Updates Only Tonight!

I have been dying all day to do a post on a certain topic, but I'm afraid it is just going to have to wait until tomorrow.  I know - you are all terribly disappointed. ;) 

Last night I didn't get to bed until late, Wyatt was up at 3:30 am running around and yelling in his room (thanks Paige for getting up with him) then Hazel woke up crying early and needed to go potty and then wanted to sleep with me.  That mixed with a week of sleeping on an air bed makes for a tired, achy girl.  Also, we have to be up early, get ready to go and head off to the lab for blood tests.   This is a scary, scary thing.  I am sure the boys will live through it, but I hope I do.  I still have to fill out the two requisition forms tonight as well.  Since we don't have a car, I am renting a truck for the day.  We are going to run as many possible errands as we can during the day including: Costco, Sam's Club, Walmart, Jump2it (bouncy place for kids), etc.  We are going to load up on supplies since we won't be able to get around to these places much (or ever) and hopefully get mattresses so we can retire the airbed.  I can't complain because it has been better than the floor, but I think I am just getting too old....

Also, we are out of bread, which we can't make if we don't have homemade yogurt which takes 24 hours to make so...... we are still up making yogurt so that we can make bread tomorrow night at 10:36 pm....

So - for the aforementioned reasons, tonight's post will consists only of the Updates for each child.  Reminder to self:  Update tomorrow about Wyatt's Traffic Light report (results of his assessments) - this is great stuff!

Oh - and P.S.  We went and watched a video about how to do all the primitive reflexes just to make sure we were doing them right and a lot of them are different/wrong from how we were taught.  So - we have to make some changes/adjustments starting tomorrow.  So happy that we watched that video now before we did them wrong for months and months! 

Brody:

• Went from mellow to hyper multiple times throughout the day.
• Took it very well when I told him we had to get blood drawn tomorrow.  Usually even mentioning the word blood causes severe anxiety and tears.  When I told him we had to do it and why he quickly followed up with "Oh - and I get to pick out a new toy so I guess it is worth it."  Hmm - I wonder if this has happened once or twice before. 
• Also took it very well when I told him that his new toy couldn't be Legos and that we had to limit his Lego time to 30 minutes per day.  I explained to him that playing Legos stimulates the Left Brain and we want to stimulate the right brain.  He was a good boy and agreed on picking something besides Legos.  
• Loves going to Brain Balance and is excited every time.  
• Does not like the at home exercises and is sometimes difficult when we try to do them. 
• Was a good sport walking around the house all day with only one sock on and with and ear plug in only one ear.  (I will explain later)
• Loves the new Sunbutter (replacement peanut butter made from sunflower seeds) and said it tasted like Candy...
• At the end of the day he got so silly, but it was cute.  I asked him to go get my backpack and so he put it on and my flip flops and walked over to me saying "I'm mama, I'm mama".  I told him he was very funny, but it didn't stop there.  He then picked up my phone and was looking at it and said "I'm mama".  Ha ha Bro.  Thankfully he moved onto Paige.  He put on her shoes and said "I'm Paige".  Then he picked up Hazel's stuffed puppy Sophie and said "I'm Hazel, I love my dog Sophie".  Then - the funniest of all was this:  He went and sat in a little tiny kid chair and put his arms out in front of him as if he was sitting at a computer and said "I'm Papa - I'm doing my work".  It was very cute.  He talked about how hard Papa works so that we can go to Brain Balance.  We love and miss our Papa!  He is the best Papa in the world!

Wyatt:

• Wyatt had his first official day at Brain Balance today.  He spends about 45 minutes in the Sensory Motor room and about 15 minutes in the cognitive room.  They said he did great.  I didn't get many details yet, but hope to get more on Wednesday. 
• Kept eating the handle of the door? 
• Tried to escape the back patio again. 
• Kept saying words/phrases that we couldn't understand but we loved the spontaneous language!
• Would NOT eat his sandwich today at all, whereas the other day he ate about 10.  Pretty sure it is because we had forgotten his almond butter so we were giving him organic peanut butter and I think he liked it better so when we switched back he was NOT having it.  They are not supposed to have peanut butter so they suggested Sunbutter which is made with sunflower seeds.  It tastes the most like and has the most similar texture to Peanut butter.  He had a toast later with Sunbutter on it and ate it all!  Yahoo!
• He has become obsessed with his Thomas trains again in the last two weeks.  I had taken all trains and train related items away awhile ago because he just became too obsessed.  All he would want to do is play with trains and wouldn't do any other activities.  He did the same with his iPhone.  He was SO obsessed that it was all he wanted and would get SO hyper and excited I just knew that it couldn't be good so I had to take that away as well.  For some reason (unknown to me then) when I would take away these items, his behaviors got better, he engaged in different kinds of activities and was not so obsessive.  Now - I finally know the answer to why.  There are certain things that stimulate the left brain and certain things that stimulate the right.  In Brain Balance we are trying to only stimulate the right brain in both boys because it is severely underdeveloped.  However, because the left brain is stronger, it is more natural for the boys to want to use it - so they do.  I found out more detail on this today which I will be sharing in tomorrow's post but basically Wyatt watching the wheels roll on his trains is stimulating the Left Brain.  Watching TV, computer, etc. Stimulates the Left Brain.  Letters and Numbers which he loves also stimulate the left Brain.  There are many more that I will list tomorrow.  Basically he has been continually doing this to make his Left brain stronger and not doing things to make his right brain stronger which is creating an even greater imbalance.  Really have so much more detail, but I am racking my brain trying to think of everything we can do at home to stimulate the right brain and NOT the left brain.  So - as of tomorrow - goodbye Thomas trains.  We have hidden them all and he will be looking all over trying to find them and it makes me so sad.  But that is what parents do right?  They do things for their kids even if they are hard and then say "someday you'll thank me."

Hazel:

• Whining went down a notch.
• Did Brain Balance exercises today and love them. 
• Played Duck Duck goose with Wyatt (which he loved) and kept kissing him.  He would ask her to "kiss" and so she kept doing it- they both had fun. 
• Ate her breakfast really well and fast.  Not typical. 
• Played good with Brody while we watched the brain balance video at the office. 
• Almost fell asleep on the golf cart at about 1:30 and then when we got home immediatley got into her pajamas and stayed in them for the rest of the day.  However, wouldn't go to bed and stayed up with the girls until 9:30....
• My most favorite Hazel moment!  She came in the kitchen after she was supposed to be in bed and said "mom, I need to do my pee test".  I told her that she didn't need a pee test and she asked why?  I told her that the Dr. didn't need to check anything for her so she didn't have to do it.  She was adamant that she DID need a pee test just like her brothers and that she needed to pee in a cup.... It was so funny and I was trying not to laugh because she was so serious.  I finally agreed that she could pee in a cup in the morning because that is the same time the boys did it.  She was not happy with that answer and insisted that I get a cup right away and was already heading into the bathroom.  It was so so stinking cute that I just couldn't take it.  She wants so much to be a part of things and sees her brother doing all of these things and she wants to do them to.  So what did I do?  I took a cup and held it while she peed in it.  Unfortunately when girls pee in a cup, it is not as clean as when boys do - if you know what I mean.....  The things we do for our kids.  :)  She was so happy and it made me so happy to see her so happy!  She is such a cute little girl.  
• Lastly, right before bed she asked me "Mama - can I go with you to Brody's blood test?" and I said "yes you can Haze" and she said "Yes!"  It was so funny that she was so excited to be able to go to a blood test.
• I think I am going to look at getting her into a preschool so she can have her own special fun thing!

Wow - I was thinking this would be a quicker post, but it still took me forever!  I am going to bed right now because I have to get up at 6!  Plus, who knows how many times I will be up in the night....

Thanks to all of those that read the blog - feel free to leave comments anytime and tell me how crazy I am. 


Tammy