Week 5 at Kennedy Krieger

Lauren gave away our family motto of "First, Do Nothing" today at Kennedy Krieger. Let me explain. Lauren and I made pumpkin muffins on Sunday and decided to put some in a nice little tupperware box to give to her therapists at Kennedy Krieger. We forgot to take them in on Monday, and on Tuesday, we remembered them. Lauren proudly handed the pumpkin muffins to her PT, Ms. Sara, who thanked her. Ms. Sara asked her, "What do you think we should do with them Lauren? Should we put them in the kitchen?" Lauren replied, "We should leave them in the box for days and days". Sadly, at two years old, she's already adapted to our atmosphere of resting inertia.

Speaking of the pumpkin muffins, Delanie told me while we were making them that I needed to work on being a better mom. I was filling the mini-muffin cups with a tablespoon and spilling pumpkin muffin mix here and there (between the cups). So Delanie told me that if I were an older mom, I would be a better mom and not spill the mix on the spots between the muffin cups. Hmm, older moms are better moms according to Delanie. So if older moms are better, are grandmoms the best?

We can now add the sun to the list of things that are unsatisfactory to Lauren. She told me on the way home from therapy last week (just after I finished the "this car is too big" blog) that, "The sun is too bright. I want a new sun." She's also very unsatisfied with her crib, and our "small house". She wants a "new house". We have to be more careful what she overhears.

Lauren's still doing well as far as her awareness of her right hand goes. She insisted that she eat an entire meal the other day with her right hand (with assistance) despite not having a cast on the left hand. She's definitely interested in using her hand and keeping it in practice. She's been pointing to things in books with her right hand, and beating up mom and dad with Righty. She also tells me or complains if her right hand is covered by her shirt sleeve now. She has her own independent therapy that she does where she goes, "Open, CLOSE! Open Wide! Close tight!" and opens and closes her hands. It's cute to watch because inevitably her eyes open and close with her hands, and she sometimes makes effort noises while closing the hands (similar to when she's "pushing the poop" on the potty).

Lauren and Delanie are very excited about Christmas coming. Lauren will periodically ask, "Where's Santa Claus?" as if he could show up at any moment. Delanie will reply emphatically, "Lauren, Santa Claus comes on December 25! Today's only December 5th silly!" Delanie is trying to learn the lyrics to all the Christmas songs and is getting pretty good with Jingle Bells, and Frosty, the Snowman. She listens to easy listening on the radio every night and they're playing on Christmas songs since Thanksgiving. Whenever Christmas songs come on the car radio, she says, "This is the music from MY radio!"

The kids were very happy when it snowed over the weekend. When Lauren first saw the snow coming down, she shouted excitedly, "It's raining snow!" Delanie decided to teach us all a song she learned in school whereby you sing "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow . . . for _____" and you point to somebody and everyone says their name in the blank. I tried to teach her the song Let it Snow that starts with "The weather outside is frightful, and ever so delightful . . . " and she shot back at me "That's not a song, mommy!"

We have three different countdowns to Christmas: two advent calendars (one flat and one pyramid shaped boxes), and one Santa head calendar with pockets for the dates. The kids are really enjoying counting down and will jump up first thing in the morning, change the date on the Santa head, and ask for the candy from the advent calendars. I've been telling them they can have the candy after a meal, so then they ask for it directly after breakfast. When we drive around, they shout "Christmas lights! Christmas lights!" at all the houses that are lit up and Delanie of course makes it a contest of who can find the lights first and shout "Christmas lights!" We were hesitant to decorate the house and get a tree because of the move in a month, but have been pressured into it by the enthusiastic little ones. John broke down and put up lights outside this weekend and Delanie chose a spot for each of our little singing stuffed reindeer, dog, Santa, etc. I guess we'll need to get a tree next.

Only two more days at Kennedy Krieger. Lauren is doing pool therapy tomorrow, which I'm sure she'll be thrilled about. We're talking about her "exit plan" to go back to community based therapy starting Friday at Mount Washington. I think I'll miss coming to Kennedy Krieger, partially because the therapists are so good here, but also because of the down time that I've gotten. I hope that Lauren does do another month long program here in the future. They said that prior to Kindergarten is a good time to do it, so maybe then. In the meantime, will try to continue my blog. It will be nice to have a record of what's going on with the kids and my thoughts on some of this stuff in addition to the billion pictures (mostly stuck in e-world) documenting their life.

Week 4 - Kennedy Krieger

I took Lauren to Kennedy Krieger today, which is now known to Lauren as "my building". She told me on the way there that she likes therapy. I think that's great. However, she doesn't like anything else today, except Christmas trees. She told me that the minivan is "too big", daddy's car is "too small". She wants a car that's "just right" for her, like she's Goldie Locks or something. She had a similar problem at dinner last night whereby she told me "I don't like corn", "I don't like barbecue", and "I don't like milk". When I asked her what she wanted for dinner, she told me "gingabed mas". Huh? I followed her point and said, "gingerbread man?" looking at the new decoration on our kitchen table. She looked at me like I had 3 heads and said, "NOOO. Gingabed MASSE!!" "Gingerbread house?" I asked. "YESS!" She decided she wanted to eat the gingerbread house for dinner, and nothing else would do. What do you do about that? Our decision was to put her down from the table and let her go watch tv.

Last week, Lauren was in the bathtub and we were having another discussion about her cast. She told me, "I can't use this arm (the casted one)" and "I'm working on getting stronger". Out of curiosity, I asked her, "What do you think? Is it working?" . . "Not Yet . ." she told me in her innocent sing song voice.

On Tuesday (Dec 1st), she got her cast off (!!!). I've been worried that she'll just go back to doing what's easiest for her, as has John. However, I have seen her use the right arm in a couple of situations that she normally would not have used it. She was trying to make Delanie feel better after a boo-boo, and patted her with her right hand. When she was eating dinner, there was a fork in her left hand and she pulled the plate towards her with the right hand. And, after school yesterday when I picked her up, she insisted on carrying her lunch bag out with two hands (even though it weighs maybe 2oz). I'm proud of her for these efforts. She is using her left hand mostly, but at least right now she's more aware that she can use the right one too.

I asked Lauren's therapists today about how often restraint therapy is helpful and why don't they cycle it on and off and they had a couple of responses. There's not a lot of data currently, but what they have shows that the intense therapy for 3-4wks shows the best results and that you don't get much additional benefit after that. If you take the cast off and put it back on frequently, kids tend to show more resistance to the constraint therapy and get negatively conditioned and defiant. Also, they want her to learn to use both hands together when there are no constraints.

Now back to the funny things my circus of 2 and 4 year old kids do:

Lauren and Delanie were sitting at the kitchen table a couple of nights ago (when the cast was still on) and Delanie was helping Lauren color. I had given them each a piece of gum and they were content so I went downstairs to change a load of laundry. After a minute, I heard, "Mommy, Mommy, come here!" I went bounding up the stairs to see what was the matter and found Lauren's gum stuck in a strand of hair that was dangling right in front of her eyes. She was lurching forward snapping at the gum with her mouth like some kind of guppy as it swung away just in time for her to miss it. It was the funniest sight and we all started laughing. I took the gum out of her hair and put it back in her mouth, went back downstairs just to have the same thing happen again. So I gave up on the laundry. Just another example of why our household has a hard time holding it together.

When the girls were done coloring, they went back to Delanie's room where Lauren pointed to Delanie's clock radio and said, "What's that?" "It's my radio," Delanie replied. Then showing off her superior knowledge, she reported, "It's also a clock. See! Right now, it's twenty-eighty-five." She went on to tell Lauren that it's twenty-eighty-five maybe five times in a row before deciding that Lauren was sufficiently educated. (See Amazon Wish List for book on reading time for Delanie)