Memorial Day Weekend

Last night I had dinner with an old friend of mine from college. Kathy was one of my closest friends back then. We lost touch after our weddings but connected again recently through Facebook. It was so great seeing her. We sat out on the patio of this beautiful new restaurant enjoying the warm weather and talking for hours. The conversation just picked up where we left off. I forgot how much I love that girl. I miss those days and the friendships. I wish we had more time at that school. The two years there went by way too fast.

(I'm on the far left in the middle row and Kathy is the 3rd from the left in the middle row.)

NICHOLAS

This morning Nicholas had a baseball game at 8:00 a.m. and then he marched in our town's Memorial Day Parade with his cub scout pack. Me, Danny and the kids marched along side of him.

GIANNA

I've always thought that Gianna had sensory issues. Now after talking with my friend last night who is an occupational therapist, I'm convinced that she does. She was telling me about her 9 year old son who has sensory issues. The symptoms were almost identical to Gianna's.

Here are just a few of Gianna's quirks...

1. She has major issues with clothing only wearing certain familiar items that don't "cling" to her body. This includes dancewear like tights and leotards, jeans, clingy shirts, dress up clothes, most bathing suits or just about any new items of clothing that she is unfamiliar with. It's as if I'm torturing her and it's burning holes in her skin. Not fun to watch. She has to have socks on her feet at all times. She'll only wear certain shoes. She only will wear her feety pajamas even in this 90 degree heat.

2. She won't ride a bike.

3. She's afraid of water (especially the ocean) and she won't wear swimmies on her arms (probably because she's scared she'll have to swim and they are too tight on her body).

4. She won't go on an escalator without me holding her.

5. She won't go on swings anymore.

And the list goes on and on...

I feel badly for her. I'm afraid all these issues are only going to get worse as she gets older. I just want to help her and work with her to get over these problems so she can enjoy her life and not be so anxious. Oh, and Kathy said it is hereditary. Hmmm...I wonder which parent she got that from? Maybe the one who can't wear any fabrics that are itchy, cuts all the tags out of her shirts, never really learned how to swim, has panic attacks occasionally and has some social anxiety?

This is what I know about it...

Sensory Integration Dysfunction (SID, also called sensory processing disorder) is a neurological disorder causing difficulties with processing information from the five senses (vision, auditory, touch, olfaction, and taste), the sense of movement (vestibular system), and/or the positional sense (this explains her fear of riding bikes, swings and escalators). For those with SID, sensory information is sensed, but perceived abnormally. Unlike blindness or deafness, sensory information is received by people with SID; the difference is that information is processed by the brain in an unusual way that may cause distress or confusion.

JULIA

After the parade, Julia had gymnastics. She continues to do well. In my mind, I'm going crazy saying to myself "point your feet", "straighten your legs", "fix your arms" and so on. I often forget that she's only 6 years old. It can take months and months to get a new trick and she's only been there for 3 months. Pretty amazing I say...