Gabby and Emmy! The peace and quiet is expected to last until late this afternoon when Mandy is supposed to pick Maya up and bring her back home.

And now, I think I'll go take another little nap, maybe sleep till around 9 a.m. or a little later perhaps -when Roberta -the occupational therapis for Kurtis -is due to arrive for this week's session with him. He had two therapy sessions yesterday -the behavior therapist with the shaving cream and then later in the afternoon, the speech therapist was here and he did very well with her -trying to imitate many words and identifying items from photos, etc. Baby steps -yes, but damned important ones for my little Sweet Pea! He's making a lot of progress these days in the speech area and even in once in a blue moon, with the sensory issues in trying a new food substance! To some, these may seem like small potatoes, but for him, to us -they are actually like giant leaps from where he was a year ago!

Peace, my friends! Have a great day!