Rosh Hashana @ randoms

[FloFTW]

Shana Tova!

I am not Jewish but many of my coworkers are and I always love the Rosh Hashana leftovers they share.

[EloiseWeenie]

Amelia's turns 3 Oct 5, and I'm in the process of making her an Anna and Elsa dress as her present (and she can wear one on Halloween). OMG, why must Elsa be so glittery?! Every time I work on it, I look like I have glitter chicken pox. I have a baby gate on the door to my sewing room, and Amelia brings toys to play just outside of the room, and as I'm working she's screaming I WANT ELSA, WANT TO WEAR IT, WEAR ELSA NOW!

[StrawberryBlondie]

Almost everyone I work with is Jewish. Its going to be a very quiet day. Meaning, I can't get anything done today (I took tomorrow off)

[2curlydogs]

This morning B woke up and was like "I'm supposed to have pancakes today, mommy. It's a special day."

I guess some of his new classmates are Jewish.

[ringstrue]

So my getting mcdonalds pancakes today for breakfast was relevant? Sweet.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Also, I have super exciting wonderful news but I am forbidden from sharing it for about another week. Why do people do that?

There's actually really good reason, but it feels kind of cruel. Here's your fabulous news - you can celebrate in a week and a half!!!

[downtoearth]

Sept 25, 2014 10:41:11 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Also, I have super exciting wonderful news but I am forbidden from sharing it for about another week. Why do people do that?

There's actually really good reason, but it feels kind of cruel. Here's your fabulous news - you can celebrate in a week and a half!!!

That's just cruel, but I'm guessing that you are one of the nominees to take over Eric Holder's job, right? The timing fits.

[wawa]

PDQ - I'm probably going to delete the details of this.

My sister's oldest just started prek. Her teachers pretty much immediately called for a conference (with the school SLP and psychologist) and wanted to get her evaluated for a wide variety of things. There is a clear speech issue (which once it was pointed out we all went "oohhhhhh. oh yeah. I guess that's weird. Oops.") and they think there is a sensory issue too - the word autism was mentioned but nobody is committing to that until she's been fully evaluated.

She has these crazy tantrums pretty often over not totally typical things. Like if anybody sings along with a movie she will bang her head on the floor. She's allowed to sing along though. And the radio is fine - it's just movies. and then lots of more typical little kid stuff (her brother took her toy, mom said no, whatever) she'll occasionally revert to the head banging. She used to do this ALOT more. Like anytime anybody so much as said, "hey, kid, please don't do that." she would throw herself to the ground and bang her head. Now it's only things that are legit frustrating for a little - except the singing thing. That's just odd. But at her own home she's honestly not that bad - she just sorta does her thing and occasionally has a freakout, but not anything remarkable.

But apparently the first three days of school (full day prek) she did ok through the morning, but had to be carried in from recess because she just totally melted down and refused to do anything but lay on the ground and bang her head. The new situation is NOT working out for her once she gets tired.

My sister is kinda afraid that they're jumping too quickly to serious issues when she's fairly confident that it's mostly the speech issue just causing a lot of frustration combined with a otherwise normal little girl who is just on the rather high-strung side of normal (like both her parents). Not that the speech issue isn't a serious issue - it's not just a stutter or lisp or anything - She's never picked up on how pronouns work. Like if she trips and falls down and you say to her, "Are you ok?" she'll just say "Are you ok!" back. By which she means, "I'm ok." Also she inserts a LOT of random gibberish syllables into sentences. Like, "Daddy loidleloidleloidleloidle is outside." I always thought maybe she was imitating my sister who talks very quickly - think like Gilmore Girls style of dialogue. But apparently not so much.

Anyway...so my sister is navigating all this fairly calmly and her district appears to be good in terms of resources they offer. I mean...yay for fulltime free prek since otherwise this wouldn't have been happening until kindy! But does anybody have any tips for me as a bystander in supporting my sister through all this nonsense or tips to pass along to her specifically about navigating this system? In particular I haven't got the foggiest clue what to say to her about her fears about them overdiagnosing. I don't want to poo-poo her fears, but I also don't want to talk her into resisting things that she should be on board with by being all, "yeah, those people don't know her lyfe!"

Reading material suggestions very welcome.

And for funsies - my sister is having #3 any day now. her EDD was this past sunday. At least this time her H isn't being shipped off to training any second.

[2curlydogs]

In Halloween Costume Land, I dismantled both dresses last night. I practiced with the seam ripper on the crinoline petticoat/underskirt attached to one dress, which was a good thing cause I did end up ripping that fabric a bit as I got the hang of it. I'm thinking of making the cape reversible with a black and red side. But it's going to be an awesome, swishy, dramatic cape. It falls just at ankle level on him with lots of billow room. Or, at least the black taffeta does. I need to check the red.

S slept well again last night. He was doing his flailing/sleeping thing so I put him in his crib, where he cried once, rolled over and passed out. So that was weird. Then he slept from 8:20 - 3am. back down at 3:30 until 6am. Maybe - MAYBE - we've turned a corner on his sleep issues? *goes outside, turns around 3 times and spits*

[wawa]

Sept 25, 2014 12:01:26 GMT -5 @dontcallmeshirley1 said:

wawa--I would just encourage her to remember that the school is doing its job by flagging this behavior early, and that intervention at this age can only help, even if she would have grown out of it eventually. Also, the district will likely cover services since they are the ones flagging this.

Yeah, that's what we've been saying so far.  That's what she's been saying so far too - mostly to her H who is freaking out and thinks they broke their baby.  The issue is that she feels like they're doing a few things on the assumption that there is a sensory issue that are counterproductive. Like bear-hugging her when she has a freakout - which causes her to freak out more, not less.

Of course these waters are all muddied by the fact that pretty much my entire family operates over on side of the spectrum of normal behaviors that is closer to the ASD side of things than not. (if that makes sense) Like, we're all NT (as far as I know?) but we're quirky. (ex - I have issues with eye contact personally. I force myself to do it because I know it's expected, but it's distracting as shit and I can't really listen to people while I'm forcing myself to look at them when they're looking at me.)  So there are a lot of things that I think, "what?  No that's not unusual.  that's just how she is" but MH (who is painfully  normal) thinks are really odd in terms of stuff my sister does, my mom does, that I do...and that my niece does.  so I'm not sure if we're not seeing issues that are there because we're a bunch of odd ducks or if these really are things that aren't issues.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Sept 25, 2014 10:47:29 GMT -5 downtoearth said:

Sept 25, 2014 10:41:11 GMT -5 StrawberryBlondie said:

Also, I have super exciting wonderful news but I am forbidden from sharing it for about another week. Why do people do that?

There's actually really good reason, but it feels kind of cruel. Here's your fabulous news - you can celebrate in a week and a half!!!

That's just cruel, but I'm guessing that you are one of the nominees to take over Eric Holder's job, right? The timing fits.

Shhhh.

[osulori]

wawa, in my experience schools will generally try to evaluate for whatever they and the parents feel is appropriate close together to keeps them from having to repeat the whole evaluation process (permission to evaluate, meetings, etc) over and over again and potentially delay obtaining needed services. My thought is if the school wants to evaluate speech/language and sensory/behavior things now then it makes sense to let them-they may find she doesn't formally qualify for services in one area or another, or she may qualify initially and they find that as she makes improvements in certain areas then services in other areas are no longer necessary. For example, as her speech/language improve they may find that what looked like a sensory or behavior issue really isn't and then they discontinue the services for those areas. But if she does still need the help, then it will already be in place. Does that make sense? I have to go grab my next kiddo but feel free to PM me on here or on FB.

[wawa]

Sept 25, 2014 13:44:48 GMT -5 osulori said:

wawa, in my experience schools will generally try to evaluate for whatever they and the parents feel is appropriate close together to keeps them from having to repeat the whole evaluation process (permission to evaluate, meetings, etc) over and over again and potentially delay obtaining needed services. My thought is if the school wants to evaluate speech/language and sensory/behavior things now then it makes sense to let them-they may find she doesn't formally qualify for services in one area or another, or she may qualify initially and they find that as she makes improvements in certain areas then services in other areas are no longer necessary. For example, as her speech/language improve they may find that what looked like a sensory or behavior issue really isn't and then they discontinue the services for those areas. But if she does still need the help, then it will already be in place. Does that make sense? I have to go grab my next kiddo but feel free to PM me on here or on FB.

that does make sense.  I think the idea that this is a fluid process and she's not really locked into one certain set of needs from here to graduation is a good point.
Thanks!