hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

    This, is my baby girl.             She's getting bigger everyday, but we still call her Baby.   She's, amazing!     She loves animals...       Petting a horsey for the first time.     She can climb on practically anything, the more precarious the better!           She loves dolls, and is a very good little mama...             As long as they don't wear any clothes.               She has the wispiest curls ever!           She LOVES water! She can literally play in it for hours.        That makes her a very good helper with the dishes!     She also LOVES to play outside! Swinging is her favorite, but sliding and digging for burie...

Sleep.   More specifically, the lack of it.   Some of you may have noticed that my frequency in posting has dwindled in the last couple of months. To a complete stand still over the last few weeks.   I have about a million and one things I wish to write about, but my brain simply refuses to function without the minimal requirement of sleep. And that, up until the last couple of weeks, was not something that I was attaining.   Not.   Even.   Close.   Yes, after weeks of work to get Kit used to sleeping in her bed for large portions of the night, we had finally all been settling down and snoozing happily (mostly) in our own places.   Then her molars started coming in. And are still coming.   It took over two weeks of her waking nearly every twenty minutes (on the worst nights), and being squirmy and restless when she was asleep, and wanting to nurse (pacify) from the moment I lay down to the hour she final...

Stack.   Knock it down.   Stack.   Knock it down.   Over and over and over.   At least she's happy when it falls down. Some kids cry or throw major fits. She saves that for when I take my phone away from her. Or diaper changes, during which I sometimes will let her watch a video on my phone just so that she will let me get her clean and a new diaper put on, but which just results in a massive meltdown when I have to inevitably...take the phone away from her. Oh, and see the canister with a blue lid and slightly different shape than the rest by her leg in the second picture? That is the poor rejected off-brand can. She wouldn't use it on her stack. Even when I would hand it to her, she put it on once, then took it immediately off and tossed it. Every other time it was offered, she would shake her head vigorously and push it away. (Sorry about the fuzzy pics, it's hard to catch good shots of her sometimes, she moves so fast!) ...

First off, I have to share these adorable pictures! A few nights ago Kit was having an especially hard evening. She was over-tired, over-stimulated, brokenhearted that the kids had abandoned her to go to bed, really just one big, cranky, teary mess. So Daddy strapped on her sandals (which totally complemented her pjs), and took her outside for a change of scenery and some swinging time. It was the perfect cure! She  was much happier right away and after a little while she nodded off. What a clever Daddy!                Then Sunday he took her out to play while the kids and I tried to whip the house back into shape, but her early morning caught up with her. We may need to get another one of these for inside the house!     She never lets go, and didn't even drop her strawberry :) Okay, on Friday, I explained Zak's diagnosis , and I'm back now to explain what it has to do with Kit.   ...

I'm sorry for kind of disappearing for a few days. It has been a busy, and at times overwhelming couple of weeks. I think I will be able to get back to my regular weekly features starting next week, but today I'll share what kind of derailed me, but at the same time got us going in the right direction. And to my family and friends, please don't be angry with me for not telling each of you in person, I've barely had energy to function. I certainly don't mean anything ill-spirited. By sharing it here, I can give everyone a much more thorough explanation one time, rather than a hit-and-miss explanation twenty plus times.   ***       Approximately eight or nine months ago, I was busy filling out every symptom questionnaire I could find on everything from ADHD, to Giftedness, to Autism, and finally Sensory Processing Disorder. It was this last category that with question after question I saw my children of concern ...