Booger Drool

In order to get Emme to sleep at night we lowered her ADHD meds. Less meds = more chaos.  More chaos = more sleep = a lose/win situation.  You follow? 

We are all getting more sleep around here yet ironically the days are harder. Which brings me to the point of this post which is: less meds = sensory disorder maheim. I realize the transition there has a lot to be desired.  Hang in there friends. 

Emme's biggest sensory issue has to do with her mouth. She has very low muscle tone, therefore she still drools and wants to taste anything and everything (except anything that's actually edible.)

Case and point::

>>She shut down a kiddie ride at Lagoon this summer due to licking the pretend laser gun when the ride suddenly stopped and she cut her lip open from the jolt.  Apparently blood is a big deal. The fourteen year old in charge suddenly became very official remembering all the steps to take in such an occurance.  She locked us in the gate, buzzed the sixteen year old supervisor, and called security.  After, signing my soul away, we were free to go. 

>>She pretty licked much every ride and punched a kid or two. Oh, and also shut down Puff the Magic Dragon by throwing her shoe under the ride while waiting in line. Supervisor number two... Check.  But this is a story for another time. 

>>I've caught her licking the outside of the car lately. 

>>No salt shaker is left untasted. 

>>She ate a birthday candle. Yes, that's right folks. She ATE a candle.  Gregg was in the car with Corbin waiting for me to use the bathroom and bring Emme out. In the short amount of time it took for me to care of business, Emme decided blue wax was her thang.  I came out to a gagging child gasping for air.  She threw up on the way to the bathroom and then slipped in the puke covering herself.  She then kindly pointed out the blue pieces of candle in her exited food and admitted to what she had done.  We were a bit later than normal to church that week. 

>>Coins are for sucking. 

>>She's a biter. 

>>And then there's this conversation::

"Mom, I'm eating my booger drool!"

"Oh, honey, that's yucky. Please don't do that."  

"It's really good mom!  You should try some!"

As gross as it was, I have to say I was proud of her for coming up with the term, "booger drool."  

Rocking the IEP

Emme starts preschool tomorrow through our school district.  Hallelujah friends!

We've been working on this since May so it's kind of a big deal.  If I've learned anything about getting help for your special needs child, it would be that everything takes time.

If you read this post you remember how frustrated I was.  Well, let me just back track a bit.

Remember how I said I was going to call the school district every day until I got answers?  I did that for a few days until I remembered I had one of the evaluator's cell numbers from when she called in early July.  I became one of "those moms" that went a little too far.  As I like to say though, "too far yet effective."

Wouldn't ya know...I got a phone call back that same day.  Booyah.  Pretty much it was just to tell me they would make sure we were called back soon with an appointment for an evaluation.  About a week later we were called and able to schedule an appt for a month out.

Here's where the miracles started.  I was really nervous Emme wouldn't get qualified, because we had already gone through this process and she was denied.  In fact she was a perfect angel the first time.  We felt like fools and were looked at like it was more of bad parenting than anything.  Now we had a years worth of paperwork from her therapeutic school, a psychiatrist eval, and a therapist eval.  Even her pediatrician stood behind us this time.  All of these busy women took time to write a page full of what they had witnessed and reasons why Emme would benefit from having an IEP (individual education plan).  I didn't even ask her psychiatrist to write anything, but she had a paper waiting for me when I dropped Emme off for therapeutic school.  If you only knew how busy this lady is, you would be shocked.

After gathering together what felt like enough paperwork to buy a house, we were ready for the evaluation.  Emme started out excited that five adults were so interested in her.  They had a bunch of toys that she stayed occupied with for the first half hour.  Once again, she was acting like a perfect normal child which I assure you, never happens in public places or well...anywhere.  Then came time to take her to the bathroom and she didn't want to go.  That's when the running, biting, and screaming started.  I just kept thinking "praise the Lord!"

After two and a half hours they finally encircled me on their tiny kid chairs and all agreed Emme would benefit from having an IEP.  I could ran out the doors with my arms open wide singing The Hills Are Alive!!  (For the record I'm not thrilled over my child having disabilities, but she does... so I'm thrilled that she is receiving help.)

All of this is a huge answer to my prayers.  Our daily struggles have hit an all time high (hence the lack of blogging) and we all needed this.  I don't always like the trials I am given and they may last far longer than I think I'm capable of, but every now and again I am given miracles throughout the hardship to let me know that He is aware.