Naps at daycare

Calen finally took his first nap since being at Just Kids. He slept for an hour and a half. Miss Lib said they usually let him play in the classroom while the other kids slept, but this time, he grabbed his sleeping bag and went to sleep. I told the teachers that if he ever grabs their hand and places it on his head, he just wants them to rub his head. I do that for him every night. His teacher said she did that for him and he slept quietly. I was glad to hear it.

I forgot to mention something in another entry when I was writing about finally talking to Mrs. Highfield. I told her about the Occupational therapist ending sessions with Calen because she felt he was not ready cognitively, and she was surprised by that. She strongly disagreed with that statement, as did I. I also made mention of the fact that the sessions started going down when the male intern left. Calen responded to him very well, and Luke (the intern) was very patient and sweet with him. He would show Calen how to do something and in 2 or 3 tries, Calen would pick it up. All we got from the therapist was a show of frustration. Kids are not stupid, and just as adults don't like someone for an unknown reason, kids can do the same thing. Anyway, I was just struck at how strongly she disagreed with that statement.

Calen loves to sing. I can rarely tell what he is singing, but he's got "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" down pretty good. He loves when I sing "Wheels on the Bus". I get real physical with that song. We also do "tickle bugs". I think (hope) I have a musician on my hands. I love music myself. I played the flute all through school. I was the youngest to ever be allowed to join the high school marching band at my school. My favorite was concert season. I really enjoyed playing classical music. My downfall was that I was terrible at sight-reading.

I go to a chiropractor on a regular basis. There is a new staff member there. The doc and I were talking about our kids, and how we have to find babysitters for them if we want to do things on weekends. His wife has a list of people she was calling so they could go somewhere this weekend. His children are the same age as mine. I said that I don't have a lot of people I call on for babysitting, especially since my son is autistic. I just hang out with my children and we doing things together. I would like to go somewhere by myself or with friends at some point, but that never happens. The conversation then turned to autism. The new staff member asked me about different things. She said her ex-sis-in-law has a 7 year old who shows signs of it, but the mom doesn't do anything about it. It's like she's afraid to take him places because of how he acts. I told her he isn't acting, he's REACTING. He has some sort of sensory issue going on. I urged her to tell the mom to go to autismspeaks.org where she can see the list of signs that her son may have. I'm shocked that this poor child hasn't been diagnosed with anything according to the descriptions from this lady. I plan to send this lady some information and my cell phone number. I really hopes she gets up off her butt. I hope I can help get her started. I pray that God will use me to help her get going. She may be one of those that is in denial. It's the child that will suffer in the long run if she doesn't try to find services NOW, and shame on the pediatricians and teachers who are in this child's life and not doing anything to help him. I hate to say it, but most of all, shame on mom and dad. I can't really speak about people and situations I don't know anything about. I'm just going by what this young lady told me.