Koopman Kraziness

I'm not even going to apologize for the lack of posting this time.  I think I'll just explain myself instead. The last time I posted here was sometime around early to mid-June.  I had an eight week summer class in Child Developmental Psychology which was a lot of fun, but was also very intense.  I also started taking on extra cleaning clients to help with the expense of Kamden's occupational and behavioral therapies, so time was short on hand. First day of hydro-therapy We started working toward getting Kamden ready for Kindergarten and had him assessed by the school for special needs assistance for his autism.  A very long story short, the determination made by the assessment team was that Kamden is "not autistic" and does not need or qualify for special need help through the public school system.  Normally, this would be a wonderful thing to hear and most parents would feel a sense of relief.  I was terrified.  It is HARD to get a diagnosis o...

It's been a long, long time since I cried happy tears.  As one of my best friends told me when I shared it with him today, "It's about time you had some of those." Kamden went to Occupational Therapy today and was put back onto the Pedalo.  The first time he was put on it, we did ONE time up and back down the hallway and he cried and fought it the entire time.  It works not only on core strength, but also on coordination skills and the ability to self correct foot and hand positions.  He was FLYING today.  His therapist could hardly keep up! This may not seem like that big of a deal, but my gosh...  I wish I'd taken video of him that first try so you could see the difference for yourselves!

Kamden is still working hard in occupational therapy.  He's a sneaky little thing though and likes to play tricks on his therapist by pretending he doesn't know exactly what she's asking him to do or "accidentally" going the wrong direction on the scooter boards.  Thankfully, his therapist has an amazing sense of humor and will just laugh with and tickle him and put him back on task.  This week, Kamden's task was to walk himself down the hall using his heels while seated on a scooter board, select a bead in a series listed on a card he'd drawn and scoot back.  Then he had to string the bead onto a long shoelace, find the card again, select the next bead in the series and repeat.  He did really well - save a couple of distracted moments where he ran into the physical therapy room and had to jump on the trampoline.  After finishing his bead task, he was to work some on writing skills.  Ms. Marcia asked him what he wanted to draw and naturally he answered...

Well, right where we've been for ages, but quite a bit busier than we have been in a while. Jeff started work at a local car dealership about a week and a half ago and has already made his first sale.  He seems to be enjoying the work (pretty much anything to do with cars is a winner in his book) and the people he works with.  As irony would play out, we had a HUGE hail storm just a couple of days after he started there, so he's getting the challenge of selling cars with hail damage.  He wound up doing two interviews the day he turned in his application and then was sent to do the standard drug testing.  The job had to have been appointed of God, as it took less than 4 hours to get his background check and drug tests back.  I haven't ever heard of either of those things coming back so quickly.  He does work primarily on a commission status, so it's nerve wracking to not know exactly how much our income will be monthly, but I feel good about it all. I st...

My babies and I. I love him so, so much.  I can't even put it into words. Sweet Boy Stylish men ready for church Kamden spending time with Kaidance on Mother's Day.  He wanted a chance to "play" with her.

Kamden has been doing occupational therapy sessions for about 2 months now and seems to really be liking it.  The main things they are focusing on right now is sequencing, fine motor skills and core muscle strength.  I wanted to share pictures (and a video!) from some of his sessions to share the type of work they have him doing.  Soon, I'll write a general update post and give his assessment results, his current issues and current triumphs. This particular activity involved Kamden going through an obstacle course repeatedly to get 2-3 pegs at a time to create the shape he was to build and then use a string as "needle and thread" to thread the pegs together. As a reward for finishing his work without (much) complaining, he was allowed to play basketball. He's still getting used to a new medication dosage and in mid-sentence he passed out on me about 30 minutes before Occupational Therapy time. This activity involved smooshing...

I've been thinking a lot recently about what ticks me off.  lol  I know, great topic to meditate on, isn't it? If you know me at all, you know that I am pretty laid back and don't get too upset about things in general.  However, compared to a few years ago, I'm actually much more high strung.  My fuse is shorter, the kinds of things that irritate me now in comparison to then are quite different and for the things that are the same, I am much more likely to speak up on the topic quickly rather than to sit back and ignore it like I would have before. While I do still sympathize with people's daily struggles and concerns, things that I would have been extremely empathetic toward in the past I now find myself fighting the urge to say, "You do realize it's really not THAT big of a deal, right?"  See, that makes me sound like a complete jerk.  It isn't that I don't care about those things.  My entire perspective changed the day I found out Kaidi ...